Bastian and I were heading on our way to the Konga offices in Yaba. It wasn’t a frequent thing, we had only been there a handful of times. We were trying to figure out how to buy billboards across Lagos as it was proving a challenge, so we needed some guidance from Sim and his marketing team. We used to do this a lot. It’s interesting how unsure of ourselves we were then. Not outwardly, of course. We were IROKO. We were crushing it. But that was to the media. Internally and collectively the general feeling was. We have money. Now WTF do we do? So whenever we had a problem at IROKO, we just reached out to Sim and Shola at Konga. Because those guys had all the answers right?

Back to billboards. The problem was a weird one. A supply issue. There was simply so little inventory around and any that was left just seemed so damn expensive. We were running billboard campaigns in London as part of our annual marketing budget of $600–700k/year. Decent. But for Lagos, it appeared insufficient based on the prices the media agencies were quoting. Our investors were pushing us to deploy capital more aggressively in a big marketing campaign to jumpstart growth of IROKOtv in Nigeria. We thought we were almost there product-wise, but the costs were just crazy. It literally made no sense. Before we got to the Konga offices, one of the media buyers called to let us know that Jumia was about to tie up every billboard in Nigeria so we had better decide that evening. Not tomorrow morning. That evening. Take it or leave it, he was no longer negotiating any bulk discounts. The price was the price. When we got to the office and met Sim, midway through introductions I just dropped that in. His eyes widened. There and then, he paused the greeting. I can’t recall who he called but 2–3 guys bound into the room. ‘Guys, we can’t be run out of our own town. Get me 30 billboards before the end of the day’, before Jumia gets everything locked down. I looked at Bastian, he looked at me. I turned to Sim. ‘Dude, that could’ve been a rumour. That media buyer could’ve just been trying to force me to close’. Sim looked at me. Or it could’ve been the truth. Thanks Jason, thanks for the intel. I can’t let those guys run us out of town.’ We really need to win. He smiled that Sim smile and started walking us through the marketing plans we should consider.

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On Tuesday in Accra, Mrs Njoku and I paid 50 GHS ($9.3) each for a cinema ticket. I was actually annoyed. I have paid this before mind you, but not on a random Tuesday night where there was no more than 15 people in the entire 6:20pm screening for a movie. It kinda just seemed absurd and completely divorced from reality. But it got me thinking. Why do cinema ticket prices in West Africa feel completely detached from the economic reality (GDP per capita) of most people? Furthermore, is this the reason why cinema culture hasn’t caught fire like it has in most parts of the world? Because in my mind, at these prices for cinema, I struggle to see how this becomes a mass adoption media across Africa. But what do I know?

Read the full article and all my other musings on Entertainment, technology, online sports betting and entrepreneurship in Africa here [Sub $]

“Beating the competition is relatively easy. But beating yourself is a never ending commitment” . — Phil Knight. Shoe Dog

Before reading this you should (if you haven’t already) read Ironman, Emotions & Losing 25.4kg. It’s my last update of my fitness journey.

As you can see above, exactly a year I could barely run 5km without stopping a couple of times, even at super slow pace. I thought I had done a lot at that point to lose ~14Kg but it wasn’t enough. Running was difficult for me. Fast forward a year later I have completed

Cape Town Olympic Triathlon (1.5km swim / 40km bike ride / 10km run) — February 2019

Lusaka Half Marathon (21.1km)- May 2019

Paris Olympic Triathlon (1.5km swim / 40km bike ride / 10km run)- June 2019

London Olympic Triathlon (1.5km swim / 40km bike ride / 10km run)- July 2019

Accra Half Marathon (21.1km)- September 2019

Ironman 70.3 Turkey (1.9km swim / 90km bike ride / 21.1km run)- November 2019

Ironman 70.3 South Africa (1.9km swim / 90km bike ride / 21.1km run)- January 2020.

