36TH EDITION OF START-UP SUNDAY JUST HELD IN PORT-HARCOURT AND IT WAS LIT!

Christmas arrived before December for PH Start-ups last Sunday as Kendall Ananyi, Founder of wifi.com.ng, in true Santa-Claus like fashion, came with a bag of tips to enable start-ups build their companies purely from their personal and operational finances. Kendall spoke on ‘Bootstrapping to a $1m run rate in Africa’ during his mentoring session at the 36th edition of Start-Up Sunday, held last Sunday in Port-Harcourt. 

Kendall Ananyi Credit- Parks Photo

It was eye-opening for some participants and start-up founders. Kendall spoke about how start-ups can self-finance first before seeking investment from venture capitalists or angel-investors. He shared his personal experience failing at setting up several start-ups prior to wifi.com.ng.

He also spoke about how he was able to run wifi.com.ng with his personal finances and from the operating revenues of the company before his company’s participation at Y-Combinator. It was highly interactive as participants were equally prepared with intelligent questions.

Photo Credit- Parks Photo

Photo Credit- Parks Photo

Start-Up Sunday's 36th edition was a bumper package as it also featured a Pitching exercise, Fireside chat, networking sessions, elevator pitch challenge and updates on the Port-Harcourt start-up guide project update. Perhaps the most exciting and inspiring highlight was the mentoring session with Kendall Ananyi, Founder wifi.com.ng.

Pitching Exercise-  Photo Credit- Parks Photo

Fireside Chat - Photo Credit- Parks Photo

The Pitching exercise featured two start-ups from students of Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Tank Truck by Daniel Alisi and Tabanatech, a church data management software system by Samuel Adiela. They were also able to receive feedback from participants at the Start-Up Sunday. I was also graced by Start-Up Wizs in Port-Harcourt like Uche Aniche of Venuehero.co and convener Start-Up South and Mayple Dappa, CEO of Fayples.com

Photo Credit- Parks Photo

Photo Credit- Parks Photo

In all, Start-Up Sunday’s 36^th edition was fun and laughter but most importantly inspirational, educational and thought-provoking. Watch out for the next edition on the 3rd Sunday in July.

WHY PORT-HARCOURT NEEDS CAMEROUN’S RECENTLY LAUNCHED TRAVELER APP

Arnold Niji a 27 year old Engineer launched the Traveler mobile application in October. The App uses data, GPS and motion sensor technology to improve passenger safety, monitor driver speeds and emergency responses. According to its founder, the App is a response to the high number of accidents and the inability to control the drivers and to contact hospitals and families of victims.  More than 20,000 people died on Cameroon's roads between 2010 and 2015. Passengers can use the app to report passenger overcrowding, road issues and traffic incidents. All information is sent to a central database. For bus passengers, at the onset of their journey, they enter the company name, vehicle number plate and destination. In the event of an accident, if a user indicates it in the App, the App then notifies all emergency contacts of people travelling on the same bus and also automatically alerts hospitals of their location. Like Cameroon, we face similar problems in Nigeria. Port-Harcourt is no exception. According to statistics from the Federal Road Safety Corporation (FRSC), an average of 15 people died daily in road accidents across Nigeria in 2015. 5,440 Nigerians lost their lives in road accidents across the country in 2015. The good news is that with such an App, the death toll can be reduced. Here are reasons why we need an App like that in PH. Terrible road infrastructure- Yes, the Governor should be commended for working on some roads but fact is the roads could be better. Lives are still lost regularly via road accidents. Pot-Holes, ditches, un-tarred roads, flooded roads and bumpy roads are common things we have to deal with on a daily basis. Over-speeding is common- Nigerians are notorious for over-speeding perhaps partly because there are no checks for it. The recent effort by the FRSC to introduce speed limiters is facing numerous challenges, some of them of the Agencies making. Drivers still drive recklessly with little or no penalties. If you have ever driven in Port-Harcourt or had to undergo a journey in this town, you will understand what i mean. Prayer seems to be the temporary solution- Ever entered a bus and a Pastor or passenger gets up to pray for the safety of the journey, even when you didn’t ask or don’t feel like? Sound familiar? I suspect it’s not entirely because of how religious we are as a country but also because almost every Nigerian knows that to survive a road trip in the country is a function of God’s grace. From bad roads, to defective vehicles, to driver’s recklessness and over-speeding, journeying from one place to another in Nigeria is definitely a herculean task Tardy emergency responses- No one needs to remind us of how essentially non-existent our emergency response units are. Save for Lagos state, where the emergency units response tries somewhat, most other cities include Port-Harcourt have zilch emergency response time. The App will be able to notify them of any road accidents and hopefully they will be able to get ont he road in time to rescue victims.

GOLDEN GLOBES 2017 NOMINATIONS ARE OUT

La La Land with Ryan Gosling (suprising to see him in a musical) in the lead role leads the film nominees with a total of seven mentions, followed by Moonlight with six. For TV, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story leads with five. Game of Thrones as well as This is Us also has nominations. Mel Gibson seems to be back in the main stream with one Best Director Nomination. Surprisingly, highly rated and popular TV Series Power did not receive any nominations

The 74th Golden Globe Awards will be hosted by Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and will air live on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 on NBC. You can see the full list of nominations here

Some of the nominations are below

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

20th Century Women

Deadpool

Florence Foster Jenkins

La La Land

Sing Street

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea


Joel Edgerton - Loving


Andrew Garfield - Hacksaw Ridge


Viggo Mortensen - Captain Fantastic


Denzel Washington - Fences

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Amy Adams - Arrival

Jessica Chastain - Miss Sloane

Ruth Negga - Loving

Natalie Portman - Jackie

Isabelle Huppert – Elle

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Colin Farrell - The Lobster

Ryan Gosling - La La Land

Hugh Grant - Florence Foster Jenkins

Jonah Hill - War Dogs

Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool

Best Animated Feature Film

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana

My Life as a Zucchini

Sing

Zootopia

Best Television Series - Drama

The Crown

Game of Thrones

Stranger Things

This Is Us

West world

Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Atlanta

Black-ish

Mozart in the Jungle

Transparent
Veep

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama

Rami Malek - Mr. Robot

Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul

Matthew Rhys - The Americans

Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan

Billy Bob Thornton - Goliath

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama

Caitriona Balfe - Outlander

Claire Foy - The Crown

Keri Russell - The Americans

Winona Ryder - Stranger Things

Evan Rachel Wood - Westworld

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Quantrell D. Colbert/FX

Anthony Anderson - Black-ish

Gael Garcia Bernal - Mozart in the Jungle

Donald Glover - Atlanta

Nick Nolte - Graves

Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Rachel Bloom - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Veep

Sarah Jessica Parker - Divorce

Issa Rae - Insecure

Gina Rodriguez - Jane the Virgin

Tracee Ellis Ross - Black-ish