Explore every episode of the podcast Building The Future Podcast
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| #85: Deepankar Rustagi - On Profitability and Staying Asset Light in B2B Commerce (Part 2) | 21 Feb 2025 | 00:21:31 | |
This special live podcast session was recorded at Ventures Park, Lagos, during Ventures Platform’s in-person mixer for portfolio founders on July 27, 2024 My guest today is Deepankar Rustagi, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and one of the sharpest minds in Nigeria’s B2B commerce space. I’ve known Deepankar for over seven years, going back to his days at Vconnect. He was one of the very first guests on this podcast in 2017, where we discussed his journey - how he started, what led to the company he was building at the time, and the broader lessons from founders navigating Nigeria’s startup landscape.
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| #84 - Dare Okoudjou - On Fundraising, Scaling a Pan-African Payment Network and Acquiring Startups | 24 Jul 2024 | 00:50:56 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint My guest today is Dare Okoudjou, Founder & CEO of Onafriq (formerly known as MFS Africa). Dare has built a long-running startup success streak on the continent, having started the business over a decade ago to become a multimillion dollar revenue company today. Onafriq is building a “network of networks” to enable payments interoperability across the continent. After finding product-market fit, the company went through rapid expansion, completing four startup acquisitions in a two-year period (2020 - 22): Beyonic, Baxi, SimbaPay, & GTP (US), and increasing its headcount from 65 people to over 500. In this episode, we explored:
Book Recommendations: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and La Ambigu (English translation: The Ambiguous Adventure) by Cheikh Hamidou Kane Bonus: Africa’s S-Curves by Stephen Deng. Link Quote: “…you also have to remember that the game is dynamic and what the picture looks like today may not be what the picture looks like in two years, and not the picture looks like in five years.” I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #83: Uka Eje - On ThriveAgric's Turnaround and Making Hard Decisions | 17 Jul 2024 | 00:38:59 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint My guest today is Uka Eje, the co-founder and CEO of ThriveAgric. I've known Uka since 2017, when he and his co-founder, Ayo, received their first institutional investment from Ventures Platform. ThriveAgric empowers nearly one million smallholder farmers on the continent with technology, credit, and access-to-market. The company started as an idea between two classmates, and their journey so far has involved overcoming operational and financial hurdles, surviving a near collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting, and maturing into one of the most impactful businesses in Africa. This year, ThriveAgric was recognized by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies, with partnerships with major offtakers like Flour Mills of Nigeria, Dangote Foods, and Nestle. In this episode, we discussed:.
Book Recommendation: The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz Quote: “Quite a number of people asked me why stepping down was the solution for Thrive Agric. My response was pretty simple, although the process was not easy for me emotionally, considering we built this business, myself and my co-founder, right? But we had to ask ourselves a question: ‘what is most important to us, that this business survives and it continues to be a scalable business, or the idea that it’s on record that there was a step down?’ [...] We also had to think about the future of the business. We wanted to build something for the long haul. [...] people need to trust you enough to do business with you” CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #82: Deepankar Rustagi - On Profitability and Staying Asset Light in B2B Commerce | 10 Jul 2024 | 00:45:53 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint
Our discussion covers:
Quote: “...don't fantasize about your product in a boardroom. Go out there and see expressions and responses from real stakeholders on what they feel about the product or what they feel about the technology. They might not understand every bit of it, but if they understand the value that you're trying to offer, if they are willing to change their behavior a little to accept that value, then you're working in the right direction.” Educational Recommendation: Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #81: Elo Umeh - On Leadership, Purpose and Building a Scalable Tech Company in Africa | 03 Jul 2024 | 00:33:14 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint My guest today is Elo Umeh, founder and CEO of Terragon Group, a leading data and marketing cloud company in Africa. I've known Elo personally for some time; his leadership at Terragon has been transformative. Founded in 2009, Terragon initially focused on mobile websites and launched Twinpine, a mobile ad network, in 2012. Under Elo's guidance, Terragon now offers marketing automation, customer data platforms, and enterprise insights, impacting over 350 million profiles in Africa. They acquired Alcatel Lucent Mobile Advertising across 16 markets, integrating 60 million customer profiles, and also acquired their long term technical partner, BiZense (India). In this episode we discuss:
Elo also serves as an Executive in Residence at the Lagos Business School, shaping business leadership in Africa. Join me as we explore Elo Umeh's journey and insights in driving digital innovation on the continent. Book Recommendations:
Quote: A company is not yet a company if it doesn't deliver a platform for sustained wealth creation. CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #80 - Daniel Yu - On Vertical Integration in B2B e-commerce and Early Lessons from M&A | 26 Jun 2024 | 00:41:02 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint
Wasoko raised a $125M Series B in 2022 and opened a new regional hub in West Africa. In December 2023, they announced a merger with Egyptian B2B e-commerce company, MaxAB. In this episode, we discussed:
Recommended Book: Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading by Chris Anderson Quote: “I think that the startup stereotype, at least if you're coming from a California Silicon Valley background [...] is much more, ‘okay let me do this thing for maybe three or four years. And then, Google or Facebook will acquire the company and I'll start the next company or go on to something else.’ And I think what has become apparent to me, and the advice that I give to all founders considering building in the African ecosystem is, ‘are you ready to do this for a decade?’”
Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #79, Bode Abifarin- On Scaling Flutterwave, Startup Growth, and Expansion | 19 Jun 2024 | 00:39:34 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint My guest today is Bode Abifarin, one of the leading startup operators I know on the continent. I first met Bode in 2017 when she had just joined Flutterwave, where she served as Chief Operating Officer. I've been continually impressed by Bode’s unique ability to blend operational dexterity with high level strategic thinking. Bode has a background in consulting for KPMG and worked closely with banks in Nigeria to develop and articulate their go to market strategies. Flutterwave gave her the opportunity to operationalize many of her PowerPoint presentations in a high growth, high intensity startup environment. Bode joined the company in its early days, and since then, it has become one of the few unicorns on the continent, valued at $3 billion in its most recent fundraising round. This conversation was recorded while she was still the COO. In this episode, we discuss:
Book: Imagine Africa Quote: “Once your strategy, in terms of go-to-market, product, and focus is crisp and clear. Spend time getting that crispiness and the clarity in your own local markets, right? Go deep, go wide, listen to customers, iterate, and be the champion of that market. CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #78, Mark Straub - On Digital Identity as a Fundamental Driver of Economic Growth | 12 Jun 2024 | 00:54:02 | |
This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint My guest today is Mark Straub, founder & CEO of Smile ID. Smile ID is building identity verification infrastructure for businesses in Africa. Mark and I were connected by a mutual friend, but I’ve always been fascinated by his transition from being a venture investor to becoming a startup founder — especially considering that I made the transition in the other direction. With Smile ID, Mark is building an important layer of trust for digital transactions across the continent. The company raised a $20M Series B and completed 100 million identity checks in 2023. Mark’s thoughtfulness, deep sector expertise and capacity to attract top talents seems to give him an unfair advantage in the space. In this episode, we explore:
Book Recommendation:: Leaving the Tarmac: Buying a Bank in Africa by Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, providing an insightful resource for those interested in African business ventures. High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil a comprehensive guide for scaling startups, covering critical topics such as hiring, management, product development, and fundraising. Quote: “Having payment rails is like having a car.You can drive really fast and you can go from one place to another. You can send value from one place to another. Having good ID systems in place is like having a seatbelt and brakes that work. So you can stop the car from driving off the road and destroying everything in it.” I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. CREDITS Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #77, Anu Adedoyin-Adasolum - On differentiation in B2B ecommerce and complexities of the offline market | 05 Jun 2024 | 00:50:52 | |
My guest today is Anu Adedoyin-Adasolum, the co-founder and CEO of Sabi. Sabi is a B2B e-commerce startup that provides digital infrastructure to Africa's informal economy. In October 2023, they announced reaching $1B annual GMV. I've always been fascinated by Sabi, especially their ability to bring seemingly disjointed and complex pieces together in a connected business model. In this episode, we discussed:
We also touched on identifying the right expansion strategies, the complexities of fundraising, and Anu’s approach to cohort analysis.
