Founders Connect: Recent Episodes
Founders Connect
Founders Connect is on a mission to document the stories, journeys and ideologies of leading and emerging African entrepreneurs and operators.
The podcast aims to create meaningful insights that can be shared and beneficial to other founders, entrepreneurs, knowledge seekers, consumers and the world in general - targeting a wide variety of audiences.
Bayo 'Lion' Adedeji is the current Group CEO of Wakanow, Africa's one-stop shop for cheap flights, hotel reservations and airport pickups. Before Wakanow, Bayo was a Senior Finance Manager at Amazon, in charge of fulfilment supporting product teams in 16 countries.During his segment at #FoundersConnect Live in London, Bayo shared his insights on the excellent execution, and doing things well.If you want to learn more about Bayo's journey, watch our interview with him here - https://youtu.be/ifbJMZiuhgI?si=3rTwAtH_jV1-kVxs
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Tosin Eniolorunda is a leading innovator in the African Fintech space. He is the founder and CEO of Moniepoint Inc, a global, all-in-one, digital financial services provider with operations in Nigeria and an ongoing expansion into other emerging markets.
Since 2019, Moniepoint Inc. has powered over a million businesses, offering payment, banking, credit, and business management tools.In this episode of Founders Connect (but Live!), we spoke to Tosin about his journey so far
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“My own rule to networking is to give. You gain when you’re a giver” In this episode of Founders Connect, Damilare Ogunleye, founder of Foodlama, shared his insights during his Keynote session in London about the importance of networking for growth especially as an entrepreneur. Tune in!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
In this Founders Connect episode, our host, Peace Itimi, sits down with the incredible Femi Iromini, the brain behind the YC-backed Moni Africa. Get ready for a candid conversation that goes beyond the boardroom!What's on the agenda?- Femi's backstory- Overcoming lending challenges in Africa- From Geology to Crowdfunding: Femi's fundraising journey- Top Entrepreneurial lessons learnedAnd much more.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Obi Emetarom is a serial tech entrepreneur who has focused his entire career on the Fintech space in Africa. For his first venture in 2004 he co-founded Parkway Projects to provide fintech solutions for commercial Banks in Nigeria. After exiting, he cofounded Appzone in 2008 and since then has created several innovative startups within Appzone.In November 2022, Appzone rebranded to Zone, a regulated blockchain payment infrastructure company. Obi and the team are now super-focused on connecting every monetary store of value using blockchain to make very simple user interactions that ordinary people can relate to.This episode of Founders Connect is supported by IRL, an original podcast from Mozilla, made for people who are into or build AI, and develop tech policies. Mozilla IRL is available wherever you listen to your podcasts. For more information, visit https://irlpodcast.org/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Tosin Eniolorunda is the co-founder and CEO of Moniepoint (previously TeamApt), a global, all-in-one, digital financial services provider with operations in Nigeria and an ongoing expansion into other emerging markets. Since 2019, Moniepoint Group’s technology has powered over a million businesses, offering all the payment, banking, credit, and business management tools they need to succeed. In this episode of Founders Connect that was filmed live at Founders Connect: Live in London, Tosin shares his story with the world. This episode is supported by IRL, an original podcast from Mozilla, made for people who are into AI or develop tech policies. Listen to Mozilla IRL wherever you listen to your podcasts. For more information, visit https://irlpodcast.org/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Eloho Omame is the co-founder of First Check, a Venture Capital firm giving women-led companies their first seed investments. Before First Check, she was the MD and CEO of Endeavor, a company dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs to scale. In this Founders Connect interview, Eloho shares her unique journey and all the varied facets that have contributed to her current phase. She talks to us about growing up in a wealthy family, studying in the UK, starting her career as an investment banker, moving back to Nigeria and the reasons behind it, building her companies, and finally, the mistakes and lessons learned along the way. This episode is supported by IRL, an original podcast from Mozilla, made for people who are into AI or develop tech policies. Listen to Mozilla IRL wherever you listen to your podcasts. For more information, visit https://irlpodcast.org/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Born in Togo, and raised in Ireland, Joe Kinvi, the founding partner of HoaQ club, has lived a bold and audacious life. In this episode of Founders Connect, he walks us through the many changes and decisions he made that have pushed him to success. From learning english to working at E&Y, starting Touchtech (acquired by Stripe) and founding HoaQ. This episode is supported by IRL, an original podcast from Mozilla, made for people who are into AI or develop tech policies. Listen to Mozilla IRL wherever you listen to your podcasts. For more information, visit https://irlpodcast.org/--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
For over a decade, Fola Olatunji David has been immersed in the Tech and Business world. He has worked in so many different industries, from IT and consulting to e-commerce and education. He has also contributed immensely to the business scene in Africa through his work in VC. In this episode, Fola shares his experience working at Amazon Web Services, Google, etc. and we get to learn a little bit more about his journey and work as a founder, investor and key operator in the African Tech Ecosystem.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Damilare is a top technology and digital marketing professional who lives in the UK. He is the founder of Foodlama, a browser Extension that helps you easily find food that matches your preferences when shopping for groceries online. Before Foodlama, he co-founded Hazina, a company that delivered product samples from fast-moving consumer goods (FCMG) brands to consumers for feedback. In this episode of Founders Connect, we get to learn Damilare's life and journey.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Softcom is a thinking company that gives companies the tools to help them grow by giving them access to better banking, helping them sell and receive payments seamlessly, learn and grow. In this Tell-All interview, Yomi Adedeji, Softcom’s CEO and Co-founder, shares his story. Growing up in a Nigerian family with parents who gave him a level of independence, he learned how to think, attended Covenant University and met his co-founders. His story is full of people, excitement, and passion, qualities that are present in the services provided by his companies today. He also talks about the journey so far. Building Eyowo, a rapidly rising fintech product, mistakes made along the way, and lessons for the future. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Meet Kemi Olawoye, the Founder and CEO of BabyMigo, a Nigerian femtech startup founded in 2017, which is increasing the amount of access families have to to quality information surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. They have amassed over 250,000 users on their platform, and are steadily growing. In this interview, Kemi shares her story. Growing up in a family of loving parents, studying physiotherapy, starting BabyMigo and the road to adoption. There is so much to learn from her, so sit tight and enjoy!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/founders-connect/message
Erika Brodnock is an award-winning entrepreneur, philanthropist, angel investor, and keynote speaker. She is the founder of Kami, an app that provides support and counseling for working parents. Before Kami, she founded Karisma Kidz, a company focused on producing games and toys for kids. She is also the Co-founder and Head of Research for Extend Ventures, a company committed to reducing bias in the early stage of businesses and diversifying financial access and support for this scalable businesses. Outside of her companies, she is very passionate about inclusion, diversity and political sciences and works on several different projects along these lines.
