Meet Chinedu Echeruo, young entrepreneur who got $1bn from Apple

Chinedu Echeruo is a public speaker and the founder of HopStop, a start-up mobile application that helps people get directions by finding the nearest subway stations and bus stop for them. HopStop operates on both IOS and android phones covering over 300 cities.
Recently, Apple acquired Chinedu’s HopStop for $1 billion.
The King’s College Old Boys Association (KCOBA) recently organised the Business Network Meeting featuring Chinedu Echeruo, who is also an old boy of Kings College.
Echeruo who spoke on Practical Use of Imagination for Business also upheld the virtues of KCOBA.
Kashim Ibrahim Imam, president of the association said he was proud of the association, as the association has produced people doing excellently in various spheres of life.
Speaking with Start-Up Digest on how young entrepreneurs in Nigeria would realise their dreams, Chinedu said we now lived in a global marketplace where anyone could enter virtual spaces like Upwork and Guru to offer and source talent. He said that resources such as YouTube and Khan Academy would provide skills and training for anyone committed to learning, adding that a platform like Andela often trained and connected talented Nigerian and African developers with global work opportunities.
On his next step in life, he revealed, “Our next venture is the Love & Magic Company. We believe that love, consciousness, and intention are the essence of our human experience. We seek to build companies and tools that empower individuals to create and manifest their ideas. We are applying imagination and creativity to what we see as global problems — structural problems in the world. We’ve launched two companies so far: MindMeet.us and BoxCircles.com.
“MindMeet fosters a seamless exchange of information to inspire people and enrich lives in the process. By streamlining and merging technologies like calendaring and direct payments to charity, MindMeet is a fresh way for people anywhere in the world to exchange knowledge (virtually or in-person) in bite-size time slots. BoxCircles is a people recommendation platform for entrepreneurs.
“Our mission is to empower entrepreneurs by connecting them to their ideal collaborators (app developers, designers, copywriters). Entrepreneurs use BoxCircles to find the people their trusted network – their circle – have already worked with, and already love.
He said schools across Nigeria needed to start emphasising the power of imagination. According to him, knowledge was never acquired.
“Its potential lies not in the skill of the instructor but in our children’s own ability to be in tune with the revelation offered. I think schools should offer students more opportunity for self-expression and de-emphasize memorization of known knowledge. More art, music and student-defined projects would be a step in the right direction. Teachers should prepare kids to be powerful creators not efficient workers,” he explained.
He advised that government should have a streamlined one-day company registration process, allocate a portion of its spending to small businesses and share more public data to unearth the many business opportunities in Nigeria.
He advised young start-ups owners aiming to become employers of labour to cultivate their imagination and creativity to solve a big problem. “The first act of creation is in the mind. Before you can build a successful company, you first have to imagine it. And when you can imagine a solution that will help millions of people, you are more likely to get the funding, customers and opportunity to employ others to help you,” the young entrepreneur added.

Ifeoma Okeke