On 3rd November 2019, I completed my first Ironman 70.3 (1.9km swim / 90km bike ride / 21.1km run) in <6 hrs — my original target. Inasmuch that a week after completion I was still in great pain, I was, and continue to be, also completely overwhelmed with the sense of personal achievement. Purely personal. This is easily one of the biggest personal achievements in my life. To go from struggling to run 5km to conjuring the input required has been (at least for me) somewhere close to superhuman. The discipline and bloody minded dedication required has surprised me and everyone around me. It has taken 18 months of consistent input of training and diet control (I have now lost 34kg — only ~2kg away from my original weight target of 100kg). I have sacrificed most of my mornings in 2019 and proved to myself I am capable of achieving most things I really put my mind to. At the same time, 2019 was a super high energy, high emotional time for IROKO and the other companies I am involved with. But these feats (at least for me) of body definitely pushed my self esteem to an all time high.

Ironman 70.3 Turkey

It's a strange thing, linear achievement. In the startup world, where everything is super experimental and you don’t really know what is going to work and what isn’t, only in hindsight can one describe the success or failure of a particular course of action. When things work they don’t go from A to B. In the startup world they go from A to X). To the moon like we all hope and like to say, yet with something like weight loss, it’s literally input=output (although I believe there is some voodoo science in there too). It’s a daily calorie counting grind. There are no real short cuts and the odds are stacked against you (at least for me it felt the case). Success is literally measured inch by inch. It hurt most of the time, but all of that aside, in Turkey what was most satisfying was that my training kicked in when I needed it to. All the training and preparation just overtook my natural self and I relaxed into autopilot. I enjoyed it.

When I landed with the clan in Antayla, Turkey (2hr flight out of Istanbul) it was our first experience of Turkey (which is a fantastic country btw). The people were welcoming, the infrastructure was first world and the Land of Legends where we stayed was a dream for the kids. We didn’t have a nanny with us (getting a visa with a Nigerian passport remains a nightmare) so it was Mrs Njoku and I doing all the work (I loved it, Mrs Njoku less so as she wanted to rest). It happened to be half term so we had the Monday through Thursday to test the rides and generally lean back with the kids. By that Thursday, the Iron men+women started to arrive. Immediately, I started getting super nervous. They all looked like straight up elite athletes. Mrs Njoku, who was with me at the earlier Cape Town and Paris Triathlons, commented that these participants looked ‘different’. They looked more stern and serious. This, in a weird way, shook me to my core. I furiously searched about the psychology of pre race nerves

“What are you doing?”
“You’re not ready for this.”
“My God, look at the size of him/her — you’re out of your depth.”

Endurance events are largely about managing pain and discomfort. It's about executing a plan that includes nutrition input and performance pain through three very different disciplines (swimming, cycling and running). All unique in their own ways. All requiring different techniques and trainings, but combined over a gruelling 6–7 hrs. For me it was weirdly fun.

Ironman 70.3 — Buffalo City South Africa

If Turkey was fun, South Africa on 26th Jan was absolutely brutal. In Turkey everything was ideal for fast racing conditions. The seas were calm, the riding was flat (without any real cross winds) and the run super flat too. In South Africa everything was the opposite. The winds were on the extreme side of things (apparently this is normal for East London, SA). The waters were so choppy that every time I breathed side to side I was almost choked with salty sea water. In the end I couldn’t actually swim freestyle anymore. In order to sight and swim I ended up swimming the impossibly slow breaststroke which ensured I completed but this was my worst swim time in any open water swimming event. Ever. If that wasn’t bad enough, the ride was a complete nightmare. South Africa was essentially 20+ individual hills, a 500m climb over 40 kms. I have never come across anything like it my riding life. The cross winds were straight up scary. Never in my life did I need to grind out anything like this, physically. Not even close. In training I completed 400m climbs over 5km. But 500m over 40km was just mean.

The run conditions were cool at the start but very windy (along the oceanfront) later in the day. It was flat for 90% of the course until they threw a steep 40m hill climb into the mix. No idea why. I felt in much better shape in SA than Turkey but ended up taking an additional hour to complete vs Turkey. I will definitely be much more strategic in choosing my Half Ironman races in the future.