Quote: “No one cares about your app. Literally no one cares about that application. [Merchants are] just trying to make money. Help them make money, or don't.” Book Recommendation: Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike. By Greg Hoffman
CREDITS This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0d6e5d28/transcript.txt | |||
| #76, Shola Akinlade - Building for the Long-term, Managing Talent and Growing as a Leader | 29 May 2024 | 01:06:22 | |
Today, Paystack has scaled to seven markets and is responsible for over 40x the value processed online in Nigeria at the time of their founding. Their $200M+ acquisition by Stripe marked a significant milestone for the tech ecosystem in October 2020. In this episode, which is Shola’s second appearance on BTF, we reflected on:
Quote: “In the realm of business, prioritizing shared values over personal friendships is paramount when selecting collaborative partners.” Recommended Books: The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer’s Next Superstars by Sebastian Abbot Radical Candour: How to Get What You Want by Saying What You Mean by Kim Scott CREDITS This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku | |||
| #75, Tosin Eniolorunda - Scaling Fintech Products to the Mass Market | 22 May 2024 | 00:49:59 | |
My guest today is Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO and co-founder of Moniepoint. I met Tosin in Kigali at the Africa Tech Summit in 2020, just before the world went into lockdown. We spent hours discussing the offline distribution of fintech products after our introduction. Since then, I've had the opportunity to be an investor, C-level executive, and board observer at Moniepoint. This has allowed me to understand the company from both external and internal perspectives. In this episode, you'll get a glimpse of the typical conversation I have with Tosin during our working days. Here are five key takeaways from this episode:
Quote: "People are at their best when they are entrepreneurial, when they say ‘I’m doing this for myself and not necessarily for my boss.’" Book Recommendation: "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Lawrence Bossidy and Ram Charan. | |||
| Season 5 Intro | 14 May 2024 | 00:29:28 | |
It's been a while. I haven't held the podcast mic for a long time. I must admit, I'm a bit rusty. I’m overwhelmed by the advancements in the podcast space since my sabbatical. The African tech ecosystem has also grown in leaps and bounds, with its fair share of troughs too. And I'm still privileged to be an active participating observer in it. Several people have asked me privately and publicly when I'm restarting the podcast. I've attributed the delay to my busy schedule, but I'm more eager to return than those who've inquired about it.
Please enjoy the Season 5 Intro and my interview with the Producer, Osarumen Osamuyi, who collaborated with me on this project.
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| #74, Sangu Delle - Raising capital and building businesses in Africa | 04 Dec 2020 | 00:59:52 | |
My guest today is Sangu Delle. Sangu is an entrepreneur, an investor, author, and someone who is deeply rooted in Pan-African ideology. His latest book Making the futures: Young entrepreneurs in a dynamic Africa explored similar themes and topics that I've often explore on this podcast. So it's not surprising that we started the conversation in this episode talking about the book. We discussed the challenges and opportunities of building a business in Africa. We also deep-dived into the competitive advantage of raising capital and having a longer runway as a startup, the outsized importance of foreign venture capital in African early-stage businesses and the role of government in facilitating a successful startup ecosystem. This episode is packed as we move from one serious topic to another. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. On this episode, we spoke about
Recommended book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies By Jared Diamond | |||
| #73, Andrew Alli - On investing, corporate governance and using Twitter | 08 Oct 2020 | 01:02:05 | |
My guest today is Andrew Alli. Andrew is a real-life and virtual mentor to a lot of investment professionals in Africa. He is the Partner and Group CEO at Southbridge a pan-African financial advisory firm. Before then, he was the president and CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation, where he was responsible for over $4,5 billion of investments in 30 countries. Andrew's career is an inspiration and signpost to upcoming African investors like me, and it was a real pleasure to deep dive into how he got started and the lessons learnt till date. We also talked about how to reduce investment risk through temporal and geographical diversification in portfolio construction and the importance of a strong ESG framework in a weak socio-political environment that most African countries operate. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too.
Recommended books Andrew's twitter handle - @afalli | |||
| #72, Eloho Gihan-Mbelu - The challenges of building startups to scaleups in Africa | 01 Oct 2020 | 00:53:52 | |
My guest today is Eloho Gihan-Mbelu; she is the founding Managing Director & CEO of Endeavor Nigeria. Endeavor is a mission-oriented, global organisation that is supporting high-impact entrepreneurship in close to 40 underserved markets across the world. Eloho and I got introduced a few years ago when she started her role with Endeavor Nigeria, and I find her intellectual honesty very refreshing. You can get more of her thoughts on her twitter handle @elohoGM. In this episode, we discussed her early career journey as an investment banker and then in private equity focussed on African growth companies. We discussed her perspectives on the infrastructural and the regulatory challenges of building a startup to scale up in Africa. We also discussed the opportunities that COVID presents for accelerating digital demand on the continent. And how to set up a board at different stages of company life. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Timestamps (03:00) Her journey to Endeavour Nigeria, why she wanted to work with Nigerian companies. (15: 22) How resilience helped build the African startup market (27:32) Factors founders need to consider in making the right decisions in the face of competition (31:07) Her thoughts around how to set up a board of directors at different stages of a company's life. (33:57) How board members should be engaged to get the best results (43:00) What she thinks is the right support that businesses need (48:52) Her approach to achieving a healthy work-life balance (51:12) Her current reading list and the new perspective she has recently garnered about business Books she's currently reading Water dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz Social Media @ElohoGM | |||
| #71, Tokunboh Ishmael - Investing for profit and purpose | 22 Sep 2020 | 00:42:24 | |
My guest today is Tokunbo Ishmael. She's the co-founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital, an African focussed PE and VC firm. Alitheia Capital investments include businesses that enable the provision of financial services to the unbanked, and underbanked through traditional and branchless banking models. Alitheia Capital focuses on doing social good and also having a good return on investment. Tokunbo Ishmael is an alumnus of London Business School, and the University of London, she's a chartered financial analyst, and she used to be an investment banker before starting Alethia. She's a member of CFA Institute, she has sat on several boards in the different organization across Africa, including First City Monument Bank in Nigeria, and the African Venture Capital Association. In this episode we discussed...
