Nwachukwu Onyeaso is the ‘Taichou’ of Push and Start, a Lagos based debt and equity crowdfunding platform for startups in Africa. He speaks with OLUFEMI OMOTAYO about his the essence of his organisation and how they achieve their objectives.
EXCERPTS:
“We’ll help startups raise early-stage funding by giving them the tools to more efficiently mine their social contacts for financial assistance. In addition, we’ll arrange introductions to suitable investors.
“In the course of our various entrepreneurial ventures we’ve come to realise that there are myriad challenges beyond funding that startups have to grapple with. Naturally these other challenges don’t get as much coverage but that doesn’t make them any less real.
A report by the Monitor Group supports most of our findings. Inadequate knowledge and preparation are clear and present dangers and we hope to mitigate them by pairing each team with at least on experienced professional or entrepreneur who will act as a mentor, guiding and pushing these startups along the way.
We’ve also observed that so many people assume they can get by without a proper grounding in business accounting. We’re not trying to make accountants of all founders but we view finance as critical. If you can’t learn it, you need to hire for it.
Just as important, we want investors to be able to sleep with both eyes closed knowing their funds are not being mismanaged by well-intentioned but incompetent founders or worse. To this end, we also require all startups to partner with an independent accountant who will ensure all financial controls are in place and periodic reports present a true picture of the business.
One good thing about crowdfunding is that you can get near-instantaneous feedback on the attractiveness of your idea, direct from the customers you’ll be hoping to attract. Early access to the market is something we believe will prove to be a key benefit for startups that raise funding rounds via our platform.”