In this episode of Founders Connect, we will learn more about Erika, her interesting life journey, her companies, motivations and more!
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Bradley Want is the VP of Growth at Kuda, a fintech company operating in Nigeria and expanding to other countries which has over 3 million customers worldwide and is valued at $500 million as at August 2021. In this episode of Founders Connect, we discuss diverse areas of mobile company growth, Bradley’s experience working at Kuda, growth stacks and channels, team structure and more!
To learn more about Kuda, check out their website and download the Kuda app: https://www.kuda.com/
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Meet Kemi Olawoye, the Founder and CEO of BabyMigo, a Nigerian femtech startup founded in 2017, which is increasing the amount of access families have to to quality information surrounding pregnancy and parenthood. They have amassed over 250,000 users on their platform, and are steadily growing. In this interview, Kemi shares her story. Growing up in a family of loving parents, studying physiotherapy, starting BabyMigo and the road to adoption. There is so much to learn from her, so sit tight and enjoy!
To learn more about BabyMigo, check here: https://babymigo.com/
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Peter Bunor Jr. is the Co-founder and Growth Lead at Field Intelligence, a pharmaceutical supply chain that helps governments and businesses grant access to healthcare in the fastest-growing parts of the world. He shares his life journey with us in this episode of Founders Connect. From being born into the family of a Nollywood veteran actor to becoming a child actor himself, and gradually finding his way in life, to discovering a passion for business and helping others. Throughout the interview, his willingness to try new things and his growth mindset stand out as key takeaways.
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Mariam Jimoh is the founder and CEO of Oja, a one-stop shop for cultural foods. Oja’s mission is to radically reshape groceries and make foods from all cultures accessible from anywhere in the world. Mariam was recognised in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Technology list, and her company also recently raised 3.4 million dollars in funding. In this interview, Mariam shares her life and journey with us. From being born to Nigerian parents to learning all the useful skills that helped her in her entrepreneurship journey along to way, to founding a food startup that connects Afrocarribean people in the diaspora with ingredients to help them cook beloved meals from their home countries.
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Ijeoma Akwiwu is the Chief Operations Officer and CO-Founder of Pivo, a digital bank for trade in Africa. Before Pivo, she studied law at Lagos State University, then worked for several years as a firm lawyer, before getting into corporate practice as an In-house lawyer at Gilmor Engineering. After a few years of practice, she attended the University of Glasgow to get a Master's degree in software development.
In this episode of Founders Connect, we will get to know more about Ijeoma, her journey, and what she's building at Pivo.
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Preston Timeyin Ideh is Co-founder and CEO of Stears, an Intelligence startup providing data and insights on local (and global) affairs for enterprises and individuals. Stears' mission is to become the world's most trusted source of African data, insight and data collection tools for businesses, financial and policy professionals.
Before founding Stears, Preston worked as a corporate lawyer for several years, and co-founded LSE Africa Summit, an annual conference that highlights business developments in Africa.
In this interview, Preston shares his journey, from Secondary school in Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, to building a Startup that has raised a seed investment of $600,000 and has been selected for Google’s Black Founders Fund cohort II. You will love it!
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Moe "Moechievous" Odele, is the Founding Partner at Vazi Legal and the founder of Scale My Hustle. Vazi Legal is a foremost tech-focused law firm with practices in Nigeria and the United States. They provide legal services to tech startups, venture capital funds, and other organisations. Scale My Hustle is a social enterprise focused on helping entrepreneurs build better-structured businesses by providing educational content and an online community for current and aspiring entrepreneurs.
In this interview, Moe shares her life and her career journey. From her experience growing up in a polygamous family to studying Law, delving into tech law, and being a human rights advocate.
