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I don't know what's going on but I love it! I've never picked up a Gears of War before. Until recently you had to have an Xbox console to experience the franchise, but with Microsoft's recent push towards reclaiming the PC gaming market, Gears of War 5 is now available. What's more, with the Xbox Pass for PC I'm currently playing it for a dollar, which is kind of crazy. Good job Microsoft and a strong first blow over these weird subscription service wars. But that's besides the point. The game picks up with you, the player taking control of JD. It all rightly feels like a big Hollywood spectacle movie opening with a tense mission to reclaim orbital weaponry on a tropical island. The camaraderie between the soldiers, they're called Gears, big surprise Philip, is instantly likable and easy to appreciate. It doesn't take an experienced player to figure out the dynamics between the four and there's plenty of tension to start with. JD, once again short for James Phoenix, has some daddy issues which is no wonder because even I have daddy issues when I hear his dad, original Gears of War protagonist Marcus Phoenix, open his mouth. It's John DiMaggio.  I mean just look at Bean! What I'm surprised by is that I cared for these characters even though I didn't know any of them. And it's probably the critter in me but I can't wait to play as Kate, the gear voiced by my all time favourite voice actress and possibly human being Laura Bailey. I knew next to nothing about Kate but it was fairly obvious from the previously on Gears section that she'll be stepping onto a more key role over the events of Gears 5's. First of all, loved her beanie, that's a memorable accessory. She keeps getting these headaches and it's obviously out of it. Whether due to trauma or exhaustion or something deeper and more sinister, that's something I'm looking forward to finding out more about but I like her, I really do. And dynamic with another one of the Gears, Del, is something I'm looking forward to finding more about. Some revelations towards the end of Act 1 will be really fun to follow the repercussions of. A revelation in particular about past orders JD gave will definitely change his relationship with Del and Kate, the two other main Gears. And that's fun. Tension and drama between characters in such context makes for a good storytelling device. Let's see how far the writers can go with the relationship dramatoe before it all turns into ham, eh? The gunplay is a lot of fun. So many great weapons, weapons that go boom, weapons that go pew pew and so on. My favourites are the big bazooka types, and the grenade launchers as well as this sweet shotgun called Overkill, which is just the best weapon to have once you close the distance between you and a mini boss to some such creature. Either my shooting isn't great with your run of the mill assault weapon, the Lancer, or it takes a fair amount of bullets to kill your average swarm grant. Take the Nashish shotgun, however, and pull the trigger at the point blank range, and you will see that all your troubles will say bye-bye. Boy, do I love shotguns and shooters. One pet peeve. I think the minigame that you do every time you reload your guns is a little bit annoying at first, especially because if you do it wrong, you're penalised, your character reloading more slowly than if you didn't engage with the press R at the right time, mechanic at all. Has that always been a thing, or is it a gimmick of this latest rendition of the Years of War series? Either way, it's a minor gripe and at the time of recording this, I have actually gotten fairly used to it, and no longer make mistakes. Oh and the swarm? Let me tell you, I am confused by this here swarm. If I got it right, it's a biological alien species that spreads through all sorts of mutated nasties across the planet, and certain swarm creatures are able to horde people, thus connecting them to some sort of a sentient alien system. This all gives me some solid zerg flashbacks, it's been so long since we've gotten any proper lore-driven content for Starcraft everyone, I just, I just want more of that. Herbs, I meant Abbott's long-winded monologues, what did you think I was talking about? Back to gears, I like it, I want to play more of it. It's a solid campaign which tells a good story, or maybe it tells an okay story in a well-crafted engaging way. It is a basically Space Marines fighting aliens, I don't expect it to break new narrative ground or anything, but I am happy to say that it's a heck of an entertaining time that I've had for these two and a half hours or so of the opening act, and I'm ready to kick ass with Kate all over again. Thanks for watching, speaking of Laura Bailey, a new video game called Chorus is looking for financing through the online platform FIG, it's an action-adventure musical as great David Gader dubs it. You might know David as the man behind the story of Dragon Age Origins, yes he was the main writer. With him penning this weird gorgeous project, I can tell you how excited I am to see it come to life. It's going to have a lot of singing, a lot of Laura singing in particular, and I wanted to happen so bad. Give it a listen, maybe you'll fall in love the same way I did. Until then, see you next time, bye!


