AOT Lagos 1.0: Tech entrepreneurs advise startups on business sustainability

Some top tech entrepreneurs on Friday in Lagos, urged startups to put processes in place that would enable them run sustainable businesses.

The tech entrepreneurs gave the advice at the end of a two-day summit on Art of Technology (AOT), Lagos 1.0.

The two-day conference which had the theme: “Bridging the Gap,” was organised by Eko Innovation Centre and sponsored by First City Monument Bank, Microsoft, Malta Guinness, Oracle, among others.

It was reported that the Lagos State Government is bridging the gap between government and the technology ecosystem through the launch of the Art of Technology.

A YouTube Partnerships Manager in Nigeria, Mrs Addy Awofisayo, urged startups to put systems in place to effectively run a successful business.

“For tech entrepreneurs, I will strongly advise that you set systems in place when you start up.

“Behave as if you are big and let the processes work for you.

“Its not every visioner that is a business person, get complementary skills, know your self and if you are a people person, you can go and raise capital to grow your business.

“If you are not, recognise your shortcoming and build in the spirit that will support your business to run effectively,” she said.

The Founder/Principal of Alder Consulting, Mr Leke Alder, urged them to think through ideas that they had, before setting up a business.

“The reason businesses fail is not because of lack of business plan or the technology is wrong, but it is because the idea is deficient.

“Most people run out of business because they don’t have the idea of an idea. An idea of an idea is different from an idea.

“Before you have an idea of an idea, you have to think through and that takes a lot to do to set up an app for example, and you need to check how customers relate to that app and how comfortable they are,” he said.

Mrs Weyinmi Eribo, a Starting Bloc, urged tech entrepreneurs to focus their time on things that would make their businesses grow.

“A lot of businesses fail because there is overconsumption of digitalising and social media.

“People are carried away by their lifestyle and whatever it is that they posted on social media and not necessarily changing that to sales.

”They spend most of their time checking who is interacting with their post and not taking time to study their businesses and customers and what people are actually asking from their businesses.

“So we need to realise that technology is an enabler but then, how we focus our time on what actually needs our time will help it work smoothly,” she said.

It was reported that AOT Lagos 1.0 brought together 2,000 tech giants, policy makers, government officials, software engineers/programmers, etc., to drive innovations that would pave way for the evolution of a smarter, digital, more efficient and more competitive Lagos State.