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Tomilola Majekodunmi is the Founder and CEO of Bankly, a Nigerian fintech startup digitizing cash for the unbanked. She has over ten years of experience in the finance industry, having worked as an investment banker and analyst for the majority of her career. In this Interview, Tomilola shares her journey with us, from studying physiology at the University to closing $2 million dollar seed rounds for a product set to improve the lives of Nigerians nationwide.
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Moses Enenwali is the Co-founder and CEO of Topship, a logistics service provider helping people send items to over 200 cities all over the world. Before Topship, he worked in Africa Courier Express (ACE) and Sendbox, experiences that influenced his decision to build. In this interview, Moses tells us more about his person, his career trajectory, his experience going through YCombinator and his passion for building with like-minded people, or "animal spirits" like he calls them. It's a great interview, so sit back and enjoy!
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Adia Sowho is the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Nigeria, a multinational mobile telecommunications company that operates in many African and Asian countries. She is a powerhouse business expert, that is full of "masterclasses" as she says in this episode. Before MTN, Adia acquired a lot of experience working in different capacities at different companies. She started her career as a Radio Frequency engineer in US Cellular, did Consulting in Deloitte, and worked at Etisalat Nigeria for nearly eight years as head of strategy, digital media and digital business. She then moved to Migo, where she was the managing director and VP of growth, then worked in Thrive Agric as the CEO, amongst other vital roles.
In this episode of Founders Connect, Adia Sowho shares her inspiring and audacious story with the world. She talks about the importance of confidence and its role in her life, navigating different roles, self-care, and so much more. Her unique perspective and years of experience make her a delight to listen to and learn from. So pick up a pen, sit down, and listen.
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Adetola Onayemi, is the Co-Founder & CEO of Norebase, a digital infrastructure startup that helps individuals expand their businesses with ease. Before Norebase, Tola worked studied Law in the University of Lagos where he graduated with a First Class, and did his Masters in Cambridge. He then worked in an Advisory role for the Nigerian government, was one of the key players in the creation of the AFCTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) and was one of the co-founders of Future Africa. In 2020, he was instrumental to the success of the EndSars Protests that took place in Nigeria.
In this interview, Tola goes into detail concerning life and the experiences he's had so far. His story carries so much grace, but also hard work, a deep appreciation for people and the experiences he's had so far. Tola gives important legal advice to founders, and insightful knowledge to everyone looking to excel in their respective career paths. This is a really amazing interview. Enjoy!
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Olawale Adetula is a senior marketing professional with more than 12 years of experience in media and production, marketing strategy, and e-commerce. His portfolio is varied and interesting, ranging across different fields including Banking, Logistics, Ecommerce and more! He is the founder of TNC Africa, a media production company dedicated to taking African stories to the world. The company is making waves, having been nominated for three AMVCA awards in its first year alone. In this Founders Connect Episode, Wale shares his success story with me. From a background in engineering to a career in tech, then marketing, then content, it's amazing how much of life he's experienced and how delightful his stories are. He shares his background, his career trajectory, his decision to run his company while simultaneously working as an employee, Marketing lessons and many more interesting bits! Enjoy.
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Chimezie Emewulu, is a tech founder with over a decade of experience building tech products. He is the founder of Seamfix, a people & software development company that seamlessly automates processes for productivity and revenue for over 100 million Nigerians. In this podcast episode, Chimezie sits down with me to share his experience building Seamfix, and all the experience he has garnered from being a tech business man for years. He goes into details about the experience he has garnered through the years, and gives a lot of valuable advice to founders and potential founders seeking to build their own companies.
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Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph's Linkedin states that his "north star is to unlock socio-economic prosperity for Africa." He is taking steps to do this through Kippa, a package deal of financial management solutions for small businesses in Africa. Kippa gives merchants easy digital tools to help them run their businesses successfully and provides various services including accounting and banking. Before Kippa, Kennedy lived a robust academic life, he was Nigeria's #1 ranked competitive debater for 2 years, and was awarded and recognized by key political leaders like Sir John Mayor, David Beckham, Theresa May and the Queen of England herself. He also won President Obama's Young African Leaders Fellowship and presented a keynote address at the United Nations Youth Assembly. In this podcast episode, Kennedy shares slices of his incredible journey with me. We discuss his very colourful background, his experience founding Kippa and a lot more! Sit back, and enjoy!
Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_eSVCUTPog&t=7s
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Florence Githinji is the Regional Marketing Manager of YellowCard, a crypto company in Africa that enables its users buy and sell crypto with various payment options. She has an extensive background working in Marketing and a deep understanding of the systems in the East African region. Coming from a background in Journalism, she has established herself in Marketing and has notably worked for Microsoft as a Social Media Manager.
In this episode of Founders Connect, Florence shares her background with me, her career history and trajectory, insights on marketing and specifically crypto marketing in Africa, and advice for women seeking to work in the tech industry. There is so much to learn from her.
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Ben Lyon is the CoFounder and CEO of Hover Developer Services, the parent company of Stax, a simple & secure way to transfer money, buy airtime, & pay bills in Africa without dialling USSD codes or relying on an internet connection.
In this episode of Founders Connect, I ask Ben questions about his background, growing up in Southern America, moving to Africa and acquiring a global perspective and starting a startup that aims at Financial Inclusivity. It is a great discussion, you'll love it.