Books
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| #70, Eric Idiahi - Optimising for exits and high investment multiples | 15 Sep 2020 | 00:47:11 | |
My guest today is Eric Idiahi. Eric is the co-founder and partner at Verod Capital, a private equity firm based out of Lagos Nigeria. Verod is one of the top PE firms in the continent with a significant number of successful exits as well as admirable money multiples record from their previous fund. Eric is someone I've known from a distance, so when we met at a dinner late last year I invited him to be a guest on this podcast and he graciously obliged. In this episode, we discussed how he and his partner, Danladi, started Verod in 2008 by working with other investors on a deal by deal basis. We talked about the fundamental differences between PE and VC model, especially the way it's done in Africa, how to maintain a balance between portfolio support, value creation and investor control. We discussed exits and how investors can think about it and position their portfolio companies for that event. And of course, we discussed COVID, what it means for businesses in Africa and how to frame its inherent challenge and opportunity. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. | |||
| #69, Nnena Nkongho - Startup valuation, capital allocation and returns expectations in Africa | 08 Sep 2020 | 00:37:55 | |
My guest today is Nnena. Nnena is a Principal at Digame Investment, a growth capital investment firm that back tech-enabled businesses in Africa. Their portfolio companies include GetSmarter an online education company based in Cape Town and London that work some of the top global universities to offer premium online short courses to working professionals around the world. GetSmarter was acquired by 2U in 2017 for $103m, demonstrating that the possibilities of a successful exit. We talked about the key difference between the venture ecosystem in Africa and the silicon valley or Europe in terms of startup valuation, capital allocation, returns expectations and timelines. We also spent the time to discuss how COVID is creating both opportunities and challenges for startups in Africa. Why execution matters in building a startup | |||
| #68, Yele Bademosi - On people, startups and funding in Africa, pt 2 | 01 Sep 2020 | 00:36:52 | |
This is the second part of my conversation with Yele Bademosi, you can listen to the first part of this conversation in the last episode of this podcast series. Apart from being the founding partner at Microtraction, Yele is also the founder and CEO of Bundle a social application for cash and cryptocurrency transactions. Yele is the first person I go-to for any question I have on blockchain and cryptocurrency. In this episode, Yele and I discussed his previous role as a director at Binance LB and his highly optimistic views on blockchain and cryptocurrency in Africa. We also discussed his thought on credit and other alternative funding instruments for tech startups apart from equity. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. In this episode we discussed
Quotes
Recommended Books | |||
| #67, Yele Bademosi - On people, startups and funding in Africa, pt 1 | 25 Aug 2020 | 00:40:55 | |
My guest today is Yele Bademosi. Yele is the founder of Microtraction, an angel investment platform that funds Africa’s technology entrepreneurs in their early stage. Microtraction is one of the most active pre-seed investment firms in Nigeria. Yele and I have known each other for some time. We’ve worked together closely in the past, when he became the first person to join my previous company, Starta, barely a few weeks after it was founded in late 2015. It is quite fitting that Yele is the first guest on season 4 of this podcast after a long break. We recorded this episode in late 2019, before COVID, so a lot of the things we talked about might be out of kilter with the current post-COVID world realities. This is the first of the two-part interview. In this episode, we talked about how he started his career and why he left medicine to pursue a whole different path. We also talked about leadership, growth and how good relationships often create a funnel of positive serendipity. I hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as I did. In this episode we discussed;
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| Season 4 intro | 18 Aug 2020 | 00:05:07 | |
Venture-backed startups are disrupting existing business models, redefining market potentials and creating new verticals. In Africa, startups are finding innovative models for addressing underserved market segments, repurposing under-utilised resources and facilitating efficiencies and visibilities where none exists before. These companies have catalysed wider conversations, policies and actions from both government and non-governmental institutions on how to leverage democratised access to technology and innovation across the continent. Although the long-term 'financial success' of these companies is still yet to be proven, their potential impact on market opportunities and social benefits in Africa is undisputed. | |||
| Season 3 finale | 04 Mar 2019 | 00:03:41 | |
We have now come to the end of season 3! It has been such an exciting journey, one I hope you enjoyed as well. Please listen to my review of the season, what you can expect from next season and when we will be returning. | |||
| #66, Doing venture investment in Africa. How to validate your assumptions. Steve Grin, Managing Partner at Lateral Capital | 04 Feb 2019 | 00:57:11 | |
Steve Grin is the Managing Partner at Lateral Capital, a firm that invests in early and growth stage opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. Their Fund backs technology-enabled businesses that profitably solve significant pain points across critical infrastructure verticals: financial services, energy, healthcare, and education. Steven is a seasoned entrepreneur and investment professional with twenty years of experience investing as a principal and fund manager across the globe. He has extensive experience in real estate development, energy, and venture investing. Prior to co-founding Lateral, Steven was a Director in the Office of the President of Guyana where he held responsibility for the implementation of their low-carbon development strategy and the execution of large-scale initiatives in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Steven graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and has a B.A. in Finance and Philosophy from New York University. In this episode you’ll learn: How he got into the business of venture capital How did he make the transition in his career from real estate investing? According to Steve, “Big ideas hit brick walls fairly quickly”. Find out what he meant What are the market gaps and opportunities in Africa? How did Lateral Capital start? Where were the initial funds sourced from? The importance of SMEs to every economy. What is Lateral Capital’s thesis about? What is the basis for the thesis behind Lateral Capital? What they have learnt and invalidated about investing in Africa? What is the length of time an investor should be expecting returns? Steve has some reservations about the 220 investment model, find out what they are. What is the best way to do venture in Africa? Other ways to get returns on investment without selling it. What kind of LPs do they target and what are the terms of their fund? The growth drivers for your business. Distinction and importance of financial, human and physical capital in a business. And more Selected links from this episode Building The Future Podcast Season 3 is sponsored by Flutterwave Flutterwave drives growth for banks and businesses across Africa through digital payment technology. You can learn more about their activities
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| #65, Why generating capital is important for African startups. Thesis on exits and how to manage corporate funds. Dustyn Winder, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Akili | 28 Jan 2019 | 00:37:19 | |
Dustyn Winder is the co-founder and managing partner at Akili.Vc Akili is a pre-seed to Series A fund tailored for Africa. Their philosophy is based on the belief that there are very interesting problems that are often difficult for entrepreneurs to execute on, whether because they are hidden inside corporations, neglected in disaffected communities, or in geographies that present different challenges than traditional startup markets. Thus they are bringing the Prehype model (an organization Akili spun out of) to Africa to help finance African entrepreneurs solving African problems. Prehype is a venture development firm that focuses on building products and companies through collaboration with corporations and venture capitalists. Dustyn has lived in Kampala, Uganda for 10 years and has immense love for Africa as well as big hopes for the African tech ecosystem. In this episode you’ll learn: Why Akili is more focused on generating capital than raising money. Does their approach limit them to the types of businesses they go into? What is the importance of portfolio construction? How they manage venture and corporate funds. The reason behind the decision to Invest majorly in east Africa. What is distinctive and differentiative about their thesis? Why are they in Africa? The Technicalities of raising money from corporates. How to manage the investor/investee relationship. What is Dustyn’s opinion on Exits? Their plans for 2019 and how it will create opportunities for other investors. An introduction to corporate venture. And more Selected links from this episode
