Big Startup's Q1 Newsletter

Big Startup's Q1 Newsletter!

Did you miss us??

Long time no newsie, but here is what we’ve been up to:

I was invited to deliver a keynote at the Tony Elumelu Foundation 2019 cohort announcement where the 3,050 beneficiaries of the fund were revealed.

I spoke about the key elements required to build a successful brand in front of a few hundred people! The event was attended by past TEF beneficiaries, business owners and dignitaries including the chairman of the foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu, First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari, Outgoing CEO of the TEF, Mrs Parmider Vir, Incoming CEO of the TEF, Mrs Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu and a host of others.

It was a pretty amazing experience and we are beyond overwhelmed by the amount of time and money the foundation is investing into developing African entrepreneurship. We look forward to working closely with the foundation.

The Big Startup is committed to advocating for Enterprise Education where we provide learning opportunities that help students develop skills, knowledge and the attitude of an entrepreneur. We will be doing a lot of work with students at both secondary and tertiary levels using the Startup Star.

I was given the opportunity to speak to the students at Janet and John school, through Junior Achievement Nigeria. I talked to the class of 15/16 year olds who are currently working on building an education resource app about how to start and launch their app successfully.

We are super excited about pushing and advocating for enterprise education and also working with the JAN team.

We were delighted to have been shortlisted as a hub leader/ sector support organization leads by the British council @ngbritisharts in association with the Assembly @assemblyofficial and Fashion Foundry @fashionfoundry as part of the Nigerian Creative Enterprise Support Program.

I got to sit in on the masterclasses and learning & participation sessions with a few of the brightest up and coming fashion and design creatives. We were hosted to an evening of networking with fellow hub managers where we got to share our challenges, proffer solutions and make worthwhile connections.

I participated on a panel hosted by Kanayo Ebi of the Kachit Project at Social media week alongside other entrepreneurs including Mrs Bukky Karibi Whyte of Robert Taylor Media, Taiwo Okunoren, Okunoren Twins, Elohor Eise & Beth Models and Prive Luxury. We discussed the entire fashion value chain and the impact they have on each other.

This was particularly insightful for me as a coach to fashion designers and a fashion entrepreneur myself. We discovered that there is a huge disconnect across the key players in the value chain and we need to have more conversation and more educational sessions where we share, engage and learn from each other!!

The Tearoom Lagos is an upscale floral themed restaurant and tea house situated in Lagos.

The BSU team worked together with the Tearoom team to facilitate:

• Brand Identity design

• Business model design

• Financial projections

• Pitch Deck

• Met with investors

• One on One Coaching

We enjoyed working on this project from start to finish, working with the creative director of the Tearoom to flesh out the mood, tone, look and feel of the restaurant as well as the business model of this brand.

Today, the Tearoom has generated over 100M within its first 3 months of operation and has over 22K Followers on Instagram alone.

We are about to embark on the next phase which is scaling.

Well done to the Tearoom team, we look forward to seeing them go from startup to success.

These are highlights of what went down at Big Startup's first quarter of the year 2019. We will keep you abreast of more happenings and innovations!

The Startup Star book is still available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Bambooks, Lulu. The hardcopy is available for sale at CURA building. New 3, Old 6, Ogbunike street, Off Josephine Fingesi, Off Wole Olateju Street (the turning by Avalon opposite Diamond bank) , Off Admiralty way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos. Wonuola Okoye Author of Startup Star & Principal Coach Big Startup Sign up HERE for one of our tailored services, designed to meet the needs of new and existing fashion entrepreneurs and you’ll be on your way to building your fashion brand and becoming a Startup Star.