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Jude Dike has gained so much experience as an engineer, programming professionally for 6 years. He has an Engineering degree in Computer Science from the University of Lagos and has worked on projects with companies locally and internationally revolving around Tech and Finance. He is the founder of GetEquity, a company democratizing access to Startup funding and investment, and encouraging startup founders and customers to connect, thereby building trust.
In this Founders Connect interview, Jude shares his background with me, his career, GetEquity, and more!
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In the last year, riveting news has been circulating on a 19-year old Nigerian founder who has taken the Tech-crypto world by the horns. His name is Njoku Emmanuel, CEO and CoFounder of Lazerpay, a crypto payment gateway startup with the main aim of facilitating crypto payments around the world for businesses and individuals. Lazerpay was launched in Ocotber 2021 alongside CoFounders Abdulfatai Sulaiman and Prosper Ubi.
In this episode of Founders Connect, Njoku shares his background with me. His undeniable passion for coding which has stayed true despite adversity, the many places he has worked at and honed his skill, and his enthusiasm for the future of Lazerpay. I really enjoyed hearing him speak, and I hope you do too.
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Ayo Akindele is the Founder and CEO of Kyshi a payment startup that aims to facilitate transnational money transactions inorder to alleviate the inconveniences attached to sending money across borders. Before becoming a startup founder, he worked for 14 years in the Corporate world as a Sales personnel at Preqin, and was able to grow and learn so much about business in that space.
In this Founders Connect interview, Ayo shares background information about himself, including some curious and fun facts regarding his personal life. He reveals the vision being Kyshi and the philosophy guiding his business, and offers advice to upcoming entrepreneurs and individuals seeking to transition from the corporate world into entrepreneurship, or simply seeking to make something of their lives.
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Koromone “KK” Koroye is the acting editor-in-chief and managing editor at TechCabal, a PanAfrican Publication that seats at the centre of stories and news on the tech ecosystem. She manages TechCabal’s newsroom and the team of reporters & journalists. And in her capacity as acting Editor-in-Chief, oversees the day to day activities and attends events on behalf of TechCabal.
In this episode of Founders Connect, Koromone tells her story: her literary background, her love for her Father, ambling between metropolitan cities (Newyork and Lagos), her experience as a teacher, her tech career from Flutterwave to TechCabal, being a woman in the Nigerian tech space, her passion for leadership, her spiritual life and many more gems. We have an amazing conversation. Enjoy!
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Duncan Muchangi is a Venture capital investor with extensive experience working and starting African technology companies. He is the founder of Unicorn Growth Capital, an early-stage VC firm investing in the future of FinTech & Web3.0 in Africa by funding startups with innovative solutions at the core of their mission. Before Unicorn Growth Capital, Duncan worked at Jumia for five years, and worked, partnered and invested in several other ventures.
In this podcast episode of Founders Connect, Duncan shares his story with us. We gain some insight on the state of the fintech/investment scene in Kenya, plans for the future of VC, and valuable advice that can only have been nurtured by years of experience. Enjoy!
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Marvin Coleby has an interesting background. Born in Paris, raised in the Bahamas, studied in Canada, and now lives in Kenya. His global perspective has influenced his desire for Panafrican Unity and has influenced his vision for Raise, a digital equity management platform, with the aim of bringing "security, transparency and simplicity to the African venture capital space.”
In this podcast episode, Marvin shares his unique perspective regarding running a startup in Africa; his motivations, his passion for equity and diaspora ownership, key milestones, challenges, and problems Raise is trying to solve, and plans for the future. Don't miss it!
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Bunmi Akinyemiju is a serial entrepreneur, investor and CEO of Venture Garden Group (VGG), a high growth technology investment holding company that has incubated and invested in fintech companies that provide innovative solutions in multiple sectors of the African economy. He is also a Founding Partner at GreenHouse Capital (GHC) - the venture arm of the Venture Garden Group which has invested in over 20 innovative fintech companies across Africa like Helium Health, Flutterwave, Migo, Appzone and more.
Bunmi is passionate about transforming Africa through technology and has successfully led several impactful change projects through strategic public and private sector partnerships. He studied Computer Science at Michigan State University, USA. In this Founders Connect video, Bunmi shares his background with me, and his experience across decades, innovating, investing and growing businesses in Africa.
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Kay Akinwumi is an entrepreneur based in London and Nigeria. He has worked as a consultant for various initiatives such as SKy, Patch, and the Labour Party, helping them build tech solutions for their users.
He is the founder of Zazuu, a platform that allows migrants and businesses to send money with the best rates and remittances, and choose what options work best for them. With Zazuu, transferring money is seamless and can be done in a few minutes. It removes the risk and inconvenience of signing up with multiple providers, visiting a money changer or carrying around large amounts of cash.
In this podcast, Kay shares his background, his education in London, his work history before Zazuu, and his plans for Zazuu.
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Ameyaw Debrah is a Ghanaian celebrity blogger, freelance journalist, and reporter. He is the founder of AmeyawDebrah.com, a thriving entertainment website and blog that publishes Ghanaian celebrity news. He earned a bachelor's degree in publishing from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In this podcast, Ameyaw shares his life, journey and career as a media entrepreneur.
