JIDÉ |

Marketing in the mud!

My Nigerian mother and my English father modelled hard work in a way that I never understood growing up. My dad worked a full time job late into the evening and when his work was done, he would go and join my mum at her job in a small, hot, fast-paced restaurant kitchen until the early hours of the morning. They came home when I was asleep and went to work when I was asleep. When my mum left the restaurant, she opened a corner shop called KJS and would work all day and all night. She would end up sleeping in the back room of the corner shop on a bag of rice because local kids would break in, steal things and vandalise the shop because she was pretty much the only black women in the area. My dad again, would finish his full time job, and go straight to my mum’s shop and help her until late into the night. The most remarkable part of this, isn’t just the fact that they worked 7-days a week to provide for their family. It was their attitude towards their work. They never ever described or viewed what they did as hard work. I never ever heard them complain even once about "working hard". They seemed to view work as the ultimate privilege, honour and opportunity. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realised that they were my biggest professional inspirations and influence - not because they gave me profound advice like some parents do, but because they set a profound example without needing to say a word - one that has enabled me to pursue my own dreams with a level of focused gratitude that I wouldn't have had otherwise. "My parents were tasked with the job of survival and I with self-actualisation. What a luxury it is to search for purpose, meaning, and fulfilment." - Bo Ren

The reality hitting most now is getting to MVP now is an easier reality. But you see distribution, that’s what will make you realize the harsh reality of start up. You will cry

If you're building something genuinely breakthrough and you've been looking for the right funding, the EU's EIC Accelerator might be the one. €634 million on the table. Up to €2.5M in grants, up to €10M in equity, and the grant side is non-dilutive. Cut-off 3 closes May 6th.

If you're building a scalable tech startup and looking for the right ecosystem for growth, Hub71 might be the one. Backed by Abu Dhabi's government and @Mubadala. With ~$136K in cash and support & access to one of the most connected sovereign wealth networks in the world.

There are a few things I’ve learnt this week: product design communicates beyond marketing. Great products tell stories and make users feel part of something bigger. That’s why brands like Apple feel larger than they are.

If you're a woman founder building in deep tech and you've been looking for funding that doesn't touch your equity, @OpenHorizonsEU is worth knowing about. Up to €55,000. Equity-free. Direct access to European corporate pilots. Open Call 3 closes May 19th.

@Cassxbt Yup. It's a global program. Location doesn't disqualify you

@Jide_Kel Do they pick Africans ??

If you're building something serious and you don't have a co-founder yet, Antler Japan might be the one that changes that. $150,000 upfront. They don't wait for you to have it all figured out; they invest in you first. The next cohort starts on May 11th in Tokyo.

@TeetheBuilder No worry, I gat you !!😂

@Jide_Kel Come and sponsor my flight ticket 😂

@thee_NBM Actually, no. Antler is one of the few programs specifically designed for pre-product founders.

@Jide_Kel lol you have to build and have traction first before

@Benny___5 They actually invest in pre-traction; they invest and help founders grow from ideation up.

@Jide_Kel Mean if I have idea They can invest in my idea Or I should build something gaining traction already?

@pajoebc True though. But three weeks is still a lengthy time frame

@Jide_Kel Before May 11?? That’s like less than 3 weeks from now. Sigh

@graceiok Not really, Antler Global is open to founders from everywhere, but people usually find the closest version to themselves. They don't have a Lagos Cohort this year compared to last year, hence why I pushed this.

@Jide_Kel I think its for Japanese. Africa has Antler. You need to specify that.

Had an interview with a “crypto” recruiter. We talked for about 40 minutes, and then they asked me to look at some code. Their first instruction was to clone the repo. I didn’t. They seemed surprised, so I told them I wanted a moment to check whether it was safe first. I ran a quick analysis with Claude. Turns out the code had a backdoor. It would copy my environment variables and send them to a remote server. The recruiter went speechless and ended the call pretty quickly. Be careful who you talk to. Scammers are real.

@energy_0x Trust fund baby, i didn’t know oh. Why didn’t you tell me?😂

Nepo baby? Lmao what a cool narrative 😂😂😂 Thank You Chief.

@cyberbroda Yes bro!

@Jide_Kel Word of the day

A few things I’ve learned the hard way: I had an idea recently, and part of executing it meant talking about it. Someone I shared it with ran with it, even got funding. The difference? Their execution is bare minimum. Painful, but if anything, their success validates the idea. My edge is still the vision and depth of execution. People will steal great ideas. They can’t replicate how you build, though.

@oghenekparobor_ I do understand the ideology on it, but iPhones use swipe left to right to go back, androids use an easier swipe from the edge and it works on both sides. So most of their users know this. But there are many older folks that require signifiers (the “<“ button) to be closer.

“I personally believe the return button should be on the right side as 90% of the world is right-handed, so it only makes sense for it to be closer to the thumb.” I believe this became the norm because you don’t want your customer to easily close or exit your product. This was a nice read btw