We met up with Ahmad Mukoshy and this time we got him to talk about his startup, Gigalayer, in front of the camera. Gigalayer is a web hosting company he founded in 2007 at the age of 17 just after secondary school. In our chat with Ahmad, he talks about the decision to rebrand from Aimtech NG to Gigayaler, what he thinks about the local ecosystem, the future of technology in Nigeria and what made his year.
Perhaps in the Q&A session we had with him earlier will give some perspective on what he has gone through:
The main reason why I rebranded was because I wanted a more memorable name which is also internationally marketable, since I was looking at the future plans for the company. I tried my best to acquire the domain aimtech.com from a UK based company which has already folded, but the company wouldn’t sell the domain even with an offer of $2,500 (raised mainly for that purpose).
After about two years of battling to get the aimtech domain, I managed to get aimtech.net from a domain company in Hong Kong. I tried to see how the .net will fit into my business, but I knew .com was the big hit. So I went on a search for a better domain name until I got gigalayer.com owned by a folded web hosting company, I got the domain registered and acquired the twitter handle @gigalayer with the help of third-party auction and negotiations with the owner [You can read the full Q&A here].
For more on Nigerian founders stories, read about Sim Shagaya, Jobberman Trio, and Jason Njoku.