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Odun Eweniyi is the Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Piggyvest, a secure online savings platform that is valuable for its flexible savings options. She is also a CoFounder of FirstCheck, an Investor Operative dedicated to aiding women in building companies, and the Feminist Coalition, a group of women that work together for Women's rights and were instrumental to the #EndSars Protests of 2022.
Odun is intelligent, skilled and versatile in her field of operations, with talents ranging from marketing to sales, product management and business development. In this podcast episode, Odun shares her life and journey with me. It's an amazing and inspiring one.
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On Linkedin, Eyitayo describes himself as "really enthusiastic about Web3 and products that digitalize how people learn."
He is the CEO of Utiva, a digital business that aims to change how Africans and people of colour enter the tech industry by assisting learners in transitioning from classrooms to on-the-job learning, and one of the pioneers in the Tech Educational system in Africa.
People from 30 cities around the world are currently being trained by his company. In this episode of Founder's Connect, Peace finds out more about Eyitayo, hie journey, his experience leading Utiva, and valuable advice for people looking to further their educational dreams.
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Godwin Tom is a renowned talent manager, creative entrepreneur and the Chief Executive officer at iManage Africa, a Talent & Events management company set up in 2017. Godwin Tom has worked with or managed artists like MI, Wizkid, Waje, Davido, Rooftop MCs, and many others.
With 10 years in the industry and practical experience at management level for Marketing, Public Relations, Image Consulting, Branding and Publishing; Godwin brings professionalism to the Entertainment industry with an understanding of the demands of a business environment.
In addition to his roles within the entertainment industry, Godwin is a strong supporter of the development of youth. As a result of this, he has developed key mentoring schemes that will enable young men and women keen to join the industry and gain first-hand working experience with The Godwin Tom Company and iManage Africa Entertainment.
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Tosin Faniro-Dada is the Managing Director & CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria. Tosin is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs and helping them scale, not just for the immediate impact this has on their organization but more for the multiplier effect, which confers on the larger society and economy. She has worked with entrepreneurs in various life-cycle stages, supporting them with interventions and resources to help them thrive.
Tosin was the Director, Programmes & Coordination, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) where she led the fund’s intervention programs; providing access to finance to MSMEs, facilitating training and job placements for young people, and supporting entrepreneurs in Lagos State, under the Lagos Innovates program.
In this episode, Tosin & I talk about her career in detail.
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Big Cabal, which publishes the tech and youth publications, TechCabal and Zikoko. TechCabal provides the reporting, data and events that will help the world understand technology and tech business in Africa, while Zikoko creates high-engagement content around culture and what it means to be young in Africa today.
Tomiwa has taken Big Cabal through a transformation that's made it one of the most exciting new media companies on the continent, delivering 400% YOY revenue growth and high-impact projects like Jollof Road and TechWomenLagos.
An experienced executive, Tomiwa has worked extensively across media and marketing roles in Nigeria and North America. In Nigeria, he led the team that transformed the Guardian Nigeria into a top-notch digital media operation. He’s worked in senior roles, leading digital for Heineken Nigeria (Nigerian Breweries) and heading one of West Africa’s top digital agencies. He worked in the US for companies like Atlantic Records and The Futures Company, where he worked on global strategy briefs for brands from Coca-Cola to Unilever.
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Abdulhamid Hassan is the CEO of Mono, a data startup that is “powering the internet economy” in Africa.
Mono is the modern financial infrastructure for Africa, backed with $17M from Tiger Global, Entree capital, Target global, DST, SBI Group, and powering companies like Carbon, Tangerine, Renmoney, Identitypass and so much more.
Mono is currently live in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya.
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Babajide is an experienced professional whose mission is to help founders build long-lasting technology-enabled companies in Africa. His experience spans tech, banking, and consulting.
Babajide previously worked as a Community Manager with Andela, had stints in Access Bank and Phillips Consulting and is the ex-country manager of Safeboda. Currently, he is the GM (Nigeria) of M-kopa.
M-Kopa is an African connected asset financing platform that provides underbanked customers in Africa with essential products, including solar lighting, televisions, fridges, smartphones & financial services. M-Kopa was launched commercially in 2012 and is headquartered in Nairobi.
https://twitter.com/Babajiide
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Michael Trojan Okoh is a 22-year-old creative developer, co-founder and CTO at The Peer. The Peer is a technology company with a bold mission—to help businesses and Apps enable business-to-business transfers for their customers with their API infrastructure.
In this podcast, Trojan as he is fondly called, talks about learning to code at a young age, his early influences, how he got the name “Trojan”, his work experience and what he is currently doing at The Peer.
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This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
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Lotanna Nwose is a web technology enthusiast and techpreneur who is one of the 3 co-founders of Ghanaian startup, InvestSika where he is in charge of partnerships and operations.
InvestSika is on a mission to make investing accessible to all Africans. And it is starting in Ghana, one of the leading countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Lotanna speaks to me about his journey into technology, the challenges around stock investment accessibility and what InvestSika is doing to change that. InvestSika is currently doing a private beta testing of the mobile app and you can DM @investsika on Twitter for early access.
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This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Bernard Parah is a Tech entrepreneur who is very passionate about solving monetary difficulties using Bitcoin technology. He is the CEO of Bitnob, a technology and financial services company that lets users buy, save and invest in bitcoin.
