Is Your Fintech Idea a Turnoff? It Might Be the Lingo

Hello and welcome to the show. Today we're going to continue on the challenges of selling your fintech ideas in Nigeria or whichever part of the world. The only reason why I'm making it Nigerian specific is just because currently over here we have a bunch of boys and girls running around trying to start fintechs and we keep on getting the news in the blogosphere and on the podcast about who raised millions of dollars for their fintech.

And sadly, we also then hear, you know, another month or a couple of weeks later, the next round of fintechs or, you know, fancy startup ideas that have died. And my thesis in making this series of podcast episodes, not the podcast in general, but just the last, you know, two or three episodes that I've made so far, is that if you have sales and business development involvement right early in your startup idea, your fintech idea, and then the chances for your business surviving or your fintech idea playing out goes up dramatically because you're able to achieve buy in.

And most importantly, you're able to validate your business idea that it's a product or a service, that it's time has come. There's demand for the idea, and this is something that can work because a bunch of folks have folded up their fintechs or their start-ups because they haven't been able to raise funding. And it's my thesis that the reason why you've not been able to raise funds is because you haven't been able to demonstrate that this is a workable idea to begin with.

Because if it's a workable idea, even though Nigeria is tough and things are tight, you know, people should be willing to throw more money at it so that they can make so they can reap their rewards on the back end. You know, that's why people invest in businesses to begin with. So with that intro out of the way, just in case this is your first time listening to the show now, little should be like you should bring you caught up to speed.

OK. So today what we're going to look at is a problem that you guys have in the fintech space and the startup space, and that is that there's too much technical jargon. Well First off, since you're selling in the financial space or you know fintechs by definition are trying to work on problems that they perceive in the financial space. There's loads of financial terms and stuff that you have to deal with to begin with.

Then you now throw in technical jargon into the mix. You know technical lingo, you know all that fancy tech stuff that you tech Bros and tech sisters like to talk about all the time. Now the problem with the jargon and the lingo and the inspeak is that it is complex and it is off putting to non experts. And believe me, I'm a reasonably intelligent guy. And you know, sometimes I listen to the shows and I listen to you guys talk and you guys are just going on and on and on you guys and girls and it's plenty of in house speak you guys know what it is you're talking about.

But then the everyday average person, you know, like me, we have absolutely no idea what it is that you're talking about. Now this is really, really problematic and it would help if you guys try to use synonyms or try to express yourself much more clearly. So there are sometimes that make a lot of sense to you guys who are in the business, but that mean nothing to us. Now let me give an example. There's web three and then there's Blockchain 2 episodes back.

I spoke about how I was speaking to someone who is going, who went to my alma mater. That's because he has a business that they can put academic records on the blockchain so that your verified school credentials can be viewed by universities in other part of the world. Now, this is a very handy solution because back when I was serving in Kando and I had to sort out my stuff so I could apply to the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, I had to go back to Kano to go and pay.

OK, well, I didn't go back to Kano because I knew someone who could make the payment on my behalf, but it was just a nightmare, basically, you know, you'd have to leave Kano, go back to OAU and then pay and then OAU. That's the university. I think Unilag also would not give you the transcript. They would have to send the transcript through registered mail. And I think over you was using Registered Night Post, that's the Nigerian Postal Service, you know, which is also a nightmare.

So you're there trying to get your stuff done. You know, I was having candle, you know, some people are working in Abuja or in Lagos or whatever. So trying to orchestrate the whole thing, make sure that everything is going on OK, you know, was a nightmare, was a hassle. Then a week passes, two weeks passes and you're wondering or you said they sent it, You call your school abroad. Your school abroad has not received it.

So this person I was chatting with, I can't remember if he's called Akoi or Kawi or something like that. They've come up with a way that you can have verified academic records put on the blockchain so that people abroad can easily see that yes, you're first class was a first class and that your 4.5 GPA was a 4.5 and you know you got this, you got this, you got that. Now I have no idea how all of this works because I don't know what blockchain is.

Well, I know that blockchain is a distributed Ledger. So that means you have a bunch of people who are trying to track certain transactions and well, let's just say it's a distributed Ledger. So a Ledger, it's a store of records distributed. It means that tons of people are working on it because tons of people are working on it. You can't falsify the records because it's hard to get other people that you don't know to start falsifying records because you want to cheat someone.

