TwoCents — The ‘Why’ and ‘What’
She finished asking and she smiled at me with anticipation; she expected a great answer to her question, she genuinely needed to know, I mean the question was about her career, the future-her and what she’d be doing for the rest of her life. She probably thought to herself “Oh, Cyrus is a smart guy, he should know this”;but it has little to do with ‘smarts. I hardly knew how to answer, I kept thinking to myself whether or not I should give her a general, sort of ballpark answer and hope that would suffice and meet her expectations; heck I wasn’t even there to answer career questions (how could I be, I’m still figuring things out myself), but it just happened that she needed that little bit of guidance and she turned to me. So I did; Therein lies part of the problem. I wasn’t the best person to answer her question, I’d never be able to give her career advice because I’m not a Doctor and I didn’t tread that path. At that point I wished I could point her in the right direction — to something or someone one-click away, a website or maybe an app, to someone who had majored in Pediatrics and would be thrilled to talk to her, not just because she had experienced the journey to becoming a Doctor, but because she is someone who cares about giving back to the next generation, in whatever little way.
Years went by and that little experience stuck with me. There are lots of people with important questions whose answers from the right folks could make a huge difference in their lives; from teenagers (about to get into college) with career questions and undergraduates still uncertain about their career paths, to young folks in the corporate world seeking advice, and would-be startup founders looking to learn a thing or two about Tech Entrepreneurship — these questions exist. It is true that it takes much more than answering a bunch of questions to empower folks in the next generation, but in the area of career guidance, mentorship, knowledge and experience sharing, there exists a gap that needs to be bridged, a need that must to be met by creating a resource that brings those who are next in line within touching distance of those who truly know.
We understand that some problems can’t be eschewed except through experience that has been built over the years, but for the category of problems that can be avoided by talking to experienced folks and being guided by those who have treaded certain paths, we owe it to our generation (and the next) to break the vicious cycle of repeating such mistakes — and that’s what we have set out to accomplish at TwoCents
www.twocents.space
TwoCents is a community of people engaging in knowledge sharing with the overall objective of bringing those who are next in line within touching distance of those who truly know.
TwoCents is geared towards bridging the gap between the next generation of game-changers, thinkers, leaders, creators and achievers, and the current crop of industry titans, thought-leaders, politicians and leaders in academia. We understand that for the baton to be passed on successfully and seamlessly, a lot of knowledge and experience sharing (as well as hand-holding) has to take place — and we are making it possible for those who are next in line, to meet and learn from those who truly know.
TwoCents (on the one hand) is targeted at the Nigerian and African millennial who is either about to enter college, already in college, a graduate in the corporate world, or beginning her journey as an entrepreneur. (On the other hand) We are focused on connecting these millennials with individuals who have achieved some measure of success and are passionate about giving back in the area of knowledge sharing, mentorship and career guidance.
Over the past five years I met a lot of folks who genuinely ‘didn’t know’, and it was painfully obvious to me that all they needed was to speak to the right person — it could be a simple piece of advice like…”Oh that market in Nigeria is way too young for such a product, pivot or rework your value prop..” or “Hey here’s what I did 8 years ago, right now things are different and here are a few good options you have today…”. I’m not claiming to ‘know’, heck I’m still learning at an alarming rate ;-), but I’d like to think I’ve learned a whole lot in the last 6 years and sometimes I feel embarrassed by the 2012 version of myself; but that’s fine, I have enjoyed the growth process and a lot of the best stuff came from interacting with folks who simply knew these things. What is not fine is to not share these experiences and help a few folks who are coming behind to avoid certain mistakes, it’s cruel if not outright evil — and like Google, ‘Don’t be evil’. ;-). So if there is an opportunity to do something about it, we owe it to ourselves to do it.
We all have different realities, different backgrounds and we all will tread different paths; we understand that there is no template for success and nothing anyone says is a ‘one-rule-fits-all’ solution for any situation or problem — each person’s case is extremely unique, times change, markets move, technology shifts happen super fast and nothing is really certain (death maybe, taxes, well, it depends on where you live ;-)), regardless there is no denying that career guidance, mentorship and experience sharing still has value in today’s world and there is a huge market of millennials that would benefit from a product that brings the above-mentioned t to their smartphones.
We understand that in a world where millennials have many options for knowledge-sharing communities, Q&A sites and discussion forums, it is imperative to carve out a niche that caters to a problem nobody else is catering to. Our goal is to build a community that offers the best answers to questions that have context in the life of the average African millennial. We are an extremely unique generation with an interesting history, and we have problems and unanswered questions that simply have no context in other parts of the world. Like someone very smart said “We (the African people) have to solve our own problems”. TwoCents sees itself as part of that solution to create a unique community that caters to issues peculiar to the African millennial, without losing sight of their place on the global scene.
So there. We started in April and it has been amazing. We have learned an immense amount from our first adopters and we will miss this period when we have an extremely close relationship with our users and its much easier to ‘deliver happiness’ and get them to an ‘Aha moment’. We look forward to growing, and delivering better value to our users as we constantly challenge ourselves to do better and to surpass expectations.
Join TwoCents today https://www.twocents.space and begin to contribute and help the next generation — ask, answer, share insights and if you know anyone exceptional who millennials would absolutely benefit from, send us an email at info@twocents.space.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.
