My sugarcubes 2015 :)

Sugar cubes from this year's MESTmas

"Hey man!

Thanks for all the support. It's been nice knowing you." - Chidi

"Ayo!
Thanks 4 ur awesomeness & ever-willingness to help. Blessings! -Tabby
PS: Keep Jesus flame burning!"

"Ayo, I appreciate greatly your enthusiasm and spirit and everything you bring to the school"- Todd

"Ayo, you are blessed beyond measure much love, " -Mary

"Well done" - anonymous

"Ayo, I really enjoy our walks on Sunday!
You are awesome :) - Nyawira

" ayo - You are a creative mind! I appreciate your work ethic and unique perspective on things! Thanks for being you! Greatness is ahead! " - Emily

Merry Christmas :) - anonymous

"Keep being awesome " - Linus

Thanks all folks.
2015 was good.

Cheers

venue99.com - 2nd runner up at Airtel App store challenge GH

venue99.com is barely 3 months old.

Yesterday, we emerged 3rd position out of 80+ startups that applied for the airtel app store launch in Ghana.

It's a small victory, but we would celebrate it.

Funny thing is, a part of me did not want to attend the final pitch event, but I'm glad I did.

Cheers to the team and more victories.

26 - If there are words for Him then I don’t have them

So I turned 26 today.

I very thankful I'm alive and well - would let that sink in.

I like this Kari Jobe Forever song, especially the spoken word part.

Spoken Word Lyrics

If there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my brain has not yet reached the point where it could
form a thought that could adequately describe the greatness of my God,
and my lungs have not yet developed the ability to release a breath
with enough agility to breathe out the greatness of his love,
and my voice, you see, 

my voice, is so inhibited, restrained by human limits
that it’s hard to even sing the praise of…
You see… if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
My God, 

His grace is remarkable, mercies are enumerable,
strength is impenetrable, He is honorable, accountable, favorable,
He is unsearchable yet knowable, indefinable yet approachable, indescribable yet personal,
He is beyond comprehension, further than imagination, constant through generations,
king of every nation. 

But if there are words for Him then I don’t have them.
You see, my words are few, and to try to capture the one true God,
using my vocabulary will never do,
but I use words as an expression,
an expression of worship to a savior,
a savior who is both worthy and deserving of my praise, so I use words.
My heart extols the Lord, blesses his name forever,
He has won my heart captured my mind and has bound them both together,
He has defeated me in my rebellion,
conquered me in my sin,
He has welcomed me into his presence,
completely invited me in.
He has made himself the object of my sight,
flooding me with mercies in the morning,
drowning me with grace in the night. 

But if there are words for Him
then I don’t have them.
But what I do have is good news,
for my God knew that manmade words would never do,
for words are just tools that we use to point to the truth,
so He sent His son Jesus Christ as “The Word”, living proof, 

He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation,
for by Him all things are created, giving nothingness formation,
and by His words he sustains, in the power of His name,
for He is before all things and over all things he reigns, holy is his name,
so praise him for his life… 

The way he persevered in strife,
the humble son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice,
praise him for his death… 

that He willingly stood in our place, that he lovingly endured the grave,
that he battled our enemy and on the third day rose in victory

He is everything that was promised,
praise Him as your risen king,
lift your voice and sing for one day he will return for us
and we will finally be united with our savior for eternity, eternity.
So it’s not just words that I proclaim,
for my words point to “The Word” and “The Word” has a name, 

hope has a name,
joy has a name,
peace has a name,
love has a name
and that name is Jesus Christ.
Praise his name forever!

I'm alive.

-----------------
One Random thing I thought I should start for the next one year is have a more healthy lifestyle.
So I decided I would like to stay off soda and fizzy drinks. Not malt drinks though :)

More of all these smoothie drinks. I have actually joined the fitfam people that religiously have smoothies. My last mix was a drink with Pineapple as base, and cucumber, the right chunks of ginger and garlic plus a tiny slice of raw green pepper (hehe). Green pepper for flavour and fragrance :D

If not for anything, but for the mind set that I am consciously aiming at a healthy lifestyle, that's powerful.

It takes a bit of time to make smoothies, but I should invest in my health, just as much as I in my wealth. Sounds awkward, but you get it, after all Health is Wealth.

So yeah... I'm alive.

My first smoothie, just orange and cucumber :D

PS: someone should just start smoothie subscription already, kent be spending one hour in kitchen cos of one glass of drink. Well.. I guess I can.

Startup, What Problem are you solving? I've found the answer

How do you come up with business ideas? Any very savvy person in the startup would point you to Paul Grahams startupideas.html document.
The essay points out that it's much more easier to get good ideas when you think of problems that exists in the world. Problems are bad things and people would always want to get rid of them, so if you have something that solves such problems, going into business would be quite straight forward.

