Photos: Osinbajo meets with Bill Gates Group, to partner on technological solutions in Agriculture And Health

Press statement from the office of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo...

The Buhari administration is interested in using technology to fast track the country’s growth and development, according to Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN Speaking yesterday while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Government and Global Good Fund co-founded by US billionaire, Bill Gates, the Vice President said the administration “is interested in the idea of using technology because it is the way forward for those interested in rapid growth in the next decade”.

He noted that the President has said that this administration is committed to a bottom-up approach and technology is a tool that can help make the difference.

Warren Buffett Tells You How to Turn $40 Into $10 Million

Warren Buffett is perhaps the greatest investor of all time, and he has a simple solution that could help an individual turn $40 into $10 million.
A few years ago, Berkshire Hathaway CEO and Chairman Warren Buffett spoke about one of his favorite companies, Coca-Cola, and how after dividends, stock splits, and patient reinvestment, someone who bought just $40 worth of the company's stock when it went public in 1919 would now have more than $5 million.

Shark Tank Just Revealed a Trillion-Dollar Idea

Dear Opportunistic Investor,
We all know a brilliant idea when we see one.
That's what makes ABC's Shark Tank so appealing.

Hopeful inventors and entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to millionaire investors like Mark Cuban.
Some of these inventors and investors become wildly rich from these ideas. Which is great. But you may be wondering: "How do I get in on the action? How can I invest in the next-generation of great ideas?"
Lucky for you, now you can.

5 Things Millionaires Do That Most People Don't

My lifelong dream is to create more millionaire students than any other stock trading teacher out there. I’m lucky enough to have reached the seven-figure mark myself, and now, I’m dedicated to sharing everything I’ve learned - including the stock trading patterns that work in any market - with the students in my Millionaire Challenge.
But one thing I realized pretty early on was that, if I wanted to teach people to be millionaires, I had to study people who had already reached this level of wealth. I had to learn what they did differently so that I could help my students to not just hit this magic number, but to retain the money they earn and build generational wealth.
And today, I’m sharing a few of the things I’ve learned with you. I hope they help - no matter what financial stage you’re currently in.

Business tycoons: My 'aha' moment

Richard Branson: Serial entrepreneur, investor, founder of Virgin Group.

After setting up the first Virgin record shop in London, we scraped together some money and bought a rundown country house and converted the squash court into a recording studio called the Manor.
One day, an engineer from the Manor rang me and said he'd heard this incredible instrumental demo tape by a teenager called Mike Oldfield. He played every instrument himself. His expression came out in the music. He was an absolute genius.

Top 20 colleges with most billionaire alumni

University of Pennsylvania tops the list of colleges with the most billionaires as undergraduate alumni, according to a Wealth-X and UBS report.

In perhaps the most prestigious college ranking, a new report lists colleges with most global billionaire grads.

According to Wealth-X and UBS's "Billionaire Census," the University of Pennsylvania tops the list of 20 schools with the highest number of billionaire alumni.

The rest of the list reads like a laundry list of Ivy League and prestigious U.S. universities.
Some schools beyond the ivory tower made the cut: University of Mumbai and Moscow State University.
Schools that are tied were ranked by Wealth-X in terms of which has the wealthiest billionaires.
One surprising fact: 35% of billionaires didn't graduate from college.
Take a look to see which schools have the most super rich alums.

Jay Z invests in 'Uber for private jets':

• 
  
  Jetsmarter is an app built by 27-year-old entrepreneur Sergey Petrossev 
• New funding will go to expanding routes and buying up more flights
• Members pay $9,000 (£5,797) a year to get access to private flights

Chartering a private jet, it turns out, isn't as glamorous as it sounds.

You have to fill out what seems like an endless amount paperwork and be in constant touch with brokers – a hassle the mega-rich could do without.

Now a Jay Z-funded app, set to become the Uber for planes, has made the chore that little bit easier for the one per cent.

Scroll down for video 

10 Small Scale Business Ideas For Women

While there are untapped business opportunities in every industry, this article will be pointing out the fastest growing business opportunities for any woman. If you are a lady wishing to start a business; then you will find this list of fastest growing business opportunities very useful. The first step to starting a small business is to adequately prepare yourself. You may think this is not important but it can be the thin line between success and failure. Running a business is tough but highly rewarding. I will suggest you read the article below to further understand the need to prepare yourself....read below

8 WAYS TO ENTICE CUSTOMERS TO PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BUYING FROM YOU – BUYER CLUB

Do you have ways to entice customers to pay for the privilege of buying from you?

