David Lanre Messan (DLM)

I deeply respect what the TEF does, investing and supporting entrepreneurs with seed grant. For many entrepreneurs that early belief in them and their idea alone is more important than the actual grant money. But Sir @TonyOElumelu, what if you created a similar engine not for philanthropy (you’re already excelling here) but for real monetary ROI? An institution that funds early-stage ideas that align with your business goals and gives you the opportunity to discover and back the next set of African startup unicorns. Sir, if this sounds remotely interesting to you and you’d like to explore how this could potentially work, I’m more than happy to jump on a quick 30 minutes call at your earliest convenience. I’m in a great position to do this because I run one of Nigeria’s most active venture studios— @firstfounderscc with my partner @DLMtheIcon I look forward to hearing back from you, Sir. Kind regards. Samuel Kemeshi.

If you don't have the most stellar team, quite frankly, the only thing that makes you attractive to investors is your revenue. There are so many startups building fantastic products. Investors use consistent revenue as a filter. Without that, you're already trailing. Whatever you do, optimize for revenue from day one.