Hi Startup Curious!
Time flies by so fast. I hope you have been well?
In case you missed it, here are the top stories in African tech from the past week š
Funding slumpsš as African startups raised just USD 1.98B from 397 deals in 2023.
Access Holdco, Access Bankās parent company is set to acquire ARM Pensions.
Takelot appoints new CEO as Amazon finalizes plan to enter South Africa.
Nigeriaās Telecom industry to see new operator later this year and they are coming with 5G š¤
Nigerian wealth tech startup, Cova shuts down after just 2 years of operation.
But who is Mummy Zee? š¤
Before we dive into todayās article, can you take a second to share startup dive with other awesome persons like you?
It would mean a lot to me. Here, thank you š
Just in case you have been under a rock, Deborah Olaki (Mummy Zee) is a Nigerian mum and wife who has been a hot topic on Nigeria's internet lately.
But wait a minute!
āZikora I thought this was a publication about African startups. When did you become a gossip blogger?ā
Relax, relaxā¦ We are just getting to the good part.
In a bit, I am going to be sharing key lessons startups can learn from mummy zee especially in this funding winter when a lot of startups are shutting down.
In the beninging āļø
Letās take a step back to how it all began.
How someone many Nigerians never knew existed suddenly becomes the hottest topic on the internet.
For the record, Mummy Zee has received nothing less than NGN 4 million in donations, a land and 3 bedroom apartment offer, 2 cars, visa sponsorship plus over 70+ kind gestures from brands like Kuda Bank, Infinix phones etc.
All this was as a result of this single viral tweet and then subsequent brilliant ātacticsā š.
Speaking about growth, Mummy Zeeās X account grew from a few thousand followers to over 191K + followers in less than a month.
To the lessons shall we?
Two key lessons stand out here for startup founders.
The power of positioning
Learn to tactically ride waves.
Go where the action Is!
Listen, mummy Zee didnāt just get lucky.
Yes, I believe in Serendipity or as you all call it, luck.
But see when it comes to startups, you just canāt wait for luck to fall on your lap, you have to create it.
Mummy Zee created her serendipity by being in the right place at the right time.
You can call this positioning.
Take a moment to think about it.
Mummy Zee has been strategically positioning herself on X (Twitter) for a long time.
She was part of the Sensational Peter Obi movement. Check here X cover photo.
She has been posting about her personal life on the platform including this post from 16th December that partly sparked the numerous gift donations.
She showed up consistently where she had a higher chance of going viral and was pretty much intentional with the topics she engaged with.
Remember that her viral tweet was a response to a very controversial topic in Nigeria(feminism).
Check the original viral Twitter post š
Now take a step back from all of the drama and your personal opinions š
Letās take the lessons.
Virality is a tricky growth strategy for startups mainly because there is no tried and true way to consistently go viral.
But when you do, itās crazy because you get so much exposure for your brand with little or no ad spend.
To engineer virality into your startup, you canāt overemphasize the importance of positioning.
Here are 9 positioning tactics from the book Contagious to help you increase the chances of your startup going Viral:
Lesson 2: Learn to tactically ride waves
Take a look at this image š
While I donāt believe you can build a sustainable company based on just a trend, I believe that founders should pay close attention to trends in their chosen market.
Here is the thing, every startup plays in a specific market.
It could be the electric vehicle market, wearable tech market, cloud infrastructure market, crypto and DeFi market etc
As a founder,itās important to pay close attention to the trends in whatever market you are playing in.
For better understanding letās replace trends with waves going forward shall we š¤
Waves come and go in every market and they follow a specific pattern as shown in the image above.
Back to Mummy Zee for a bit.
A single tweet went viral, but she didnāt stop there.
She immediately jumped on the wave and rode it to the best of her ability by constantly acknowledging all the gifts she received on X, tactically chipping in more requests while driving engagement at the same time. Brilliant!
Hold up. I know what you are thinking.
Letās face your market for now š¤
You want to get into the market where the red mark is on the graph above šš½and you want to keep on identifying waves in your market and jumping in when it is about to take off.
You donāt want to be too early to the market when people do not understand the technology, or your product or why they need it.
You would spend so much time and money trying to educate the market and probably shut down before the market takes off.
You don't want to be that guy š¢
You also donāt want to join in when the market is already mature.
Competition may just kill you š
Nor do you want to join when the market is in a decline.
Like newspaper publishing šš½
Identify waves in your market and get in when itās about to take off š
There you have it.
So while everyone is watching Tacha cook mummy Zee online, you just got two lessons you can apply to your startup.
Talk soon,
Zikora Chukwuka.