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Africa

How do I go about identifying, sharing &collecting return on experience of the new Fintech companies, with large technology impact, created in Africa?

3

Answers

Dr. Shishir

Angel Investment, Venture Capital, Idea Validation

You can search Google for a list and then I can help you in developing a strategy for data extraction and rest of the process. Let's setup a call.

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Flt.Lt. Sridhar

Start up mentor and speaker

The biggest challenge is not finding money but finding viable livelihood options for the poor. I suggest you study Prof. Yunus work. First work with the poor and let them come up with local opportunities for generating income. Take a few viable cases and fund them. Once these ventures are viable, you have a proven business plan for the investors. Why investors? You may even go through the regular banking system. Your margin will be what you charge extra above the lending rates. VC funding will put extra pressure on you to charge very high rates and it can be regulated by the govt, as it has happened in India. Such high rates also defeat the core purpose of your business. All the best.

Ryan Rutan

Founding @Startups.com, Clarity, Fundable and more

Keep asking great questions and focusing on fixing the issues and you'll get there! Video needs some innovation to become more accessible - you're on an interesting path! Upon visiting the site - I'm not surprised that this is an issue. You are doing very little to illustrate how your product delivers value - and oddly, there is no explainer video - which for a company that produces marketing video, seems like not only an obvious move, but a requirement. You need to go beyond benefits and talk about the value, but also tie it to how you create it. Not suggesting any of the below as actual copy - just illustrating: "The marketing value of video is huge - but producing video is time consuming and expensive. We've made it easy by producing the video for you - all you have to do is pick the one you want, add text, a logo, and your call-to-action and you've got a ready-to-upload video in minutes." I'm sure you can improve upon the wording - and I may be off on exactly how it works (since we've agreed that the site isn't telling us that) - but I think you can greatly improve conversion and interest in the product with something similar. If you'd like to walk me through the product I'd be happy to provide more specific feedback once armed with the facts.

Brandi Edwards

Digital and Content Marketing Strategist

The number one thing to do is to make sure your email template is mobile responsive. If you are using a mail service like Mail Chimp, that work is done for you. But if you are using a CRM that requires you to create the template, you want to ensure it is designed for mobile. Gmail can be especially tricky with responsive. Here is a great tutorial that goes over designing for Gmail: http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/creating-a-future-proof-responsive-email-without-media-queries--cms-23919. But if you don't have someone on staff that does your web/email design and you're technologically challenged...this is definitely something to invest some money in a good template for. Second, for email copy, you want to keep it short and your calls to action, near the top of the email. Think about how you personally read email on your phone...having to scroll down through an email, after a few scrolls, you stop and move on. Make sure you get your point across early so that people don't move on past your key message. All graphic emails and short infographics also do well on mobile. I love this website for inspiration for short or graphic emails: http://reallygoodemails.com/ Third, take advantage of the preview text in your email. Preview text is the snippet of copy pulled in from the body of your email and typically displayed underneath the from name and subject line in a subscriber’s inbox. You want to grab people's attention here so that they open your email. Here is a great article on taking advantage of this text. https://litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-preview-text-support

Gregory Karpinsky

Expert in Multilingual WordPress websites

The procedure of creating multilingual sites in WIX is quite complicated, as described here: https://www.wix.com/support/html5/article/tutorial-creating-a-multilingual-site Should you decide to drop WIX and move forward to WordPress, you can use the WPGlobus plugin. Everything is much easier there.

Rob Bickford

Mr. Bickford is an expert consultant

Crystal balls are never as crystal clear as we would like when peering into the fortunes of the stock market. I've worked in the market for more than 35 years and can tell you no one truly has the answer to this question. I'd be happy to talk to you about my views and give an overview of the current market valuation and factors that could create more volatility in the coming months.