Problems get level. Big problem = Big idea, choose your level.

In startup context, I see the value of thinking from a problem perspective to generate ideas worth chasing. That's very clear. e.g Dropbox helps with the mess of having to copy your files from one media to another, but what problem does a game like angry birds solve?

This is a classic situation newbie tech entrepreneurs may find themselves in -"what problem is your startup solving"?

To get around this, I like to think of it as 2 and only 2 things you could do as startup:

1. Solve a problem (pain)
2. Meet a need. (desire)

If you are not solving a problem as it were, you are meeting a need. In the case of a game like angry birds, the need for entertainment.

But just a few minutes ago, I found a better answer to the puzzle and I realized that the issue has been the way we were framing problems. See the answer in the quote below:

Everyone is in search of progress (outcomes/reaching goals) and it helps to think of problems in terms of the obstacles that keep them from achieving this progress

We tend to frame only the obvious problems as the problems worth solving. Whereas, anything that limits us from reaching what we want can be seen as a problem.

That's insightful!

http://leanstack.com/no-problems-in-your-business-model-is-a-problem/

Explaining a Tech term to a non-tech audience:MVP

So I have the task of explaining MVP to a non- tech audience. First, MVP is probably not exactly a tech term. Let's call it a buzz word. The term is an interesting one, so interesting, I can't seem to complete this post about it.

So yeah.. here is my 1 min layman explanation of Minimum viable  Product.

MVP is simply an abrreviation for Minimum viable product.It is the least thing you could do as a startup to provide or be of value to your customers. 

There has been so many arguments on the definition of a MVP, and just like the many other startup topics, there is no silver bullet, no clear cut answers, definitely no asking "How do you know what minimum is". 

Some folks have tried to bring understanding to the concept by coining their own version of the same concept. An example is MLP... minimum lovable product. but there is the question of if the love can translate to $$. 

In my humble opinion, I would say, forget MVP, MLP and do MSP. Minimum sellable product. I may have seen this somewhere, but I agree we should let sales be the final judge. Thank you.

Good enough? 

Inspiration overload! The meaning of life by 3rd Graders

I just had to have this on here.

You run the Show... This is your life..you're in control.... you gotta do what feels right in your heart..... The difference between  winners and losers is persistence....

The bamboo story..I always love it........ 

You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great. This is wisdom for startups. 

 

Post by via Facebook.

This is the one singular reason why 8 out of 10 startups will fail

One of the many tweets that sums up the fundamental principle of Lean Startup. Retweet if you agree with this.

[8] Most #startups fail because they try to find customers for their products, rather than finding products for their customers.
— ayo Dawodu ♛ (@tjwizking) February 3, 2015

You develop customers first. Not the product,not the app, customer development first. That's the riskiest part. It's hardly a technology problem, always a marketing one.

Don't sell what you can make, make only what you can sell, that's putting the horse before the cart - as it should be, Get it?

[Incomplete] Minimum viable Product. How to define what minimum is?

The concept of minimum viable product is relative. While this maybe an obvious truth, same may not hold for many newbie entrepreneurs (like myself). How do you determine what is minimum?

I think this would be based on at least 2 variables like the technology available to you and the knowledge of the idea available to you and you are sure off. Let's add a third one, your risk appetite.

Stepping back, the why of a MVP is to test. We think of it as an experiment and the outcome of this experiment is data.

Page 95 of The Lean Startup and read what Eric Ries says: “deciding how complex an MVP [Minimum Viable Product] needs to be cannot be done formulaically. It requires judgement”...

Still thinking about this... stay tuned.

ayo Dawodu's 2014 in Retro

A few accomplishments.

I started my first business officially. Here is the press release.


Successfully organized the first Lean Startup workshop in Lagos. Arguably the best startup workshop the Lagos startup scene has experienced in a while. Over 50 in attendance, for the 3 day period. Forever grateful to those who made it possible.

I added 7 more clients to 99digital.co with very little marketing efforts. Referrers, many thanks.

Failed with Quickchow, my mobile clock-in app and a proposal to a major mall in Lagos.

I literally traded Faith as cash, this is not your average "I have faith" situation. I should tell this story someday.

Got enrolled at Meltwater. Globally successful tech entrepreneur in the making. We are not joking here.

Went surfing.

Met everyone I met in 2014. You all are amazing. Thank you.

Lesson Learnt

I had goals and plans for the 1st quarter of 2014. Only accomplished about 35% of it. More or less, more of less.
It goes to say, no business plan survives first contact with a customer.
Whatever can go wrong, would go wrong. So why plan?

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

- General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Have a goal, be flexible how you get there, there are more ways to reach that goal than you know.

Secrets unlocked

If you think you can or you can't, you are right.
Speak what you want to see. Period.

To God alone be the Glory.

Cheers to a grander 2015! Clinkk!