Akure Metropolitan Ecosystem
The Akure Metropolis, our immediate target ecosystem, made significant progress in ecosystem building in the previous year.
When it comes to cultivating a thriving culture and supporting the best out of people and their products, ecosystem building is critical.
Our fundamental belief is that a long-term ecosystem is built on the community, while a sustainable one is rooted in great product development and the sale of those products and services.
In the Akure Metropolis Ecosystem, the capital of Ondo State, one of Nigeria’s major Cocoa production cities as well as the West African city with the longest coastline, there are many active technology communities and a large number of young people who are well-versed in technology, computer programming, graphic design, and other related uses of the ICT. It’s safe to say that the city has a good deal of technical experience under its belt.
The number of communities, startups, and ecosystem activities has increased dramatically as a result of the numerous individuals and groups making constant sacrifices in order to help others and contribute to the development of the city.
When we decided to organize a Product Hackathon last year, we wanted to help young entrepreneurs develop a working MVP in less than 72 hours!
Despite the fact that we were aware that it might sound impossible, we did it. As a result of the program’s support, they were able to study customer problems, gather data, and build a transitory team in less than 72 hours, allowing them to develop a minimum viable product. Then you’re selling a product instead of just an idea. That’s exactly what we did!
Many times, YCombinator has shown that these developments are necessary and important, especially since you have to push out a product and use lean startup methodology, which can be paraphrased as “Push out and grow along the way.”
Google DSC FUTA and TME Education collaborated to help these teams develop their product, providing a large technical talent base so that their products could be released in a short period of time.
By the way, Akure Metropolis has one of Nigeria’s largest populations of budding technical talent. If you’re looking for technical expertise, Akure City is the place to go.
In less than 12 months, two of the three emerging teams we trained during the product Hackathon, that continued building according to instructions, successfully received a total of 16.5 million Nigerian Naira from organizations like ALAT WEMA and Impact Africa Foundation.
This is a significant step forward for Founders’ Square, one that will encourage us to continue working hard to build new ecosystems sustainable on new products and services that will help such cities as Akure Metropolis and the other local ecosystems into which we plan to expand become hotbeds of innovation and employment opportunities.
After confirming the feasibility of training and helping teams build great value propositions from the ground up, we plan to host an extended 72 Hours hackathon in Akure Metropolis in the fourth quarter of 2022, where we hope to host a larger number of participants from all over Nigeria.
We’re the best people to solve our own problems!
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