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| #64, On building an online marketplace in Africa: not as easy as it looks. Adam Grunewald, CEO & Co-Founder at Lynk | 21 Jan 2019 | 01:11:11 | |
Adam Grunewald is the co-founder and CEO of Lynk, a platform designed to provide technology-based solutions for the massive informal labour sectors in Kenya. Adam has worked at Google as a project manager on new and emerging projects in the United States and Kenya. Driven by the urge to create a reliable employment system for manual workers in Kenya, he created Lynk in late 2015. Lynk has raised $1m in funding and is currently fundraising. In this episode you’ll learn: Adam’s love for Kenya and how he began living in the country How was Lynk ideated? Why Lynk sticks to a manual vetting process for labour getting on their platform How to ensure a successful match between demand and supply? What is the difference between the Lynk model and an open marketplace? The difference between a horizontal and vertical marketplace What are the three questions you have to answer before building an online marketplace? How to ensure your total addressable market is big enough for scale Dealing with quality control in a lead generation market place How do you minimize platform leakages? How does Lynk reduce friction for platform users? The disadvantages of scaling prematurely And more Selected links from this episode Selected books from this episode Don’t miss new episodes of Building the Future Podcast Building The Future Podcast Season 3 is sponsored by Flutterwave Flutterwave drives growth for banks and businesses across Africa through digital payment technology. You can learn more about their activities
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| #63, Lesson in humility. Building business in emerging market. Ekechi Nwokah, CEO & Founder at Mines.Io | 14 Jan 2019 | 01:28:55 | |
Ekechi Nwokah is the CEO and founder at mines.io, a startup that provides technology infrastructure which enable local institutions such as banks, mobile phone operators, retailers in emerging market to offer credit to their customers. Mines use a combination of big data, AI and Machine learning algorithm to provide on-demand credit ratings and decision-making where there is no existing credit history. In 2018, Mines raised $13 million Series A funding from several VC within and outside Africa. I have a strong view and criticism against micro-lending businesses, especially in places where the poor pay disproportionate high interest rate, Ekechi made a strong counter argument to my criticism, and offered good explanation that changed my mind on a lot of them. Ekechi has PhD in computer engineering, and has extensive experience working as a software engineer at Amazon. In this episode you’ll learn: Lessons from his early days as an upcoming musician in United States How he fought depression after his music career did not take off How was MINE-IO ideated? Why did he go back to paid employment for 8 years? How and why did his milk importation business from Uganda to Nigeria fail? What were the challenges? That Ekechi tried for ten years to create a successful business before he finally hit with Mines.io What was driving him in the midst of all that failure and challenges? Moving back to Nigeria, the challenges and overcoming them. How to mitigate business risks without the support of a strong legal system. Why does he think the banks do not need to be disrupted? The importance of local founders in building the Nigerian future The importance of partnerships in the success of a business At Mines.io, how do they intend to deal with the challenge of people not paying their loans? What delivers business success in Nigeria? Taking tech built in Nigeria outside the continent And more Selected links from this episode Echo VC Singularity Trans sahara Greenhouse capital Flutterwave Paystack Interswitch 9mobile
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| #62, Afonja, 18th century Oyo Empire and the dynamics of power with Tunde Leye. Author, Afonja The Rise | 07 Jan 2019 | 01:38:02 | |
Tunde Leye is the author of four novels, including his latest: Afonja, The Rise. He began his writing as a blogger during his mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Tunde ran this blog for three years during which he wrote seven series including wildly popular Finding Hubby. He studied Computer Science at the University of Lagos and tried numerous things including music and lecturing. In this episode you’ll learn: The process of publishing books in Nigeria, challenges and opportunities The two publishing options available to a Nigerian writer How do you know if your work is good as a writer? How was Tunde able to self-publish successfully? How to make your writing a product The importance of checks and balances The difference between a strong system and a strong leader A breakdown of his book - Afonja, The Rise What the sequels you can expect from Tunde? A brief but thorough history of the old Oyo empire And more Frequent Yoruba words in the podcast and their meanings Alaafin - King of the old Oyo empire Aremo - Crown prince Bashorun Gaa - Military leader in old Oyo empire Oyo Mesi - King making council of the old Oyo empire Ajele - Loyalists to the Alaafin Selected books from this episode
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| #61, Teaching girls how to code. How to democratise opportunities. Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin, Founder at Pearls Africa Foundation | 17 Dec 2018 | 01:33:41 | |
Abisoye Ajayi-Akinfolarin is the founder of Pearls Africa Foundation. Pearls Africa Foundation is a non-governmental organization that provides young girls living in underserved communities through training in technology, skill acquisitions and mentorship. One of their projects, “GirlsCoding” has reached more than 400 beneficiaries, including girls from orphanages and correctional homes, in addition to young women fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency. Abisoye was recently named “CNN Hero of the Year”. This year, she joins nine other people in the world who will receive $10,000 in support of their heroic endeavours. In this episode you’ll learn: How she fought the stigma of not gaining admission into the university on time Her struggle to gain admission into the university How did she turn to programming as a succour during these times? Abisoye thinks a lack of education makes you voiceless. Find out why That she was delayed for two extra years after becoming a university student Her frustrations about wanting to travel outside the country for greener pastures How did she learn to code without a background in sciences? How to combine schooling and working efficiently About her first trial at registering a business Why is volunteering so important to growth? The difficulty in getting access to the Makoko community About her nomination for CNN Heroes How the Makoko girls built a working product What are the next projects Abisoye and her team have in mind? And more Selected links from this episode
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| #60, How ALAT team built a new bank from the old. Why innovation requires bold leadership. Nnamdi Azodo, Product Owner at ALAT | 10 Dec 2018 | 01:01:16 | |
Nnamdi Azodo is a product owner at ALAT by Wema bank, Africa’s first mobile-only bank. ALAT is a fully digital bank in Nigeria, designed to help customers save more. A savings account can totally be opened in 5 minutes with a debit card delivered. To open an ALAT account, you need your BVN, a phone number, email address and a few documents. Nnamdi joined Wema Bank as a youth corps member during his mandatory 1 year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) period. After his service, he stayed on in the bank for a couple of years before being drafted into the initial 13-man team that gave birth to ALAT. ALAT was launched on May 2nd 2017, and as at November this year they have almost 400 thousand accounts. In this episode you’ll learn: The history behind Wema bank becoming a regional bank and later expanding operations to become a national bank. How ALAT was ideated within the bank itself. The difficulties tied to incubating a bank within a bank Why did Wema bank decide to build ALAT? What were the different options they tried before settling for ALAT? Nnamdi thinks “innovation can be scary”. Why does he seem to think so? ALAT chose to go after a small segment of the market. Find out why The Nigerian banking industry is subject to numerous regulations. How were they able to scale through? The challenges of innovating inside a corporate The importance of simplicity in building a new product. What are the differences in the culture of ALAT and that of Wema bank? The cost of acquiring users and their acquisition process. How they were able to modify the Paypal referral model to grow ALAT effectively What are their plans to innovate for startups in the near future? How to build on the infrastructure of a national bank. The results, challenges and solutions of their Facebook onboarding trial And more Selected Books from this episode Selected links from this episode
