If you could rewind to 2009, what are the things you would do differently?
Churchill: Well, I won’t do anything any different. I personally think everything happens for a reason and every project I do is an experiment that helps me better understand a lot of things about business, web and technology in Africa. So I am perfectly fine with everything that happened during that period
How did the Naijaborn experience affect Njorku?
Churchill: Yes, Njorku effectively was born after Naijaborn and Camerborn. A lot of mistakes I did with those platforms and a lot of lessons I learned help me shape Njorku and I am working on Njorku with much more experience
Did you start Njorku because you felt nothing else could be done for Naijaborn, Camerborn?
Churchill: No, Njorku was born out of frustrations I was having at my company AfroVisioN Group and a lot of emails I was getting from candidates looking for jobs.
Initially I wanted to add the job component to Naijaborn and Camerborn but for other reasons the decision to launch it as a stand-alone product and company sounded better at the time
How does one develop the ability to know when to pivot a project into another thing and when to stick with it and make it work?
Churchill: Well, I would say it’s rather intuitive. You have to just feel it from within you and follow what your heart wishes. There is no formula on doing startups and worse no documentation on how it has been done in the past in Africa. So I would say you are left on doing your research and then taking one of the many decisions and sticking to it. Persistence makes every road worthwhile
Lastly, can you share some insights as to how you got traction on Njorku?
Churchill: Njorku was well researched and planned for over 3yrs. Every step we are taking with Njorku has been well researched and the execution is well calculated with a lot of factors. So I would say Njorku’s traction is more about preparation meeting opportunity. We have been very prepared and once the slightest opportunity comes our way we harness it and make the most out of it.
Any advice for those of us coming behind you?
Churchill: My advice is make a lot of mistakes and learn every lesson from the mistakes and try as much as possible never to repeat those mistakes again… in essence get intelligent with respect to the mistakes you make such that overtime you will be making less mistakes.
