This is a start!

I said this year was going to be a year of doing and I still have been thinking about how to go about it. The years have birthed a lot of amazing ideas that died before they ever came to test their value. They either never got out of my head or they got lost in a notepad that was thrown in a damp storage room and has grown mould. Others manage to get out of my head and paper on to Figma’s cloud, gathering dust under privacy policies that seem like the longer they get, the less private they feel.

This is my birth month, so it’s poetic that I am beginning one of my many projects now.

The Founder Scrapbook is an idea that has sat in my head for more than two years now. Since my first foray into the startup world, I saw the need to have a place where people who have done more than put their toes in the pool of venture building can come and share their journies; the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, the times they almost gave up, the things that stressed them the most – anything really. Especially in the Nigerian space.

Call it the alcohol anonymous of building businesses in Nigeria – a place where the unbelievable is for breakfast but we strive daily in spite of our realities to do great things for ourselves and the populace. We surely do not have to do it all alone and the numbers only speak to it.

In the first 9 months of 2022 alone, over 100,000 new companies and over 200,000 new business names were registered.

https://www.cac.gov.ng/resources/registration-statistics/

In spite of the ton of ideas that never see sunlight, a ton more are being built every day, and we need to share with each other. If you have an idea worth fighting for or you’ve fought for an idea to become something we see, know and love to use, this place is for you. Founders don’t get enough credit for simply pushing through that first wave of inertia; the late nights, the awkward pitches, the quiet “what if I fail?” conversations in the shower. We want more than just the glossy “we raised $2 million” LinkedIn updates. We all want to post $2m on LinkedIn, amen? 🤭

So if you’ve walked – or are still stumbling – through the chaos of building something from nothing, come and tell a story about it. Come and unpack the highs, the lows, and the lessons that still sting. This isn’t about polished PR yarns. It’s about the messy middle, the parts you wish someone had told you before you started, and the moments you almost quit but didn’t. Let’s put the real stories on record—because someone else’s “I thought I was the only one” could be the push they need to keep going.

Welcome to the Founders Scrapbook. I look forward to reading all your stories.

⸘