Hello! Who are you and what product are you building?
My name is Lolo Granville, and I’m building Hyperloopft—a community-driven trading insight platform. Our goal is to connect professional traders, financial analysts, and signal providers with investors. On Hyperloop, an investor is anyone who wants their money to work for them. Essentially, it’s a platform where professional traders share insights and trading signals with investors and beginner traders.
How did you come up with the idea for this product, and what problem were you aiming to solve?
So, when we started in 2023, we built a trading algorithm focused on crypto and commodities like gold. We ran a live demo with about $2 million in demo funds, and within a year, we grew that to over $10 million. The goal was to prove to investors that our trading algorithm worked.
However, we faced a major challenge—we didn’t have enough capital to scale. We explored using proprietary trading firms (prop firms), but their risk constraints didn’t align with our trading strategy. Our strategy required risking about 20% per trade, while prop firms typically capped drawdowns at 7-15%, making it unworkable for us.
To solve this, we launched Hyperloopft, a platform where investors could fund our strategy, track their investments, and receive automated payouts. We ran it successfully for over a year, ensuring seamless transactions for investors.
But as we grew, we encountered new challenges:
Lack of transparency and trust in trading – People struggle to find credible trading strategies.
Payment and subscription limitations for trading signals – Many platforms lack proper structures for traders to monetize their expertise.
Limited visibility for professional traders – Many skilled traders don’t have a way to prove their credibility.
That led us to pivot Hyperloop into a new model—a platform where professional traders could sell trading signals transparently. Instead of just trading ourselves, we opened up the platform for signal providers, allowing traders to monetize their expertise through a subscription model. The system ensures transparency by letting the community rate and verify signal accuracy, solving the trust and visibility problem in the industry.
That’s how we came up with the idea and the problem we aimed to solve.
Give us a step-by-step process on how you built the first version of your product.
The first version of Hyperloop was built around fund management. Since I’m not a first-time founder, I’ve launched several tech products—some successful, some not. But in building Hyperloop, our focus wasn’t on UI or creating a beautiful product; it was on functionality.
We focused on solving four key things:
Investors should be able to onboard easily.
Investors should be able to make deposits.
Withdrawals should be automated.
Investments should move in and out of the platform seamlessly.
That was it. The trading itself was a manual, offline process, so the platform needed to be simple but effective. We kept it lean, solving just those core problems.
How did you launch the product?
We did a private launch, as I mentioned earlier. From November 2023 to October 2024, we ran a live demo of our trading algorithm. By January 2024, once we saw the returns were strong and that we could generate real profits, we started reaching out to investors.
Since we had already planned to do the live demo, every time we spoke with investors, we showed them real numbers—our performance, monthly returns, everything. We even had it all tracked on My FX Book, so we could say, "Look at our results. This is what we’re doing. Give us capital, and let’s make you money."
Some investors trusted us, but we were also aware that we weren’t licensed, so we had to be cautious. We kept things small, which ultimately led us to pivot.
It was all word-of-mouth—pure P2P marketing. We never ran digital ads or anything like that; we just let the platform speak for itself.
How did you land your first customers?
Yes, so yeah, my first customer was my cousin. He invested about $105, just to test out the platform. From there, it grew—not exponentially, but gradually. He brought one person and that person brought in another and so on. I spoke to someone, and that person invested.
We even had a referral system, but the first system didn’t gain much traction because it didn’t bring in a lot of investors. It was just word of mouth—people telling their friends, “Okay, I invested here, I’ve been earning for six months, I’ve withdrawn my funds, everything works well,” and things like that.
We grew to about 21 investors. We had about $33,000 at the height of it. That was from February, when we launched, up until now—because we’re still trading, even though we’ve scaled back with some investors. Some of the older investors have made significant returns, around 7% monthly, based on the amount they put in. We’ve returned funds to some investors, while we’re still trading with newer ones. At some point, we started closing some accounts and returning investments to those who wanted out.
How have you grown your business so far?
I think the reason even the few investors we have trust us is that no matter what happens in trading, we always deliver. We’ve kept a transparent track record from the start. Do you understand?
In fact, over the past two to three months, no investors have even placed withdrawals—because they trust the system. And if they do, they get their returns within 24 hours. That transparency has been key. We’ve simply done exactly what we said we would do for an entire year.
The thing with Nigeria is that when it comes to money, there are always a lot of stories. So when someone operates with real transparency, they stand out. It’s nothing special, really—we’ve just built trust by being upfront. And now, as we pivot, it’ll benefit those same investors as well. Yep.
Give us a breakdown of your revenue and financials.
Okay, let me pull this up real quick.
So, like I said, we started trading in February, and by August, we had generated a total of about $20,889 in profits. That represents about 59% returns to investors.
On average, as a company, we've done about 8.43% returns per month. But in total, we’ve generated over $20K in profits over the past year.
Now, just to clarify—some investors have come in, some have exited, and we've also returned funds to a few. So if you notice any inconsistencies in the numbers, that’s where they come from.
Here’s a quick breakdown of our monthly returns:
7.1%
12.6%
9%
11%
9%
8%
And so on. That’s where we stand so far. But in terms of revenue generated, we've done over $20K to date.
What does the future look like?
The future for us is really about expanding the platform to create a community of like-minded traders. A lot of traders are already doing what we do, but they don’t have visibility. So, the goal is to let other expert traders provide signals to retail investors and retail traders and onboard their own communities. We’re already managing investor portfolios, so we want to open that up as well—allowing other professional traders to do the same on Hyperloop.