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| #59 Olumide Soyombo | 03 Dec 2018 | 01:03:55 | |
Olumide Soyombo is the Co-Founder of BlueChip Technologies. BlueChip Technologies is a systems integrator specialized in Data Warehousing, Analytics and Business Intelligence Solutions. Olumide is also the co-founder at Leadpath Nigeria, a seed capital fund that specializes in providing short, medium and long-term funding to small and medium-sized start-up businesses. They have invested in companies like Paystack, Fashpa, Piggybank among others. He is a systems engineering graduate from the University of Lagos and holds a masters in Business and Information Technology from Aston University. In this episode you’ll learn: What got him interested in angel investing? The usefulness of having mentor networks How did BlueChip Technologies come about? What were the first businesses they invested in? Which is more important when building a product? Scalability or Profitability? The evolution of the Nigerian startup ecosystem How did they raise $1million without actually looking to raise money? Olumide is focused on tech consumer based products. Find out why What was the flaw with their initial accelerator model? The selection criteria for the accelerator Olumide has written a lot of cheques. Some succeeded and others did not. Which businesses survived the cheques he wrote and why? What is the risk of focusing on profitability at the expense of growth? How they became profitable within a very short time How big data helps businesses How the invention of ai and machine learning is shaping their business model Learn about Blueprime a new product they developed and are pushing out to the market The biggest challenge he thinks founders face in Nigeria in being able to sell Why repeatedly backed the Piggybank founders And more Selected Books from this episode Selected links from this episode
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| #58, Investing in the African tech ecosystem. Lexi Novitske, Principal Investment Officer at Singularity Investments | 26 Nov 2018 | 00:51:35 | |
In 2012 Lexi Novitske moved to Nigeria from The United States. Lexi worked for Verod Capital Management, a Nigeria-based private equity firm. Prior to joining Verod, she had spent her career developing an expertise in financial services through her time at New York-based Sandler O’Neill Asset Management. In 2014, Lexi joined Singularity Investments as the Principal Investment Officer where she oversees the firm’s operations in Africa. In this episode you’ll learn: Why Lexi decided to move to Africa from the United States The key unique qualities unique to the Nigerian tech market What were the key assumptions Lexi had about the Nigerian market before coming here? How many of them have proved to be true? How to deal with the barriers to infrastructure and regulation The difficulty of the African market “In this market, the management or entrepreneurs drive the success of the business”. What does Lexi mean by this? What are the disadvantages of giving away too much equity as a founder? How much power the Telcos wield in this ecosystem Despite numerous challenges, why did Lexi choose to stay in the African market? Why did she move from Private Equity to Venture Capital Investment.’ The crucial differences between Venture Capital Investment and Private Equity What do investors look out for in early-stage deals? How private equity works What is Lexi’s personal thesis about the African ecosystem? Find out the kind of entrepreneurs she wants to back And more Selected links in this episode Flutterwave Paystack Andela Singularity Investments Wifi.ng Cars45 Selected books from this episode Anti fragility Profit first
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| #57, Bootstrapping, testing assumptions and building for growth. Frederik Obasi, Co-Founder at Hypebuzz | 19 Nov 2018 | 01:12:23 | |
Frederik Obasi is the co-founder of Hypebuzz, a platform that connects top-tier influencers with businesses looking to build their brand and expand their reach. Frederik is also the co-founder and MD of Colour Me Digital, an African sports and entertainment marketing agency that has worked with notable Nigerian football players including Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina, Ademola Lookman; and brands including LG Electronics and DStv. A serial entrepreneur, he also ran a business called UniSmart, a university aggregator and application platform, that enables African students to discover and apply to universities in the UK. Frederik attributes some of his experience to his his time at Rocket Internet. He takes us through the pivot of Unismart to Study Search, the lessons he learnt from raising money, and why he decided to bootstrap his business. In this episode you’ll learn: The similarities and differences between the Nigerian and UK tech ecosystems About his experience at Rocket internet What are the assumptions he made before coming to Nigeria? Did they prove true or false? What is the difference between the way technology is used in Africa and how its used in the UK? The first business he ran when he returned to Nigeria shut down. Find out why What was initial business model they had in mind when they were validating and testing their business idea? “Seed rounds are usually a gamble”. Find out why Frederik think so Importance of content marketing and social media to businesses Why they stopped running the study search businesses before pivoting to their current business How to launch an MVP (minimum viable product) without a tech platform The logic behind building tech platforms to raise money from investors The flexibility of running a business without the pressure that venture capital bring And more Selected Links from this episode Savannah Fund Accelerator DealDey Paystack Andela Rocket Internet Selected Book from this episode
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| #56, Conversation with Joe Abah: governance, reforms and complexities. Country Director at DAI | 12 Nov 2018 | 01:31:39 | |
Dr Joe Abah trained as a barrister in Nigeria. Afterwards, he gained extensive experience in the governance sector, working on public sector reform programs for the U.K. Prime Minister’s Office. He has spent more than 10 years managing governance programs in Nigeria for the U.K. Department for International Development, including on the DAI-led State Partnership for Accountability Responsiveness and Capability project. From 2013 to 2017, Joe took a post with the Government of Nigeria as Head of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform. He has now returned to DAI to serve as Country Director for Nigeria, where he provides technical and strategic inputs to DAI’s existing portfolio of projects, in addition to supporting business development initiatives. In this episode, you’ll learn: About Dr Joe Abah’s childhood growing up in FESTAC part of Lagos The dynamics of population in Nigeria. According to Dr Joe, the population of Abuja for instance defers by time of day What are the difficulties in planning for infrastructure in Nigeria? Why does Nigeria need a fundamental rethink in the societal structure? How does this directly impact our economy? The structure of the current Nigerian constitution and how it creates challenges What is Dr Joe’s political ambition for the future? Why we should or should not consider constitutional reform About Dr Joe’s ideas on achieving social cohesion in Nigeria. What are the key learnings you should know from governance in Nigeria? According to Dr Joe, “Government does a woeful job of explaining to people how things work.” What does this mean? The complexities within government. About Dr Joe’s greatest achievement in public service He is currently the country director for DIA in Nigeria. This is a $600M company. What is the biggest business pain point? And what are their growth metrics? And more Selected links from this episode Selected Book from this episode
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| #55, Government, tech and ecosystems. Akin Oyebode, Executive Secretary at LSETF | 05 Nov 2018 | 01:08:19 | |
Akin Oyebode is the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). The fund was established to provide financial support to residents of Lagos State, for job, wealth creation and to tackle unemployment. Established in 2016, the fund seeks to invest N25 billion over four years. Though he began his career as a Research Assistant at the Lagos Business School, Akin has an extensive record of working in the Nigerian banking industry. Before his appointment, he was the head of SME banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank and prior to that, He was the Head Research, Insight, strategy Department at FCMB.In this episode you’ll learn: The influence of books on him as a young child Akin thinks feminism has been alive in Nigeria for a very long time. The stories have just been untold What was growing up on campus like? Akin says it was a sheltered make-believe life because basic needs were met Why aren’t the best brains Nigeria taking up teaching jobs? What was the effect of the collapse of the Soviet Union on its sustainability as an economic model? The importance of ideology in shaping the economic and political landscape in Nigeria The government and startups have similarities in the problem that they deal with. What is it? How and why governance is more than politics Akin has a long history in the banking sector. How did he make the switch from banking to holding a political position? What does LSETF seek to critically and radically change? What is the runway for LSETF? Is there limitless cash to make the mission a reality? And more Selected Books from this episode Selected links from this episode
