Read on Twitter
This thread is why I had long come to the conclusion that any founder in Africa, in this age, raising >one VC institutional round—or building his venture in such a way as to NECESSARILY require >one VC institutional round—genuinely, doesn’t know what he’s doing. https://twitter.com/JasonNjoku/status/1083954709147336705
I’m convinced that only founders and VCs pursuing a One-and-Done funding strategy can, in the end BOTH have meaningful outcomes in African startup from now till next 7-10years. Different reason for VC compared to founder.
For the VCs, the classical multi-series institutional fundraising to chase down and own a huge market for a “winner takes all” outcome (ala Uber, WeWork, etc) won’t work because the African market is presently too shallow, small and fragmented to support such. See thread:
For founders, exit markets in Africa are still small, immature & unsophisticated. Your chances of building 1) sth >$100m that you IPO or someone else acquires is <1%. Better to build & own 2) a good % of sth w/in Africa’s proven exit market caps ($5-50m) w/ >50% chances of exit.
We were taught the concept of decision trees and terminal value in business school: even at $100million, 1 above
still has a much lower terminal value than 2 above at $5million! Do your own thinking! And we haven’t even factored yet founder terminal % holding into this o!
still has a much lower terminal value than 2 above at $5million! Do your own thinking! And we haven’t even factored yet founder terminal % holding into this o!