It was tough. But I still completed it. Which means I am tougher. I enjoyed the race. The organisation was amazing and the crowd support was phenomenal. People lined the streets cheering us on and more importantly as one of <20 black folks competing, this felt an extra layer of support amongst the fellow participants and the crowds when we passed. That was super fun.

I feel I have a long way to go in my Half Ironman journey. My ultimate goal is to train to an intensity where I can complete any Half Ironman anywhere in the world in 5hrs. I am far from that, definitely. I think I need to adjust my weight down further; say another minus 12kg to 90kg, and really crank it on my bike and run as I would need to complete 90km in <2 hrs 30 mins and Half Marathon (21.1km) in <1hr 30 mins to stand a chance of hitting that target. I will push myself to a new extreme in 2020 in order to get close.

The picture below is me. Or what used to be me. Incidentally, Obi weighs exactly 34kg. Maybe he took it.

This has had a dramatic rebalancing of how I approach everything in life — in business, in startups. To train to this intensity you need to make hard commitments of your time. In order to even be in the game, I had to readjust my entire work balance. Before I would sleep in the early hours. Those days are gone. These days I am in bed and asleep usually before 10pm and up by 5am and out training before 6am. In recent times, I have been on many rapid multi-city level same week tours. 3–5 cities in a single week are not uncommon. People used to ask how I managed. Easy. Right now I am, at core, super healthy. In fact my resting heart rate is 49–50 and my VOMax is 49. With a fitness age of 20. Wonderful.

This has been super helpful in war-readying myself for the startup struggles ahead. I rarely make any big decisions at night or before a workout. I feel I get my best clarity, or thinking, on a long run or cycle. I hope this lifestyle change is something I can continue for the next 20 years. But starting in 2020, things will be hard. I just need to be harder. I need an Iron core.

Before you continue, and if you care enough, I strongly suggest you read| irokotv at 4 | irokotv at 5 | irokotv at 6 | irokotv at 7

1st DECEMBER is IROKOtv’s birthday. So it's been another year. But what a crazy year. If 2018 was sombre and reflective. 2019 has been everything but that. It's been drama all the way. We did the biggest deal in our lives (and probably Nigeria media land) exiting ROK to Canal+. You know I still miss that business. Firstly Mrs Njoku and I worked completely in sync for so many years, it was pretty difficult to untangle things. People who I used to speak to on a weekly basis for many years? We barely speak at all now. A lot of my travel activities over the last 5 years were driven by ROK-related work, she was the growth engine of IROKO whilst we waited out the SVOD winter. And what a winter it was. Iflix exited Africa, Kwese/Econet collapsed into administration and just this week, CELL C the #3 telco in SA, is closing its VOD service BLACK after spending R1B ($68m) in 2 years. The great hope for Internet TV hasn’t quite been extinguished, but that burning flame of opportunity, which made so many media folks spend $1B over the last 5 years, has definitely gone out. Yet, miraculously, IROKOtv remains there. Kindling. Waiting. Biding our time. 8 years is a long ass time to do anything. But to survive has been straight up timing everything to perfection. And only in hindsight. It wasn’t corporate planning or big idea strategy. It was feeling the market and moving faster than anyone else in a direction that, tactically, we can outperform anyone in. And we usually got it wrong the first time. But in the spirit of experimentation, we just kept on plugging away. Iroking - we got it wrong. ROK is the perfect example of how we got it right, as it was the single reason we ultimately survived the SVOD nuclear winter. She overshadowed IROKOtv completely. Now IROKOtv is back to center stage. Back to the core of the company. It’s weirdly refreshing. It's like we are falling in love all over again. And it's time to grow. Below you can see the last 3+ years of IROKOtv subs’ numbers. At some point, we stopped growing. We needed to raise capital to keep investing for growth, we tried for all of 2018, but that exercise ultimately ended in failure. So H1 2019 ushered in the dramatic and overly emotional exit of ROK. But we exited. With resources to push growth forward

If 2018 was filled with despair, 2019 was an emotional breakup with the freedom to think of a glorious future. We returned $5m to shareholders in a special dividend (thanks again ROK). We adjusted the cap table with me spending 60% of my personal dividends to increase my shareholding in IROKO. Q3 was a bit of nightmare which I can’t really go into, but Q4 has been about dreaming of the future. We are now in product mode. We are now thinking of the future and looking to grapple with the big structural problems we need to overcome to be super successful. I think at core we are going to reposition again. The streaming wars are here and we are simply going to sidestep that. ShowMax just started sports streaming. We see our value in the very global IROKO brand, the product and engineering core of the organisation, our ability and willingness to be bold and extremely experimental.

