Recent trip to Lagos, Fundraising, HoaQ Talent and many more

Dear Builder,

I was optimistic about sharing content in written form once a month. This is my first one in three months, and it feels like I’ve been banking a ton of stuff in my head. I created this newsletter to share more about what I’m working on (PLTFM) and hopefully share opportunities I come across regularly. These shared experiences and insights can significantly benefit our community of builders and potential collaborators.

TL/DR—In this edition, I delve (lol) into my recent trip to Lagos, the exciting HoaQ Talent, our ongoing fundraising efforts, the latest Podcasts I've been recorded, and some exciting content I’ve come across. I hope these topics pique your interest and encourage you to read on.

Trip to Lagos

Over the past three weeks, I’ve been quite busy travelling and organising events. I travelled to Nigeria to speak at the Builders Summit by Peace Itimi, and I discussed how we could leverage technology and community for economic prosperity in Africa. I don’t have a video recording of the talk, but the presentation is below.

It was my first time speaking publicly on a stage since 2019, and I was pretty nervous.

The Builders Summit was energetic. I loved every moment of it. One thing that stood out to me was the number of young people in attendance, many of them with university degrees, actively looking for opportunities. This is not unique to the Builders Summit. Across the continent, many young people have finished their studies and have to figure out something because there are no jobs where they are based. Many jobs are spread across the world, but they need to be connected to them. I want to do more in connecting talent to jobs, but I’m aware that it takes a lot of effort. My team and I are taking a lazy route to starting something:

We have created this simple form below for any talent to complete, and once a week, we will share job opportunities. It already has 100 submissions, and we aim to get it to 1,000 by the end of the year. Cobih and I discussed how we can easily leverage AI to connect talent to opportunities. It will be a simple weekend project, so if you want to join us, find me on LinkedIn or reply to this newsletter.

https://tally.so/r/3NAQEp

From Nigeria, I went to Togo, where I met the organisers of Togoban, the country's first business angel network. Earlier this week, I attended one of their sessions and shared what I learned from running an angel network. It was an exciting session, and I look forward to helping more networks get started. Want to kick off your angel syndicate? Please email me at [email protected].

What’s happening at HoaQ

I love being one of the organisers of HoaQ! It fulfils me. Investing has been slow this quarter, but we’ve seen many new members join, which is excellent! We also organise regular online and offline events. The next one is this Thursday, 20 June, with Cobih and Chinasa to speak about AI. You should join.

Last month, while I was in Lagos, we organised a roundtable with founders and investors. The overall sentiments from the founders were:

• Profitability is a means to fund the business because there are no investments

• Japa is making it hard to hire and retain talent

• The economic environment in Nigeria has gone from bad to worse.

Fundraising

One of the other things that has kept me busy has been fundraising. I started about a month ago and have spoken with about 20 VCs so far. While I’ve been on the investor side, I’ve found being on the founder side relatively challenging. Most VCs I’ve pitched in person have been quite receptive, and some have committed to my round.
I look forward to pitching more VCs in person.

For this fundraise, I’m trying to break it out into three segments:

• First batch: VCs

• Second batch: Syndicates (potential customers)

• Third Batch: Angels

Is this right? What else should I be doing? Who else should I talk to? I was thinking about sharing my pitch deck in this edition but the next one alongside my memo. I'll forward you my pitch deck if you'd like to learn more about my fundraiser.

[email protected]

Podcast Episode

I’ve been on a couple of podcasts lately, and my most recent one was with Zeph, an ex-colleague and friend, to discuss HoaQ and all things Africa.

Content I’ve enjoyed watching/reading / listening to lately

A Black-owned PR firm making moves in America

Diplo’s AD

Uncle Nearest’s founder Fawn Weaver

Let’s see when the next edition comes.

Take care of yourself and if you can, of others too 🫶 .

Joe