You're welcome back. Still the breakfast and plus TV Africa. Well, of course, I'm sure you might have been hearing of the latest pieces of information emanating from the war on drugs in Nigeria by the lead agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. The latest is that they have nabbed about 192 suspected drug traffickers in the Southeastern state of Eboing. But the rate of success recorded by the NDAA under the watch of the leadership or the leader, the head of that agency, has made him sort of an enigma among Nigerians. It can also be referred to as a miracle worker or a game changer because of the unprecedented success he has recorded so far. He is a Mohammed Buba Marwa retired Brigadier General and he's a chairman and chief executive officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDAA. He has already made history while on the saddle with a lot of drug busts and of course seizures. Having been appointed to the job, this is a top job but a dangerous job by President Mohammed Buhari in 2021. He's removed at least 5.4 kilograms of narcotics valued at about 400 billion Naira from circulation and he stole the illicit substances and cash from being utilized by drug barons for sinister motives. The latest like we said is the agency sees the 113,404 or 414 rather kilograms of cannabis sativa. This is what we hear from the agency in Nigeria's Southeastern state of Eboing. Now these are successes nonetheless from an agency that many thought was dead but these are facts that point maybe probably to a warring picture of the level of hard drugs and banned substance abuse and use in the country. Does Nigeria have a drug crisis? Now we're glad to say joining us to answer this another question pertaining to the drug situation in the country, the director general of KADAM. This is Christ Against Drug Abuse Ministry, Dokun Adeliji, who's a guest this morning. Mr. Adeliji, thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for inviting me. Now we hear of the opioid crisis in the United States of America and the recent presidents of how to have a plan or program to tackle it. Can we see Nigeria has hard drugs and banned substances crisis going by what the NDLE has been unveiling in the past few months? The interesting thing is this is something that some of us have been saying for a long time that Nigeria has a drug problem. But we have been very resistant in accepting the reality. We used to conclude ourselves that we are just a transit nation and fortunately or maybe unfortunately in 2013 we virtually agreed that we're a user nation and most unfortunately as I speak we're a manufacturing nation. We have a crisis and I'm glad that everybody is beginning to tune into this fact raised by General Marwa that we need to wake up to this reality and do something about it unless we get consumed by it. So I'd like to ask why is it that we have more Nigerians, a lot of peasants in the business of trafficking? Prior to this time one would think that it should be limited to just a certain gender but it's encompassing and so you have not just a certain gender you have the male and the female and it's getting out of hand. So what's it with the increase participation of Nigerians in drug trafficking? Yes, can I just say to you that this is just a relative increase that you're talking about? It's been there. It does because as a people, as a nation, we are always not willing to face the issue. A characteristic nonchalance is there. If General Marwa had not come to raise the barometer of recognition that we have a problem, no, we'll still be deluded thinking that this is all the only thing to some people. I am telling you even what we're seeing is like a tip of the iceberg. The drug business is lucrative globally and everybody knows it and there is no stopping people from getting involved until we raise an issue of awareness to the point that people begin to realize that it is also of national security proportion. So if we get together on that and work together as a national team, we will get the better of this but I can tell you no matter how much any nation tries, you cannot eradicate it but you can mitigate the effect and then the spread of it across the nation so that we do not destroy our future generation. But just as a follow-up, Kofi, before then, I'd like you to show your thoughts on this, whether or not you believe that it's true because some people are alluding to the fact that the increase or the spread in drug trafficking in Nigeria is born out of the fact that it's a lot of poverty. I mean there's so much people are trying to survive. It's just another means of livelihood for a lot of peasants.  You know my attitude to all this kind of excuses are just we are trying to create an illusion because there's poverty or because there is poverty. I just don't only call it a health poverty and the thing is look, the drug business is lucrative and do not think that those who get involved in it are poor people. The poor people that you see getting involved are just mere moves. They're just carriers. They're just bearers of this thing. Sometimes they know, sometimes they know and they get taken for what they're doing. The drug business is kind of a people that are formidable in terms of power, in terms of money. Look at the judgment that was caught in the VGC. Is that poverty? It's not poverty. But you know we like sometimes to use an umbrella to cover our lack of action or activity in dealing with circumstances. That's my view and I've been in this for a long time so I know and I've seen it. But it's characteristic of Nigeria and to find a reason. We use crutches to stand and then so we deal with it. Oh, not a problem. We are not dealing with poverty. Is there a nation that's going to eradicate poverty? No. The thing is, India is poor. Every nation is poor but do we see the same scale of drug trafficking or use? So we must begin to look at the under guiding circumstances that lead to this and that's the problem with Nigeria. You know when something happens, we just want to deal with it in a punitive manner. We never sit down to understand the dynamics, guiding those processes and how we need to deal with it. I think Nigeria is beginning to wake up a reality that we need to look in a different direction from the way we're looking. I asked you in response to my first question, you said you know what, we do have a drug crisis. Yes, and you said it's been that way for some time now. You run a ministry against drug abuse, a Christ against drug abuse ministry.  I'd like you to please give us a sense of what you've seen is on the ground. We know what the NDLA is doing and we see the statistics but we don't know the details behind. So please give us a sense and an idea of what's really going on around. Okay, let me just say this to you. We have two senses. One is for undergraduates and graduate and people who work. They come there for three months program and we've seen an increase in that direction. That is what do I mean by that? That is where universities, institutions of Ireland send their students instead of speaking to them and getting them out of their education, they send them to us for rehabilitation. We have to do them and then we satisfy them. They go back to school and then they graduate. Let's say out of the 10, let me just give you a statistic.  