1. We are focused on increasing Annual ARPU for IROKOtv in Africa to $20–25. (we want to get close to GOtv’s ~$30/year). Today it stands at ~$7.77
2. We are focused on Free cash flow positivity (this requires tightening of costs — in October in order to build up the NY engineering team, we had to downsize the London team from 20+ to ~7 or so people).
3. We are focused on 500,000+ paying customers (subscription and other services) in 2020 as we shoot for our 2021 IPO.
4. We are focused on generating $9–10m in 2020 revenue.
5. We are focused on a $120–150m IPO on the LSE AIM in H1 2021.

That’s it. Anything outside of that isn’t even remotely in my frame of reference.

Super Entertainment App.

We have the brand, we have the customers, we have the product sense. We have a world class engineering team. Our approach is to figure out a suite of products or services of interest to our subscribers and create new relationships with them. Some know this phenomenon of “Super Apps”. We are in the entertainment game. We are following the Chinese & South East Asian approach and building into and out of our existing product base services we think our users will love. With no-one willing to fund our losses and FCF positivity in mind, we aim to fund growth from customers. I love the example of Tencent Music Entertainment.

So with that in mind over the next few weeks (and months) we are introducing a slew of new bolt on features to help drive our 3 core KPIs. Some will fail, others will work. Today we start with

1. International Content pack

We have acquired 3,826 episodes of Bollywood, Telenovelas, Kids, Turkish and Korean series. Not films. Series. We are attempting to create and increase engagement with our audiences and series easily drive that. Today ~70% of our subscribers use the service monthly. We really need that to be 90% so 2020 content strategy is also about retention. 5 years ago we tried and failed with Hollywood/International content (always experimenting). As you can see, mass market audiences cannot really afford or are willing to pay the prices for Hollywood content. So we acquired content that can be priced at their comfort levels. We still expect this need time to grow into a big business for us but super excited to see where this ends up. This launches at some point in the next week or so but definitely before Christmas.

2. IROKO ShoutOuts.

Shoutouts is a little new, a little out there and something I am super nervous about. We are all about connecting Nollywood with audiences around the globe. There are very few services that I have come across which establishes a direct and emotional connection with fans in this way. You can literally make someone’s year by getting their favourite Nollywood star to give them a personalised shoutout. For birthdays, for work promotions, for weddings, for graduation, for anything really. It's definitely not an original idea but I don’t think it has been applied to for Africans and to bonafide real world celebrities, as we are doing. We are launching IROKO Shoutouts with some of the biggest stars of Nollywood, who have a cumulative social media following of 100m+ fans. For N50,000 ($150) fans will receive a personalised 60s shoutout. I have no idea whether this will work. But what I do know is if it blows? Well. Hold onto your hats! In my bones, this feels like a game changer for IROKO.

With the resources now at hand and serious focus across the organisation, I feel very upbeat about what we can do in 2020. It’s been a tough 8 years. But it’s just fantastic to know that our organisation is actually tougher.

As always. We end with thanking God. We thank Mrs Njoku & Kids. We thank the executive team and employees. We thank our investors. We continue to build this thing called IROKOtv. May her days be long. Because she has somehow managed to survive this long.

Impose ta chance, serre ton bonheur et va vers ton risque. A te regarder, ils s’habitueront — René Char

Create your luck, seize your good fortune and embrace risk: they’ll get used to you.

Last week, our beloved colleague, Emmanuel Opemiposi Mesoran was laid to rest — a highly valued friend, colleague and member of the entire IROKO family. Rest in Peace.