Bitnob offers a ton of other options, like loans, Dollar-Cost-Averaging plans, and many much more. It also operates a Bitcoin Lightning Network integration which promises free, instant, non-reversible remittances of any size to and from the United States, Nigeria, and Ghana - a system that could disrupt and improve how money is transferred across the world.
Bernard talks about his passion for Bitcoin, the benefits Bitnob offers and the benefits of a cryptocurrency-focused economy.
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
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Temitope Ekundayo and Ibukun Oloyede are the Co-CEOs of Printivo, a print-on-demand startup that enables small and medium enterprises to print items. Its core offering is its ability to help anyone, regardless of location or size, print items without the hassles of traditional solutions.
Temitope and Ibukun’s new responsibility as joint CEO is to significantly grow the business and help Printivo achieve more milestones in the coming years. Temitope has been part of — and has also led— the company’s growth and innovation effort since its inception; on the other side of the sofa, Ibukun — besides co-founding the company — has led and built the operational processes that continue to drive the daily affairs of the business.
In this podcast, Temitope and Ibukun talk about their personal backgrounds, skillsets and roles at Printivo. They also share insights on the exciting future of Printivo.
Learn about what Printivo does here: https://printivo.com
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Toba Adeyanju is a business development expert who is currently creating magic in the music industry. He is the CEO of Ejoya Music, a fast-rising music technology company that creates tools for musicians to distribute, market and monetise their content.
In this video, Toba talks about his background, his journey into the entertainment business, starting off as a business developer to becoming the CEO of the company. He also shares productive hacks for players in the music industry - artistes, managers and record labels inclusive and talks about the Ejoya Class of ’21.
Learn about Enjoy Music: https://ejoya.co/
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Rebecca Inyang Junaid is an Entertainment entrepreneur who has operated in the Nigerian music industry for over 13 years. She consistently describes herself as a strong black woman.
JustJoJo Entertainment Limited, the agency that she deftly commands, is a registered company in the UK, offering music/video distribution services, publishing, licensing, label/management, promotion and marketing services to artists and creatives everywhere in the world.
In this episode, Rebecca highlights her journey into the entertainment business, the impact her company has made in the careers of leading Nigerian musicians, as well as pointers on how artistes can excel in the entertainment industry.
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This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Yele Bademosi is a Tech entrepreneur and investor who is passionate about helping his home continent of Africa. Yele studied Medicine at King’s College London before opting out to focus on technology entrepreneurship.
He is the co-founder of Nestcoin, Founder of Bundle and Founding Partner of Microtraction. He was also a director at the venture capital arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
In this episode, Yele speaks to me about his journey into entrepreneurship, his passion for investment and cryptocurrency. He also sheds light on the solutions Nestcoin will be providing to expose Africans to the benefits and possibilities of Blockchain.
Connect with Yele https://www.linkedin.com/in/yelebademosi
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Kingsley Abrokwah is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation, carved out of a need to excel and make an impact. Over the span of 10 years, he has started and exited 2 Tech startups in Ghana, each focused on developing software solutions solving problems peculiar to the African terrain, while at the same time offering a global appeal. Kingsley is also an Alumni of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) and he won Startup Weekend Accra 2013.
His current venture, Kudigo, is an integrated mobile-based retail point of sale application for micro-SME's in sub-Saharan Africa. In this episode, Kingsley speaks to me about his journey to entrepreneurship, how Kudigo started, what prompted their expansion to Nigeria and lots more.
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Adewale Yusuf is a serial entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of building tech businesses in Africa. He is the co-founder of TalentQL, Techpoint Africa and AltSchool Africa.
Techpoint Africa is a digital media company that amplifies the best innovations out of Africa through its publications, data, and events. Techpoint Africa hosts a variety of events, all-day seminars and conferences, including Techpoint Build, which is the largest tech and startup event in West and East Africa.
After stepping down as CEO of Techpoint Africa, Adewale is on to his new ventures - TalentQL & AltSchool Africa. TalentQL is on a mission is to democratise access to opportunities for African tech talents while AltSchool is an educational program designed to arm young Africans with the skills and knowledge required to launch your tech career. In 2021, TalentQL went through the Techstars Toronto Incubator Program.
Learn tech skills with AltSchool: https://altschoolafrica.com/
Get a tech job with TalentQL: https://talentql.com/
Follow Adewale on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdewaleYusuf
This series of Founders Connect has been bought to you in partnership with #AfricaVerified, a new news channel that was set up to seek out and amplify factual stories from reputable and trustworthy news sources.
Their flagship #BeyondTheHeadlines video series is a deep dive into the topics and issues that really matter to Africa today – check it out for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/c/africaverified
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/founders-connect/message
Tomiwa Lasebikan is the co-founder and head of product at Helicarrier, a company with the mission to financially connect the African, anywhere they are in the world.
Helicarriers are makers of some of the most innovative crypto products in Africa including Buycoins, a crypto exchange and Sendcash which helps users in the US send money back home using crypto. Before Buycoins, Tomiwa was a software engineer at Microsoft, working on Azure and Hololens.
In this episode, Tomiwa talked to me about his background, getting scholarship to study in America, working at Microsoft, starting Buycoins and many more.