Ryan Rutan

Founding @Startups.com, Clarity, Fundable and more

Conversion at the page level is often impacted by who is showing up - and could be indicative of a mismatch between the ads you are running, the audience they attract, and the messaging on the landing page on arrival. You're also asking for both a phone number and an email address - while offering very little information in return - like what cities this is available in - what it costs - how long it takes, how it's different / better than other services in this same vein. Consider narrowing the focus of your ads down to a single city, and then customize the lander to include challenges specific to that city that this would eliminate (the long Saturday lines at XYZ Market - traffic on the crosstown etc) and reference brands and stores they'll know. The more you can make the landing page a reflection of your user and the problem you're hoping to solve for them - the better. Right now, it's not reflective at all - leaving most details to the imagination. Once you've dialed in on the approach in a single locale, you can expand your campaign by repeating the process (still customizing per market). I hope this helps.

Rob Bickford

Mr. Bickford is an expert consultant

A $5 Billion purchase by Verizon is hardly what I would call a "collapse".

Ryan Rutan

Founding @Startups.com, Clarity, Fundable and more

I'm in no position to advise on the cost of a Tinder-like app - having never used it myself. I can however share some thoughts on Freemium. Freemium is too often engaged because it is easy - not because it is right for the business. You'll still need to determine how'll you make money, even with freemium, so it isn't an escape hatch from figuring out monetization - knowing how you'll make money from the beginning is critical. Check out this video by Dan Martell: http://www.danmartell.com/4rulestofreemium/ I'll summarize the decision points around freemium below: 1. There are 10M+ users in your market. 2. Free distribution will give you a competitive advantage. 3. You have a simple value proposition and process. 4. The marginal cost to service additional customers is near or equal to zero.

Louis Monoyudis

Digital E-Commerce Marketing CPG, Luxury Fashion

Quality control is always a concern when working with an overseas vendor, and I can only imagine your frustration with the samples you have received. My advice having sourced from China and many other countries is that you need a person on the ground to make sure your expectations and specs are being met, so see if you can find an agent (not associated with the factory) to work on your behalf to save the time, cost and hassle of having to fly overseas. That said, unless you are at a scale where it makes sense, I have found over the years that it ends up usually being cheaper in the long run and much more efficient to produce domestically if you can. While overseas pricing can seem a lot cheaper on the front-end, if you run into issue (like you have), the savings end up evaporating. Hope this helps, and happy to jump on a call to talk in more detail.

David Favor

Fractional CTO

Talk with the folks at MyUS.com about your situation. Likely they'll be able to provide a simple + cheap way to handle this. And... overseas shipping is always expensive, so depending on your product, profit margins may not allow selling through overseas Amazon organizations.

David C

I help you buy, sell, plan, value a business

Hi, what a great question. Ever since my best-selling book, Invest Local, came out in 2014, I've been getting lots of Clarity calls about raising capital for small business. You haven't specified if you are looking for debt or equity financing. Let's discuss both. Equity: The investors you've spoke to are likely 'accredited.' This means they can make any investment they choose with their money because their net-worth makes them exempt from securities laws. They're right. Your deal is too small. In order to be interesting to investors who want a diversified portfolio, you need to find a few very small investors. This means they won't likely be 'accredited.' So how can you sell them shares without breaking the law? You need to use another exemption if you don't want the hassle of creating a proper prospectus. This means friends, family and business associates. This is sometimes called 'Love Money' because it comes from investors who are supposed to love you. Check with your provincial securities regulator about the 'capital raising exemptions' as there are some subtle differences between the provinces. You may also wish to use what's called an 'offering memorandum' which is a lite version of a prospectus. In some provinces you don't even need audited financials for an offering memorandum. Debt Financing: Borrow the money, but if this is a startup, forget about the bank unless you can personally secure a line of credit with your credit score and net-worth. Some alternatives do exist, for example, you can sometimes get an advance against a purchase order from a factoring company if your customer is solid. Most entrepreneurs who need this level of capital will put up personal assets as collateral, such as getting another mortgage on their house or pledging assets such as stock portfolios. If you don't have any assets to serve as collateral, consider doing a combination of debt and equity financing, find a partner and give them equity in exchange for them guaranteeing the loan or putting up collateral. Government programs also exist. For example the SEED program will lend $20,000 to new business ventures and it is offered via different economic development agencies across Canada. Here is a video I did last year about courting small business investors: https://youtu.be/w0pJN4QB6Jk If you want help or wish to discuss your case in particular, please arrange a call on Clarity. Thanks David C Barnett

Jeremy Gregg

3-time TEDx speaker. Nonprofit Guru. $40M+ raised.

