The first Garage48 event in Africa took place in Lagos, Nigeria from 06 to 08 May 2011 at the Lagos Resource Centre, Victoria Island. Garage48 is an event to turn your ideas into working prototypes or services within one weekend, just 48 hours. Nine (9) enthusiastic teams started working on Friday evening and launched their new services at this Africa maiden event. The question now is “Two Months after Garage48, Where are these 9 Startups?”
CallCamp
Callcamp is a Customer Service Aggregation Agency. It seeks to provide a platform for companies to employ students as call center agents. Interested students can sign up as potential call center workers and then go through training to learn about the company they will be working for and its products / services. The main focus of the company is to make the call centre service available for smaller businesses. The team comprises 7 people and the project’s website is callcamp.net.
Where are they today? A visit to the url shows “Callcamp – We are warming up”. So, how long is the company going to warm up. While this is a great idea, it takes much more to convert idea to business. We will continue to keep a watch on this team to know when they eventually launch.
There are many people who wish they had opportunity to spend time volunteering in a course they believe so much in but find it hard to see these kinds of opportunities. Extramil.es seeks to make this happen. The company will help you to sign up as an volunteer and donate your time for the course that you believe in. The company seeks to make money through offering enterprize service i.e. corporates have to pay to use the service. Revenue is also expected to come in via advertisement and donations. The team comprises 5 people.
Updates? The website only contains about us and signup link. While a user can signup to volunteer, there is really nothing else to do after signup. There is also no sign that the team is still working on this project. After signing up, I was asked to click on calendar to view existing opportunities but that link is missing. This is possibly an oversight. Also, the areas where people can volunteer is limited. So, if your area of expertise is not listed, you are not given opportunity to add your list.
This service wants to help people track their expenses. Also, it wants to create a platform for people to track and share their expenses. The team comprising 6 people plan to launch with mobile app and expand to other channel later. The project is currently being hosted here.
Update on the Startup: The company’s website is currently being hosted at appspot. Aside the homepage, there is no sign that the team is still working on this. Clicking on “Sign up with Google” only takes you to blank web page with “welcome”. None of the links on the homepage is working. I think the team needs to get back to work. This is definitely one of the services that people need especially in this part of the country. Only time will tell if this project will eventually kick off.
Cook ‘N Chop
Cook “N Chop is a web and mobile app with recipes and guidelines (even videos) to make Nigerian food. The company also wants to help Nigerians relate with one another and get help when it comes to diet. The team comprises 9 members.
Updates: This is actually one of the Startups out of Garage48 that has launched fully. The website is live and it contains some recipes. One downside is that if you don’t know the name of the food, you might not be able to find the required information about its recipe. I believe the team can improve on the service offering with time. The mobile app is currently available and can be downloaded at the website.
Do you know anyone involved in any of these startups? Or know what these startups are currently doing behind the scene, then drop your comments below. Let’s build the Nigeria Startup community one step at a time.
Image Credits: Timbuktu Chronicles
