

Ask YC: advice for a would-be startup founder living in Africa - aitoehigie

i am a hacker living in Africa (Nigeria) and i have developed a web application (for obvious reasons) and i will like to build it up into a business, so i will like to get some relevant advice from you guys that will help me.
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meredydd
My suggestion is to use what you have - play your home for its comparative
advantage.

What have you got? You might not have a strong local VC community, but you
_do_ have something the Valley doesn't - a very low relative cost of living.
With an international market, you can sell a service at 'Western' prices, and
spend it at Nigerian prices.

Unless you can move to a startup hub, you're unlikely to get investment, at
least initially. So it's going to have to be a bootstrap job. Get a
merchant/PayPal business account, get paying customers as soon as you can, and
work towards self-sufficiency. Once you're there, you can look towards
expanding, getting investment, or moving overseas if that's what you want.

You're in no worse a position than many bootstrappers here - but, thanks to
your location, the bar you're shooting for is lower. Exploit it!

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pystar
i have developed a mobile application for mobile phones that syncs to a mobile
server, since mobile phones are more common than computers here in africa.

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goofygrin
Sync up with this guy: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=175649>

And get on a jet aeroplane to somewhere where the hill to climb to a better
life is significantly smaller.

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davidw
Well, as far as I can tell, the advice that flows freely here is as good for
you as it is for everyone else, modulo Africa-specific things, which we may
not be able to help you much with. So - do you have any specific questions?

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aitoehigie
yes, how do i get funding? or something close to Ycombinator

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davidw
I would see getting funding in Nigeria as being an uphill struggle unless you
have connections, so maybe look for people from there that have made money and
are willing to send some back home. Otherwise, move elsewhere, I suppose:-/

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drinko
what are the obvious reasons? Web app is amazingly non specific.

you will get more help if you are more open.

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aitoehigie
The obvious reasons are: (1)i wont have distribution headaches, (2)easy to
deploy and upgrade and the list goes on. I need advice on IP, business, co-
founders, funding etc

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meredydd
I think what drinko is asking is what _sort_ of web app you're working up. The
type/function/target market will help people gauge what's appropriate. It's
probably worth the risk to your confidentiality...

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bosshog
what kind of web app?