I think a better question is: would you consider taking a free call once per month for a charity leader who could not otherwise afford to speak with you? Clarity could make a huge impact on the nation's +1 million registered charities by providing such a program.

Rui Delgado

Entrepreneurship / Online Marketing / E-Commerce

Look at your peers and the people involved in the incubator. If networking with them enriches your venture and helps you out, then it's a good idea. That's the way you decide on an incubator or a coworking space. An acceleration program, though, is a whole different monster.

Andrew Lee

Early-Stage Startup Marketing & Growth Expert

Step one, spend a day researching competitors, keywords, onpage and offpage SEO...and then get yourself knowledgeable enough to find an expert who has experience in your industry and then work with them...try and implement their suggestions yourself if your team can...that will reduce cost.

Mike Wienick

Entrepreneur. Ops Exec. Advisor. Angel Investor.

Can you alter the post to bring in better traffic? Can you add a form to better qualify traffic and maybe capture email addresses? Could you add ads to that one post and get some revenue? If there are a ton of links to that post it could impact your overall rankings - not by much, but it is possible. I alway say there is no such thing as bad traffic, so why not try to turn this into a net positive. I'm happy to discuss further in a call. Best of luck!

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

Some ideas: - Have Pokemon stuffed toys as things that are found on the scavenger hunt. Or have them as prizes, or have Pokemon 'currency' as a prize. - Set up Pokemon 'lures' through the app. They attract Pokemon and are used by businesses that want to bring traffic. You could place the lures at places along your scavenger hunt trail. - Find a local Pokestop (or whatever the places are called where they Pokemon cluster), and put a sign on a lamp post there advertising your scavenger hunt, and the features mentioned in the list above.

Stoney deGeyter

Author, Speaker, CEO

The cost of SEO depends a great deal on three things: 1) The specific services being offered (SEO, social media, content strategy, etc.) 2) The degree in which those services will be implemented (how many hours per month) 3) the skill and experience level of the SEOs involved. $800/month is a pretty small investment if you consider all the layers to making a web marketing campaign successful. My company will usually not touch any fully-managed web marketing campaign for less than $1500/month and that's at the low end of the aggressiveness meter even for a pretty basic site. A larger ecommerce site might start around $5K and go up from there. Overall, you want to look for value and results. You'll want to know how long the SEO has been in business and when looking at proposals you need to understand the amount of time the company will be investing in the campaign. You also want to spell out your goals and establish the expectations on how/when those goals will be achieved. When the SEO and client don't have the same expectations, that can lead to issues later on. But if you know what the goals are you can both be on the same page from the start.

Serena De

Award-winning Marketer, $30M+ in Managed Ad Spend.

The answer to this question is surprisingly pretty simple and it depends on who your target group is. If it is a subgroup of your competitors' users, then do engage where they already talk about your competitors. If your target group is people who don't use the product yet, then go where those people are and engage there. Defining who is your target group, what is the solution your product offers to their issues and how to engage with them is sometimes complicated. I'm happy to jump on a call to help you clarify all this. It will help you in this specific question you have just raised but also in the future whenever you need to decide what to do: it's always all about your target group and their needs. Serena

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

Two best ones are: Uberconference (https://www.uberconference.com/) LiveNinja (https://liveninja.com/)

Rui Delgado

Entrepreneurship / Online Marketing / E-Commerce

Something you need to take into consideration (and most people forget) is to understand if the CEO is looking into the right numbers. That's how investors also vet entrepreneurs. Are they looking to achieve the right goals? For example, a successful e-commerce site always look to get as close as possible to 50% when it comes to the revenue that comes from returning customers. Another big problem is the conversion funnel within the store. Is it good enough? Are they paying attention to it? Can they fix it if one of the steps is not working? (meaning: do they have the technical capability of make constant changes to the site?) I wish you the best of luck!

