Resources for Early Stage Startup Founders
Heyy Tribe
It’s a new week and we come bearing gifts
As an early stage founder, you have so much to worry about and it is easy to feel like you are on your own. We have curated a list of resources that will help you save time and cost in some cases. This list includes resources ranging different categories including co-working spaces, software, fellowship programs, books, media, etc.
- Co-Creation Hub
A social innovation space located in Yaba, Lagos. It is dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technology for economic prosperity. Under the ccHub umbrella there are several units that serve different categories of needs. The American Corner is a cooperative learning environment where they hold trainings, workshops, and more. There is also the design lab unit, innovation and an incubation program.
Website: https://cchubnigeria.com/
- Civic Hive
Civichive, also located in the Yaba area of Lagos, Nigeria, was founded in 2017 to create an innovative virtual & physical space for partnerships and to raise civic tech leaders/solutions in Nigeria. They offer co-working spaces, support to existing non-profits and also have a fellowship program for early-stage Civic innovators with tech-enabled ideas that can solve social problems.
Website: https://civichive.org/
- FirstCheck Africa
If you are a woman in tech and have a transformative idea, FirstCheck Africa is definitely for you. It is a female-led, female-focused angel fund and investor community founded in 2021 to make it easier for African women in tech to raise capital.
Website: https://www.firstcheck.africa/
I believe we all know what Twitter is but do you actually take advantage of the micro-blogging service. You need to take advantage of the space and community that Twitter provides. Share your knowledge, share your solutions, market and sell your product, network, give and gain value.
- SealedApp
In summary, your virtual legal partner. SealedApp allows you to access legal services easily and fast. They help with everything you need to set up your business and keep it running legally.
Watch this space to know what we are cooking with SealedApp for African early stage founders.
Website: http://www.sealedapp.org/
- Fireflies
Fireflies is an AI that joins your meetings and records them for free. It is important and useful to have a record of meetings with partners, coworkers, clients, etc.. Your recorded meetings can even be transcribed for you at a fee and you never have to worry about trying to listen, interact and take notes all at the same time.
Website: https://fireflies.ai/
- Google Analytics
You need to know what is working and what is not. Track traffic to your website (if you have one)
- Canva
This is for you if you are just starting out and cannot afford paying someone to create designs for you. Canva is a very good done-for-you/do-it yourself tool for designs of every type. Regardless of where you are at in your startup growth, you need to create good promotional content.
Website: https://www.canva.com/
- Google Business Softwares/Apps
You can be sure you’ll find something from Google Business Apps to use in managing your business. It has almost everything you need to manage your business from organizing emails to scheduling your calendar, saving contacts, creating documents, file storage and even managing meetings. There is also the added benefits of everything being automatically saved in the cloud and the availability of mobile application versions.
- The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
This book is a short guide on how to start a startup through the eyes and experiences of Guy Kawasaki.
As a founder you must have heard about building LEAN — Talk to users, build an MVP, iterate as fast as you can and make sure to test on real users at every stage. This book is the original guide to this principle and you should definitely read it if you haven’t already. It guides you on the process and thoughts behind building LEAN.
- TechCabal
Get inspired and learn from other startups by consuming tech news about fundraising and latest updates on startups. Other sites to get news include Techbuild Africa, Ventureburn, etc.
Website: https://techcabal.com/
- Startup Plug
Like the name says, it is your plug for everything startup. You will find almost any resource you need at different stages of building your solution from finding an idea to supporting customers.
Website: https://startupplug.com.ng/
- Startup Founder 101
A community of aspiring and experienced tech entrepreneurs with over 10,000 members. The community hosts numerous free events throughout the year where you can learn the best practices of starting a company from experienced entrepreneurs.
Website: https://www.meetup.com/Lagos-Startup-Founder-101/?_cookie-check=TPFwG3g3WQ7nUlfC
At Talemia, we have created a couple of products/resources that’ll help move from 0 to 1 more easily.
- There is 0 to 1, a weekly session on Twitter Spaces where we invite experienced founders and professionals in the startup space to share practical and applicable experiences with us. We have had people from Piggyvest, Prospa, Utiva and others come on 0 to 1.
- Next on the list is the community created for early stage founders known as Buildr. It is an interactive and supportive community of early stage founders at different stages sharing their knowledge and experience and being guided by our able faculty to move from where they are to where they need to be.
- There is also Hackar, a custom built service for founders that need support on a personal level and require more oversight on their building journey.
There you have it
Which of the resources have you tried? Which ones are you looking to try?
Let us know in the comment section
Don’t forget to check back every week for new content specially curated to help, educate and teach you on your journey as a founder.
You can check out other expressions of Talemia HERE
Are you building a tech startup and want us to feature you or know someone who is?
Tweet at us: @talemiahq
Email us: talemiahq@gmail.com
Let us help you gain traction faster than you can on your own. We are doing this for other African founders who have joined Buildr. Click HERE