And then we have another center in there where we see people who have chronic substance abuse disorders. And let me now tell you how this comes. When we want to admit people, we have people across the nation. We go to Abuja, we go to Benin, we go to Podakot and then we do the final one in Lagos. I can tell you the last admissions cycle was just in September. We wanted to take 100 people. We each had well over 700 people. So that is just us. And that is those who are even seeking for treatment. Do you know, can I say this to you that there is no area of Lagos, even in Nigeria, that they don't sell drugs? And I can say this to you without any fear that even today people buy drugs on the go. That is a traffic. If you walk very closely and that's why I'm saying that until we come and sit down and understand and begin to look at substance abuse as a public health issue that needs to be dealt with in that manner. Not in a criminal sense of it and then act in a punitive manner. If we do that, we're going to drive this on the ground and then people are going to continue in it and many homes will be affected without their knowing. Do you know that people can use drugs at home, even at work without their colleagues knowing? That is showing to you the ubiquitousness of substance abuse. So I can take adequately, even from disclosures that General Maher has made, and even from statistics from UNODC that were in a crisis, Nigeria has 14.4% prevalence use against 5.6% globally. That is like triple of global prevalence use rate. So in terms of numbers, that is something about 15 million Nigerians. That was three years ago. Now I can tell you about the approximation to about 25% that is about... This is quite worrying, Dokumandiliji, 14%, almost 15%, and you've given us a very important statistic there, or information, that is an important statistic whether the global average is 5%. You've talked about undergraduates and in my interaction with some people who are in this space, especially psychiatrists and mental health workers, they've also hinted that if you pay visit to the psychiatric department of various hospitals, like teaching hospitals, general hospitals, you would see that the age has been going down and down and down and down. I want to tell me what's the youngest age that you have had to treat? Number one, what's the youngest age that you've had to treat? Number one, number two, what are the kinds of drugs that are being used most? Yeah, you find. And that's number two. Number three, what is responsible for this? Because I saw a report last week that says that the intake into the psychiatric wards are on the increase because of the economic situation. People are trying to cook, so please answer these questions here. The youngest you've seen, the reason and the kind of drugs that are being used. Let me tell you something. In terms of our own facilities, we don't take anybody less than 18 into rehab. The others, less than that, we cancel it. And that's why the advice is so important that we let people know the dangers of substance abuse. But if I tell you in terms of when we go out to the joint, where people sit down to buy this thing that they use, I've seen people of about age eight, nine doing drugs. And you know, because of their availability, we take them into what kind of drugs. Look, let me tell you this morning, it's so difficult to have a complete collage of drugs that people use, but let me go like this. We have social acceptable alcohol. People don't consider it a drug, but it is one of the most dangerous drugs at the legal. The ratio is working on transportation now so that we can reduce the use, figure out, and then you come to illegal use, like cannabis, like Kong, like cocaine, heroin and all the rest. And you know the danger that I won't be emphasizing in this category of illegal, there are now something you call synthetic marijuana, which is what is so common today, something like loud, American loud, Canadian loud, Arizona, Colorado, and what people do in law. Those things are no frank weed in terms of weed of cannabis at Eva. What happens in Arizona? What happens in Colorado and loud in the father? The component of cannabis is just about 10 to 11 percent. The rest of it is made of herbs and chemicals. And that's why you are saying increase in tabernacles because when they use those things, not necessarily consequence upon cannabis, but upon those other constant ones, of the Colorado and Arizona. If you hear people say FK is kong, people think it's weed. It is not hair weed. There's a bit of weed in it, and there's dry leaves of purple, and then there's also cooking in it. And so if you then leave the leg is illegal, and then you then come to pharmaceutical drugs, that is drugs that can be prescribed, prescription drugs, drugs that can be prescribed not before, benefit, medical benefit, but people have found that benefit in using them. Something like codeine, something like tramador. Tramador today is the ring of the movement because let me say this. In hospitals, we use tramador to treat moderate and severe cases of pain, and usually they will never give you more than 50 milligrams or 100 milligrams for a number of days. But the tramador that is told outside that is imported into Nigeria starts from 225 milligrams to 250 milligrams to 500 milligrams. It starts on milligrams, and these are things produced in other countries that come with Nigeria's import.  And fentanyl is one day turns more potent than hair weed. And these are things that are available in Nigeria.  It's so available they call you for treatment in pharmacy that you can get it off the counter. People use it.  How can you categorize petrol? How can you categorize glue, or a boost stick, or a nail polish remover, or peak lacquering? So that's what we call the substance abuse. And then you did, I mean, I can't remember the thought question. I asked the reasons behind... Okay, yes, yes. Okay, the reasons are multiple. At each substance abuse person comes. Some people will say family problems, they're much more than disillusioned. Some will say poverty. Some will say generally availability. And also experimental use and social use, particularly among young people. They want to belong. There's poor self-esteem. They want to be like their friends, peer pressure. So it's so very... Some use it experimental and then they get good on it. And obviously we just want to feel good about it. I did it. Let's quickly look at this as we round it up this morning with the issue of... Let's come back to the issue of trafficking. Okay. We know that there's a punishment. I mean, there are laws that are against trafficking and of course the offence is punishable on conviction with a sentence of live imprisonment when you look at section 11 of the Act. But my question goes, why is drug trafficking still thriving despite the laws that we have against it? I will also say a question to you. Why is armed robbery still prevailing in spite of death penalty? You see, the thing is people look at very face. If I carry this same one, I can make a million dollars. What are the chances that I can be caught?  Let me do it. If I make money, I get it. If I don't make money, they catch me and then I suffer the penalty. And also he allows people to now have a caterer. The next thing I say, how do we break people like marijuana? How do we circumvent all these activities? The best set of different, the pursuit of penetrating every agency that could be involved. And then you don't see business. You know, until, as I said, until we begin to understand what these does to our national psyche and international recognition and how people look at us and also what it does to our national security and so we sit down slightly. We understand all these things. We don't start from the mental issues and then you just want to catch them and punish them. We will be missing the point. Or we want to ban. When you ban, you create a lucrative market for those who are important. Then they increase the price and then they become clad in time and then you can catch them and also encourage general marijuana to do much more. And they say that is it possible that politically we can have the backbone to say have legislation.  