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| #54, Disrupting property rentals in Lagos. Obinna Okwodu, Founder and CEO at Fibre.ng | 29 Oct 2018 | 00:46:34 | |
Obinna Okwodu is the founder and CEO of Fibre.ng, a real estate company looking to provide middle-income tenants the option to pay monthly for rented properties. Renting real estate in Lagos is a lot of hassle especially for the demand side. Landlords would typically demand 2 years rent upfront. Fibre set out to solve this problem and is growing fast in Lagos. Obinna who is an MIT graduate and ex-Morgan Stanley Investment Bank analyst has been listed as Forbes as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa in 2018. In this episode you’ll learn: How and when Obinaa got the idea to establish Fibre.ng The previous he ran before Fibre Majority of Fibre’s market are the millennials. How did this happen? How do you build a solution for a particular age bracket? How do you validate your business idea? Obinna shares how they validated their idea using a flash page and a tweet There has been a shift in the problem Fibre is solving. What is it? What were the challenges they faced from property owners? How did they solve these challenges? How will they deal with the challenge of new competition? How to use data for predictive analysis when developing your product What are their expansion plans into other markets? Fibre.ng has raised a total of $800k so far. Find out what their plan is for raising money in the future What is the biggest pain point of this business? And more Selected Books from this episode Selected links from this episode
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| #53, Lessons from leading multinational corporations in Africa. Uche Ofodile, CEO at MTN Liberia | 22 Oct 2018 | 01:31:56 | |
Uche Ofodile is the CEO of MTN Liberia. Uche has extensive expertise in building businesses in emerging markets. Before her role in Liberia, she was the CMO of Vodafone Ghana. In this position, she was instrumental in the transformation of Vodafone Ghana from a struggling business, with deteriorating market share, into the country’s #2 telecommunications provider. Uche is somebody you can call a fixer. Uche was recruited to serve as CEO of Tigo DRC and transform the business. In 18 months, she rebuilt the business strategy, ignited 20% year-over-year growth, positioned the company for rapid market share gains, and revitalized the workforce through strategic cultural and diversity programs. In this episode you’ll learn: The institutional, cultural and economic barriers for a woman to become c-level executives in Africa How are women rising against this challenge? The impact of more women being educated and going to school How technology is accelerating the empowerment of women The importance of the opportunities women get to lead companies The difficulty of being a CEO as a woman with a family Why did Uche move to Nigeria from America? How did she cope with the transitioning? The big shift in internet marketing and how you can be a part of it The importance of partnering with other businesses to reach new markets What are the challenges faces Telco operations in Africa? How do you understand and use customer experience to your advantage? The Telcos plan to expand the ecosystem. How do they seek to do this? Tips on leading an organization that operates in multiple countries. And more Selected books from this episode Homecoming Children of Blood and Bone
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| #52 (Part 2) Building an on-demand platform for African content, Tonje Bakang, Founder and CEO at Afrostream | 15 Oct 2018 | 00:31:40 | |
Tonje Bakang is the Founder and CEO of Afrostream. Afrostream is Afrostream is subscription video on demand (SVOD) which provides millions of fans with unlimited access to Afro-American and African movies and TV series. In 2017, Tonje penned an open letter announcing the closure of the business. The service closed in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in 24 African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo. This is the second part of his two-episode conversation with Dotun. In this episode you’ll learn: Why it was hard to raise money as a startup in Europe How they tested the idea of Afrostreams with a Facebook fan page and got 50k fans without a product The importance of clean design to brand reputation Why did his project not last as long as long as he wanted it to? Affordability or competition? Why adoption rate became a problem? What was the cause of the churn? The intricacies of a subscription-based model Why Tonje chose to go ahead with running Afrostreams even though he knew he had not raised enough money The biggest challenge they had communicating with investors and what you can learn from it The one thing he would do if he had to go back in time The importance of data in the sustainability of VoD Tonje does not intend to try a VoD platform again. What does he have in mind? According to Tonje “I don’t know any VoD platform who is making money”. If no one is making money where’s the value in VoD platforms? What he is doing now after Afrostreams? And more The first part of this conversation was published last week
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| #51 (Part 1) Building an on-demand platform for African content, Tonje Bakang, Founder and CEO at Afrostream | 08 Oct 2018 | 00:30:23 | |
Tonje Bakang is the Founder and CEO of Afrostream. Afrostream is Afrostream is subscription video on demand (SVOD) which provides millions of fans with unlimited access to Afro-American and African movies and TV series. In 2017, Tonje penned an open letter announcing the closure of the business. The service closed in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in 24 African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo. This is the first part of his two-episode conversation with Dotun. The second part will be published next week. In this episode you’ll learn: Why Entrepreneurship is not just about becoming rich About growing up in Paris and his love for the creative industry How did he stumble intro entrepreneurship? Why being an inspiration to other immigrants was important to him How he moved from being an intern to being a music video director Why he decided at 21 to own his own production company The role of mentors in his decision to become an entrepreneur The alternative to studying business if you can’t afford a business school Why testing your MVP is important and how Tonje was able to test his before launching his first business At the age of 24, he launched a comic street show in France. How successful was it? What were the challenges? His pilot for his debut as a movie director failed. Why? What lessons did he learn? What decisions did he make afterwards? Why and when he started attending hackathons and bootcamp to understand how tech works for business Why did he quit from theatre, production company and entertainment? And more
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| #50 (Part 2) Building an on-demand platform for African content, Jason Njoku, Co-founder and CEO at IrokoTV | 01 Oct 2018 | 00:38:27 | |
Jason Njoku is the co-founder at IrokoTv, a web platform that provides paid-for Nigerian films on-demand. It is one of Africa’s first mainstream online movie streaming websites, giving instant access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. Jason is who you can refer to as a serial entrepreneur. With several failed businesses under his belt, he went ahead to create what is largely regarded as the “Netflix of Africa” Jason founded IrokoTv alongside his friend and then flatmate, Bastian Gotter. See Bastian’s interview on IrokoTv here. This episode is the first of 2-part conversation I had with Jason at his office in Lagos, as part of the mini-series on African video on demand platform. In this episode you’ll learn: When IrokoTv started out, they had no competition. How did they cope with the sudden influx of players in their market? How they had to innovate faster than competitors to maintain their lead in the market What is the importance of winning for small companies? What does winning mean for small companies and why should they focus on it during the initial stages? IrokoTv has raised $40million so far, and yet they have been losing money constanly. According to Jason, Angel investors who invested $80k got bought out for $2.4million. How was this possible? How to raise money from four different investors Why Netflix coming to Nigeria has no impact on their revenue About Jason’s dream to IPO IrokoTv In 2015, they had to let some staff go. Find out why and what they had to do to fix the problem Jason thinks IrokoTv would have died in 2015 if certain action had not been taken. What is it? Why he thinks the FinTech space in Africa is overheated The future of tech ecosystem in Nigeria People in early stage companies have a massive valuation disconnect from reality. And more | |||
