Re: [Shesadc] Yang Forjindam - Black Engineer Behind PocketSuite, New App for Entrepreneurs

Congrats Yang

More greese to your elbows

Agien Nyangkwe

On 10/31/15, 'Paul Atang' via ambasbay <ambasbay@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Un seul mot!!!
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
>
> From:"Pa Fru Ndeh PaFruNdeh@YAHOO.COM [Shesadc]" <Shesadc@yahoogroups.com>
> Date:Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 20:00
> Subject:[Shesadc] Yang Forjindam - Black Engineer Behind PocketSuite, New
> App for Entrepreneurs
>
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> Meet the Black Engineer Behind PocketSuite, New App for Entrepreneurs -
> Atlanta Blackstar
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> Meet the Black Engineer Behind PocketSuite, New App for...
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> The nature of work in America is changing. This we know from the numbers–
> the Freelancers Union estimates that there are as many as 53 million
> indepen...
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> View on atlantablackstar.com
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> Meet the Black Engineer Behind PocketSuite, New App for Entrepreneurs
>
> October 26, 2015 | Posted by Ayesha K. Faines
> Tagged With: apps for small business owners, Black tech
> startups, PocketSuite app, Yang Forjindam
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> The nature of work in America is changing.
>
> This we know from the numbers– the Freelancers Union estimates that there
> are as many as 53 million independent workers in the U.S. The entrepreneur
> has become our cultural hero, sort of  like a phoenix rising from the ashes
> of recession.
>
> When PocketSuite co-founder Yang Forjindam conceived his app, he was
> considering this workplace evolution, the gradual shift from corporate
> stability to work that is increasingly sporadic, temporary, and independent.
>  He developed PocketSuite, a business and client management app,
> specifically for sole proprietors, America's growing class of
>  small-business owners and 'solopreneurs' who are service-oriented, and
> often on the go.
>
> "For example, photographers,  home cleaners, dog cleaners and personal
> trainers," Forjindam explains, "the app helps them manage their calendar,
> schedule appointments, and get paid. The client gets an invoice over text
> message and they can pay them right away."
>
> Relaunched in November of 2014, PocketSuite has garnered over 10,000
> downloads and impressive recognition. Forbes voted PocketSuite "best app for
> solopreneurs" and Apple recently added the app to its featured list, under
> Small Business Collections: Invoicing and Scheduling apps.
>
> But don't call the apps early success beginners luck.
>
> "My background is in enterprise software," say the San Francisco-based
> Forjindam.
>
> He  joined a business software start-up called NetSuite  in 2000, after
> graduating from Stanford University with a masters in Smart Product Design,
> a branch of mechanical engineering.  At the time, NetSuite specialized in
> creating business management software for small enterprises, but as the
> company grew, eventually going public in 2007, they shifted away from small
> clients to larger corporations.  That shift created a gap in the market
> that Forjindam recognized immediately.
>
> "Smart phones had just launched and the main reason [NetSuite] never went
> after the small guys is that they were mobile. They didn't spend a lot of
> time on the computer.  NetSuite required a computer to use," he recalls. "I
> thought, I bet we can build apps that are just as good for managing a
> smaller  business as Netsuite is for managing a larger business."
>
> Forjindam followed his gut and  left the company in  2012. He knew he was on
> to something, but the idea for a small business app that could service
> America's rising entrepreneurial class was still half-formed. That is, until
> a chance conversation with his  house cleaner.
>
> "We have a cleaner who comes by every three-to-four weeks. It's always hard
> to know how much we owe her because she doesn't really send us invoices. The
> price changes. The schedule changes," he says.
>
> One day, Forjindam offered to build the woman a simple app that
> would automate text messages to her clients, reminding them of appointment
> times and invoice amounts.
>
> "So that's how it started," Forjindam says. "I put two and two together."
>
> After Forjindam and his co-founder Sam Madden released a beta version of the
> PocketSuite in November 2013, they discovered that demand for their new app
> extended far beyond the home cleaning industry.
>
> "We put it in the app store thinking that home cleaners would like it and
> download it because that's who it initially was designed for, and it turns
> out, the people who were finding it and downloading it were photographers
> and notaries– just different types of professions that we never anticipated
> and they all have different expectations."
>
> Forjindam took PocketSuite through several iterations before its relaunch in
> November. Whereas most entrepreneurs encounter difficult raising seed money
> to develop an app like PocketSuite, Forjindam was lucky. His former bosses,
> the founders of NetSuite, became his first investors.
>
> "That was a pretty big boost of confidence. They were saying, 'We trust you.
> You did a great job here. This market, this is not something we want to go
> after'."
>
> NetSuite's founders weren't focused on the small business class but they
> inevitably recognized the investment opportunity. Plenty of  attention falls
> on  tech startups, nascent companies that are eager to scale and attract
> millions in seed money, but those entrepreneurs are far outnumbered by the
> burgeoning class of freelancers, small business owners, and the
>  'solopreneurs' who are building a brand and business of one.
>
> While it is hard to pin down a precise number of  how many of these
> independent workers exist in the economy (MBO Partners say 30 million, while
> the Freelancers Union projects 53 million), experts do agree that the pool
> of independent talent will only grow, a great reality for companies
> like PocketSuite.
>
> Forjindam, who is Cameroonian-American, was born in Paris and raised in his
> native Cameroon before immigrating to the states at age 10. He admits that
> his experience as a founder of color are different  from those who surround
> him.
>
> "You learn not to expect the benefit of the doubt in any circumstance," he
> says. "You realize you need to  use every angle you can, and every
> relationship you can to make an introduction. Completely nail everything
> that is within your control. If you show up to an investor pitch with
> amazing reenue and growth metrics, you will most likely get funded."
>
> In spite of potential obstacles, Forjindam's advice for aspiring
> entrepreneurs with an unwavering vision is to place caution aside.
>
> "Everyone has a different threshold of readiness," he says, "but if you're
> thinking, 'I need to do this. The world needs this', I think you should just
> do it."
>
> The PocketSuite app is available for iOS devices in the Apple store.
>
> Join us in our effort to change our world with Empowering Narratives. Share
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> do the same.
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> __._,_.___
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> Posted by: Pa Fru Ndeh <pafrundeh@yahoo.com>
>
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Aaron Agien NYANGKWE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon
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