And so because of that block, blockchain is secure. But The thing is, you know, everyday guys like me, I can see a mobile phone, I can see a web page, I can see lots of stuff. So blockchain, it just sounds like it's up there in ether. Web three, you know, means absolutely nothing to me. So when you start off the conversation with an everyday ordinary guy, like when the founder was talking to me, and you start off with that whole Web 3, blockchain, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, you know, the person has absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Now because I was curious and I'm interested in new kinds of businesses that are starting up in Nigeria. You know, I was pressing and I was asking questions and that's how I was able to understand this core idea. So if you come to this conversation and you are talking to potential customers, potential investors, and you're starting off with grammar that people don't understand, you can see that you're already making the job of selling your fintech much more difficult than it is.

So you guys need to look for synonyms and look for ways to express yourself more clearly. So whenever you say Web three or blockchain, or whenever you start talking about verticals, I wonder why. Excuse me, you folks, sorry, one moment. Sorry about that. Still walking through a sore throat. So yes, as I was saying, you guys in the Web 3 and Fintech space, startup space, I don't know why you guys like saying vertical, vertical, vertical,

yes, saying vertical sounds cool. That makes you sound like, I don't know, you listen to American podcasts and you went to you studied in Harvard. But in this part of the world when you say vertical apart from the boys and girls who know what's up, most people don't know what you mean. If you just say industries people like, OK, OK and they'll follow. So I don't know why you guys are whether to this whole thing of we're working in this vertical,

we're trying to optimize that vertical, this vertical, that vertical just use words that everybody knows environment specific relative, I mean relative to the environment or the context that you are. So when you're talking about Web 3 verticals, use case scenarios, latency, redundancy, 5G, blah, blah, blah, all those things, believe me, you're losing lots of folks in the process. But The thing is, you're trying to gain a general acceptance for your business ideas because you want the public to understand what it is that you're trying to do.

Because the more people that understand, the more people that get get on board with this, the better. You're trying to gain investments. You're trying to deal with people in stakeholder organizations and not everybody understands this in speak because trust me, you're trying to get buy in from people in CBN or Ministry of Finance or Securities and Exchange Commission. Not everybody in these places knows what Web 3 means or blockchain means or redundancy means.

And for some people, unfortunately, when they hear 5G, what do you think of his brain cancer so well of course we have to thank the WhatsApp forums and forwarded messages for all that misinformation. So bottom line, you guys try and use synonyms, try and express yourself much more clearly. And then instead of speaking in terms of features or technical terms, you should be speaking in terms of benefits. So instead of, you know, 5G,

just say twice the speed of your current Internet provider or twice the speed of MTN or something. Or I mean, you, you get the point. If you're running around saying 5G5G5G, people don't know what 5G means. Or by the way, I'm just guessing that maybe 5G is twice the speed of 3G. Sorry, 4G. Yeah, 4G is what most of us currently have on our mobile devices. So I'm just guessing that maybe 5G is twice faster. That's just a guess.

So if that's the case and so saying 5G5G5G speak in terms of the benefits, which is twice the speed of this. Your MTN phone that you're using right now, that one people get then sort of, you know, blockchain, blockchain, blockchain speak in terms of benefits, The records that we're going to generate, they can't be hacked. They can't be falsified. People can get that. People need financial space, they can get that. Oh OK, this back to Kawai or is it Akoi the the Fintech, the guy that is putting, what's it called, academic transcripts on the blockchain.

So if you if you explain it like that, you know to the university administrators, now look this record that you put here, nobody can hack it, nobody can alter it. That's something that they can understand if they want to get into it. Nitty gritty, yes. Then you have to start explaining the technical this and this and that and that. But The thing is you show up to Nigerian universities and you're talking Web 3 blockchain, Web 3

blockchain. You lose a bunch of folks. But if it's this is something you can put on the Internet and once you put it there, nobody can change it, OK? That's the benefit they understand. So instead of talking web three, speak in terms of the benefit. Instead of saying 3 factor authentication, you know to most folks you can say nobody apart from Kunle, Tadi and Garba, you know, can access the system. You know, that's something that people can understand.

If they need to know the specifics, you can go into the whole thing of, OK, technically it's called 3 factor authentication. So Kunle is holding the phone, Garba is holding the the, the dongle, and then Afolion, he's the one that has the the password to the e-mail or whatever. So before anybody can hack into this thing, you actually have to kidnap Kunle and Garba and Afolayo and put them in the same room before you can hack into the system.