The "normal" way of buying

You know how things work when you go to the store.  You enter the store (both bricks and mortar and also "e-commerce" stores).  You walk around looking at what is for sale.  You see things that you want to buy and you put them in your cart.  You pull out your list and then gather the items that you need to buy.  Perhaps you comparison shop between different items.  You browse the sale items. Then you go to the check out register.  Your items are scanned and then you pay for them and leave the store.
But what if you needed to buy the privilege of buying from you?  What is you needed to previously purchase a "participation" card who's only value was the ability to check and buy from that store?  Wow…what would you think of that?

Do you have a membership option for your customers?  A buyers club?

Well, that time is here.  It has been for many years and there have been many different iterations of this type of program.  Some have been "buyers clubs" where you could purchase big-ticket items for wholesale + a few percent. Others were "wholesale clubs" such as Costco and Sam's Clubs, where you could buy items in bulk at much lower prices than in regular retail stores.  "Photo" clubs where you could get a better price on purchasing of your photo prints.  These are just a few of the different types of programs where customers purchase the privilege of buying from you.
In some cases, joining the club is free.  In others, it costs you real money to join.  Which do you think holds more value to the customer?  You bet…it's the one where they buy the privilege.  When you pay for something, you place a greater value upon it.

HOW TO FIND SMALL BUSINESS GRANTS FOR YOUR STARTUP

There are different ways to gain that, including saving up beforehand or opting for a business loan. However, both of these can be problematic and have their own downsides. Small business grants are available, and there are different types available. But how do you find them? Where do you even start looking for them?

9 Free Business Productivity Tools For Startups

Starting a business can be a daunting endeavor, especially if all you have is a cool product and not enough capital. In the tech world, or in any other niche for that matter, most startuppers fail not because they have bad products but because they are unable to generate enough consumer interest in their products.  Considering overheads and other back-office expenses, this scenario doesn’t come as a surprise. So if you’re still starting out and find yourself strapped for much needed funding to keep your startup afloat, the following free business productivity tools are worth checking out.

Aliko Dangote Reveals He’s Planning To Make A Bid For Arsenal Soon

Nigeria and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed he will soon be making a bid to buy Arsenal.
Dangote has previously been rumored to have interest in the Premier League side, and in an interview with the BBC, confirmed his interest.
“When we get this refinery on track, I will have enough time and enough resources to pay what they are asking for,” he said in the interview.
Dangote, who is worth a reported £11.5 billion, revealed he had almost purchased part of the club in 2011 when Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith had sold a 15.9% stake in the club, eventually purchased by now majority owner, Stan Kroenke.
“There were a couple of us who were rushing to buy, and we thought with the prices then, the people who were interested in selling were trying to go for a kill,” Dangote added.
“We backtracked, because we were very busy doing other things, especially our industrialisation.”
Dangote also said that Arsenal, who he had been supporting since the ’80s, could be more successful with a change in leadership.
“They are doing well, but they need another strategic direction. They need more direction than the current situation, where they just develop players and sell them.”

Richard Branson’s Favourite Quotes on Dreams

Richard Branson, is an English businessman and investor. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies.

Today, I want to share his favourite quotes on dreams which he published on Virgin’s blog. He explained that Virgin is a story of big dreams. He admonished us to all dream, and also encourage others to do so too (just like I’m doing now), as dreaming is one of humanity’s greatest gifts. On that note, here are Richard Branson’s top 10 quotes on dreams…

15 Tips On How Successful People Think

The world's most successful people have one thing in common: they think differently from everyone else.
This is how John C. Maxwell introduces his New York Times bestseller, How Successful People Think (he's also written a ton of leadership books, which have sold around 19 million copies worldwide).
Because we also believe that smart thinking will change your life, we picked up a copy from Barnes & Noble. Here are the best takeaways.