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Bayo 'Lion' Adedeji is the current CEO of Wakanow. Wakanow is Africa's one-stop shop for cheap flights, hotel reservations and airport pickups. Prior to joining Wakanow, Bayo was a Senior Finance Manager at Amazon, in charge of fulfilment supporting product teams in 16 countries. Before that, he served as a senior finance professional in the consumer retails sector, including with Petsmart and Walmart Stores.
Bayo is also a serial entrepreneur; he is the founder of Dundu Nation, a food truck business that can provide local fried yam and plantain in a clean and hygienic environment. In addition, Bayo is also the founder of Wave Beach Lagos.
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I had a chat with Kelvin about this career so far, how community has helped me grow faster, his reasons for community impact, how entrepreneurship started for him and everything in between.
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Douglas Kendyson is a software engineer with a lot of experience in the fintech & payments space. He has worked for the top YCombinator backed payment startups in Africa (Flutterwave & Paystack), as well as a Robo-advisory firm in the UAE (Sarwa) and Dapi, building the payment infrastructure for the Middle East.
Douglas is also the Founder and CEO of Selar, an eCommerce tool creatives & entrepreneurs use to sell their content, products and services across borders without any hassle. Selar has over 15,000 registered users today.
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Rodney is a huge fan of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation. He is also the CTO of Prospa, a technology company building the operating system for African entrepreneurs and businesses.
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Ized Uanikhehi, the CEO/CMO of Loose Media Limited, a digital-first, Marketing and Media agency, and founder/chief evangelist of DigiClan Africa (a community of digital marketing professionals in Africa). Before Loose Media, Ized was the cofounder and CMO TORA Academy (TORA).
TORA was a live-in academy facility dedicated to producing world-class motorcycle taxi drivers. She has also worked at Max Africa and CNN
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Iyinoluwa Aboyeji calls himself an entrepreneur in the public interest. He is passionate about partnering with missionary talent and capital to build an African future. Iyinoluwa is the Founder & General Partner of Future Africa, a people-powered innovation fund that provides capital, coaching and community to mission-driven innovators turning Africa's biggest challenges into business opportunities.
Iyin is also a co-founder of Andela and was the former managing director of Flutterwave, a business building payments technology and infrastructure to connect Africa to the global economy. E' as he is fondly called as had a fantastic career so far, and we talked about it all in this video.
He shared a lot about how he grew up, how he got the opportunity to study at Waterloo, the initial experiments/startups he tried building before Andela, how he met Jeremy and other Andela Co-founders, why he left to join Flutterwave and why he left. He talked about The Future Africa Fund and so much more.
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Ebun Okunbanjo is a Serial Entrepreneur. He and his Co-founder both run Thegymclass, Fitness Central, Bento and Ezwash. Bento Africa - the focus of this video is a business solutions company whose flagship product, Pay by Verifi, is a cloud-based salaries and benefits solution that helps businesses do more with less.
Ebun spoke to me growing up, moving back to Nigeria, starting a business, how he met his co-founder, the scandalous video of 2020 and what Bento is building. This video is totally interesting and very different from most #FoundersConnect Episodes. You should definitely listen to it.
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Dami is the co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers, a platform that enables professionals to access efficient shared transportation in Lagos Metropolis. They help transform the stressful time commuting to and from work into a productive, refreshing and relaxing experience.
With Shuttlers App, Professionals can book a seat on a route, pay for a seat and track the arrival of their shuttle. I had a great time learning about Dami during this interview.
As customary, we talked about her childhood background, her journey to entrepreneurship, how Shuttlers started, why it was important for her to build this business etc. Dami talked about the challenges of raising money for Shuttlers and how her co-founders left the business at some point.
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Ben Eluan along with his friends/co-founders dropped out of university to build Flux. Flux is a crypto remittance startup built to enable individuals and merchants to send and receive money from anywhere in the world.
In May 2020, Flux got accepted into Pioneer, an accelerator launched by ex-YC partner Daniel Gross. Pioneer gives founders access to funding streams and talent hardly found outside Silicon Valley. After the program, Flux subsequently raised $77,000 pre-seed investment from different investors — Hustle Fund and Mozilla, among others. In March 2021, Flux got accepted into YC.
I had a quick chat with Ben and we talked all about his journey - ditching classes to code, to freelancing then building an e-commerce platform called Joppa which grew to over 20k users to then dropping out of school to build and scale Flux.
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Oluwatomi Solanke is the co-founder and CEO of Trove finance, a micro-investing platform that lets Nigerians invest in publicly traded US, Nigerian and Chinese stocks, government bonds and more.
Tomi is passionate about new technologies, new ideas and new ways of thinking. He is also a fitness buff and enjoys health-related activities. I sat down with Tomi to learn all about his journey to entrepreneurship. Tomi shared all about the past ventures he built - the ones that failed and didn't, how to met his co-founder, why they started Trove, Trove's traction so far and lots more.
He has had such an interesting journey and you'd definitely love listening to it.
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Tito Ovia is a health tech entrepreneur and public health professional who is driven to improve healthcare quality in Africa. She is the co-founder/Head of Public Sector Growth of Helium Health, a Nigeria-based health tech company that is building the technology infrastructure driving African healthcare.
In this episode, we learn all about Tito's journey to date - growing up in an affluent family, how her plan to study Medicine didn't work out, how she met her co-founders and started Helium Health, what her Dad thought about the idea then, bigs wins, challenges and lessons.