So. Oh, and then it's of Speaking of redundancy and latency and blah blah blah. Just say faster speed or the service is not going to fail, you know? So just speak in terms of benefits like oh God, you remember that time two weeks ago, the way that GTB was just failing? Anyhow, GTGT bank service failed for three days. You couldn't make any transfer. OK, you remember how that happened. Orga with this service, with this tech, I can assure you that will not happen.

The service will not fail. Instead of talking about how one like GTB we have redundancies and latencies built into something something, something, something that sounds impressive, it sounds fancy but chances are person you're talking to might not understand what it is that you have just said. So the benefit of simple speak or speaking in simple terms is that non-technical people because there are people who want to understand which is the reason why those of you who follow me on LinkedIn, I notice that you're in web three.

I start trying to have conversations with you guys because to be honest I don't know the difference between web one and web 2, not talk of the difference between web two and web 3. So I'm curious, I want to know, so you're going to be able to carry along non-technical people who might be your customers, who might be your investors, who might be operators of this technology or who might be other stakeholders. You're going to be able to get them to follow what it is that you're saying and to achieve buy in for your product, for your service, for this app, for this apps website, for this Web 3

crypto fintech thing that you're trying to start. Now there are times when it is appropriate to use technical lingo because I am not saying get rid of technical speak altogether. No, that would be irresponsible. When you're talking to the technical user, yeah, that is when you can do all the technical, blah blah blah. If you're talking to the technical person, then please use all your lingo. You say this is blockchain,

something something, something person says, what about ISP blah blah blah HTP? You say no, this one does not apply because by the time you run protocol this and something something something and you inversely transact and connect to this node, that node you will be communicating because you know what's up. So if you're with a technical person, use all the technical terms because you people are talking a special language, it will now show that you know what's up, you know what you're talking about, the person will understand you.

But then for a simple person like me, if you're talking about node to node intermissions like node, like what do I know about nodes? I mean, as far as I know, a node is that thing when if you split open the radio or if you split open the TV and you're looking at the motherboard, you see a physical node. I mean, for people like me, that's the most I can think of when you're talking about nodes and intermissions and everything.

So where was I? Yes. So when you're talking to a technical person, use all the technical grammar he or she understands. If you're creating an SOP for implementation, SOP is like a standard operating procedure. If you're leaving technical instructions that this is how you do this, this is how you connect this, this is how you integrate the system with another system, this is how you implement this protocol with this protocol, then please, by all means use technical language, because the person who is going to be using that standard operating procedure,

the person who is going to be implementing that system, will be a technical person. So the person needs to know exactly and precisely what am I connecting to what, what is integrating with where, and which version of this am I optimizing for what, So the person needs to know. Then it is also appropriate to use technical lingo sometimes when you're trying to show that you're credible, show that you're competent, but you know that's usually in special circumstances, so use it sparingly.

Don't use technical lingo all the time just to show that you know what's up or that you're the big cheese. Not. I know, you get my point. So the summary of what it is I'm trying to say is that the natural tendency when it comes to folks in this space, Web 3, fintech, tech startup, whatever, the natural tendency seems to be to appear that you are smart. And that's not a problem. I get that feeling because, you know, everybody wants to,

everybody wants to appear that they're they're smart. And then again, you know why, Nigel, you know how it is. Now, I started off in wedding photography space, so there's an eye that somebody can be looking at you as, oh, this one is a common photographer. Or OK, this one is calling himself entrepreneur. That means he was not smart enough to get a job, this guy is unemployed or whatever. So I get it. You want to apply, you want to appear smart.

But we should be aiming for is to sound competent, sound relatable and to sound knowledgeable and no more so that you can get your potential customers on board, get your investors on board, get the operators on board, get the stakeholders on board. If I especially the operate orbit, because unfortunately I'm just being frank and candy with you, We all know how Niger is. It's not everybody in CBN or Minister of Finance or Securities and Exchange Commission or whichever body it is that you're talking to.

It's not everybody that is going to understand all these technical jazz that you're talking about. So keep it simple, Look for metaphors, speak in terms of benefits, don't speak in terms of features, and you should be fine. So thanks for your time and attention. Connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. Also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show.

You can confirm the spelling of my name from the link. We're currently listening to this episode, so thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.