Rather than looking at the bigger picture, how about looking at the smaller picture for once?
So you need to wake up in the morning, make a cup of coffee, and then truly focus on being a proper entrepreneur…
No, it’s not going to be one of those articles. I meant geographical focus. (Also, I’m in a Matcha phase these days.)
Here’s my initial conversation with the client (more or less, I don’t record them, you know.)
Client: “I need a new pitch deck.”
Me: “Cool, tell me more about your business.”
Client: “Well, I work in the FinTech industry. I compete with the likes of Western Union with a similar business model.”
Then I went into a deep thought process — “Seriously? Competing with Western Union without a breakthrough feature like crypto or something? Where’s the catch?”
You know what I mean! If I tell you, the reader, right now that I’m creating a new iPhone to compete with Apple, and it will have very similar features, you’ll tell me “Good luck” if you’re nice.
You won’t believe that I’ll convert this into a business with traction or land any investment whatsoever, right?
But what if I tell you that I’ll sell them in Brazil only? You’ll still think that I’m cuckoo.
Okay, I won’t give up on you. Here’s a piece of news that I just read 30 seconds ago.
“Brazil has banned iPhone sales, starting from the iPhone 12,” because they don’t come with chargers. Way to go, Brazil, for saying what we all want to say. Cook, why’d you take away the charger, you cheap boy?)
You’ll tell me, “Okay, but still, it’s just a single country.”
“Brazil has an estimate of 14 million iPhone users” — according to Statcounter.
You: “Yes, but you won’t convince all the 14 million to buy your new iPhone alternative.”
Me: “I’m only targeting 5% of them.”
You: “That’s not a big deal. It sounds tiny.”
5% of 14 million is 700,000 customers. If I sell my iPhone alternative for $700, that’s revenue of $490 million (Not bad, I can finally buy a burger king meal without looking at the price.)
What does this have to do with your client?
He does not sell iPhones in Brazil. But he does compete with Western Union with a similar strategy. Let me tell you the tale of my client, YallaXash.
Airbnb started when its co-founders were struggling to pay their rent while having some room in their place.
When I started talking to my client, I realized he personally had an encounter that led him to start the company.
His close friend, living in Canada, needed to send money back home to his mother in Morocco as she was sick. Whilst the process sounded simple, the Canadian company in charge of the transaction blocked the funds (this happens a lot more than you think in third-world countries.)
Sadly, the mother passed away before she could receive the funds, which shows that it isn’t only a problem, but it’s a serious one. Getting affected by this, Emir Lallouche went on to create YallaXash.
According to my experience, when there’s a strong personal reason involved in creating a startup, it tends to get boosted a lot more than one that was created just to make money.
I vividly remember telling him that he needed some sort of unique selling point to win over the competition. I brag about working as an entrepreneurship consultant for over ten years.
Yet, the truth is, he knows this particular market more than I, western union, and most of the people out there. That’s stronger than many unique selling points.
If you create a Western Union alternative and target the whole world, your odds of success are minimal.
If you create a Western Union alternative in a country that you know has quite a big regulatory problem, you might just get a good piece of the cake.
He’s raised $1M in seed funding to create the startup. Looking at where they are, I’m proud to have worked with them.
At this stage, they have apps on both stores and a good customer base in Morrocco, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. They’ve reached a level where they could say, “It takes less than 30 seconds for cash pickup and 24h maximum for bank transfer.”
Additionally, there are many future plans on the table, like geographical expansions.
So let’s get back to the title of this article — Emir raised $1m of seed funding for a fintech startup competing with the likes of Western Union ($14.4 billion market cap) by having a smart geographical focus.
Here’s the problem with entrepreneurship. We’re all being taught that the biggest entrepreneurs of our times were in the right place at the right time with the perfect product.
Zuck created a billion-dollar social media company because the idea was not there.Bezos created an online library when nobody believed in the internet.Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google with a unique selling point of simplicity.
Entrepreneurship 101 — You need a unique selling point. But this article is not part of your MBA studies, so let’s strike all of that away.
If there’s a big demand/problem for car tires in your city, and you created simple car tires to sell them with absolutely no unique selling point, you’re an entrepreneur, my friend. Not only that, you probably have higher success odds than that blockchain friend of yours.If you just feel that the quality of food around your town is not stunning, open a restaurant. Simple, isn’t it?
We’ve complicated entrepreneurship over the years, and we forget what business is all about — A problem.
The above examples actually have “unique selling points,” but they’re not so unique to impress those investors out there. They’re not something you’ve never heard before. They’re just problem-solvers.
I’ll close this article by reminding you of one of the biggest companies that are simply “problem-solvers” — Tesla.
Problem — There’s no good electric car.Solution — Make one.
The car does not fly. The car does not turn into a transformer. It simply works.
So, zoom out of the big picture that all entrepreneurs are telling you they see and zoom in on the smaller picture. You might just find enormous success there.
I’ve been writing for quite a long time, and I found out that comments raise discussions that are much more fun than writing an article. So why don’t we do that?
Tell me, do you work in the FinTech industry? Can you relate to how this startup was created? Do you think that a unique selling point is still critical in running a business, or is it just part of the “entrepreneurship dream”?
This is WE — The Wednesday of Entrepreneurship. Knowing that, go out there and have a fantastic day.
I’m Al, a business consultant in Zurich, Switzerland. I believe in the power of delivering value to you, the reader. Follow me on various social media platforms if you’re interested in the value of my content.