The Nigerian twins that launched the Ladies and Gentlemen Book (LAGBook) social networking site have told HumanIPO they do not regret selling the brand name to a Canadian entrepreneur for US$10,000 in January.
Since the sale, the networking site has gone on to pass more than one million members and was then transformed into a picture rating site called PicRate.me in April.
The original LAGbook site was founded in 2010 by Nigerian twin brothers, Chidi and Chika Nwaogu.
Speaking to HumanIPO, Chika Nwaogu said: “We sold the brand name for US$10,000, and looking back at the decision, I think it’s a nice move. One thing I have got to understand is that we shouldn’t act like we are so popular.
“Though we made it to a million people, there is still a vast majority of people who haven’t heard of what we do. And the greatest fans are those who haven’t heard of you yet.
“We want to expand to a larger ground, and the name LAGbook couldn’t take us there. We needed a new name that people will readily accept, and wouldn’t look like a rip off from an already popular brand.”
He said they only sold the brand name, the domain names, and 800,000 of their users’ emails.
He said: “The technology in which we run on wasn’t included. This means that the network was kept intact and not migrated to a new server.
“Now, our domain names direct to the new website of the Canadian, and they sent out a message to 800,000 of our users about the new network called the ‘New LAGbook’.”
