Tayo Aina said it took him 8 years to make real money from YouTube in my interview with him.
8 years.
Not because he didn’t have views.
Not because he wasn’t consistent.
Just… the system.
Now he’s building something to fix that. @tayoainafilms
“I’ve never had to fight to be taken seriously as a woman. What I’ve experienced is being underestimated. Mostly before I even speak. But when I eventually do, they can’t help but take me seriously.”
That’s Omolara Sanni and her company Midddleman is exactly that sentence in product form.
Full story: https://t.co/lKzsXcrAc9
Before Konga, Sim Shagaya founded 4 startups that failed. But he kept building.
Today, his ventures include @ShopKonga, @ulessonapp, @mivauniversity, @Mykainsure, and more.
Here's every company Sim Shagaya has founded and the lessons behind them.
Read more: https://t.co/HuYIwcGLVf
SpaceX is going public.
And for the first time, Nigerians can buy a stake in Elon Musk's rocket and satellite internet company.
Here's how 👇
https://t.co/ZGQgq9PZbO
After raising $215M, @SPIROEVs has appointed its first-ever Group CEO.
The move comes as the electric mobility company expands across Africa, with over 100,000 e-motorcycles already on the road.
Read more:
https://t.co/SAR3hhS1QA
One year ago, Sulaiman Adewale launched @usexara_ai , and nobody really knew what to make of it.
A bank. Inside WhatsApp. No app, no interface, no stress, just type what you want and it happens. Send money. Pay a bill. Check your balance. Like texting, but your money moves.
The idea didn't come from a pitch deck or an accelerator. It came from frustration. @__adewale has an eye defect. Screens with tiny text, complicated menus, multiple taps just to send ₦2,000, it was too much.
So, he built the simplest version of banking he could imagine and put it where every Nigerian already is. WhatsApp. The app your grandma uses. The app the market woman uses. The app that runs on the cheapest phone, on the weakest network, in the most remote area. That WhatsApp.
The first two weeks? ₦120 million processed. He kept building. By day 100, 22,000 people were using it. He kept building. By the time 2026 opened, Xara had crossed ₦5 billion in transactions, and people were already writing them off as a one-hit wonder. Then they hit ₦10 billion. Then 50,000 users.
In between, Xara partnered with Solana to bring USDC and USDT transactions into the chat. They rebuilt the product twice. They launched Xara for Business. They linked up with Rubies Bank. And somewhere along the way, the product went viral enough to land @__adewale an offer from xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company.
One engineer. One personal problem. One chat window. ₦10 billion.
The lesson isn't about fintech. It's about what happens when someone builds for a real problem they actually live with every day.
Xara didn't disrupt anything. It just went where the people already were and made things easier.
That's it. That's the whole strategy.