| #49 Building an on-demand platform for African content, Jason Njoku, Co-founder and CEO at IrokoTV | 24 Sep 2018 | 00:44:31 | |
Jason Njoku is the co-founder at IrokoTv, a web platform that provides paid-for Nigerian films on-demand. It is one of Africa’s first mainstream online movie streaming websites, giving instant access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles. Jason is who you can refer to as a serial entrepreneur. With several failed businesses under his belt, he went ahead to create what is largely regarded as the “Netflix of Africa” Jason founded IrokoTv alongside his friend and then flatmate, Bastian Gotter. See Bastian’s interview on IrokoTv here. This episode is the first of 2-part conversation I had with Jason at his office in Lagos, as part of the mini-series on African video on demand platform. In this episode you’ll learn: About the early beginnings of IrokoTv and what brought about the idea The moment Jason realized he was unemployable and set out to run his own businesses About his struggles growing up and keeping himself n the university. How he became independent as a student The different businesses he tried and why they failed How his investment in hotels.ng helped shape the business Jason made one of the classic mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make. He built a platform before finding out if people wanted the product or not. The importance of company culture The initial revenue model of IrokoTV How were they able to compete with the thriving piracy market on Nollywood movies? Why they raised money even though they were making a lot of money How they spent the $3million they got from Tiger Global in 5 months
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| #48. Building an on-demand platform for African content, Bastian Gotter, Co-founder at Iroko TV | 17 Sep 2018 | 00:44:46 | |
Bastian Gotter is the co-founder of Iroko TV, one of the earliest, most successful and largest video on demand platform for Nigerian movies. Bastian founded the business alongside with his university flat-mate, Jason Njoku, who is the CEO of the company, and a later guest in this show. This is not Bastian and Jason Njoku’s first project together. In mid-2010, Bastian invested in several businesses that Jason was running in Manchester, England, many of which failed. But they stuck together as partners and Bastian invested in Iroko TV after Jason started it, and he then moved to Lagos and joined as a full-time co-founder. This episode is the first of 2-part conversation I had with Bastian in Cape Town, as part of the mini-series on African video on demand platform In the second part of this episode you’ll learn: The current challenges IrokoTV is facing How Nigeria is becoming close to the west in their content consumption Bastian thinks the answer to business growth is sub saharan Africa “Always”. Why does he seem to think so? Why he thinks you cannot make a lot of money in the sub-saharan African VoD market The importance of timing when launching a new business. How Spark was created on the back of Iroko and how they invested in companies like hotels.ng, tolet.com.ng, drinks.ng and paystack. Why and how irokoTv raised money every year Why he left IrokoTv. (He still sits on the board and is a shareholder) What he is doing now. And more
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| #47. Building an on-demand platform for African content, Bastian Gotter, Co-founder at Iroko TV | 10 Sep 2018 | 00:41:57 | |
Bastian Gotter is the co-founder of Iroko TV, one of the earliest, most successful and largest video on demand platform for Nigerian movies. Bastian founded the business alongside with his university flat-mate, Jason Njoku, who is the CEO of the company, and a later guest in this show. This is not Bastian and Jason Njoku’s first project together. In mid-2010, Bastian invested in several businesses that Jason was running in Manchester, England, many of which failed. But they stuck together as partners and Bastian invested in Iroko TV after Jason started it, and he then moved to Lagos and joined as a full-time co-founder. This episode is the first of 2-part conversation I had with Bastian in Cape Town, as part of the mini-series on African video on demand platform In this episode you’ll learn: The first business he bet on went bankrupt He didn’t go into entrepreneurship early. But Bastian says he doesn’t regret it. He came in at the right time. Why? Bastian isn’t exactly sure how much money he actually put in. There was no contract or incorporation or vesting period. How did they reach that level of trust? It was a personal journey for Jason to make it a success and Bastian thinks that kind of determination is backable. Why does he think so? How did they raise their first investment? What was unique about the process? How much did they raise? How piracy did Nollywood a favour A venture capitalist has to be convinced about your passion and determination for your business to succeed before giving you money Why a company without a founder is like a company without a heart The importance of a founder’s emotional connection to a business Why does Bastian love investing? What is the most interesting thing about being a VC? And more
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| Building the Future Season 3 Intro | 03 Sep 2018 | 00:09:51 | |
Telling the African story is not new. For a very long time, Africans have expressed the narrative of their culture, beliefs, fears and exploits using stories passed from one generation to the next. Through oral traditions and accounts of eyewitnesses, we know about the riches of Mansa Musa, the exploits of Sango, the majesty of Nefertiti, and the conquests of Shaka Zulu. What has changed is the medium through which these stories are told. In this season I will be chronicling part of that story. I will be starting with a mini-series that features some of the key figures that have built video on demand platforms specifically for African content. Sponsors Season 3 is in partnership with Flutterwave. Flutterwave’s business is about connecting global businesses to Africa and building new businesses out of Africa through payment and technology. All opinions expressed by me and the podcast guests are solely ours and does not reflect the opinion of Flutterwave. To get started, go to Credits Truth don die by Femi Kuti Eddie Quansa by Peacocks Guitar Band Ti Oluwa Nile by Mainframe Studios | |||
| Building the Future Podcast : Season Two Finale | 21 Jun 2018 | 00:10:56 | |
Its been a great pleasure to do this. To have conversations with interesting, smart and awesome people who are shaping the future of Africa. This show has been one of the most exciting things I’ve done as an entrepreneur. It’s fun and I get to learn from a lot of people. We’ve now come to the end of season 2. And I want to take this time to reflect on some of the lessons I learned in the conversations I’ve had. I will be touching on 4 of them. These not all the lessons learned in this season, its a snippet. It’s my reflection of some of the things that stood out for me. And I’m sure you may have a longer list than me. I’m grateful to the entrepreneurs and thought leaders who shared their stories with me. I'm also grateful to the British Council in Nigeria for partnering with us in season 2. Their financial support went a long way in making this season a success. So many thanks to Tomi Soyinka and Maria Williams from the council. Season 3 starts on July 30th. So see you then! | |||
| Episode 46, How to launch a startup in two African countries. Prince Kwame Agbata, co-founder at Coliba | 11 Jun 2018 | 00:27:40 | |
Prince Kwame Agbata is the co-founder of Coliba, It is an early stage waste management platform that leverages on SMS to help users separate their waste, schedule and request a pickup and get waste picked at the comfort of users home. Coliba pays the user for the waste generated. Prince is a first class graduate of Information Technology, being the only member of his family to have completed university, his initial goal was to end up working for Google Ghana. As fate would have it, things changed for him. In 2016, Coliba won the British Council Ghana Investor’s pitch session. In this episode you’ll learn: How Prince lost his close friend due to defective waste disposal system in Ghana How did he cope with this tragedy? That prince met his three other co-founders on a bus during a trip Prince was the first member of his family to complete university education. How did this shape him? The importance of partnering with established companies and how they can help your business Prince and his co-founders have an ambitious 5 year plan. What is it? Most businesses face the challenge of breaking into a new market after being successful in one. Coliba currently runs in two markets, and they’ve done so from inception. Find out how? How to run a company with four co-founders in four different companies. Coliba has a co-founder each in Ghana, Nigeria, Abidjan and Burkina Faso. And more Selected links from this episode Google Ghana British Council Wecyclers EcoFuture
