The capital square’s quartely show and tell demo day for startups took place at the capital square building on the 2nd of September,2014. It was an event that turned out to be insightful and I was there to see what the startups had to offer.
Capital Square is a membership-based co-working space founded by Modupe Macaulay.It is located at the 2nd Floor, The Garnet, KM 14 Lekki-Epe Expressway, Igbo-Efon, Lekki.
Capital Square provides a relaxed environment for independent professionals to work, collaborate and learn from each other.
There were 3 startups presenting a demo Authentic Spare Parts, Xtreme Cr8tivity and Snerpie
Authentic Spare Parts selling point is that they are the first auto parts dealers with an Ecommerce platform where customers can purchase new and fairly used (genuine tokunbo) auto parts and have them delivered to their desired location. You can also purchase the spare parts and get it fixed immediately into your vehicle at their warehouse at awoyaya,Lekki Expressway.Authentic Spare Parts is cofounded by Inirude Ekan who is also the CEO
A few questions and reservations were raised by the audience and a notable question was the feasibility of an e-commerce site considering the major target market are the mechanics who are hardly the “ecommerce” type. I believe its a great idea of going e-commerce as its help expand their market from the lekki axis and exposes their market to a potentially wide market and reach.
Snerpie presented an ambitious plan to change the face of online payments, armed with nothing but a phone camera.
A new startup with an interesting value proposition.An app that will work to enable quick (2 seconds) swipe-based transactions by integrating various mobile money services into a ‘Cross Mobile Money System’. All information is encrypted in unique QR code and users can make “typeless” transactions just by opening their phone camera.
“We have built an app and system that will integrate all mobile money companies together. A ‘Cross mobile money system’, says Daniels the co-founder of Snerpie
The full functionality and usability of the app still seems vague to me but lets keep our fingers crossed. Snerpie is an app to watch out for. All they have right now is a landing page and a promise to DM you once app launches if you mention @snerpie on twitter
Xtreme Crea8tivity shed light on why 88% of business cards are discarded and how they’re going to fix that.
“We are looking for the crazy ones, people who want to be different and take their business to the next level” – says Ngozi ILondu the Business & Brand Development at XtremeCre8Tivity
There weren’t presentation slides like the previous presenters. The exotic business cards did the talking. I was particularly impressed by the design of the cards .
Xtreme Crea8tivity offers branded cards customized to your company values. The cards range from metallic cards, plastic,transparent cards and customized cards tailored to the clients brand message.
They are however not limited to designing business cards but also have have expertise in designing wedding-invites, brand identity and crested packages.
The cards surely cost thesame with everyday business card but they are worth it to create that first and lasting impression.Below is an example of business card from Xtreme Cre8tivity.
Lots of observations, suggestions and objections were made on the startups, and the startup founders and representatives left with a few new ideas on how they can re-model their businesses to take control of the market. It was a fun experience and I look forward to more activities at Capital Square.
It’s exciting to see more startups rise in Nigeria. It’s truly the year for technology and we can only expect more interesting and ambitious businesses to come up in the coming years.