Lee von

Unique Insights, Creative Solutions

If the person doesn't have a patent, trademark, or copyright on the thing you want to copy, then you can copy as much as you want. Current IP law in the USA is "first to file" (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_to_file_and_first_to_invent) If the person has any of those things, and you want to copy them legally then you have to ask them for a licence. If the person has any of those things, but doesn't have the money to sue you for infringement, then you might be able to copy it with legal repercussion. That wouldn't be very cool though.

Taylor Barr

Affiliate/Referral/Partner Program Expert.

I think you have your answer if clients are welling to refer without a fee. If there is a fundamental reason (for instance, you want to influence the pipeline for new prospects), then why don't you segment some of your clients and test the monetary referral aspect at a lower than intended rate. If you find the quality of prospects doesn't tarnish when doing so, you can release it out to all clients. However, if there is no effect or you are not getting the return from those prospects they refer - you can always discontinue the referral program (and go back to clients referring without a fee). I think you will have a gut feeling + seeing the #'s if there are cases where clients are doing it for the money (i.e. prospect quality is down). If this answer resonated with you - feel free to request a followup call. Many thanks and good luck!

Rodger Stephens

Over 25 years managing and growing businesses

Hi, I'm Rodger Stephens, and I'm a business performance expert, growing businesses for the last 25+ years. Here's a few suggestions to help your business to grow...the method is simple, but unchangeable... 1) Find out what $$ you can allocate to bringing in new members. Having $100k in revenues is great, but your income statement/cash flow statement probably tells you the cash available for marketing is actually less. 2) Using the $$ you've allocated, find out what marketing methods and means are available to you. This is a situation where the dollars drive what marketing options you have available, so be sure to determine your budget first. 3) Methods of marketing may be: A) Small $$ -A client referral program - flush out the details for how to ask your clients to bring in people they know. Offer them something to make it attractive for them. It doesn't need to be expensive. Perhaps a seat in a class/meeting or two. Other offerings of thanks may be attractive also. - Online advertising or pay-per-click (PPC) can have big results. Budgets are set by you, so you can control your costs. Google Adwords/PPC is king here. - Hold an open house and promote your business to new/interested people. When they arrive, be sure to collect contact information so you can market to them later. Attract attendees by using the client referral program, online ads or pay-per-click. B) Medium $$ - Join your local chamber of commerce. They often allow members free or reduced price advertising through their website and events. A few hundred dollars per year is usual for costs here. Other of their offerings will allow you to spend more $$ to put your company in the spotlight at events or as an annual sponsor. This can be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to many thousands. C) Big $$ - TV advertising could be successful for you because all people are potential meditation practicers. This can be an expensive proposition, but the exposure could be very large, especially if you are broadcasting in a major metropolitan area. Costs involve producing a commercial and paying for advertising airtime. There are companies that specialize in packaging commercials and acquiring airtime for you. Look for small to medium sized marketing firms that include these kinds of services. Your commercial could also be offered through online video means for no airtime costs. For online video, Google/Youtube is king. Other means and methods are available to you, however, I'm leaving many off the list as they may be ruled out for your particular use. Be sure to set goals by the number of members you need. When you hit your goal for new members, think about resetting your goal to get more if that's still an option given your capacity. Best of Luck to You, Rodger Stephens, CPA, CGMA

Pieter van

Founder & CEO of Syndy.com

If your market is 'market research' then you can easily top € 1BN in EU alone. If you're creating a new market then to calculate total addressable market I'd look at similar products and multiple their price x number of prospects, or calculate the financial cost/upside for your prospects x number of prospects. In NL alone there are about 1500 FMCG suppliers I believe

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