Saturday, 24 November 2012

JASON NJOKU...LONDON MR NOLLYWOOD (Our personality of the week)

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“Moving Back In With My Mum Was Kind Of Humiliating” – Jason Njoku



“Every film industry needs a mogul and for Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood, Jason Njoku might just be it”. – Forbes Africa, September 2012.
That’s how the September 2012 issue of Forbes Africa magazine begins a centre spread feature of Nigerian Internet maverick and millionaire, Jason Njoku, co-founder of the Iroko brand.
With a vernacular peppered with swearwords and a touch of the charming South London wideboy, Njoku, 31, made headlines back in April when Tiger Global, a $9 billion private equity fund, led an $8 million funding round backing his latest venture, Iroko Partners, writes Pete Guest.
Recall that in an exclusive interview with TechLoy back in April 2012, Njoku shared how his company’s awesome Internet offerings attracted funding from a $9 billion venture and private equity firm as well as some of the company’s figures and future plans.
The deal which is considered the largest early-stage deal ever announced by any Africa-focused tech company has catapulted the London-born businessmen into the position of a bona fide wunderkind, the magazine added in its opening words.
In the feature, Njoku shared his own personal story about failure, mistakes and success. “I spent a good three years making every mistake there was to make about how to run a business,”, he said. “I ran out of money, I ran out of friends who would lend me money. I was forced to stop.”
Njoku revealed that before Iroko Partners, he ran at least ten ventures including a blog network, a magazine, a T-shirt company and a web design venture in the past, some multi-year projects, while others lasted for a  few months. He even had a short hiatus in formal employment, as a recruitment consultant in London.
At a point, he was forced to move in with his mum, which Njoku described as “kind of humiliating”, although “it’s kind of the hero’s journey”. And that move gave birth to the idea for Iroko Partners.
Apparently, Jason’s mother, who he remembers mainly watching British soap operas on TV, was now watching Nollywood films on DVD, but finding these movies to buy online wasn’t possible and even the stores in London’s Brixton Market offered neither an identification of Nollywood films on the movie shelves nor any kind of formalised, organised distribution.
That’s when he thought to himself: “this thing seems to be very popular, but there seems to be no distribution around it.”
The rest is history.
Jason Njoku was TechLoy’s Person of The Year 2011, for giving Nollywood movies a new home online and making it accessible for free to movie lovers; for revolutionising the way we watch movies and listen to music online. You can read the full Forbes story on Jason’s personal blog. 

Here are other links where you can read about Jason Njoku profile and interviews:-
http://techloy.com/2011/11/26/jason-njoku-why-i-am-terrified-of-failure/


-Source: techloy

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OUR ARTISTS OF THE WEEK...MAROON-5

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Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album in 1997.



After a brief period they re-formed with guitarist James Valentine, and pursued a new, more pop-oriented direction as Maroon 5. In 2002 they released their debut album Songs About Jane, which contained four hit singles: "Harder to Breathe", "This Love", "She Will Be Loved" and "Sunday Morning"; it also enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world.

In support of Songs About Jane, Maroon 5 toured extensively throughout 2003–2005 and during that period of time two live albums were released. The band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005. Dusick left the band in September 2006, citing injuries sustained by constant touring, and was replaced by Matt Flynn. 

Maroon 5's second studio album It Won't Be Soon Before Long was released in 2007, with the singles "Makes Me Wonder", which was their first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Won't Go Home Without You" and "Wake Up Call". The band performed live in two tours between June and November 2007. During that time a compilation of previously unreleased songs, The B-Side Collection, were released.

WHAT THEIR VIDEO HERE: 


Two more live albums and a remix album were issued in 2008. Maroon 5's third studio album Hands All Over was released in the United States on September 21, 2010. Since debuting in 2002, the band has sold over 10 million albums in the United States.

Maroon 5's biggest hit yet is "Moves like Jagger" featuring Christina Aguilera, selling over 8 million copies worldwide as of June 2012, therefore establishing itself among the best-selling singles of all time. On March 26, 2012, Maroon 5 announced their fourth studio album, Overexposed. It was released on June 26, 2012. 

The lead single "Payphone", which features rapper Wiz Khalifa, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually rose to number two on the chart. The second single from the album, "One More Night", became the band's third number one single on the Billboard Hot 100. On 26 August 2012, during their Overexposed Tour in South America, Maroon 5 performed in front of 30.000 people at Arena Anhembi, São Paulo, Brazil, which according to Levine has become their biggest paying public to an exclusive concert of the band to date.

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