Not because we want to punish but little people don't want to do. What do you think those people that are thugs that they carry around to be thugs? What do they feed them on? They feed them on drugs. So they're also not scared. They don't want to do anything. We want that the political ways as long as together with an attempt to do something. We will be lucrative as long as there is money in it. Very interesting. You say that it will be lucrative as long as there is money in it and you are advocating for not just banning and enforcement of the laws but also testing. If you want to seek employment you'll be tested. If you want to run for political office you'll be tested. But looking at the methods I'd like you to tell us very quickly what you think about the idea of the direction the western world is moving in which is on banning marijuana. Seeing it as a recreational drug a medicinal drug and all that and soft peddling on that because of the impact on the communities and saying if there are harder drugs and drugs that do more damage than marijuana and you're not being arrested for that we're going to have to reverse the laws and say you can take marijuana for... Yes. You said that the way that the world is moving and it's moving to precipitate of destruction and I can tell you can I tell you that lately in British Columbia in Canada they have said that no cocaine is a banned drug but you can have a certain number of ounces on you if they find it on you they will not punish you you know if the world begins to suffer the consequences will come and when the... look at what is happening in America a man gets up walks into it who kills people you think it's just because he has metal... where is the metal if you come in from? there are also many actually and also you know that in Ohio and all those states in the western zones of America there's not a lot of peers and you know one thing they found in Colorado they found me and stayed there legalized marijuana nobody will tell you thereafter where they did survey on the patients coming into casualty the fact that was an upstart in the people that were coming in with active psychosis but you see they think the world is running the world is like to be culture we want to be... they can do what they choose but I would suggest as a nation that we be careful the kind of things we do they may be working for them in detrimental here because we have no control over the basic drugs or basic elements even prescription drugs and when you allow those kind of things to come in here and then you begin to justify you can use in the treatment do people know that even if you use of cannabis or cannabinoids in the treatment of infantile epilepsy it is not general the same result is not gotten in every case of infantile epilepsy so we need to be very methodical and careful in approaching these issues and we don't just know the global of people who are the base in their culture and allowing these things these all kinds of things they say have reduction and all the rest it's up to them but for me as a Nigerian I would say we be very careful we cannot forget alright thank you so much Dokoan Daily G one hour will not be enough to exhaust the issues around drug use in Nigeria but I think the thesis of what you said is that we have a drug crisis in the country Dokoan Daily G director general of Christians of Christ against drug abuse ministry in Nigeria thank you so much for your time and please keep up the work that you're doing thank you very much I appreciate it have a good morning


I will just tell you a brief background sign. You heard what we do. We help early stage startups to grow and I've been with sign for the last six years and primary look at incubation related activities. Most of my day is spent in reviewing startup pitches. So I've seen pitches ranging from an idea stage to company looking at scaling up in the US. So it's a journey and it's a learning process and I also learn even now in terms of how to make a pitch, what are the crucial elements which needs to be there. But the foundation is about the customer. What does the customer need and how do we build a product that the customer will eventually buy or pay for. And so if you look at the newspapers, many of the news is in terms of startup funding. And that's what most of the newspapers cover. 30th Unicorn, the second Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency startup, Kuber, it was the 30th Unicorn which got added this year. Prior to that was Lycius, it was the 29th and Guptchamp one of our incubators was I think number 20 odd. So we've seen Unicorns every day, but that's what the newspaper gives us. Startup is all about funding, but more importantly, startup is all about identifying the right product that you need to build. And so very recently I spoke with one of our startups and he was, I was like, are you looking at raising funding? They're like, no, we are raising funds internally. And I asked, what does that mean? No, we are getting funds from our customers. I said, that's the right way of looking forward too. Because the more you kind of grow organically, the less you would need to dilute your company or share the pie to other investors. And the early you do, you share a larger pie because whoever takes a higher risk and typically at an early stage, anybody takes an early risk in investing, they would take a higher reward. So they take a larger piece of the pie. But if the company falls, the pie is no more. So it's very crucial for investors as well as for startups to understand when and what should be involved and how to be communicate. So communication is the key. And before that is research. So with that kind of background, I would quickly take you through a short presentation on lean model canvas. You would help me in building the canvas. I'll quickly introduce what the canvas is. And we will go together and building a canvas for one of the startups, which is very familiar to us. Lean canvas was actually from a modification of the business model canvas. And it was founded by an Indo-American called Ash Maurya. And the sign had the privilege of speaking to him last week. In fact, he had a proposition for our startups in terms of his software or identifying early stage startups, giving them training, etc. So we spoke to him, in fact, last Friday. And so this is the background in terms of the lean canvas. Lean canvas, we feel that it is more suited for early stage startups. Why do you think startups fail? What are the top 20 reasons? There are top 20 reasons identified by CB Insights. But can you just put in chat or tell what are the main number one reason why startups fail? Yeah, we did discuss this. So I think one of the reasons why startups fail is, you know, the product that you are making, there isn't a need or there aren't users in the market present for that. So I think that is one of the reasons why it could fail. Absolutely. There is no market need. You're building a product, but nobody wants to buy it, right? And that is the major reason why startups fail. And that is where and why we need to do our research in terms of finding out what do people need and build a product based on that. And so that's what the lean canvas really helps you. It helps you verify your product or an idea that you're building helps you focus on the customer. And they have something