Michael Akanji

2025 in retrospect: how we launched and failed yet again and what I've learnt. I came into 2025 quite excited at our plans to launch Oddstacker yet again in 2025. Working on this product since 2018 has shaped my journey in tech. I've become a proficient UX/UI designer, brand designer, and backend engineer. When it comes to products my defining philosophy is that anything can be sold and made to work. It just has a cost and if it's beyond what the team can pay then they fail. I reflected on the journey ahead from this standpoint, a lot. I didn't want to be baselessly optimistic. Being an innovative product in the iGaming space wasn't something we were the first to pull. Technical iGaming products like Bet Exchanges have been successfully sold and have defined the space. We launched and tackled the nemesis of every new product — marketing and distribution. From day 0 I was experimenting. I treated all my assumptions as variables. The users would guide us to product-market fit. We chose influencer marketing as our marketing approach. It is the most effective distribution strategy in the space. We encountered a number of problems. 1. Low user purchasing power: this I already realised and factored into our launch strategy. 2. Influencer behaviour: we quickly discovered that a lot of the influencers in the Nigerian iGaming space were unprofessional. From unanswered emails to a gross lack of appetite for work. It quickly became obvious many of them didn't see their social media platform as a brand. 3. Influencer pricing: the top influencers were very expensive while offering little in return. And since a number of top brands in the space went along with that, there was no incentive to change. A lot of their social media followers were bots especiallyonX and Telegram. In addition, a lot of their human followers were farmed through giveaways and online *philanthropy* and it reflected a lot in their mindset. 4. The market's mindset: The majority of the market were neither technical nor strategic. It seemed they needed to be spoon fed. It was anticipated, somewhat, so we adapted. Just more than we thought we needed to. We couldn't work with a lot of these influencers and it affected our reach. We created a plan on how to work around this moat. By this time we were about 3 months in and had over 5,000 sign ups. Daily engagement of about 200 - 500 players, 30k - 50k in daily stakes, and over a million Naira in stakes, cumulatively. At this point we had a working strategy, we just needed to scale it. And this was the problem. We had two solutions: spend insanely on the influencers to get that scale or switch to web 3 and utilize it's incentive based product adoption to both scale and reach a wider international audience. We couldn't afford 1. Solution 2 was cheaper and more startup friendly, and we were to go that route, however, we couldn't implement that for reasons that were beyond my control. #startup #founder #success

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I LEARNT SOMETHING NEW TODAY!!! I had the privilege of sourcing for a trusted Flutter Dev to jump on a quick Fintech project with my team and my client needed this urgently, so I made a post and shared to 2 communities on WhatsApp requesting for strong recommendations. It was a short contract role and the budget was 1M. Barely 2mins after dropping this post, my DM was blazing. What caught my attention the most was how these Devs were introducing themselves. I quickly realized that most people don't know how to sell themselves at the first introduction. 50% of the intros I received were sent this way: "Hello. Good morning." It literally stopped there. I was amazed. While some just sent their CV with their names, expecting a strong response. Well, I'd advise that such intros are done in a better way like this... Step 1: Keep your first message short, warm, and professional. When you DM, don’t just say “Hi”. Give them context immediately. Example: Hi John, I came across your post about the Product Design opening in the WhatsApp group and I’m really interested. I’m a Product Designer with experience crafting user-centered dashboards and mobile experiences for fintech and SaaS platforms. Step 2: Mention your portfolio and relevance. Follow up in the same message with a relevant link and quick note on fit. Example: You can view my portfolio here: (include your portfolio link here). Some of my works like the (project A) and (project B) are similar to what the role seems to need. Step 3: Close confidently but politely. End with a short line that opens up the conversation. Example: I’d love to learn more about the role and how I can contribute. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best Regards, Wisdom Nic. ------- These steps and pointers I believe are very key. I'd also love to hear from you, what else could be included?

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𝗔𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝗴𝘀? 𝗗𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿. ✨ 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭 : Research smartly 🔎 - Track companies that just raised funding. Watch what’s trending on Y Combinator and Product Hunt. - Study industry hotspots → Fintech startups are common in Africa, AI startups in US and China, e-commerce in Australia. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮 : Position yourself 👀 - Engage with posts from founders, product managers, and recruiters (not random likes). - Share work or posts related to those niches so your profile attracts the right eyes. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: Pitch with proof 🎯 - ✍️ Then, create sample work that fits their industry and pitch it. (Yes, do some free work upfront, it can open doors.) - Pitch directly to companies in your niche, and let your visibility + positioning back you up. 👉 Visibility gets you noticed. 👉 Positioning keeps you in the right rooms. 👉 Pitching turns attention into actual gigs. ⚡ Do this consistently for 3–6 months and the results will surprise you: 👉 The trick? Don’t just wait. Go study where the work lives and place yourself right there. You’re welcome 😉. Repost and share to people who will find this useful .

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What I’ve Learned Working With International Teams as a Nigerian Developer. Working with global teams has taught me three big lessons: 1️⃣ Good communication beats good assumptions. If you don’t say it clearly, someone will interpret it wrongly. 2️⃣ Your time zone is a superpower. You get to push work forward while others sleep. The cycle becomes continuous. 3️⃣ Your background is an advantage, not a barrier. Nigerian developers carry creativity, resilience, and problem-solving that companies don’t even realize they need. The world is bigger than your local environment. Show up. Speak up. Your skills can compete anywhere. #GlobalTalent #NigerianDevelopers #RemoteWork

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