Owinna

In three consecutive weeks leading up to this day, Owinna reached 300, 400 and 500 weekly active users.

Apart from local soccer games returning after COVID-19 restrictions, the growth was largely due to requiring visitors to sign in after 3 pageviews in a session.

8 weeks after launching user signups, Owinna exceeded 100 weekly active users (WAUs).

I had to beg friends to test the web app and give me feedback by signing up to get the first users. Later, tips on improving landing page designs helped increase user signups to 104 WAUs.

Consistent updates of soccer updates and a focus on local (Malawian) and African content helped increasing traffic to exceed 100,000 page views in a month.

Growth also came through regular cross-posting content on social media with links the the web app.

2012 marked Owinna's transition from a hobbyist project to a startup. A side business that should grow fast into a huge company. The web app re-launched with new branding and a software upgrade.

I paid for a back-page ad in a major national weekend newspaper to announce the new look and new domain, again taking advantage of the start of Africa Cup of Nations, 2012 season this time.

I couldn't let the special all-ones day pass (11/11/11) without a milestone, so I completed and sent paperwork for business registration the previous day to Malawi's Registrar's office.

The certificate of business registration for Owinna came stamped 11/11/2011!

After publicly brainstorming tech product ideas for Africa based on Twitter in a blog post published in March 2007, I finally launched an embarrassingly basic website on my personal domain.

I used the start of 2008 Africa Cup of Nations as motivation to launch early through tweets targeting followers of the competition on Twitter.