called as a sell before you build methodology. So the actual methodology is called the loop of build, measure and learn, wherein you kind of build a hypothesis, you test your assumptions before actually, you know, building a product. So you build certain experiments and then make something called as a minimum viable product. You must have heard about MVP. One of our, my colleagues, he kind of helped in visualizing what an MVP looks like. So you don't bake the entire cake, but you cut it and show a piece of the cake so that you can see the different layers in it. And probably somebody can test the flavor, et cetera, before it is actually, you know, fully, fully made. But that's, it's complex in terms of different domains that you're in. But the idea is to go out to the market, collect feedback, build a little bit about it, measure it in terms of doing an analysis in terms of doing a customer survey without actually telling what your product is, you kind of get feedback on what are the different features probably you would like to see if I'm making, for example, a smart stethoscope. So you go to a doctor, the startup idea that, in fact, Professor Shakur was telling you guys discussed yesterday from Professor Biravi, they went out into the market. And in fact, the very first product, the prototype or the MVP that they created had headphones like these, right, or the earphones. And immediately the doctor said, you know, that removes our identity. And they said, what do you mean? So they said, the doctors are known by the way we put our stethoscope on our caller. And if they see a headphone, they were like, okay, it doesn't look like a doctor, it looks more like a DJ player than a doctor, right? So they immediately took the feedback and they said, we're not reinventing the stethoscope we would build. In fact, they kind of pivoted their idea of actually building the whole stethoscope to a connector, which can convert the analog to a digital stethoscope. Had they not gone and found this important feedback at the beginning, they would have probably built the stethoscope with the headphone module, and they would have only realized later on that this is not going to sell. That would have been the lack of market, no market need, the very first reason for why startups fail. And now they have built a successful product because they continuously heard the voice of their potential customer, right? And that's the sell before you build methodology. It's a capsule. So that's why I'm going a little fast. And so we will look at the canvas, we'll break it down into nine different small boxes here. That's how the canvas is being built. Usually there is a way of filling the canvas and it always starts with the customer, as we have been seeing in all these sessions. So first is you list down your target customers, right?  And that's your assumption that this person would be your customer. But very often we've seen startups coming and tell us, I remember a startup who showed a globe when you asked about the customer, I said the entire world is our customer. And I was shocked to know that they haven't done that kind of deep drilling down into what their exact customers would look like. And so you need to identify your early adopters. So there is an extra innovation curve which starts from your early adopters to early majority, late majority and the laggards. Basically, when an iPhone was launched first, everybody didn't buy it, right? There were tech enthusiasts who wanted to try something different. They were the early adopters. So these will be your ambassadors for your startup or your product. They will refer it, they will give word of mouth. And that's how it kind of diffuses. That's the innovation diffusion curve. It diffuses and then more people start buying. And I would say I was more of a laggard and when it came to iPhone, it was by the time iPhone 6 got released that I really bought it. By the time iPhone 8 was released. So I was really a laggard in terms of, so multiple people come in at different stages in your product innovation. So identifying your customers, list them down. That would be the first step. Number two, what would be the top customer problems, top three customer problems and list that down and identify which are the existing alternatives for these problems. So we'll just listen to the different building blocks of the canvas here, but we'll take the example of a startup after this. Identify which are the existing alternatives and then how are these problems currently solved today? List that down. And after that, for each problem that you identify, identify which is the revenue streams for the different sources of revenue. Sorry, I would just, in fact, go here. For each problem, you would go identify a solution to each problem. That would be the next step. And then identify what would be the revenue sources for each of these solutions. How much will the potential customer pay for it? Then comes the unique value proposition. So this is the order that, in fact, Ash, the founder has actually mentioned, but you can choose any model which you prefer. Prefer with some people, go with problem solution model. Some people start with customer, but this is the textbook definition of how it should be. But you don't have to do this, but I'm just telling in terms of the building blocks. Identify what your unique value proposition is. Basically the USP of your product. What is that which is very compelling, which your competitor is not offering? And then how do you reach your channels to customers? Meaning, how do you communicate that you exist? For early stage startups, it becomes very difficult. But now, thanks to digital media, there are multiple ways in which you can, in fact, almost at a very minimal cost, you can reach out to customers. There is social media marketing, and digital media, and then influencers, and viral videos, which can really take you up that curve very, very fast. And then identify what are your key metrics. In fact, then different numbers that tell that how your business is doing. If you make an app, it will be a number of downloads, which you had a number of active monthly users who would be using it, a number of hours they're using it, etc. So these are metrics or measures that tells that your business is progressing. And then what would be the cost structures for this? There is fixed and variable cost. And then finally, this is something you can fill in at the last usually, what is the unfair advantage, which cannot be easily copied or built? It could be the IP that you have, or the team that you're building, or the advisory board, or anything which your competitor can't easily copy. It is also called as the MOTE MOAT, which basically means if there is a castle, there is a kind of an embankment around it, which prevents the enemy from attacking easily. And that's why it's called an entry barrier, or unfair advantage, or MOTE. So this is in terms of the lean canvas. These are the different building blocks. And now we will kind of do a short example. So these are the numbers, as I said, based on what Ash Maria had mentioned, it starts with a customer, then problem, etc. So guys, based on your startup that you have, you can either go from a problem solution fit, that is typically what at sign, also we kind of tell startups that you identify a problem, and then work on that, build a solution. But these two should be done in parallel. In fact, you should be building a product that a customer would buy. And that should be the focus. Now, what we'll do is we'll get into an example of Uber. That's pretty simple, and that's with 10 minutes that I have, we can probably build this up. So let's start, and please one of you should help me in filling this canvas. Who would be the target customers for Uber? People who commute from one place to another. Offices or otherwise, I think. Anybody else? People who are not on their own vehicle. Yeah, sure. So let's see. Maybe people in like tier two and three cities, perhaps it's all available everywhere. Sure. So roughly it comes under commuters, office goers, passengers. Anybody else that Uber is targeting as their customer? Tourist. Yeah, sure. Who else uses it? There are two different apps for Uber. One as passenger uses Uber. So it's a different segment. One is a particular segment. This is another segment, the drivers. Now, let's look at the customer problems that these people have. What do you think are the problems that Uber solved for them? Or the problems that was existing before Uber came into existence?  