One of the best way to succeed in business world and other endeavor in life is to learn from the champion of that industry.
In tech world one of the champion is sim shagaya; a man who have built many business such as konga and his recent startup ulesson.
He has a lot in his sleeve that people can learn about, is it his passion, his relentlessness, his hardworking spirit and how he rose from grace to grass, which is the sole purpose of this write up, to show you the life of sim shagaya in detail so that you can emulate it.
Who is sim shagaya
Sim shagaya was born in 1976 to Pauline shagaya and John Nazip shagaya, a military family in plateau state.
Due to his military background sim shagaya is always on the move and this give him wide view of Nigeria which is one of the factor that made him a success he his today.
Educational background of sim Shagaya
Sim shagaya come from a well to do family and as result has access to good quality education. His educational career started in Nigeria military school and that should not be a surprise since his father his in military.
After this he went to George Washington University USA to obtain his degree in engineering and later bag his master degree in Dartmouth University. Been a lover of education sim shagaya did not stop there he apply for MBA in Harvard and also bag it in 2003.
Sim shagaya career
After completion of his education, sim shagaya worked with Rand Merchants for years and this is where he acquires most of his finance skill, he later jump to a better offer which was Google.
After some years, google transfer him to Nigeria to be the head of its operation in Nigeria, what a befitting role as this position in google shoot him to spotlight and before he knew it he was getting better offer here and there, and this make him to pack his load again and move to Emotion and Gomyway: a bill board advertising company, as a director
In 2011, sim shagaya was tired of corporate,
he want more from life, he then set his foot to another path which is entrepreneur, and what a great path it is because he got burn and achieved many fit, much on it will come in the next chapter.
He founded in Dealday in 2011, konga in 2013 and Ulession in 2014. Most of the capital he used to fund these Dealday comes from board of Emotion and Gomyway, this is why it is good to always keep relationship.
What influence konga
Many people think sim shagaya just woke in a day and started building company’s no! It is not. Just like other known tech entrepreneur we have today his love for tech related things started with a gift of laptop from his friend when he was around 11 years old.
Sim shagaya laid his hand on many tech startups, while some fail, some became a success. Some of this startup are
- Alarena
- Jobclan
- Gbogbo
- iNollywood.
Experience from this start up make him go all out on Dealday which later fail.
When running Dealday, he discover that many people want to buy product online, so he set out to build konga an ecommerce website. konga too suffer some challenges which is explain below
Konga and zinux group
After a year konga financial (cash flow) started plummeting, being a tough year, no body want to fund a tech startup and this make him default on loans and rent.
He did not let that stop as he moved to save his company and the option he went for was to sell the company.
According to people close to him, it was a though deal to made but it is better to see the company he started flourishing than to fail. That same year he agreed to sell konga to Zinox group for a rumored amount of $10 million to $20 million.
ulession
That was not the end of his entrepreneur journey, he did not let what was behind him nail him down he founded another startup but now it is an Edtech called ulession.
Ulession make it possible for student to have personalize learning, a great solution to problem face by student who find it hard to learn in class.
Sim shagaya personal life
Sim shagaya unlike other tech entrepreneur keep his family out of public but according to people close to him he has wife and has fathered children.
Sim shagaya net worth
One of the advantages of entrepreneurship is good net worth and sim shagaya is not left out, his years of working pays out as he his rumored to worth $400 million to $700 million.
Sim shagaya’s award
It is a norm in the business world; if you make an impact felt by many, people will surly recognise you and appreciate you with awards.
Below are the sim shagaya awards which denote how well he has been doing.
Entrepreneur of the years by CNBC in 2013
Part of Forbes 10 most powerful men in Africa (2014)
Leadership CEO of the year by leadership conference awards (2014)
Sim shagaya contacts
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Lesson from sim shagaya biography
Reading biography is cool, it booster your courage and make you launch into your career or journey but do you take notice of the lesson in them.
Hope you did not read this one for reading stake. Because of this we have taken it upon our self to highlight the lesson from sim shagaya biography and they are.
Sim Shagaya background
Truly sim shagaya comes from a well to do family but do you notice something, he did not let that cloud his eye, he set out to become somebody far more better than his father and this is evidence in his many startup that fail, whenever he fail he take his as a lesson and move on.
Village people
Hello, if you are going to be doing business there will surely be ups and downs, business and especially startup is reeks with high and low, you can be happy now and in the next minute sad, you don’t need to blame any village people instead stand up and go back to your drawing board and re strategies.
Sim shagaya did not blame his village people when he fail, he lean his lesson and move on.
Don’t qoute me wrong I’m not saying you should not pray, in fact it is a good thing but do not blame village for your business failure, remember it is a business and can crumple at any time especially a startup.
Relationship
When in a working in a company or any venture do not look down on anybody and when leaving, leave with peace, imaging if sim shagaya leave Emotion with fight none of the board of that company would have agree to finance his first startup.
Relationship is one of the most important thing in business, don not burn bridges instead build and nurture it.
Mentor
Sim shagaya rarely talk without given credit to his mentor. The problem of entrepreneur in Nigeria is mentor, if they can have some one that will show them the way, someone they can go to when everything scatter, they will surely move up the entrepreneur ladder.
Find someone in your niche or industry you can go, learn from him and don’t hide a thing from him.
If you want your relationship with your mentor to go far, make it a two way thing not one way, as he give out his knowledge find something you can give out too, of course it won’t be in money the person will probably be richer that you.
Deal
In your business journey, you will be at a cross road, where you will either be left with choice to sell or crumble your company like you read in sim shagaya biography above.
Do not lie to yourself that you can save it, you can’t, entrepreneur like to dream a lot of impossible things, face realities and data it will tell you whether you can savage it or not.
Awards
At a later stage of your Entrepreneur journey many would have known you, you will get a lot of fame and respect, do not let this get into your head, keep doing what get you there, the moment you let it get into your head and relax you are gone.
Keep building keep teaching and keep motivating others.
Education
If you are young and burning with desire to build a company, I will advise you to set it aside not everybody will be like mackzugerback who started his company at a young age, in fact if you are in Nigeria it is very hard to do the same.
Acquire education and work in deferent field before starting your company, this is hard to do considering the fact that we are in a yahoo age where many young guys are flouting money here and there.
Your experience and knowledge will make you build a better business compare to people who did not get education and this is back up by study conducted in Harvard which claim that business started by college degree have high success rate compare to those that did not go to college.
Conclusion
No doubt this article have shown you biography of sim shagaya in details, it will be bad if you did not take the lesson in this article, because that is the purpose of any biography; to learn from their failure, challenges and success.
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