This interview is the perfect way to start a new season.
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Founded in August 2017, Patricia harnesses the power of cryptocurrency to create alternative solutions to financial infrastructure, digital payments and global E-commerce.
Hanu, the founder and CEO says on Linkedin "I am bootstrapping Patricia to a trillion-dollar valuation, ushering the world into a digital age, doing the most with a strong team, building amazing products that would impact lives, and sharing lollipop moments."
This episode of #FoundersConnect would easily become your favourite yet. Hanu shares his story - from growing up in Warri to starting and failing 13 businesses while at Uniport and then moving to Lagos and unintentionally starting Patricia.
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Kuda is Nigeria's first mobile-only bank licensed by the Central Bank. Kuda is designed for your smartphone, free of ridiculous charges and great at helping you budget, spend smartly and save more.
Musty Mustapha - the cofounder/CTO of Kuda graduated from university with a first-class degree and a distinction in his undergraduate and postgraduate studies, respectively.
On this episode, Musty talks about his career and entrepreneurship journey, how Kuda started, the big wins and challenges so far and why Kuda is spending a lot of money on advertising right now
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Yanmo Omorogbe is a Co-founder and COO at Bamboo. Before founding Bamboo, she was an Investment Associate at the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM). Bamboo gives unrestricted access to over 3,000 stocks listed on the Nigerian stock exchange and U.S. stock exchanges, right from your mobile phone or computer.
Yanmo speaks to me about her 'accidental' journey into entrepreneurship, what growing up was like, how running Bamboo has been, their biggest wins and lessons learned.
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Chijioke Dozie is the CEO and co-Founder of a $15.8 million VC-backed company, Carbon. Carbon is a leading African Mobile-First Consumer Lending Business and a digital bank.
In this episode, Chijioke shares his story - how Carbon started as One credit in 2012, pivoted to One fi in 2015, then Paylater and now Carbon. He also talks about growing up, schooling abroad and starting a business with his immediate elder brother and more.
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In this episode, Yinka Adewale shares his story - how Kudi started as message commerce (Kudi.ai) and pivoted to agent banking after some time, the difficulty they faced raising seed for the business, plans for the future and lessons learned so far. He also shares the story on how he resigned as co-founder/co-CEO and gave up all his shares at a previous startup and much more.
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Onyeka Akumah is a technology entrepreneur with a focus on the agriculture, real estate, and transportation sectors. He is popularly known as the founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, but he is also a co-founder at CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka and Rent Smallsmall.
In this episode of #FoundersConnect, I sat down with Onyeka and we talked about his entire career and entrepreneurship journey so far - from his days at British council, Jumia, Konga to setting up a business that failed before finally launching Farmcrowdy.
This is a very interesting, enlightening, and insightful episode. Amazing conversation, good vibes and best of all, a lot of lessons to learn.
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Oluwatosin is the founder of Money Africa, a financial literacy platform (EdTech) and Ladda, a one-stop investment platform that gives you access to an array of products including Savings, Mutual funds and Stocks (Fintech). She is also one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in Finance and Economy.
On this episode of #FoundersConnect, I sat down with Tosin and we talked about her journey so far. She shared stories from her days working at CNBC and Bloomberg, how she relocated back to Nigeria and went completely broke; and how she accidentally made a business of her passion. She also shared her biggest life lessons, favourite failures and plans for the near future.
This was a very amazing conversation. You surely enjoy it, so when you do, please comment and share.
- Checkout Money Africa and get access to financial literacy programs - https://themoneyafrica.com/
- Checkout Ladda, a one-stop investment platform - https://getladda.com/
- Connect with Tosin on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tosinolaseinde
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Nadayar is the Co-founder and CEO of Eden Life. Eden is a tech-enabled service that puts your home's chores on autopilot. Eden helps you to say goodbye to chores forever. Prior to Eden, Nadayar co-founded Andela and led the training and learning teams there. On this episode of #Foundersconnect, Nad talked about his journey with me. He talked about being CTO at Fora, co-founding Andela, & starting Eden with Prosper and Silm. He also talked about his life's mission and biggest life lessons. Lots of good vibes on this episode plus deep insight into the mind of a technologist and builder. Enjoy!
Check out Eden - https://ouredenlife.com/
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Paystack is a technology company solving payments problems for ambitious businesses. Their mission is to help businesses in Africa become profitable, envied, and loved. Stripe (an American financial service and software as a service company headquartered in San Francisco) acquired Paystack for a rumoured amount of about $200M.
In this episode of #FoundersConnect, I sat down with the CTO of Paystack, Ezra Olubi. He shared how Paystack started, why he said Yes to the idea, how Paystack raised money and eventually got acquired; his biggest life lessons and favourite failures and even talked about his personal style.
Watch, share and comment.
Check out Paystack - https://paystack.com/
Connect with Ezra on Twitter - https://twitter.com/0x
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In this series, I hope to learn more about your favourite African Tech CEOs and the amazing products they are building to solve real problems for you and me. To launch this series, I have a conversation with Atsu Davoh. Atsu is building Bitsika, a payments app for the whole of Africa - where you can send, spend, issue Visa cards, buy airtime, buy and sell crypto and more.
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