You can pay for something. I'm able to find text to your family. Easy to contact driver. Problems. What were the problems on the solution? I'm able to find text to cities. Sorry. I'm able to find the parking positions in metro cities. Yeah, okay. Parking was one, sure. Pricing. Taxes were expensive. I remember that when I came to sign for my interview, I got pleased by the drivers at Mumbai airport. I had to pay around 1000 rupees from Andheri to Dubai. That was my first time in Mumbai. So there is no control. They just tell a random price and you go ahead with it. Reliable. Reliability. Yeah. Time consumption has reduced. Security. Yeah. Sure. Less risks. Sure. It's more secure. So that's in terms of your customer segment, which is in bold. What about the ones which for the drivers? Navigation. Employment. Yeah, odd time employment and employment. Yeah. Resisted income. Income, yeah. Easier for them to find the customers like they can now find in different areas. Yeah. Drivers also don't need to own a car. They can also operate without them. Yeah. So these are the problems, right? And what were the alternatives which was available? For example, like public transport, right? Or Kalipili, right? There is competition. Yeah. We can probably put Ola and other ride sharing apps. So this is probably when Uber started, okay? And lean model canvases usually built when you're starting your business. It's really to identify whether you're right in terms of your you know, your business plan that you have or should you pivot or should you persevere? It's helping. It's for identifying that. So let's take this probably five years back when Uber started off rather than looking at it now. Yeah. It's for identifying that. So let's take this probably five years back when Uber started off rather than looking at it now. Yeah. I can hear my echo for some reason. Okay. Cool. What is the solution that Uber offered? Some of you already told that it is convenience. So yeah, we're looking at the solution part of the canvas. One in terms of Uber. One was the convenience part of it. Second, it was somebody said it was cheaper. Any other solution that Uber is offering? So this is in terms of the passengers. Now let's see in terms of drivers, what are the different ways in which Uber is helping them? I wouldn't say ownership of private vehicles also be a problem or like a solution in this case and the rise of ownership of private vehicles. Yeah. So at least model right. The reason I'm trying to show this is because there are two set of customers which are different and the problems for each of these is different. So we need to target. So when you do the customer discovery, when you go out and speak to people, you should identify the different. People have also written some options in the chat if you would just take it. Got it. Got it. Navigation, payment options, safety of passengers. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Payment options will come in fact here. All right. And then there is ratings which on both the sides will go there as well as here. You've got the idea, right? Why it is important that you identify two set of customers whose needs are different. Great. And now let's look at the revenues. What are the different revenue sources? It's usually a percentage, fixed percentage of right. If you're running out of time, so I'll just quickly tell. I think it's around 25 percentage or something. And now let's look at the difference. So what is the value proposition that Uber is really giving? That's a single compelling message that states convenience is one major thing. It's one app. What else in chat? Exact time of coming live feedback. Yeah. It's convenience, right? Basically Uber is selling convenience. And then saying it's safe. And then for the driver's part of it, it would be flexibility. And then navigation. So in short, if you say kind of an elevator pitch for Uber, it'll be like, we like taxi, but cheaper, safer and flexible. That's kind of the one line description. And we like one line descriptions. Investors like one line descriptions because it's so much easy for us to understand what you're doing if it is in a capsule of telling what it is. A lot of time students or others, when startups approach us, they keep telling about the technology and we would like wondering, what are they actually building? What is it? They say it's computational fluid dynamics, there's that. And we were wondering, what is that they're building? So it should be in terms of the value offering to the customer that should come out first. And it takes time in building that. And the more and more feedback you get from people around you, that's how you build your kind of elevator pitch. Now, how do you reach your customers? Moving on to the number six on the slide now. What are the channels in which Uber kind of reaches the customer? Yeah, sure. But before they came onto the app, how do you know that they exist? Word of mouth? Perfect, word of mouth. Right, what else? You get paid if you refer a customer, Rs. 125. These are the first initial, almost all e-commerce and apps do that. Initial free rides, I think, which were offered to customers. Yeah, free rides, okay. But it's very difficult for a startup to give anything for free and we tell our startups don't give anything for free. Cool. What else? Now, and now we come to the metrics. How do you know you're doing well? Pretty straightforward rides, number of rides, number, and then user downloads. And since it's an app, there's something called ARPU, average revenue per user, MAU, these are all terminologies, monthly active users, average revenue per user, et cetera. What is the main cost that Uber has here? Purchasing cars. Technology. Uber doesn't purchase cars. Technology. Yeah. So, the bear interface. Yeah, sure. What else? It's fixed cost and variable cost. Yeah, customer care training. Yeah, customer care is important. Salaries. Yeah, that's your variable cost. Sorry, your fixed cost, which is fixed every year. Now, unfair advantage. They have access to data. They have access to drivers and cab applications. And they have some people own fleets, which is entirely dedicated to Uber. Some people are now, Uber has their own set of cabs as well. And now it comes to branding. This is basically in terms of how you build your canvas. Very important to modify the canvas as and when you receive feedback from your customers. So, this is the same set of steps that we use at sign. We ask the elevator pitch. We ask for the team. The problem opportunity. Solution. Current status. You ask for a demo. That's like the MVP to be displayed. The unique value proposition. Competitive landscape. You know, this is how competitive landscape is