Cynthia E. Chisom is the VP, Ecosystem and Venture Labs at Spark Africa, organisers of the Tech & Startup Ecosystem. She is also the Principal Partner at SDC Startup School, a startup school tailored to provide insights for African founders. In this interview with IFDEAYO OGUNYEMI, she spoke on issues in the tech industry
In the last decade, we’ve seen an avalanche of young people venturing into the tech ecosystem. Would you say tech is the Hail Mary for young Nigerians in the face of the nation’s rising youth unemployment figure?
I would say so, it is one of the major avenues for young people to acquire a lucrative skill independent of any educational institution and convert that skill into an income stream.
Technology also gives young people the opportunity to solve Nigeria’s major socio-economic problems in the most disruptive way possible. We see the example of such disruptive innovation in the work done by Moniepoint, making access to cash so easy that people forget to use ATMs to access cash.
This is what technology has done to address unemployment at such a fast, simple and efficient level
Many young folks including yourself have made indelible marks in the tech industry so far. What would you say is driving this tech consciousness and outstanding innovation?
For me, what has pushed me to launch programmes, events, systems like Enablers Meetup in Abuja, Founders Friday in Abuja, SDC Startup School & a host of others within the tech and startup ecosystem has been because even with the amount of great work that has been done by our predecessors in the space, we still see a few gaps that require us to step into.
What moves everyone is simple, we don’t want this growth and pace to stop. We don’t want a few bad eggs to stop us from taking over the world. If we can fix it together, why not?
For example, Lagos has gained the attention of the whole world as the epicentre for startup activities not just in Nigeria but on the continent. It is a great thing to be glad about. However, it leaves out a huge number of founders in other states, who are also doing incredible work. I have had the opportunity to capture their stories in my podcast Startup Stories with Cynthia. This is where we have the question, what can we do to put the spotlight on these founders so that they might get the resources, education, investment and support they might need for their growth?
So yeah, the gap and the opportunity for growth is what moves us.
You’ve had quite a swell time in the industry even as a young person. What are the challenges that you’ve had to overcome during the time you’ve put in so far?
To be honest, I see no challenges, I see opportunities. Every time I am asked this question, this is the response I give. Maybe it’s the entrepreneur in me speaking. Because whatever challenges or setbacks occur, I am unable to notice them as setbacks. To me, they appear as opportunities.
For example, one thing we didn’t have in Abuja was a cohesive ecosystem and now through the Enablers Meetup, that has changed.
What more can stakeholders and government do to ideate even and overall development through the various tech innovations we presently have in the country?
We see the great work that the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani is doing as well as a few other leaders across the nation’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). It’s incredible to watch and I would say keep it up. However, I would love to mention that as the government tries to be part of the development of the ecosystem, a line should be drawn. The role of the government in the ecosystem should be to stir up conversation among stakeholders in the ecosystem, spotlight and encourage more players within the ecosystem, build infrastructure that allows stakeholders within the ecosystem to work together and not necessarily being a stakeholder.
I would put it this way, instead of the government setting up an incubator programme to incubate founders, they should rather set up a system for accrediting incubator programmes for founders to participate in. This allows new programmes to be developed and not feel like they have to compete with the government. It is why privatisation of industries is a preferred system within the country because we know that founders don’t have to change the plans for their future because we have a change in government and the new sitting power doesn’t have the old projects as its priority. That line must be carefully drawn.
What would you say are the major mistakes start-up founders are making in Nigeria today and how can they turn the tide for the better?
This is such a good question because I did a whole article on this on my LinkedIn page. There are so many mistakes and I could go on and on. And that’s because we have spent time with a lot of up-and-coming, aspiring, and first-time founders. This is why I decided to dedicate my work in the ecosystem to startup education and ecosystem collaboration. It is also why I launched SDC Startup School in 2022 after seeing the huge gap in knowledge from my time at Imperial College Business School London.
Here are the top five mistakes that first-time and aspiring founders make:
They start with a solution and try to work their way to a possible problem it can solve;
They claim to do market/customer research, meanwhile what they often do is solution research, asking for people to directly confirm their bias. “What do you think about my solution?”
When the first thing they do after getting an idea is to build a full-blown mobile or web app based only on what they think the customer wants;
Taking loans to put five to 10 people on heavy salaries to build and market a product that generates no revenue and is most definitely Pre-PMF stage and,
They are looking to raise funding, and they don’t even know what a term sheet is or the terms & mechanics around fundraising.
There are concerns that AI is fuelling fake news and incomplete information. What can tech innovators do to douse the trend and fear considering the political economy that operates in Nigeria?
I believe this stems from the ethics of tech innovators. I believe the educational institutions that push out or graduate these innovators should prioritise sessions on ethics and conduct. When the values of the humans using the technology are in the right place, you can only expect that the outcome is in the right place.
As for reducing what has been placed out there, we need to set up hackathons to stir up tech innovators to start developing the technology to solve these problems. This technology should become easily accessible and should give the people the opportunity to scan & review the information for accuracy before believing it.
You’ve been at the vanguard of linking stakeholders with funders in Abuja. What kind of challenges does that pose and what are the results your advocacy has yielded so far?
The major opportunities exist around education. This education will help in the adequate preparation of founders before they meet these investors. Investors get discouraged when they meet with founders because they do not see founders that they can invest in. This is why investors find it easier to invest in founders who have exited companies, graduated from an Ivy League school etc. because founders have not been adequately taught. Most founders have to depend on articles or YouTube videos for learning resources and that often leaves them in a confused place with more questions to ask and most times, these videos were not created with their geographical or cultural context in mind.
This is why SDC Startup School was launched in 2022 and its graduate programme, the Launchpad programme in 2023 was created to help founders receive adequate foundational preparedness for their startup journey & fundraising future. With lectures that can follow at their own pace that addresses the major need that have around building/launching a startup.
We have successfully supported 39 founders through the Launchpad programme since its inception in late 2023. And we intend to graduate even more in 2024. Founders who know how to identify problems, learn from the customers and adequately develop solutions that can solve those problems.
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