2012: My year of many startups

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In retrospect, 2012 was a year of great many lessons.

 

A wise man once said that time is an illusion and I agree with him in many material respects. While many may struggle with this concept, a philosophically bias mind will relate easily with this concept. Maybe I can do a piece on this topic sometimes later in the year. Sufficient for today however are the troubles in it. I am feeling very retrospective at the moment and will do the needful. I will talk about my 2012. May not be exhaustive but certainly will be worth your while. I guarantee that you would have something at least a veritable link.

 

On relationships:

A wise man once said that the change in seasons is not time. He opined that calendars don't define seasons. Relationships do. Year 2012 for me was a phenomenal year of connections across many platforms. My digital real estate footprints grew in leaps and bounds. In 2012, I added more than 500 friends on my professional page on LinkedIn (ng.linkedin.com/in/mcfoni/). With this great addition, I became what in the similitude of Forbes ranking is called a Fortune 500 individual. This meant that I had the privilege of enjoying the new user interface before a significant lot. Talk of advantage. My twitter (@mcfoni) following grew by more than 200% in the year. 2012 by far was a tweeting year. I recorded similar trend on my Facebook channel. I became very apostolic in my posts. I have received great feedbacks from many who enjoyed my posts. I am certainly not resting on my oasis.

 

In similar vein away from core social media/digital corners, I forged great relationships with many beautiful people. I discovered new hubs and platforms that helped me to keep abreast of the developments in the domains of interest. By my observation, these are very interesting times. Take for instance the live cast that was done by General Electric on #IndustrialInternet. This and many other interesting insights were to say the least instructive.

 

On Startups

Of course you know that I can't but find something to say on this topic. 2012 was a phenomenal year of new startups across the globe. New business models, fledging entities and ideas e.t.c. I have the privilege of seeing so many velocities in this arena. The e-commerce business in Nigeria is growing at a very great comparative rate. The consolidation of Kasuwa and Sabunta into JUMIA by South Africa venture capitalist company Rocket Internet and the launch of HelloFood (www.hellofood.com) by the same company are some of the events of the year. DealDey welcomed a twin company by the same founder (Serial Entrepreneur; Mr. Sim Shagaya). He added Konga (www.konga.com); a market place for everyday products to his portfolio. One must not forget the alleged heating-up tension between Rocket Internet and DealDey (www.dealdey.com) with respect to domain squatting by the former.

 

Encipher group released the upgraded version of the Inye as PLEDGE51 (www.pledge51.com) released its highly celebrated constitution mobile app. The budget demystifying tool; Budgit (www.yourbudgit.com) gained huge momentum as a veritable destination for infographic based presentation of budget related topics. Nigeria's e-bay replica www.3bids.com launched its auction platform earlier in the year in the same way Rocket Internet also launched an eBay Clone For Nigeria called www.kaymu.com.ng. Nigeria’s First Online Taxi Booking Service; Taxipark (www.taxipark.com) Debuted in the last quarter of the year.

Armes with expectations, I look forward to a year full of growth and progress. I certainly hope to up the ante in my role and contribution. I intend to play a active role within the startup/small business arena. I wish you a wonderful year full of great accomplishments. Every moment counts.

Bibliography
Additional information on startups news in Nigeria can be found at www.techloy.com. #Techloy is an uber source for IT news.



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