usually demonstrated. You have different parameters, which is common and unique to you and the different companies, which are your competitors and how you fare vis-a-vis them versus yours. The market segment, market size, channels, revenue model, costs, metrics and validation. You know, all these we discussed in the lean model canvas. It's like a snapshot of your business plan. Interestingly, we stopped using business plans ever since 2015 because that is something which the investors ask you to do and they never read it themselves. And so we started pushing towards breaking it down into small modules or building blocks and making startups to think and write and rewrite the business model canvas over time. And slowly, you know, we started the lean, then slowly moved to the business model canvas, learn insights and then constantly improve. All right. It's 12.25. Okay. Yeah. Questions here, guys? Yeah. Sir, like this is like one of the very, you know, very common things when I invest to ask you, what is that something you're doing separate from what the Ola is doing right now, right? Because that's like one of the factors why he would think of investing. And if like from the point of perspective of what we wrote on the lean canvas, it was very much common that the problem statement and the USP that we have been selling or the Uber and Ola has been selling. So in that situation, how would you, you know, how would you differentiate these two things and how would you take a hold on that at that stage? I won't like just because this is an example that you have been telling that's why I just came up with this. Sure. Right. So one is you see how big the market is and how many players can can be there, right? And then, you know, it's constant improvement over time. And then looking at the taxi aggregator market at the point in time, it was pretty huge and it was anybody's game. We need deep pockets to kind of be there. And it is getting a point wherein there will be aggregation within the aggregator market itself, right? So why is Flipkart getting fun? I mean, sorry, Flipkart was being acquired by Walmart, but there was already Amazon and all these players. People want to consolidate and investors want to take a bet wherein, you know, there'll be one person standing and they will get their exit from other customers, other investors probably would buy out from one startup. So that's a different mindset altogether in terms of aggregators coming back to the tech startups unless you have and since if and for tech startup, you mostly play in a niche game, right? But the market is also less. So we're moving out for a market which is wide and open to tech startups wherein you provide solutions for a distinct set of customers who are needing a particular solution. There if you have multiple players, the pie itself is small and you are seeing that multiple players are coming into it. And if you are a MeToo player there and for a startup which doesn't have a deep pocket, that could be detrimental if you don't do your customer analysis or your competitor analysis to identify that the market is growing at probably let's say a single digit per year. And these are my customers. So these are my competitors doing exactly similar to what I'm doing. If I am not at the top of my game, either I would be an acquisition target. I hope I would be an acquisition target. If not, you know, I will lose our customers and it'll be like a red ocean. It's called a red ocean where you kind of are in a segment where competitors are actually at each other. And so that is not a right segment to enter. And that's why it's very important to kind of understand early itself, whether you should persevere or prevent, otherwise you would perish in the market. That's why we keep telling people to go out and meet and speak to people. For a tech startup, it's very important to kind of differentiate that at the beginning itself. Yes, Riya. So my question was that when we are planning the lean model canvas, or we are presenting it to potential investors, let's say we want to also discuss our further expansion and scope of the startup. So what should we do that at this stage or should we wait? Because since you also mentioned that a lean model canvas is a right fit for earlier startups, young startups. So let's say if you want to mention our expansion and scope, how should we go about it? It depends on who you're asking your money from and what stage. If you're at the stage wherein you kind of tell that I'm building my product, expansion is still in the air, right? You're just not sure, especially if it is medical devices or depending on the domain, there is a lot of de-risking which needs to be done, regulatory is one, or if it is any certification which is required, or a crucial part of the product development which needs to be developed before you kind of reach that. So you kind of break down your journey into different milestones. And you tell investors very frankly that I am looking at this particular stage, I am looking at funds to go from A to B. But my vision, you should always sell your vision to the investor. My vision is to build this product and if it is built, and I'm sure to be built because I have a strong team. I'm from IT Hydroverse. I've got people in my team with complementary skill sets, business, tech, etc. who are taking the same risk with me. And there are oftentimes when you tell people that I left my job in Accenture or whatever because I want to pursue this because I'm so much convinced that this is going to work. So you sell your vision to the investor in early stage and you decide how much you need. Don't quote that you need a crore or a 5 crore at the beginning itself. They would see if you're a realistic entrepreneur or not because they've seen multiple entrepreneurs and many times, I think let's say 8 out of 10, they bet on the team, the founder than on the technology itself. So to answer your question, whether you need to show the expansion plan itself, but break down your entire plan, small chunks and tell that this is what I'm going to achieve through this and these are the following. This is my vision. So sell that to the investor. Thank you. I also got another question while you were answering it. So you just said we already have a sum in our mind when we're pitching for investment. So do we show them our entire budget or should we show them our entire financial plan and then say, out of this, this is the percentage we would like to pitch for investment from you all? Yeah, so there are different ways of doing it. One is that in your milestone, you break it down. If it is product development, so much IP is this much. Some of these are parallel, some are sequential. Parallel activities, you need to be sure that you would be achieving that at the end of six months. List down those parallel activities until that it's like a stage gate model. This is a stage, there is a gate that needs to be opened and moved to the next stage. Put it down and tell it to the investor over a period of six months, this is what I'm looking at. This is the short-term vision, but my long-term plan for a period of 18 months, it needs 5CR and this is how fall-on funding would come through. These are my advisors who is helping me. This is the incubator which is incubating me, this is my alma mater, this is my professor. All these would give more confidence to the investor. Obviously, it's a conversation. Not any investor is not going to put in money in the right beginning itself. There's something called a due diligence process. It's a long process of it takes a minimum of two months to kind of do, so yeah.