Thinking is a discipline. If you want to be better at it, you've got to work at it

U.S. Army via Flickr

Consider developing a thinking schedule like Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, who sets aside a half day every two weeks, a whole day every month, and two or three full days every year.
Source: How Successful People Think

The Billionaire Founder Of GoPro Just Paid His Old College Roommate $229 Million Based On A Promise 10 Years Ago

Getty Image

Being rich is whatever. Cool? Sure. But being rich with the people you love and care the most about? That’s the American Dream right there. That’s why every Bro has to love this tale of a Bro with a vision making his college roommate very, very rich based off a promise made 10 years ago.
Nick Woodman is the self-made billionaire founder and CEO of GoPro. Business Insider reports he was named the highest-paid CEO in America, being compensated with 4.5 million restricted stock units worth $284.5 million. According to Business Insider, Woodman’s total net-worth is much, much more, worth an estimated $2.3 billion since GoPro went public in June 2014.
Earlier this week, Woodman returned 4.7 million shares to GoPro so that his college roommate, Neil Dana, could cash in to the tune of $229 million. Via Bloomberg:

Chinese businessman pays $2.35 million to eat lunch with Warren Buffett

A Chinese multimillionaire businessman has agreed to pay $2,345,678 for a private lunch with one of the world's richest men, Warren Buffett. He won the charity auction to have dinner with the billionaire investor. The money will benefit the Glide Foundation (a nonprofit in San Francisco that provides food, health care, rehabilitation and other services to the poor and homeless)



According to Reuters, Glide said the man, Zhu Ye, chairman of Beijing-based Dalian Zeus Entertainment Co, submitted the highest of 76 bids to win the five-day auction on eBay, which concluded on Friday night. His bid was well below the $3,456,789 winning bid in 2012, still a record for an eBay charity auction, but will help Glide meet its $16 million annual budget. The 16 auctions have raised about $20.2 million.

Why the founder of Victoria’s Secret threw himself off a bridge

 

The Victoria’s Secret show costs more than $10 million to put on and is hailed as one of the most important fashion shows in the world.  What is not so known about the company is the tragic story of its founder, Roy Raymond.  Raymond started the company after being influenced by a shopping trip he’d just taken with his wife.
The saddest part about Raymond’s life is that he killed himself after not being able to participate fully in the potential of his company.   Raymond opened the first Victoria’s Secret shop in Northern California in 1977.  They named the company after the Victorian period during which their home was built.
“Our original idea was to have a store where men felt comfortable shopping for lingerie. It all began when Roy went shopping for me, and felt out of place in a lingerie store. Victoria’s Secret tried to change that,” says Gaye, Roy’s wife.   Gaye is now a 65-year old professor at Samuel Merritt University.
The couple had five shops by 1982, and then made the horrible mistake of selling the company for $5 million to Leslie Wexner, founder of The Limited.

Akon Launches Solar Academy That Will Supply Electricity to 600,000,000 People in Africa

 

When he’s not singing or producing music, Akon is busy providing sustainable living options to people in African countries. The Senegalese-American singer’s initiative, appropriately called Akon Lighting Africa, aims to supply electricity to 600 million people in Africa who lack it with the launch of the Solar Academy.

Located in Bamako, Mali, the Solar Academy will help African engineers and entrepreneurs develop skills that will enable them to produce solar power. Experts will be on hand to help the participants with training and equipment, according to a Reuters report.

According to Akon Lighting Africa, the goal of the academy is to teach people how to maintain solar-powered electricity systems and microgrids. Both systems have been growing quickly in rural parts of Africa. In a continent that has 320 days of sun a year, roping in its natural resources will be valuable to the solar-energy efforts.

“We have the sun and innovative technologies to bring electricity to homes and communities. We now need to consolidate African expertise,” said Samba Baithily, who founded Akon Lighting Africa with Akon and Thione Niang.

The organization also hopes to create jobs with its initiative.

“We expect the Africans who graduate from this center to devise new, innovative, technical solutions,” said Niang. “With this academy, we can capitalize on Akon Lighting Africa and go further.”

Jessica Alba graces cover of Forbes as her business is valued at $1b

Actress and business woman, Jessica Alba graced the cover of Forbes magazine in its issue titled America's Richest Self-Made Women as her business 'The Honest Company' was valued at $1 billion and her personal fortune reaches $200 million.

