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Nicholas Haralambous

Nic a mobile entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Motribe, a mobile platform for publishing on the web. He has previously worked at Vodacom in the social media division launching a mobile alternative reality game, Legends of Echo as well as location based social network, The Grid. He has also worked at the Mail&Guardian as the head of the mobile division.

• Some business lessons from Cirque du Soleil

  I recently went to see DRALION by Cirque du Soleil -- presented by T-Systems. It was one of the most visually stimulating things that I have witnessed in recent years. In fact it was an all-round sensory experience not to be missed. That's not why I'm writing this blog post. Sitting there listening to and watching the show, I was taken by how perfect of an experience the show was and started to wonder what startups could learn from it. Here are ...

• Entrepreneur diaries: Don’t be ashamed of building a sustainable business

  Editor’s Note: Nicholas Haralambous was the co-founder of mobile social network builder Motribe, which was recently acquired by Mxit for an undisclosed sum. The company was started two years ago with Vincent Maher and was invested in by local venture capital company 4Di Capital. He also recently started an environmentally friendly online sock shop. This is the third post in the series: "things I learned building a mobile startup in Africa". In the era of tech startups, raising a billion dollars ...

• Entrepreneur diaries: trying to get funds can be a distraction

  Editor’s Note: Nicholas Haralambous was the co-founder of mobile social network builder Motribe, which was recently acquired by Mxit for an undisclosed sum. The company was started two years ago with Vincent Maher and was invested in by local venture capital company 4Di Capital. He also recently started an environmentally friendly online sock shop. This is the second post in the series: "things I learned building a mobile startup in Africa". There are few things that you should focus on when building ...

• Entrepreneur diaries: lessons I learnt from building a mobile startup in Africa

  Editor's Note: Nicholas Haralambous was the co-founder of mobile social network builder Motribe, which was recently acquired by Mxit for an undisclosed sum. The company was started two years ago with Vincent Maher and was invested in by local venture capital company 4Di Capital. He also just started an environmentally friendly online sock shop. I have learned a lot in the past two years. Many of the lessons haven’t really even sunk in yet but I thought that I should start ...

• Y Combinator: Investors should back the jockey not the horse

  Y Combinator, a leading seed investment incubator, recently announced that it would be accepting startup applications for this years fund from startup founders WITHOUT an idea. Here's how the incubator describes itself on its website: Y Combinator does seed funding for startups. Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays your expenses while you're getting started. Some companies may need no more than seed funding. Others will go through several rounds. There is no right answer. How ...

• The hows and the whats — 5 tough questions VCs ask

  Over the past six months I have spoken with a wide variety of people who have shown, in varying degrees, interest in investing in my company. Many of these VCs have specific ways that they conduct a call, interview or meeting. Many of them have lead me down long and wasteful due diligence processes, many have been kind, some have been blunt and harsh but all have been pedantic and specific about the types of questions they ask. I have found ...

• 8 Reasons hiring at a technology startup is tough

  I like to define a startup in a way that goes something like this: A startup in my world is a young company in a new, fast growing and evolving industry that could swing, change or be disrupted very quickly. The reason that it's relevant for me to lay out how I define a startup is because this definition is extremely important when considering hiring a team. It is often not as simple as hiring the best person for the job. ...