‘We build solutions that help businesses increase productivity’

Francis Onwumere is the founder of  Mobnia, a software development company and a facilitator of Startup Weekend Lagos, a 54-hour entrepreneurial boot camp initiative. He spoke with JOSEPHINE OKOJIE on what Startup Weekend is all about as well as how technology can be used to turn Nigeria economic woes.

Can you tell us about yourself?

My name is Francis Onwumere and I am a software engineer, running a software development company called Mobnia, www.mobnia.com.  Today, we build solutions that help businesses increase productivity and save cost – solutions like Prowork, for project management and Prostream for digital media streaming. I also help organise Startup Weekend in Lagos, to help people test their business ideas and kick start their entrepreneurship journey.

What is start-up weekend all about?

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour entrepreneurial boot camp initiative where developers, designers and business people, product managers come together to turn ideas into prototypes and launch technology-enabled start-ups. It was founded in 2007 and has worked with over 150,000 entrepreneurs.

Startup Weekend came to Lagos in 2011 and we’ve had three programmes and worked with 22 startups in that time. Startup Weekend takes the form of a hackathon where the teams have 54 hours, over a weekend, to move from idea to a minimum market-viable product for their startup.

You mentor start-ups, what problem do you think has been peculiar among them?

There are many difficulties that can affect start-ups, but the most common of them is the commercialisation of ideas. Inventions are good but you need to be able to commercialise them, that is, find a market and grow them in order to make true innovation happen. Another problem is finding teammates that share the business vision, passion, and dedication for a long journey is not also easy. Then there’s the problem of capital too. The journey to success for a start-up is always too long and there will be many failures along the way. It’s important that the entrepreneur and the entire team know how to handle these failures because what matters is not losing those battles but winning the war.

How can a young tech start-up without capital benefit from your programme?

The Startup Weekend programme is designed to give a tech startup the platform to test their idea; that is, to validate or invalidate it. It is a big win for anyone looking for an opportunity to jump-start an idea. During the weekend, the teams work with experienced business and technical coaches and judges to provide feedback and help refine their products and make them market ready. Venture Garden Group (VGG) and the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) supported this year’s programme.

VGG, a well-established local technology company which recently received over $20 million in foreign investments, has offered to continue to support the teams through their technical track programme. EDC is offering the winning team a scholarship to take part in their popular Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management (CEM) programme in February 2015. Startup Weekend is also an opportunity for the teams to network with top business people that they might otherwise have had little access to.

Would you say the government has done enough in addressing the major challenges entrepreneurs in the country face?

Addressing the challenges that face entrepreneurs is an on-going project. When we scale one obstacle, there will be others. Even the US, which always champions entrepreneurship, there are difficulties. The important thing is for government to move in the right direction and engage entrepreneurs at each stage of the journey to understand their difficulties. Government intervention will always be needed but government must not do what the entrepreneur should do. Therefore, occasional government-entrepreneur engagement is needed.

The federal government is talking about diversification. Do you think a well-funded tech sector can ease Nigeria’s economic woes?

Nigeria’s unpreparedness for dwindling oil revenues has quickly become apparent, and technology can help turn things for better. Support for entrepreneurs and technology will help address the problems of unemployment and job creation.

Is there anything your organisation is doing to bridge the gap between education and technology?

Startup Weekend is a global organisation that promotes entrepreneurship. As a leading catalyst for start-up creation and entrepreneurial education around the world, Startup Weekend’s mission is to educate and inspire entrepreneurs and give them the motivation and networking opportunities they need to take the next step in creating a successful startup company.

Why do most promising start-ups fail after being birthed?

The journey is long and there are many obstacles, but as gold is tested by fire, so does the market tests start-ups. There are a lot of reasons why start-ups or even established companies fail but the usual suspect is the market force, if everything else is equal. For promising start-ups to thrive they have to capture the market and defend it by disrupting themselves or else competition will disrupt them and force them out of the market.