Jessica started The Honest Company in 2008 when she was engaged to her now Husband Cash Warren and expecting their first child. Her mom advised her to wash the baby clothes she received as gifts for her baby shower with a detergent which she didn't know she was allergic to. She broke out when she used the detergent and decided to create a brand of detergent that was eco-friendly and non Toxic.

The sky has been her limit since then.

Gloo.ng launches Gloo for business- a dedicated site for businesses

Nigeria’s 21st Century Supermarket,Gloo.ng, has just launched a dedicated web portal for businesses. Businesses can now buy products specially selected from the Gloo.ng Retail website at massive discounts. 

The Gloo For Business product selection is specifically relevant to having a welcoming, clean, professional and classy workplace - a minimum requirement for every serious business interested in maintaining an ambience required to retain customers whilst promoting employee productivity.

 The shopping experience brings a seamless way of purchasing these workplace supplies to the finger tips of your procurement function, in a manner that your financial control function can electronically manage and at the same time providing your audit function with a transparent digital trail of all costs incurred in this area--which until Gloo For Business was typically shrouded for most businesses. Visit Gloo For Business to learn more.

Virgin StartUp of the week: Twicely

Every day we’re bowled over by the innovation of the UK’s startups. One such startup is Twicely. Founders Helen Walker and Adam Walker recognised that selling your stuff online can be a bit of a hassle – so they decided to make it simple. You send your premium pre-loved clothes to them, they’re sold for a percentage of the original price, and you get money in return. Easy. Twicely are supported by our delivery partners BBV. Let’s find out more

We choose one Virgin StartUp company to be featured on Virginstartup.org each week. We ask our startups of the week to deliver the ultimate elevator pitch. What would they say if they had one minute in a lift with Sir Richard Branson? Please answer the questions below, keeping each answer to five sentences max. 

Nigerian business Hotels.ng raises $1.2m from international investors

Hotels.ng - a Nigerian startup business that books hotels for people online - is in the news because it has raised an investment of $1.2m from eBay founder - Pierre Omidyar - and EchoVC - a Venture Capital Company based in Nigeria that does early stage investments for Nigerian technology companies...

6 Entrepreneurs You Should Learn From Now

Everyone has a different reason for being an entrepreneur, and every entrepreneur is different. However, the underlying entrepreneurial DNA that holds us all together is consistent: We have a healthy appetite for risk, we can solve problems, we thrive in uncertainty, we overcome all types of adversity, we think outside the box, we inspire masses and we believe in our dreams. We see the world in a unique way, and will stop at nothing to shape the world.
I’m pro entrepreneur. I think everyone who has ever thought about being an entrepreneur should at least give it a shot. I love learning from other entrepreneurs, hearing their successes and failures.
Related: 13 Online Marketing Blogs You Should be Reading (Infographic)
Here’s a short list of some of my favorite entrepreneurs to learn from and where to read their insights:

The Best Business Advice You'll Ever Get

Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you have to go it alone. Most successful business owners will tell you they could not have accomplished their goals without help--from a mentor, colleague, even mom and dad. For many, their ability to evaluate, internalize and act on the counsel they received was instrumental in getting their companies off the ground.
In an effort to tap some of this wisdom, we called on business gurus to tell us the very best piece of advice they've received. From hiring to philanthropy and more, their responses were as varied as the companies they run.

Dennis Crowley, CEO, Foursquare

Photo © Ewan Burns

"Do what you love, and the rest will come."

After co-founding two businesses, reportedly turning down a $125 million acquisition offer and being named to just about every "40 under 40" list imaginable, Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, still cites the advice his mother gave him repeatedly as a child: to follow his heart.
This was the mantra he adhered to when he decided to get his master's degree at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program instead of going for an MBA. It was also behind his launch of social networking companies Dodgeball (which he sold to Google in 2005) and Foursquare, and his decision this past May to launch Swarm, an app that will unbundle the check-ins and other social media functions from Foursquare. (Foursquare will focus on helping users discover restaurants and other venues.)
"When I look back at my career to this point, I've spent the last 10 to 15 years following the same narrative, building things that people want to use and want to tell their friends about," he says, adding that he decided to spin off Swarm because, "over time, we realized that if we were passionate about these use cases, we needed to unbundle Foursquare into two apps."
He often thinks back to his mom's advice. "All of these [concepts] started as me working in my apartment building on something I thought would be cool," he says. "All are projects that turned into products that turned into companies."

