By Chris Onuoha

When a community of digital innovators converge for a purpose, it would be rightly described as a convergence of tech hub, positively meant to disrupt technology innovation for investors in the tech industry. This comes as First Founders, a Nigerian tech firm organizes its first “Founders Hangout in partnership with Dual  Luxury  World, Proptech Hub and Pocket Lawyers.

Certainly, Nigeria,  over the time has witnessed an upsurge in a paradigm shift in the tech industry created to re-engineer and encourage business startup in all facets. However, in recent times, Nigeria has been a target place for tech investors as over $5 billion has been raised by tech companies in just 2021 alone. Despite these positives, the amount of startups that do not get to their growth phase is immense due to a lack of adequate structure and finance.

Meanwhile, this explains how FirstFounders Inc, a tech venture studio, is helping to solve this problem by creating an atmosphere for early-stage Founders to meet their objectives by giving them the right tools and access to build, fund, and scale their startups without hassle. And just recently, FirstFounders Inc brought together creative minds from different industries in a programme called “Founders Hangout” for a networking exercise in partnership with Dual Luxury World, Proptech Hub Africa, and Pocket Lawyers.

The event held on August 25th, 2022, at the Avenue Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, and anchored by Ngozi Nwabueze, the Chief Executive Officer of Pocket Lawyers, was centred around enabling the community of Founders to network physically, build partnerships and create awareness about the services FirstFounders Inc offers as a venture studio alongside the citizenship residency provided by Dual Luxury World. The Founders’ Hangout also intended to bring tech founders together to accelerate collaboration and support within the tech ecosystem, giving the growth of tech entrepreneurship in Nigeria. 

David Lanre Messan, Chief Executive Officer, FirstFounders Inc while sharing the story of how the venture studio came into existence, spoke about the company. He mentioned the academy where the organization trains and grows entrepreneurs for the tech industry stating that “ FirstFounders Inc will be launching its digital bank next year to help tech founders source for finance to expand their business.” He also spoke extensively about the company’s mission and provided insights into how FirstFounders Inc is committed to building, scaling, and funding early-stage startups.

Laura Alagbada, Community Manager, FirstFounders Inc mentioned that “for the team at FirstFounders Inc, it was a thrilling experience to see various techpreneurs share their ideas, and have collaborative discussions as we were all able to put a face to the names of the individuals we have been interacting with online.”

The founder and Chief Executive of Proptech Hub Africa, Dr. Freeman Osonuga, in his statement  narrated about his journey as an entrepreneur from his time of helping real estate companies achieve their goals, in terms of sales and revenue and how he is presently building PropTech Hub with the goal of creating the technology to enhance the financing of real estate projects across Africa, in such a way that investors are at peace with their investments within the sector. He also elaborated on the vision of the organization saying, “It is to develop a crop of startups that will drive innovation and the development of a new sub-industry within the sector through technology.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Dual Luxury World, Faramola Adegunle, took time out to address some common misconceptions and concerns about dual citizenship investment, describing it as a necessity for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses beyond the shores of Nigeria for profitability. Tosin Arobieke, Chief Operating Officer of Dual Luxury World, also explained that the benefits of Dual Luxury World’s citizenship “through an investment programme which supports long-term investment in a host country that will provide eligibility for citizenship in that country“.

Adegunle further stated that with an investment of up to $100,000 and $200,000, the investor or entrepreneur is sure of getting second citizenship in their chosen country of investment and a second international passport that will enable the investor to have unrestricted access to that country without a visa. Techpreneurs can take advantage of this programme to invest and move their solution across the continent as other countries may offer high growth and expansion opportunities”. 

The event reported good feedback from the attendees. Tosin Solabi, a Partner from Knight & Ventures expressed great joy saying “I feel lucky that I got to meet interesting tech Founders professionally and socially, that is exactly what I was looking forward to and I got it. I left the event with new contacts to build relationships with”.

Omozino Eguh, a member of the FirstFounders Network also expressed her delight stating that “It was a fantastic event with nonstop networking and good content from the speakers which was focused on their development in the technology sphere. We are looking forward to the next event with excitement”.