In other cultures, all of them are dismissed as angels. But here, different quality beings have been identified as different types. You call for a particular being for a particular kind of benefit so that you have an advantage of achieving things much more than you would do by your normal strength and capabilities. In this tradition, we have various kinds of beings. They are all particularly identified according to their quality. We have humans and of course, the animal nature and all those things that you can see and around you. Those beings that you cannot see, there are some which we call as both a brother category. There are other beings that we call as yakshas. There are other kinds of beings that we call as gandharvas and there are devas. So based on this, there are three gods. There are monkey gods, there are elephant gods, there is fruit god, there's vegetable god, there's flower god. So everything there is a god. Is this all figment of imagination? No, it is. Everything is happening because of certain forces. They identified these forces and personified them and created a method as to how to find excess to them. So these yakshas were processes through which you can find excess to certain forces in the existence so that you have an advantage of achieving things much more than you would do by your normal strength and capabilities. The word yaksna has been translated as sacrifice. So you… the English word sacrifice you would always understand as giving up something for something else or giving up something for nothing. That's a sacrifice, okay? Giving up something for something else is commerce. Giving up something for nothing is sacrifice. So yaksna need not necessarily mean a sacrifice. Probably yaksna is a combination of an offering, an oblation and a sacrifice. It's a mixture of all these three things. A ritual through which you can please certain forces in the existence. In other cultures, generally they have not been properly identified and classified. All of them are dismissed as angels. But here different quality beings have been identified as different types and accordingly you call for a particular being for a particular kind of benefit. There is a whole process and science behind it. Even today people are using these yagas and yaksnas. Generally for a lot of them it may not work because it's not being properly conducted the way it should be. But for many people it does work. There are many, many people who are hugely benefited by these things. People do achieve what they want to do in the material world by using yagas and yaksnas in a certain way. Even though it doesn't matter how educated they are and how much elaboration they talk about, even today ninety-five percent of the Indians if they want to enter a new home they will do yagas and yaksnas before they get in. Only here at Visha we don't do anything because we are a different breed. If you are in a certain level of consciousness and energy everything that you do is a yagna. You don't have to do a separate ritual. The very way you live is a yagna. So yagnas are of different kinds. Yagna means a certain means to access a dimension which is right now not in your excess. One is a ritualistic yagna that you perform something an expert in the field comes and does something for you through which you receive some benefit or you have made your very life process into your yagna.  This is an internal yagna without the sense of offering. You will never know the essence of that practice. If you make this a process it's a very powerful yagna through which things happen in the world. Not just for yourself, things will happen around you beautifully. We have been saying constantly if one percent of the world can become meditative the remaining ninety-nine percent will just pass very easily because if one percent of the world really begins to function every moment of their life, their very life processes yagna if they become like this, the ninety-nine percent will reap the benefit without doing anything about it. One person plants a mango tree, hundred people can eat it. One person cannot eat what comes out of one tree. It takes hundred people to eat it. So similarly if you have made your life process itself into a yagna if you've made your life process itself into an offering then thousands of people can eat out of it.  They just cook, they serve, they never thought about themselves. What about me? Never came to them. You see they are sage-like by themselves. My mother was a living example like this.  That's all. Never we heard her telling us, I love you but such a question never arose whether she loves me or not never arose in our minds because the very way she lives is in complete sacrifice for everybody around us and nobody ever uttered anything about it but in many ways she was a goddess by herself. Everybody treated her as such. If she has to eat her morning breakfast everybody in the family would have eaten then she will take a part of her breakfast and go to the backyard. She will look for ant hills, you know? Ness of ants and she will feed all the ants first and then only she will eat. In today's mind people may think feeding ants what nonsense? Spray insecticide isn't it? If it came into the house, if it her bitter children, she also did that but somewhere in her mind she felt the ants have as much right to live on this planet as she had and just that little offering everything is a sacrifice, everything is a yagna.