Why Google CEO Larry Page personally reviews every candidate the company hires

At the start of 2015, Google had 53,600 full-time employees around the world, compared to 47,800 Googlers a year before. Not even counting replacements, that means it hired about 6,000 new people in just one year.
Cofounder and CEO Larry Page approved each of them, according to Google HR boss Laszlo Bock, who writes about Google's hiring process in new book "Work Rules!."
Page told Wired in a 2011 interview that he developed a formal approval system because while he hates bureaucracy, he wants the company he cofounded with Sergey Brin in 1998 to feel true to his vision as it grows exponentially.
"It helps me to know what's really going on," he told Wired.
Bock explains in the book that Google's hiring process is organized to avoid placing too much importance on any single judgment call. Rather than having only the opinion of a hiring manager or two, Google candidates must be screened by several hiring managers, their potential boss, their potential colleagues, a hiring committee, a senior leader, and finally Page.

Young Nigerian Business Owners Meet to Promote Entrepreneurship and Innovations

Over 1000 carefully selected entrepreneurs made up of young business owners residing in Nigeria and in the Diaspora will be meeting at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja from 3rd - 4th of August, 2015 for the debut of the highly anticipated Young Nigerians CEO’s Conference and Exhibition 2015.

How to Draw Your Boss’s Attention

Whether it’s your first job or your fourth, or you’ve been working for this company for many years, you may want to boost your career and get a promotion. Working too hard is great but it won’t help you get promoted fast. Most bosses don’t notice a hard work so you should be smart enough to draw your boss’s attention to your ideas and projects. Don’t run to an extreme, though. You don’t want to be too insistent and clingy. Here are some of the best tricks that you can use to draw your boss’s attention and boost your career.

7 Times When You Should Consider Quitting Your Job

Quitting a job is never a good idea, but there are a few times when you might want to consider leaving your job. You might love your job, or your coworkers, or even your boss, as I did, but if you are unhappy at work, there’s something that you should start changing right now. Life is too short to spend it doing things you don’t like and work for a boss who doesn’t respect you. Many people are afraid to quit their jobs and they usually end up going home each day feeling unhappy. Check out 7 times when you should consider quitting your job.

6 Ways Your Friends Sabotage Your Dreams

Friends make our lives easier and happier yet they can stop us from reaching our goals and making our dreams come true. They might do it unintentionally or they simply want to be better than you. If you feel as though one of your friends is trying to make your life miserable, it’s crucial to find out who wants you to give up your dreams. Once you know, limit the usual communication or end your friendship for good. It’s not a selfish decision. You live your life once so don’t let anyone prevent you from being successful, independent and happy. Here’s how your friends may sabotage your dreams.

Ghanaian millionaire quits Microsoft to build university that Educates young Africans

At a time when quite a number of Africans queue up at the embassies of foreign countries, with the hope of being granted visas into countries with ‘better living conditions’, a rare few like Patrick Awuah are sacrificing that to make a difference by returning home.

In 2001, after living in America for almost two decades, Patrick Awuah returned to Ghana, leaving his job at Microsoft, where he earned millions as program manager to set up Ashesi University in Accra, to educate young Africans. “If the current leadership core was educated a certain way, if they were problem solvers, if they had deep compassion for society, we would be in a different place,” he thought. Hence, Ashesi University is known for its innovative curriculum, high tech facilities, and strong emphasis on leadership. The University stirs a new path in African education.
In his TED Global talk in 2007, Patrick Awuah explains his call to educate Africa’s future leaders, and why he believes this is very important.
At the age of 16 in Ghana, Patrick Awuah had his first memorable experience of leadership. At the airport to meet his father, he is stopped by two soldiers wielding AK-47 assault weapons. “They asked me to join a crowd of people that were running up and down this embankment. Why? Because the path I had taken was considered out of bounds. No sign to this effect,” he noted.

The Man (Nigerian) Who Bought London’s second largest international airport

Up until February 2010, very few people had heard about Adebayo Ogunlesi. The Nigerian-born investment banker and money manager made international headlines when he led the acquisition of London’s Gatwick Airport from the British Airports Authority in a recorded £1.51 billion deal.

