To start and sustain a successful startup in Africa, like any other place, Startup Founders require a compelling vision that will drive execution of all the activities required to bring that vision to life as a successful startup venture. The life of the founders startup venture is therefore measured by its progress towards the realisation of their vision of commercial success. It is that journey to the successful delivery of their vision by the founders that angel investors like me seek to join and help along the way for a reward from the expected outcomes.
The POEM Framework ® is centred on the startup founder having a vision that manifests as a proposition (a product/service offer to target customers in a specified market), delivered by an organisation (an ecosystem of people using proprietary processes supported by technology), whose success is measured by the economics (capital disbursed as expenditure to generate revenue and create impact) at each of the milestones (achievements, challenges and targets) along the journey from idea to launch, growth and scale or as we are prone to say “from Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to Series A …and beyond”.
So what happens when an African angel like your’s truly meets startup founders one-on-one (1:1) to discuss possible investment for the first time? That first 1:1 meeting for me personally is to learn about the founders…
