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The Ovaloop success story
If you have an idea, don’t just sit back and go to sleep. If you need more inspiration to get out there and get started then look to Ovaloop. The co-founders started Ovaloop with about $10,000, but that money came from personal savings and a little support from a few friends. Surprisingly, with just the right skill and a few hired talents the company grew from a zero based revenue model into a revenue generating one.
The first few customers came through targeting friends with businesses that required the solution, the product later evolved into a subscription based application with customers willing to pay. Gradually, feedback were iterated and naturally it grew into something much more bigger than anticipated.
Ovaloop is an inventory/business management solution aimed at SMEs within the African space. It is mostly a subscription based solution with features designed to help businesses manage their stock, staff, process, make sales and collect payment. It is currently growing without external funding or seed capital. The company was started by Princewill Mba and Daniel Kilanko while they were still trying to raise seed funding for a previous solution. The idea was birthed to give SMEs with inventories a solution that can help them manage their stock and other business processes that’s missing in most local SAAS apps.
“We just needed a client zero to test our MVP and about 70% of the first few customers came through direct marketing or word of mouth,” says Daniel. “over time we asked for referrals.” Ovaloop has gradually grown into a $500,000.00 company in valuation and in the foreseeable future it is aiming to become the first multi-million dollar business management solution in Nigeria.
Our primary focus was getting feedback from customers and iterating the application to suit the needs of various businesses. With a focus on customer service and unique product features, soon there was need for advertisement. Launching a small social media campaign gave Ovaloop the footing it desires into the market and came the gradual rush for sign up that cuts across various businesses and some learning to complete the on-boarding process on their own. Just in two months it became a monthly revenue generating product.
“When we agreed we were going to bootstrap Ovaloop, it took a lot of courage from the team, but we recognized that if we are going to build a successful SaaS application in a market dominated largely by foreign based products, we need to go local. i.e we need to provide solutions that fits our local businesses” says Princewill. “We are fortunate to build a unique product that is needed for our target audience.”
Ovaloop is clearly one of the few products to look out for this year especially at a time when funding has become challenging in a seemingly saturated start-up market. Ovaloop is looking like one of those products that may break the jinx and pass seed stage without any funding.
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