Will Yarnable Be Just Another Twitter Clone?

March 3rd, 2010 ≡ 5 comments

yarnable-logo

Earlier in January, Yrn.me’s founder, Ahmad Mukoshy described his “next big thing” as  ”a micro discussion platform that allows you to create discussion threads of topics of interest in fewer than 140 char and share with the world in the easiest way.”

Yarnable.com (soon to be launched) is a handy tool for your real time status updates answering the one simple question “What is happening”?

According to Yarnable’s blog:

Quite simple, Yarnable is a free micro-discussion site that allow you to create and share short topics of interest in under 140 characters. It comes with great number of social features such private messaging and friend list.

Yarnable, founded in mid January, 2010 comes in handy for your real time status updates answering the one simple question “What is happening”.

All topics created by users are neatly organised under related categories such as Sports, Movies, Business and even Technology.

Because privacy setting on social sites is often crucial, you can always set your privacy limit from your profile settings allowing you to block or allow public access to your topics. Simple, you can even host private discussions with your network of friends without thirdparty interference.

This impressive web site is coming out soon, will have the 1st private beta release around1st March 2010.

While we wait for this new micro-blogging service out of Northern Nigeria, it’ll be interesting to see how different it would be from Twitter.com, Kukurooku.com, NaijaPulse.com and Gistcaster.com

Already, there are indications that it will look different and unique especially with the categories you can create for different topics. Again, with a lot of issues around privacy (especially on Facebook), it would be nice to actually engage in “private discussions with your network of friends without any third party interference.”

My questions are: Will Yarnable be just another Twitter clone? Will it be unique? Will it impress?

Posted at 7am on 3/3/10 | 5 comments | Topic: Startup Freeviews | Tags: , , , , , , , | Read on

iRach – My new startup

March 1st, 2010 ≡ 10 comments
iRach – My new startup
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a lovely photo on Facebook with the caption: Introducing iWife! As expected, the feedback was huge. Apparently, I didn’t expect anything less. Why?
1. I had not made such an announcement before especially on a public domain.
2. It was about the same period Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad.
3. The photo was that of a charming looking and extremely gorgeous lady.
Interestingly, I had mentioned to a few colleagues and business partners that I was launching a new startup. No doubt, they thought I meant a business venture or startup:-P
So on that fateful day, I released a snapshot of my “new startup”, which I had been nurturing for the last 18 months or so. Oh, I’m guessing what you’re probably thinking: Loy is a secretive serial entrepreneur. Well, that’s better than being a “secretive serial womanpreneur” like Tiger Woods. No pun intended.
Introducing iRach
iRach is a unique software app that lets you harness your personality & communication skills and provides a collaborative environment that allows you to share new and exciting experiences with friends and family. iRach has an in-built API that allows ONLY one developer (me) to build apps. (I’ll explain later).
An idea conceived almost three decades ago, in a small town in Lagos mainland, iRach has gone through several stages of development and has received a few rounds of funding. Disclosure: I started investing in iRach since August 2008 and have been nurturing the startup since then.
In December 2008, the project was approved by key “stakeholders”, and we moved to the next phase of discussions. By July 2009, I moved into
a new “office space” located in the Lekki Peninsula, where I set up a lab and garage for the project. At the time, I was nurturing iRach from an “incubator” located somewhere in the Lagos mainland.
After about 6 months, iRach was launched in beta version in Ikoyi, Lagos. Then, after about 4 weeks of beta testing, iRach was unveiled at the lovely Lekki Conservation Centre, Lagos on February 13, 2010 at 1pm.
The event was attended by family & friends as well as colleagues and well wishers. It was a plum event.
As expected, I moved iRach into our new “office space” after a brief stint in space – honeymooning or cloud computing, if you like.
Since then, my new startup has been quite worthwhile. Oh and by the way, on the API note, I’m yet to write the codes for an app – iBaby, if you like. When I do, I’ll endeavour to write about it here. I’ve even fantasized what, who or how the new app will look like. It’ll also be interesting to know what name to call it.
iLoy? iJoy? iBoy? iToy? iRoy?
Well, until then…

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a lovely photo on Facebook with the caption: Introducing iWife! As expected, the feedback was huge. Apparently, I didn’t expect anything less.

Why?

  1. I had not made such an announcement before especially on a public domain.
  2. It was about the same period Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad.
  3. The photo was that of a charming looking and extremely gorgeous lady:)

Interestingly, I had mentioned to a few colleagues and business partners that I was launching a new startup. No doubt, they thought I meant a business venture or startup:-P

So on that fateful day, I released a snapshot of my “new startup”, which I had been nurturing for the last 18 months or so. Oh, I’m guessing what you’re probably thinking: “Loy is a secretive serial entrepreneur”.

Well, that’s better than being a “secretive serial womanpreneur” like Tiger Woods. No pun intended.

(more…)

Posted at 5pm on 1/3/10 | 10 comments | Topic: Startup Freeviews | Tags: | Read on

Starcomms Launches Location-Based Service, StarTrack

February 8th, 2010 ≡ 6 comments

Starcomms has once again scored another first by being Africa’s first CDMA operator to introduce
location based service to its subscribers. It is also the first telecommunications operator in the West
African…

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Yrn.me – Nigeria’s first URL Shortener Service

February 8th, 2010 ≡ 16 comments

Nigeria has made its own mark in the url shortening space with the launch of Yrn.me on February 4th, 2010.

Since Twitter limited web users to publishing not more than 140…


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Announcing Lagos [Startup Digest]

February 4th, 2010 ≡ 3 comments

Today, I’m excitedly announcing the first edition of the Lagos [Startup Digest].

For some weeks now, I’ve been discussing with Chris McCann, co-founder  of Startup Digest, a weekly curated email list…


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Google Announces G-Nigeria Day 2010

January 22nd, 2010 ≡ 15 comments

Last August, I gave a hint that Google could be launching their G-Africa Initiative, a series of events in Sub-Saharan Africa for software developers, marketers and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Well, I…


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Nigeria’s web startups to watch in 2010!

January 15th, 2010 ≡ 19 comments

As we expect to see new and exciting web and mobile 2.0 startups and applications to be launched in 2010, I thought it would be nice to profile some of…


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