And finally…

I believe these articles provide actionable insights for African startups. I like to think (and believe) it helps folks grow shareholder value in their own careers and organisations. Folks tell me there is a direct impact on their moral and revenue growth for startup building in Nigeria. And they can sometimes be a little entertaining too. From 2020 I am going to put up a paywall around my articles. Nothing too expensive but just a heads up… Remember take it easy this December. School fees are due in January.

In simple terms, I have dedicated my life to solving problems and building value on my own terms. Always on my own terms. It doesn’t make people fall in love with me, and in fact most people recoil at my blunt force (I would say merely direct) approach to everything. I try to bring extreme energy and honesty to everything I do. I’m not here for the love. I am here to win and make sure I can pay school fees. On 30th August 2011, the day the first $3m landed in our IROKO account from Tiger Global, I signed myself up for something else. As a newly minted venture backed business, I now had to create shareholder value. That ‘win’ needed an IRR attached to it. I had a number to hit. Anyone who follows me on Twitter (Ironman 70.3 training) knows what I do with numbers. I obsess and try to crush them. That IRR number responsibility I take very very seriously. Even when shareholders discourage me, I still push forward to do what is their best interest. At least when I believe it is the case. Example. ROK.

Most of my board at the time were against building out ROK.

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Nollywood is all drama. This is pretty dramatic as it can get I think in startup world. In September 2016 we had just completed a gruelling 4 month due diligence process and we were due to sign our biggest pure cash fundraise yet. We had other interested parties but this investor, this deal, was the deal to shake the world (at least our little world). This was the deal of deals. Then it didn’t happen. Just like that. They pulled the term sheet. Naira devaluation spooked the investor and our dreams turned to ashes. From that moment onwards, and up until the ROK acquisition, IROKOtv has been in a near constant death dance to stay ahead of her likely demise. I have said too many times — this Market is BRUTAL and only the toughest have a mild chance of surviving. Just this week in SVOD news…

Iflix: the ‘emerging market Netflix’ limps towards an anti-climactic IPO

The Netflix-like service for emerging markets has — fittingly for a platform for drama — had a rollercoaster ride in the past 18 months. Its African business sold. Layoffs. And now, it’s rushing to IPO before the year ends.

A former employee described the African business’ traction among consumers as “pitiful,”.

Early last year, when we went out to raise capital for IROKOtv (we spoke to EVERYONE but ultimately failed) the African money mens’ bets were with Kwese & Iflix. Maybe they turn it around… Econet Media / Kwese won’t get that chance as they shut down last weekend with $150m in debt.

It’s easier to tell these stories now that we have more money in our bank

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So last week IROKO announced the successful sale of her incubated media assets ‘ROK Group’ (‘ROK Studios’, ‘ROK1–3 on DStv/GOtv’ and ‘ROK on SKY’). IROKOtv remains intact. Still with a mission. Bring affordable, paid content to the world. Whereas I can’t disclose the number due to sensibilities in France for Vivendi Canal Plus, it was, at least to my knowledge, easily the largest media transaction / deal in West Africa history and possibly Africa (outside of SA). Mrs Njoku didn’t sell her shares, Vivendi Canal Plus acquired IROKO Ltd shares in the ROK Group, so she retains her stake. This is a fantastic exit and considering ROK was only 6-years old and required <$1m equity and debt $1.4m (Bank of Industry Loans) it was a big exit. Incidentally, as a result, Mrs Njoku now earns more than me and is almost worth more than me. I need to crack on to accelerate forward. Man must be man.

So what happens now? Make no mistake, ROK has been the reason IROKOtv has been able to survive over the last 3 years. From being incubated within IROKOtv to generating >75% of 2018 revenue in short order, the cashflow and very positive EBITDA has enabled us to grow our subscription base x3 in that period, whilst just about staying afloat. Just about. But those days are behind us. Enough of the cash from the sale will be retained in IROKO, so in theory ,we don’t actually need to raise further financing anytime soon. We may not raise money at all again before we exit.

Hi Growth, welcome back. It's been a while.

We intend to continue to focus our efforts on subscriber growth as the only KPI which really matters.

