I'm launching a new startup. Anticipate.

Yes, anticipate :)




In May, I resigned my position as a software developer at Interswitch to try to get out my dreams again. A number of things inspired this, but most notably was my friend, Abiola Olaniran's return from Nairobi after his business Gamsole's successful incubation with 88MPH.

I'm working on an idea I began working on last year, before I accepted the Interswitch job. I had built a working prototype, but due to my low morale which accompanied the outcome of Tiketmobile, I decided to shelf it and pick-up a regular job. I'm very grateful to Babafemi Ogungbamila, the CIO of Interswitch and to Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu my indirect mentor for giving me great options at that time, when almost every other thing I heard/read about myself wasn't palatable.

The idea?

I'm building a marketplace which lets people organising occasions -- birthdays, weddings, etc -- easily find and pay for services and service providers that they need. I call it an occasions utility service. I'll keep the name off for now, until I'm ready to open it up.

Between the last week in May and now I've reworked my original idea from last year, and iterated both the concept and UI design 3 times, after creating and seeking feedback from a closed circle of people. Now I'm doing my internal testing and QA. By the first week of next month, it should be available for the first set of external users, the alpha testers. The MVP and current value proposition targets graphics designers. If you're a graphic designer and would love to be an alpha tester, please do send me an email at celestocalculus@gmail.com. I plan on keeping the number really small, so the sooner the better. Thanks.

It's the much expected comeback from the Tiketmobile Fiasco and, like Tiketmobile, I'm putting my all into it and looking forward to building a successful business that would gave massive value to the adopters.

P.S.
Much regards to Anthony Ezeokoye, Ope Adeoye, Mark Essien, Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu, Emmanuel Oluwatosin, Depanka Rustagi and Abiola Olaniran, among others; for the inspiration, criticisms, feedback and belief I'm honoured to benefit from you guys. And for listening and giving advice too.

Most especially to my brother Anthony. Thanks a lot for being there always.