What I Learned Failing My First Startup in Lagos

Two years ago, I shut down Lokari — a hyperlocal delivery app we spent 18 months building. We raised ₦12m and still failed.

Lesson 1: The infrastructure problem

We built a beautiful product assuming our logistics partners would be reliable. They were not. The last-mile problem in Lagos is not a product problem — it is a roads, traffic, and trust problem.

Lesson 2: Unit economics from day one

If your unit economics don't work at 100 users, they rarely fix themselves at 10,000.

Lesson 3: Knowing when to quit

I held on four months longer than I should have. I am building again. Differently this time.