in60 | Technology and Startups

Hello and welcome! We’re giving the most ambitious founders in Fintech, Crypto, AgTech, EdTech, and more a platform to share their product or startup with the world and connect with users, partners, and investors. You have a powerful story; we have the platform. Location-agnostic—whether you’re building in Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, London, or anywhere else. How to get featured: 1. Have a great product/startup 2. Film your story (ensure it meets quality standards—see our page for examples) 3. If your story inspires us, we share it with the world. in60 was created to help you win users, partners, and investors. We’re waiting for you 🫴🏻

We are just getting started so please tell somebody, send them the link, and ask them to subscribe because the stories are here and we need the right people to find them. Full story on the newsletter Link: startupin60.substack.com/p/d7b8dde8-12d…

One month ago, we launched the in60 newsletter not knowing if anyone would care and today 4,300 people have read what we published and that number means everything to us. Full story: startupin60.substack.com/p/d7b8dde8-12d…

Every single one of those 4,300 reads is a real person who chose to spend their time with the stories we told and we do not take that lightly for even one second so thank you genuinely and deeply.

We also talked about the hard stuff because that matters too, Chimoney shutting down, the Swoop funding debate, fake restaurants on Chowdeck, and what all of it means for the people building on this continent.

In one month we told the story of a guy who built LooPoint after he couldn’t find a clean toilet in Ibadan and just landed a contract with the Lagos State Government, sat with Timmy of Evolution who spent four years moving money on WhatsApp, and interviewed Elo Mukoro who is building the infrastructure that finally makes banks believe gig workers when they say they earn money.

We have one question for every founder or builder in this community: what’s the hardest part of building in Africa? No long thing. Just 5 minutes of your honest truth and it goes into something bigger we’re putting together over at in60. Drop your answer here. forms.gle/NwqZicXq6dGC5F…

This one is for every founder who is quietly wondering what they’ve gotten themselves into. This weeks episode is a reminder that you are not alone. Full story on the newsletter. Link: startupin60.substack.com/p/47e44622-24c…

They also said: budget for lawsuits and drama before they budget you, have garri no matter what and brace for debt, and building a startup is mostly learning how not to quit. Six lessons. Zero jargon. All of it true.

Our founder @SemudaraAbayomi asked one question on X and the replies were so honest we turned them into this week’s in60 article. Full story: startupin60.substack.com/p/47e44622-24c…

The community said: your co-founder is not a formality, the market will embarrass you faster than your team ever will, and rejection is literally the job description. These aren’t theory. These are founders who have lived it.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned running your startup?

You can find Nawó here: @nawoapp Website: nawoapp.com

This founder is building an app that lets you spray money digitally… 🎥: @nawoapp We collaborated with spotlight by @technextdotng to tell this founder’s story. #in60 #startup #nawoapp

You can find Subify here: @UseSubify Website: usesubify.com

This founder is building Subify. The platform that lets you split Netflix, Spotify, and other premium subscriptions and save up to 80%… 🎥: @UseSubify We collaborated with Spotlight by @technextdotng to tell this founder’s story.

Chimoney is gone but Uchi Uchibeke is not and the ecosystem is better for the honesty he chose to leave behind when he didn’t have to. Make sure people know what you are building while you are still building it. Full story on the newsletter Link: startupin60.substack.com/p/321aed3c-da7…?

On May 12, Uchi Uchibeke announced that Chimoney, the cross-border payments startup he had spent four years building, was shutting down and it had a real product, real clients, and real transactions across 41 currencies in 41 countries. This one is not a light read but every founder needs to sit with it. Full story: startupin60.substack.com/p/321aed3c-da7…

He left three things behind for every founder still building and they are worth writing down: 01 — Raise properly or bootstrap with a profitable beachhead but never try to do both at once. 02 — Distribution is a survival problem and not an afterthought because his ratio was 90% product to 10% customer acquisition when it should have been 50/50. 03 — How you close matters as much as how you build because your reputation follows you everywhere.

When the shutdown post went up it was written with the kind of clarity most founders in that situation never manage and he didn’t blame anyone or dramatize anything, he just said “the product worked, it was distribution, I spent too much of my time building and not enough time making sure people knew what we built.”