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It’s been a constant, scary nagging quest for me for the last year. What appears like a simple question, actually isn’t. As I have asked questions from the community, I have found it increasingly difficult to get a solid and acceptable answer. The most common response I get is, I believe it will happen. I usually tilt my head and ask ‘Why?’, ‘Why do you believe it will happen if it hasn’t happened already?’. I know Nigerians have the unique ability to suspend reality and believe, it literally explains the state of Nigeria, rather than focus on fundamental fixes for the problems of today (let’s not get started for tomorrow’s). We just wait for God to take control because Nigeria has wealth (it doesn’t) and we are God's chosen people (evidence points to the opposite. We are truly forsaken). I thought the tech community was different. I thought it was more introspective, more scientific, more honest. 10 years ago, if you had asked me whether I thought things were going to be this hard, in one simple word; Ineverexperredit*

Even though I don’t want to admit it, I guess I would be considered an old head when it comes to VC-backed startups in Nigeria. I feel that if we Hunkus and Hantys are not evaluating how far we have come, what that means for the youts by not sharing our stories, then we are part of the problem that makes Nigeria seem like a secret society. So in that vein. Ladies and gentlemen. We have a liquidity problem.

As I read listicles screaming ‘Africa’s hottest startups who have raised at least $5m in 2018' or ‘Momentum for Angel investors’ and feel a new flush of enthusiasm, I remind myself that similar articles were everywhere when my class [2009–2013] of entrepreneurs was starting out.

The year 2018 has been on a high note for the African startup ecosystem with the increase in the number of VC’s, angels, corporates, accelerators, funds, and incubators interested in the African startup space.

27 startups have raised more than US$5 million in venture funding totalling US$572.2 million. In addition, funding activities in the continent are still concentrated majorly across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa with Egypt startup scene also rising up. read the full article

AND

Although there are no African companies in the Fortune 500, there are currently over 400 African companies with annual revenues exceeding $1B. African companies grow faster and with more profits than their global peers and 2018 saw the 30th African startup venture join the $5M Investment Club of ventures on the continent that have raised over $5 million in funding. Read the full article

Jumia, isn’t it?

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It scares Mrs. Njoku, yet it comes very naturally to me. She calls me an extremist. She is terrified of my lack of moderation. I am either 100% uninterested or 1,000% consumed by it. There is very little room in the middle. This mirrors my emotions. I swing from absolute highs to crushing lows. On balance I consider myself a pessimist. My wife thinks I am emotionally unbalanced.

I wouldn’t consider myself a body conscious person. In fact I always used to joke to Mrs. Njoku that I didn’t need to focus on health or looks. That my ‘journey [love] was over’. So for years she pleaded with me to try and get healthy. My mum manages with diabetes so she was concerned I too would get it. I readily acknowledged this but basically ignored her. But that changed in 2017, during her tough pregnancy, where she was essentially house bound for 5 months. We were forced to stay in London and ended up moving to Blackheath, which is 15 mins from where I grew up as a child. Blackheath/Greenwich is beautiful. Wide open spaces, green everywhere and and has a very “old money” health conscious vibe. I wanted to lease a RR Vogue but she implored me to buy a bike and start exercising instead. I finally listened. I loved it. That was almost exactly 2 years ago.

There are three stages of my weight loss journey.

1. Wasted 2017.
2. Pre Cape Town Triathlon. 2018 + Jan/Feb 2019
3. Post Cape Town Triathlon — March 2019 onwards

Wasted 2017

There is a saying that you can’t “out exercise” a bad diet. My 2017 is a perfect example of that. 2017 was a complete failure. Over the entire year I lost 3.2kg (I can drop that in a month now). Purely due to my bad eating habits, I was literally stagnant on the weight loss chart (above). I had changed but not my lifestyle. Eating anything at anytime. I am a consummate cake connoisseur and proud of it. So even though I was exercising 3–4 times a week. I hadn’t really made a lifestyle change.

