The Connect Nigeria Business Fair which took place on February 21st 2015 and saw over 5,000 people has had amazing feedback so far. People have gone home with information that will enable them to move forward in their respective businesses as well as potentially start up their own. In the second panel where doing business in the digital age was discussed, The Managing Director of Jovago Marek Zmyslowski shared tips on growing internally as a start up before seeking funding from venture capitalists. The Octopus News has reported on his presentation below.
The Managing Director of Jovago,
www.jovago.com – Africa’s largest online hotel booking platform advises up and coming entrepreneurs and startup founders to scale up their business strategies by focusing on growing their businesses internally and seek funding later.
At the recently concluded Connect Nigeria e-Business Fair held in Lagos, the Managing Director of Jovago.com, Marek Zmyslowski made a presentation where he enjoined entrepreneurs to not get carried away with the pursuits of finding a Venture Capitalist to fund their startup, because the pressure of growth can become too much to handle if the Startup has not internally grown and matured yet.
According to Marek Zmyslowski, Managing Director of
Jovago Nigeria, “When you have big money, then you have bigger problems. All startups are looking for VC funding but the most important thing is to focus on growth and scaling the business first.” Zmyslowski also said “while building a business in Africa and looking for role models to imitate, entrepreneurs should look at businesses in Asia and borrow a leaf from them. Asian businesses focus on growing the business from inside out with strong focus on mobile and consumer satisfaction.” He also noted that African businesses have increasingly gone mobile. With smart-phone adoption exploding across the region and strong signs of tablet growth, the addressable market has grown tremendously, leading to the emerging era of m-commerce.
Participants included representatives from Union Bank, MasterCard, Etisalat, Microsoft, Google are among the sponsors as well as FirstMonie, Skye Bank, Heritage Bank, JMG, Terragon Group, Leatherworld, Tranzit.ng, Jovago.com, Supermart.ng and many others.
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