Adebayo Ogunlesi is the chairman and managing partner of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a New York-based independent private equity fund focused primarily on infrastructural investments, with over $5.6 billion under management.

The acquisition instantly propelled Ogunlesi, 58, into the global spotlight and earned him a place in history as the man who acquired London’s second largest international airport.
The purchase of Gatwick Airport may have grabbed all the headlines, but GIP has some other noteworthy assets in its portfolio including a 75% stake in London City Airport, and Biffa Limited, a UK based waste management company.

Made In Africa: Three Cars Designed And Manufactured In Africa

According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to remain one of the fastest growing regions in the world. While Africa’s economy is soaring past most regions with an annual growth of about 5% due mainly to increased agriculture production, infrastructure investment including transportation, ports and energy as well as buoyant services led by tourism, telecommunications and financial services, the continent’s middle class is expected to swell to approximately 300 million people. Additionally, the World Bank projects private consumption in the region to remain strong in 2015-17; particularly with the continent’s burgeoning middle class looking to splurge on new passenger vehicles and for most, their first such purchase. Last year, Africa was projected to see sales of new 2 million cars with major auto players such as Toyota, Tata Motors and General Motors looking at the continent for growth opportunities. According to Zawya, there are approximately 21.6 million passenger vehicles operating in Africa; making the continent’s nearly 1.2 billion population a very attractive prospect for global automobile manufacturers to penetrate. Not to be left out of the lucrative market, African entrepreneurs are now entering the automobile industry; designing and developing vehicles specifically geared for the local market and local consumers but with global aspirations.

Four Nigerian teenage girls create urine-fueled generator in Lagos

Here’s some news from Africa that will be of interest to all of the people waiting in line for gas to use in their generators after Hurricane Sandy.
Four teenage girls figured out a way to use a liter of urine as fuel to get six hours of electricity from their generator. Fourteen-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola displayed their invention this week at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, an annual event meant to showcase ingenuity.
Here’s how the urine-powered generator works, as explained by the blog on the makerfaireafrica.com website:
• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, and then into a gas cylinder, which looks similar to the kind used for outdoor barbecue grills.
• The gas cylinder pushes the filtered hydrogen into another cylinder that contains liquid borax, in order to remove moisture from the gas. Borax is a natural mineral, commonly used in laundry detergent.
• The hydrogen is pushed into a power generator in the final step of the process.
A big drawback is that hydrogen poses an explosion risk. But the girls used one-way valves throughout the device as a safety measure.

Nigerian brothers build mobile Web Browser out of 'boredom'

Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime, 13 and 15 years old respectively, are students of Greensprings school, Anthony Campus, Lagos, and they developed an Android based web browser called Crocodile Browser Lite sometime last year.

As a matter of fact, these teenagers’ creation is actually on the Google Play Store. Speaking to TechCabal.com, Osine, 13, said he writes the code together with his brother, for their creations and his brother also designs the UI.

At a closer look, these genius brothers are just like every other teenage boy but not quite at the same time. Osine likes to play soccer, but also takes coding as a hobby – which is not something every 13 year old boy does.

His interest in computers began at the tender age of 7, the same age which he and his brother –who was 9 at the time (born June 1, 1999), decided to start a company of their own. Inspired by Microsoft’s “Windows” platform, they initially named their new company ‘Doors’, but later changed the name to ‘BluDoors’ when they found out that the initial name had been taken.

The two brothers decided to learn to code at ages 12 and 14 respectively. “I learnt to code by myself. I started in 2013, I used sites sites like Code Academy, Code Avengers and books like ‘Android for Game Development’ and ‘Games for Dummies’,” said Anesi.

Apple Inc. Buys Nigerian Born Chinedu Echeruo’s Hopstop.com For $1 Billion

Apple has acquired Chinedu Echeruo’s HopStop.com, The Wall Street Journal’s publication, AllThingsDigital reports. Founded in 2005, HopStop.com makes mobile applications for both iOS and Android that covers over 300 cities and that helps people get directions or find nearby subway stations and bus stops. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed as at the time of this publication.