Pre Cape Town Triathlon. 2018 + Jan/Feb 2019

14th Jan 2018 → 10 Feb 2019. In January 2018, I decided I wanted to do Triathlons. They are hard. You usually need to dedicate 10–12hours of training per week just to start. But I had decided. Before I was 40 (11/12/20) I wanted to complete an Ironman 70.3. That's a 1.9km open water swim, 90km bike ride and 21.1km run. All in less than 6hrs. That was the big scary goal. I enjoyed cycling, I loved swimming but couldn’t run at all. I needed something to rally my energy and dedication towards it. I needed a target. I saw Cape Town 2019 as the obvious start and felt 13 months should be enough time for me to prepare. I knew I could complete the swimming and cycling distances but was really concerned about running. See, I had ran a Half Marathon in 2004 and had gotten something called shin splints which stopped me running for 14 years. Weighing 130 kg+ wasn’t a good place to start. So I focused on swimming and cycling and weight loss until I lost at least 10 kg, before I started running. That was in November 2018, before I kicked off my run training. Which only left me 3.5 months. For my 38th birthday, I bought myself a triathlon bike, one of the best Triathlon bikes I could find. A beast.

I remember when I told people I was doing triathlons. Most black folks told me it sounded like something rich middle aged folks did.

I found my first Triathlon brutal. Brutal, brutal, brutal. Physically and emotionally. I felt I was well prepared. Perhaps not the best I could have been. But still ready enough. Weighing 119 kg I knew was a problem. I just learned the hard way how much of a problem it was. Although it was my first race, the swim was a complete shock to me. The start was frantic and furious. I was kicked in the face, the chest, the back. I swam over people, into people and under people. People swam into, over and under me. It was crazy. I was almost disqualified for not following the swim course route. Nothing I had done had prepared me for this. In fact the day before was the first time I had actually swam in open water. I found the bike ride pretty humiliating. I saw folks gliding pass me effortlessly. It wasn’t the equipment, my gear was tier 1. It was me. Literally. I knew carrying weight on a bike was a disadvantage but as I trained alone I really didn’t have a concept of this in reality. Even though I completed 40 km in 1 hr 13 mins 13s, which was a great time for me and comfortably my personal best. I felt I could or should have been faster. I knew I had to lose weight. I made a commitment to myself. That I wouldn’t even ride the bike until I had lost 10kg. I also made a commitment right there and then I would be between 100–105 kg for my next Triathlon. So even with that, the most difficult thing for me was the run. 10km. I had only managed 7km maximum distance prior to that. So I knew this was going to hurt. And boy did it. I walked. I jogged. I walked some more. But I completed it. But it hurt. I was so sad. And again I made a commitment to myself that I would never feel like this again. I would become a much stronger runner by my next event in Paris. When I raced, I would leave everything out there.

Post Cape Town Triathlon — March 2019 onwards

After the Cape Town Triathlon, I went into overdrive. I was dedicated to not feeling the way I did on the bike and run. I didn’t have time. So I searched and found a Half Marathon in Lusaka (at the time 10 weeks away) and started training for that. I decided (without merit and based on no logic whatsoever) that I wanted to complete 21 km in <2hrs (I had just completed 10 km in 67mins so a more realistic time, if I could even complete the distance was 2hrs30mins). It was a big scary target, which I didn’t achieve in the end, but the result was I became a pretty strong 10km runner. I focused on losing weight to improve my running strength and speeds. Because I am naturally a rubbish eater (that's not unlikely to ever change) I found the only way to maintain my calorific deficiencies (in order to lose weight) was to fast. I found an amazing app Zero which is great for tracking and organising intermittent fasting. I moved between the 16:8 / 18:6 and 20:4 (fast for 20 hrs and eat for 4 hrs). The 20:4 literally made me sad. It destroyed my day so I simply stopped it after a week or so. So now I can run fast and lost weight linearly.

TrainingPeaks is an amazing structured training tool. I basically live in here now. I have bought different training plans (Ironman 70.3, base swimming, Half Marathons etc.). They provide so much data which helps structure my training regimes. I essentially completed 80% of what they needed me to do. And the results were dramatic and immediate. Some examples below.