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| Episode 45, Transforming African businesses through data. Timothy Kotin, co-founder at SuperFluid | 04 Jun 2018 | 01:00:07 | |
Timothy Kotin is the co-founder of SuperFluid, a data solution platform helping businesses to harness untapped potential through predictive data analytics, business intelligence and dynamic customer insights leveraging both traditional and alternative data sources. Timothy grew up in Tamale, Ghana and had to flee along with his family as a child due to ethnic violence and unrest in the 90s. Kotin holds an MPhil. in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Harvard University. Prior to co-founding Superfluids Labs, he worked as a research scientist at IBM as part of a team which developed financial services innovations for multinational enterprise clients in Africa. In this episode, you’ll learn: How Timothy was able to rise above the trauma of nearly being killed as a teenager The many ways businesses can take advantage of data SuperFluid has some challenges they’ve been dealing with. Listen to Timothy explain What is the importance of value proposition to your business? How and why should you create more value for your clients? “You should frame the outcome, rather than the tool”. What does this mean for your business? About SuperFluid’s pricing model and what you can learn from it Timothy seems to think machine learning helps computer learn data better than humans. Find out why About Timothy’s dream for a scholarship foundation And more Selected book from this episode Selected links from this episode
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| Episode 44, Using tech to hold government accountable. Seun Onigbinde, co-founder at BudgIT | 29 May 2018 | 01:23:02 | |
Seun Onigbinde is the co-founder of BudgIT, a non-governmental organization that helps citizens access and understand public budgets. BudgIT breaks down the national budget in simplistic charts, and track contracts and projects the government are working on. This is a classic case of doing good with tech. In 2012, he was awarded the Future Awards prize for Science and Tech Innovation. In 2014, the Omidyar Network invested $400,000 in BudgIT, In January 2017, BudgIT raised an additional $3 million grant from Omidyar Network and Gates Foundation. Seun is an ex-banker whose goal was to become the CEO. Along the line his goals changed after coming second in a hackathon organised by CCHUB. In this episode, you’ll learn: How Seun got the idea for BudgIT while working for Firstbank Seun’s initial dream was to become the CEO of a bank. Why did that dream change? What is the spirit of timing? Seun referred to it as a crucial factor in the success of Budgit How do you determine the right time to launch your product/startup? After the hackathon where BudgIT was born, Seun forgot about the idea. Why did he go back to it? Seun was reluctant to leave his paid employment to run BudgIT full time. But he eventually did? What was the deciding factor? What can you learn from this challenge he had? Why every Nigerian should be involved in governance? The importance of believing in Nigerian youths Seun said technology gave BudgIT a big jump. What did he mean by this? Seun’s first startup failed. Why did it fail? The importance of hackathons and how you can take advantage of them That Seun is interested in politics and looks to going in at some point And more Selected links from this episode Selected book from this episode
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| Episode 43, How to attract investors without trying. Opeyemi Awoyemi, Co-founder at Jobberman | 21 May 2018 | 01:11:27 | |
Opeyemi Awoyemi is a tech entrepreneur with 10 years experience in internet startup business development. He has founded and managed three technology startups including WhoGoHost, a web solutions company. He is also the co-founder of Jobberman. Jobberman is Nigeria’s largest job search portal with over one million job seekers and 10,000 companies registered. Jobberman’s mission is to solve the unemployment problem in Nigeria. Opeyemi Awoyemi calls himself an ‘unrepentant entrepreneur’ and is enthusiastic about Africa, web startups and any innovative business idea. His life goal is to be a world business leader in the tech space and to die empty.In this episode you’ll learn; Opeyemi’s journey into entrepreneurship and his first business – a design agency – founded while he was a student at the university How he was able to intern at his own company as a student How Jobberman was ideated and how the name came to be Why the initial excitement to launch Jobberman fizzled out and how one of his co-founders helped put them back on track At what stage of the business did Tiger Global reach out to them? How were they able to get investors in the early stages without trying? It was a struggle getting job seekers and companies on the platform. How did Opeyemi and his team hack this? How they were able to track growth in the early days How to validate your business idea Why should you focus on SEO for your new business? How did this help Jobberman? And more Selected links from this episode Selected book per episode
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| Episode 42, Connecting 25000 small farmers to a wider market. Nasir Yammama, Founder at Verdant | 13 May 2018 | 00:49:20 | |
This was a live podcast with an audience Nasir Yammama is the founder of Verdant, an agritech platform that aims at providing agricultural data science, market information, managerial support, and access to financial services to rural farmers for improved food production using mobile phones. Verdant though a simple low-cost technology, is solving one of the biggest challenges and transforming Nigeria’s agriculture sector. Verdant is working with Oxfam and GIZ to help 25,000 farmers double or triple their yields. Nasir’s passion for Nigeria's agricultural development has taken him to unexpected heights – from being mentored by world-renowned business tycoon, Sir Richard Branson, to landing on the Forbes Africa 30 under 30 list. In 2017, Nasir was recognized by The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme for his work in AgricTech. In this episode you’ll learn: How Nasir’s background influenced his interest and decision to go into agriculture Nasir started building his business prototype while he was in the university. Why didn’t the prototype work out? How did they solve this challenge? As at the time of this interview, Verdant had 18,000 farmers on the platform. Learn how they got the farmers on the platform and the challenges Why does Nasir think the banks are not in tune in farmers? Why the pyramid of Kano disappeared and Nasir’s opinion on whether it should come back or not. The validity of problem solving and how it can propel your business forward. What you need to do to get government intervention for your business Nasir’s goals for Verdant and how he intend to achieve them. And more Selected links from this episode Selected book from this episode
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| Episode 41. Art, tech and polygamy. Lola Shoneyin, Director at Book Buzz Foundation | 08 May 2018 | 01:12:43 | |
This was a live podcast with an audience Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet and author who launched her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, in the UK in May 2010 She is currently the director of Book Buzz Foundation, Nigeria- a non-governmental organisation whose main aims are promoting literacy through the creation of reading programmes for children and developing reading spaces. The foundation also organises the Ake Arts and Book Festival, an annual literary, cultural and arts event that takes place in Abeokuta, Nigeria Lola is also an award-winning writer and a cultural activist. In this episode you’ll learn: How she developed a relationship with the late Bola Ige. In 1996, she got 10000 from Bola ige to publish her poem Lola wrote her first literary piece when she was six years old. How? How did Lola cope as a 6 year old boarding school student in England? The importance of making a connection between a book and the writer What is the advantage of engaging with and consuming literature at a very early age? “It is important to be in a space where you love what you are doing” What did Lola mean by this? The difference between approval and acceptance The biggest tragedy of the country. What is it? How does it affect creative young people? Ake festival has always held in Abeokuta. Why is it moving to Lagos? What is the vision for the festival? Lola is working on a reader app and an innovation hub for creatives. What should you expect? The importance of data in leading the future Lola says she is jealous of scientists. What does she mean? And more Selected links from this episode Sterling bank Amazon Kindle Roving heights Ake festival Select book from this episode
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