Being in finance over the last 4 years has made me realized that people are still building businesses in the old fashioned way, with neither VC nor Angel funding and still making it big. VC or angel funding is not what validates your idea nor determines the viability. Thousands

of well funded startups have died and will still die. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you must realize that the simple goal of a business is to make money by creating value. This is why the OBSESSION to raise big money by many aspiring entrepreneur is misplaced. Especially when the

fact that all VC and Angel funding goes to less than 1% of startups. When it is further considered that only about 10% of the funded 1% that succeed, it becomes clearer that the snapping a big cheque in VC funding in never a guarantee to success. When I and @chiemeziemjide

embarked on the journey that culminated in the launch of @kiakia_co in 2016 5 years ago, we learnt this fast. After a few time wasting pitches here and there, I told @chiemeziemjide, let us put our own money where our mouth is. We told ourselves, if really we believe this idea

is workable, we should be ready to put our funds. @AymiJackson joined us. With N5m in personal funds, we went ahead to start. Just barely a month to launch, a female friend insisted that she must be a part of it. She took a small equity. 3 months into operation, a VC invited us

to Lagos, made an offer. We went back and forth for several weeks on the term sheets. While we were at it, an Angel investor who had initially shown no interest reached out to know how we were doing. He was surprised to know we were already making progress. He made a counter

offer against the what the Nigerian based VC gave. Within one week, took up minority equity. As a matter of fact, he transferred the funds before legals were signed. It was a good but very small deal. A far cry from the millions of dollars required to fund operations and the

huge demand. Our contemporaries when we started were led by Ivy entrepreneurs who schooled in Ivy league colleges, had VC connections and network of rich backers, but these weren't any basis to be deterred, feel despair or lament that life was unfair.

Big bucks is important, but grit, discipline, persistence, integrity and relationship building are also important factors of success. As our loan books grew rapidly, there was pressure to raise capital to fund same. This is where relationships and trust played the most crucial

part. Kins began to offer their savings as working capital to fund loanbook, Inlaws too and then friends, and then associates. N1m, N5m, N10m, N20m began rolling in their numbers. One impressed friend and associate told another and another and another, over the last three & half

years. This is how we created the P2P business model and have been able to fund loans in excess of N4.5bn. Without the trust and goodwill of friends and associates, this would have been impossible. @J_Anowa is one of the very first lenders from outside the circle of

friends and associates who engaged the company online and funded over N5m in loans over 2 years ago. Our twitter handler was surprised that he trusted us enough to want to invest in our loans. I just got to see his face for the first time while composing this thread.

Since 2016, we have built other revenue generating businesses that have broke even. @kiakia_co has also funded some businesses that started with credit facilities as little as N150k with as much as N5m, N15m 2 years later. Businesses built the old fashion way. Businesses focused

on making money by selling products and services people are willing to pay for. They are not just bemoaning the lack of VC or Angel funding nor inability to get into prestigious accelerator programs. They are preparing pitches, applying to accelerators but not sitting idly

waiting for just that. One thing I can attest to is that a good number of Nigerians have money. They really do, but there is a huge trust issue around here. As an entrepreneur, if you can cultivate trust and good at quality relationship building, you will always have help.