I invested in a specific Triathlon watch, the Garmin Forerunner 935 with the supporting Tri bundle (heart rate monitors etc) has really helped me understand how the impact HR has on everything. It’s been a game changer for me and my training.

Dem pay you?

Mrs. Njoku thinks I have taken it too far and is scared that I won’t stop when I hit my 100kg weight target. That I may be taking this all a little too seriously. To be fair, most times she wakes up these days I am out of the house pounding the streets of Accra somewhere. I guess she misses waking up to see her husband, a common comment from friends are ‘dem pay you’? The journey has gone beyond the physical realm for me. It has really helped me emotionally. It has definitely smoothed out my highs and lows. I find going to bed at 10ish and waking up at 4–5ish to train is now the new normal. In fact my son wakes up 5:30am 4 mornings a week to train for his swim team. I find that making decisions after 1–2 hours training is much more balanced than before. I definitely feel better than I ever remember feeling. This isn’t cosmetic six-packs and arms health. This is core health changes. My mum has diet-controlled diabetes. That was always a big health concern for Mrs. Njoku and Mama Njoku.

I remember Sim waxing lyrical about the benefits of health and diet a few years ago, when I spent a night at his house in Cape Town. I remember thinking we were going to talk startups and technology until the early hours of the morning. Instead he retired to bed by 10pm. Which I thought was weird. He then invited me to join him and his wife the next morning for a 9am spin class. That was fucking weird. I thought to myself he had sold out. Retired to the bliss of Cape Town hippy living. He was right, as he usually always is. He was ahead of the curve and was just trying to tell the young buck (that’s me) what the future looked like.

We don’t worry about health issues in the Njoku family. We are ALL super active now. We are balanced and happier for it. I now look forward to hitting my weight goals and competing in some pretty amazing events over the rest of 2019.

Garmin Paris Triathlon — 30th June

London Triathlon — 28th July

Barcelona Triathlon — 7th October

Ironman 70.3 Turkey — 3rd November

I now feel ready to become an Ironman 1 year earlier than planned.

So now folks know why I blog less. Over this journey I have simply become a more balanced and happy person. The energy I used to blog always came from an unhappy, angry place. That’s why when I read my previous blog posts I always sound unhappy about something or the other. It’s always a borderline rant. Whereas if I am angry I can write a post in a couple of hours and one sitting. Just writing this took almost 2 weeks. Or, to give it a metric,

I looked up from my screen. Someone was screaming at one of my employees. Literally screaming at the top of his lungs in our open plan office. I stood up, called them in and asked what the issue was? Who the fuck did they think they were to walk in my office and speak to my employee like that? I ushered them into my office. I wasn’t angry, I was annoyed. I settled him (and his manager) down. What was the problem? At the time, we had 300 or so people in that building. Three of them worked on what was then known as “Iroking”. Long story short. He wanted access to his YouTube channel to verify the amount of money we said he was making. At the time we sent out screenshots + reports, rather than giving them direct access. Dude had <10,000 views on his videos — which he didn’t dispute. So the amount we were talking about was literally <$500. Ridiculous. But this was the example of the abuse we would endure whilst losing millions of dollars in the music business in Nigeria. I have had A-list artists literally come into the office and straight out call me a fraud and a liar. As if they had the evidence in the file and were about to expose me to the world. I have had your parents’ favourite artists sue Iroking for N200m over a revenue share dispute for sums <$5,000. The social media reason was that my organisation was arrogant and they were going to “show me”. The real reason was that they had wanted to sit down and meet with me for six months, but I was in London nursing my deeply sick wife through our last months of a terrible pregnancy, so I literally wasn’t around.

In the same year, IROKO started incubating ROK. We started a little music distribution company called Iroking. The ambition was to replicate what Spotify had started to do in Europe, but more importantly what the Saavn folks were attempting to build in India. We met Saavn at a Tiger Global internet conference in 2011 and immediately understood (at least we thought) that perhaps IROKO had a unique skill set to try this opportunity across Africa. And for Nigerian music. Alas whereas ROK has thrived into arguably one of the most valuable independent media companies in Africa, Iroking died a slow cancerous terminal death. But back then I was full of optimism.

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