Chinedu Echeruo, formerly an analyst at investment banks and hedge funds founded HopStop in 2005. Echeruo is now Chairman of the Board for HopStop.

HopStop has oft been compared to Israel’s Waze which was recently acquired by Google for $1 billion. The move is seen as Apple’s plan to bolster its map offering especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze.

A serial entrepreneur, Chinedu Echeruo grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos. He attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States and founded HopStop.com after working for several years in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, Financing and Private Equity transactions.
 He also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million volatility-driven convertible bond arbitrage hedge fund.

Young CEO’s Business Summit To Hold In Ghana, Open For Participation!

The Young CEO’S Business Summit is designed for pioneering CEOs, venture Capitalists, and established emerging Global Business Leaders who aspire to conduct their businesses in tandem with global best practices.

These CEOs focus more on creating value for all of their stakeholders and then fulfill deeper purpose of their organization which is giving back to society and making it better than they met it, if you are a CEO under 45 and want your business and services to be seen and heard, if you value the power of networking and look forward to connecting with vibrant business community, investment partners, venture capitalists then you must make attending YCBS African Convention Accra 2015 a priority.

Working Endless Hours Does Not Make You a Hero (Infographic)

In the U.S., people tend to brag about working long hours. Clocking countless hours at the office is worn as a badge of honor, brandied about at the water cooler to garner respect.
Turns out, working endless hours may be nothing more than a waste of time.
Germany is among the countries with the shortest workweeks, with employees averaging 35 hours a week at the office, but it also tops out as the most productive nation in the world, according to the infographic embedded below, generated by cloud-based software company PGi.
The marginal benefit of each hour worked on a country’s gross domestic product declines pretty steadily as the number of hours increase, according to the infographic.
How many hours are you working a week? Could you be spending your time more wisely? How many hours are your employees working per week? Do they need to be working that many hours?
Check out the infographic below for additional data on global productivity and some tips on how to maximize your efficiency.

Non-Disclosures Can Protect Your business Idea, or Destroy It ...learn how

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Professional investors and advisors, on the other hand, usually refuse to sign these agreements today due to the risk of litigation and administrative workload, and will walk away. How can you make this a win-win opportunity?
First of all, I will admit that there is some risk involved with talking to any potential investors, even with an agreement, just as there is risk in all the elements of your plan, product and market opportunity. Yet I can assure you that people who are paranoid, or want to avoid all risks, won’t be happy as entrepreneurs, so it’s all about balancing the risk-reward scale.
Related: Your Ideas Have No Value
Thus, based on my experience as an entrepreneur as well as a startup investor, there are indeed situations where a non-disclosure is highly recommended, and others where the potential good far outweighs the risk. Here are the key considerations from my perspective:

10 Inspiring Quotes from Women Tech Leaders

Men have long dominated the technology industry, but the growing number of women entrepreneurs and business leaders can't be ignored. The most notable recent example is Marissa Mayer, Google's first female engineer who was appointed president and CEO of Yahoo Inc.
Here's a look at other women who may not be as well known as Mayer but are making their mark in the tech industry, as well as their inspiring words for other business owners:

Staying ahead of competitors

Sometimes when you come up with a creative new solution to a nagging problem, competitors quickly follow your lead and eat up your market share. That's what happened after Leah Busque founded TaskRabbit in 2008, an online marketplace where users post a task they need completed and it is assigned to the “TaskRabbit” who makes the lowest bid.
A former software engineer at IBM, Busque keeps her company agile by making frequent product changes, seeking out expert advisors and nurturing company culture. Since May 2011, TaskRabbit has tripled its net revenue and the number of tasks posted per month. It has also increased its user base sevenfold, while its staff has grown from seven a year ago to nearly 50 today.
Busque expects more marketplace expansion in 2012, as she works to fulfill her vision to "revolutionize the world's labor force."

Being an entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you have to go it alone. Most successful business owners will tell you they could not have accomplished their goals without help--from a mentor, colleague, even mom and dad. For many, their ability to evaluate, internalize and act on the counsel they received was instrumental in getting their companies off the ground.
In an effort to tap some of this wisdom, we called on business gurus to tell us the very best piece of advice they've received. From hiring to philanthropy and more, their responses were as varied as the companies they run.