And like I said before, we’re actively raising funds because my role as CEO is very clear. I know the exact number of users I want by this time next year. I know how much we should be making in monthly recurring revenue, and we should be able to hit that goal within a year.
For example, We want 100K active users by next year. How do we get there?
we could work with 10 top professional traders in Africa—each bringing in their audience.
Or we could reach 50 low-level traders, who each have 10K-20K Telegram subscribers. We’ve done the research; their groups have over 1K - 3k daily active viewers.
We also know how to approach them—top traders care about status, while low-level traders care more about finding a platform that works for them.
In terms of revenue, our target is $400K per month. How?
The average subscription fee for trading signals is about $20/month.
If 20K people pay $20/month, that’s $400K MRR.
Now, here’s the crazy part—one of the top trader in Africa already has over 200K+ Telegram subscribers, with 50K+ people actively viewing his posts. He also runs a premium channel at $75/month.
If we offer a lower-tier plan, say $20-$25/month, we only need 20K of his audience to reach our goal.
And God has so blessed us, we already have direct connections to these traders—we’re just one conversation away from making it happen.
The only thing stopping us right now? Server costs. If we suddenly get 100K+ active users, we can’t handle it without funding. So we’re raising $130K from VCs, angel investors, or anyone who believes in what we’re building. This will cover:
Keeping the platform running
Some marketing
Hiring a few key people on the product side
Other than that, we already have everything we need to grow. That’s the plan.
Three most important things you have learned that have been helpful to you since launching this product?
Three things that have been helpful:
- Choosing the right team.
Having the right partner has been a game-changer. That’s literally my wife “Bray”. She’s a lawyer, so I don’t run into a lot of problems. I don’t make a lot of mistakes because she has a level of expertise that I don’t. My natural instinct is to find loopholes in everything—that’s just how I think—but she keeps things in check. From just my home front alone, she does a lot for me. She’s extremely helpful in every way.
Then there’s my co-founder, Emmanuel—he’s the product guy. He handles hiring developers and making sure we get the right people with the right skills. That takes a huge load off me.
My co-founders and CTO, Enare, David and George, also take up their responsibilities effortlessly. Like I said, it’s starting to feel like my plate is empty. The company has a lot of work, but it’s getting done, and that lets me focus on other things. So yeah, having the right people around is everything.
- Having the right customers and community.
The customers we work with have been incredibly understanding. In the last three months, we haven’t had a single withdrawal request. That tells us they trust us, and it also gives us flexibility in how we manage trades. We don’t have to rush decisions—we can take our time and do things properly.
Our community have also been exactly the right kind of people. And we’re still small, like I said. But what’s crazy is, we haven’t even started advertising, and people are already reaching out—on social media, through calls, even in person. They want to know what Hyperloop is about. That tells me we’re doing something right.
- God.
Every day, I pray: God, be the CEO of this company. I’m just a vessel.
And honestly, I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time. Yes, I have experience working with investors, writing proposals, and handling products. But every time, it feels new. Just like when you tailor a CV for a specific job, we constantly have to tweak our pitch deck to fit different investors and their strategies. And somehow, the right doors keep opening at the right time.
So yeah, those are the three most important things that have helped:
God.
Our partners and team.
Our customers and community.
That’s what’s keeping us going.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to build their own product or already started building?
- Don’t focus on the product—focus on the business.
One major lesson I’ve learned is that the business matters more than the product itself. A lot of people get stuck thinking about the app, the software, or the features, but that’s not the priority. The priority is the business.
Right now, at Granville Thee Ideator, we’re working on multiple products—a tax platform for students and immigrants in Canada, Hyperloop, Soft Energy (a solar energy company), and even a fractional real estate platform, Eyuwa for Nigerians investing in properties abroad.
But the key thing? We didn’t wait to build before selling. We started getting investors before we even had the app. That’s the mindset shift—sell first, build later.
- Sell before you build.
My approach now is simple: sell the product or service first before building it. That’s how you validate whether it’s even worth creating.
We started in November 2023, and by January, before the product was even built, we already had an investor who put in ₦5 million for us to trade on his behalf. My cousin was technically our first investor on Hyperloop, but this external investor gave us the first real market validation.
By August, he needed to travel to Canada, and by October, we had returned his money. That early proof of demand was critical. If you can sell the service before building, you know there’s a market for it.
- Keep it simple—solve one problem.
One thing I’ve learned about building is that simplicity is everything. Focus on solving one problem at a time.
In my previous startup, Raven Live, the idea was to build an entertainment company. Right now, it’s on life support—but I never consider anything dead. I’ll come back to it when I have the capital.
What I learned from that experience is that it’s easy to get distracted. You start seeing how your product can do multiple things, serve multiple industries. That’s a trap from the devil. It just pulls you in too many directions.
Instead, stay focused. Solve one problem first. If it doesn’t work, then pivot—but don’t get caught up trying to do too many things at once.
So,
Focus on the business, not the product.
Sell before you build.
Keep it simple—solve one problem.
That’s what I’ve learned so far.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can visit our website (hyperloopft.com) to learn more.
I’m on almost every social media platform, but the best way to find me? Just Google my name—you’ll see my previous startups and everything I’ve worked on. LinkedIn, Lolo “Bobby” Granville is a good place to reach me, and I’m also on Twitter—sorry, X Bobby Granville (even though I’m not as active there as I should be).
If you want to reach me directly, just ask. They’ll gladly share my number. I’m very, very accessible.