Results for: establishing an advisory board

• Building my advisory board: drafting my dream team
  Find yourself hearing about advisory boards, but unsure you need one? Uncover the what, why, when and how behind advisory boards in this crash course.

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  Planning for Long-Term Advisory Needs
  Steps to successfully transitioning from the Futurpreneur Canada mentoring partnership to long-term advisory support.

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  Accelerating the success of smart businesses
  Finding the right mentor can be critical in accelerating your business from launch to future success.
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  Boards produce huge benefits for entrepreneurs
  Experienced advisors with complementary skills are vital elements of an effective board.

How Linda Ikeji Broke the Internet, Blog Now Worth N1.1 Billion

Linda Ikeji

She’s nothing like one of those popular Biblical characters; not even a man to start with but scattered like pieces of jigsaw puzzles all around the life of this former Nigerian model turned Blogger, are empirical evidences that draw the mind into the story of the man called David – Once looked down upon, not given much of a chance, picked on by the darkest force imaginable by mankind and just like this man, Linda Ikeji could see everything she had worked for in her life slipping through her fingers and at the point where the final ray of light was about to fade into oblivion, she bounced back, created a blog, posted a story, two, three, four… expanded her frontiers and today, we can officially tell you that Linda Ikeji has broken the internet by officially becoming Nigeria’s number one news/gossip content website after overtaking the almighty ‘Nairaland;’ a website that had remained Nigeria’s number one website for a stretch of years.

Investors are suing billionaire Ira Rennert for looting his own company to build a $110 million mansio

Ira Rennert, the hermetic billionaire who made his fortune raiding companies through junk bonds, is now being sued for funneling money from a mining business to build his 110,000-square-foot Hamptons mansion.
Crains' Aaron Elstein reported that Rennert was in federal court on Tuesday to face the defunct Magnesium Corporation of America's creditors, who claim he siphoned off $100 million from the ailing company.
Renco Group, Rennert's holding company, acquired MagCorp back in 1989 and began issuing millions of dollars worth of bonds. But rather than being invested in the magnesium company, that money went directly to Renco Group, and, allegedly, into Rennert's pocket.
The allegations get messier after that: Rennert then built a new company that bought up land – 63 acres, to be exact – for his gargantuan Hamptons home (dubbed Fairfield, it's thought to be one of the largest mansions in America). Shortly afterward, the magnesium market began to crumble and MagCorp filed for bankruptcy.
Creditors are now seeking $118 million, plus interest. Get ready for an entertaining trial

Dustin Moskovitz, The Second-Youngest Billionaire In America, Discusses What It Feels Like To Be Filthy Rich

Getty/Araya DiazDustin Moskovitz, 30, is the second-youngest billionaire in the US, according to Forbes.

This week, Forbes released its annual Forbes 400 list, revealing the 400 wealthiest people in the US.
At age 30, Dustin Moskovitz is the second-youngest billionaire in America, after 24-year-old Snapchat cofounder Evan Spiegel. Moskovitz, a cofounder of Facebook and the current CEO of the organization app Asana, has an estimated net worth of $8 billion, according to the publication.

5 ways to make money online

How to Make Money Online

Five Methods:Quick Ways to Make Money OnlineMake Money through Online MarketingMake Money through Online ContentMake Money through Online SalesPointers when Working Online

Although the global market has not yet reached “Jetson” caliber with people flying to the office in compact spaceships, it has evolved to allow workers to never have leave the comfort of their own computer. Below you’ll find a variety of ways to make money online as well as general advice for anyone who wants to succeed in the online world.

Method 1 of 5: Quick Ways to Make Money Online

1. 
   1
   Flip domain names. Domain names are valuable internet real estate and some people actually make a nice living off of buying and selling them. One strategy is to use Google Adwords to find keywords that are trending and use that information to buy domain names that you think may soon be in demand. However, since short, snappy, or straightforward domain names have already been mostly snatched up, you can also get lucky buying domain names that are random acronyms, as you never know when a person or company with those exact initials will decide to set up a website. (CPC.com, for example, sold for over $200,000 when Contract Pharmaceutical Corporation decided to go online.^[1] Not bad for three letters.) For more advice, read How to Buy a Cheap Domain Name.
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