The African Enterprise : Recent Episodes
Kelvin
Every Journey has a story, every success has a Journey. This podcast is about conversing with creators and Entrepreneurs across Africa. In these conversations, they share their stories, their successes, their toolboxes, and their failures. In these stories lie important lessons for others who are living their unique journeys.
Kristin H. Wilson, an Operations/Strategy consultant at Spurt Group (@SpurtSolutions), is on the pod with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz).
Spurt Group are African Business Growth Partners whose work leverages digital and social technologies to help supercharge growth for business owners. Spurt group focuses on providing business expertise to small business owners to help them propagate and navigate growth.
They talk about what Spurt is and what she does at Spurt, the importance of intentionally leveraging support for small businesses, the importance of function and form in the growth prospects of a business, how support could be the difference between effective and wasteful resource management, the importance of context in business building, and polish.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
Olaseike Ibojo (@olaseike), customer success manager for the dispute team at Paystack, is on the pod with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz).
Olaseike, in her role as customer success manager, manages relationships with banks and corporate clients. She provides support that enables customers to use Paystack’s technology efficiently and is primarily responsible for managing and resolving disputes.
They talk about customer success management and the job of building and developing relationships, as well as being the middle person between customers and business. They also talk about customer success management as a retention strategy and coping with the varying needs of customers.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
**Adetola Adesanmi (@tolaadesanmi), CEO of Spleet, is on the pod with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz).
Spleet is a proptech company that provides access to easier living in Africa with flexible subscription-based rental and lifestyle services. Spleet are on a mission to build a future where everyone gets a fair chance at efficient and affordable living spaces
They talk about Spleet’s mission and how they build towards that unique mission within a broad Space, How property technology is being used to improve customer experience in Real Estate, How digital platforms help streamline property management, their North Star as a company, and more.**
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
Laolu Onifade (@thislaolu), CEO of Ridehytch, is on the pod with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz).
Ridehytch is a ridesharing solution that aims to provide a more affordable and convenient option for public commute. It’s an intermediate solution that sits between traditional public transportation models in Nigeria’s population centers that are inconvenient yet cheaper than costly ride-hailing services that have been synonymous with surge prices.
They talk about Ridehytch, how they started, characterization of people’s problems with current options, why this is the idea that serves the majority, their approach to launch, and getting strategic about expanding as they roll out their offerings come September 2021.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast/episode-27-with-laolu-onifade
Oreoluwa Shonibare (@Amb_Ore), co-founder and CEO of WiiCreate, is on the pod with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz).
Wiicreate is a merchandising and print-on-demand startup founded in 2017 by Oreoluwa Shonibare and Donald Onwochie. The company has worked with some of Nigeria’s leading startups like Piggyvest, Cowrywise, Eden, and others; Helping them express their unique essence with Merch.
They talk about the power of Twitter (Oreoluwa met his cofounder on Twitter), The WiiCreate story - his experiences and lessons from the early days, strategies and mental models that have aided him in the bumpy road of business building, merchandising, and helping businesses and brands express their essence.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz) talks to Bumpa co-founder Kelvin Umechukwu (@tushgeek). Bumpa is a B2B commerce solution that helps retail businesses in Africa sell online and offline. They help to extricate and simplify the complexities of small business management. Their solutions help small businesses better gather and manage data for growth and enable them to track and manage orders and inventory, transactions, customers, and debtors across channels.
They talk about Africa’s commerce as a black box and why helping small businesses gather and make sense of the data they already have and will continue to provide will provide the tools for growth. They also talk about emerging and evolving trends that will aid the upward trajectory of commerce in Africa as people get more comfortable on the Internet.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz) talks to Joshua Koya (@jfkoya), Co-founder and CEO of Pan-African Health tech company Nguvu Health.
With Nguvu Health, Joshua and the team are looking to deploy solutions to help promote accessibility and affordability of mental health therapy across Africa. He describes it as helping mental health service providers reach the last mile, and solving the problems of How, When, and Where to get these mental health services.
They talk about the changes that have aided the launch and delivery of this service digitally, how they started out at Nguvu Health and navigated building the company, as well as driving widespread adoption of mental health services across the continent.
Show notes: https://www.kelvinobazz.com/podcast
Muloongo Muchelemba (@Muloongo), founder of Pan African blog Ongolo.com talks about how she started the blog, what the website is about, and what she looks to achieve by creating the Huffington post for Africa. She also talks about changing the narrative about Africa by offering a true depiction of life beyond that of a continent with little to offer, The importance of figuring out the Northstar in pursuit of growth and development, the positive effects of capitalism, and the intricacies of building and creating. Check out the website Ongolo.com, and Kelvinobazz.com/podcast for show notes.
Mobola Akingbala (@babesmobee), head of strategy and deployment at loosemediaHQ talks to kelvin (@kelvinobazz) about the art of marketing. Defining a marketing strategy with the goal of achieving a sustainable advantage, understanding and accounting for the local context in brand management & marketing, storytelling, and social media. Find show notes on Kelvinobazz.com/podcast.
Olagoke Balogun (@gkbalogs), co-founder and CEO of Nigeria's no. one premium healthy food brand - so fresh, and business leader with a passion for building sustainable organizations on sound business principles talks to Kelvin (@kelvinobazz) about how the healthy food space in Nigeria has evolved since he first started in 2010 (based on his Nairametrics interview on him 'dumping oil money to sell fruits and salads.') He also shares insights on building sustainable businesses, the systems and structures that allow sustainable organizations to emerge and thrive, and value proposition for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Boye Oshinaga (@Boye_Oshinaga) talks to Kelvin (@kelvinobazz) about Edtech in Nigeria. Boye is the CEO of Gradely -- an ed-tech startup that helps students and parents deliver a personalized learning experience. He shares insights on living up to the uptick in demand for ed-tech offerings since the Covid-19 induced lockdown as well as the increased expectations, Individuality in learning and as a significant component of positive educational outcomes, Adaptive learning and the models they’ve incorporated at Gradely, and the future of Edtech in Nigeria.
Gbenga Sesan (@gbengasesan) - Executive director at Paradigm Initiative, a social entrepreneur who delivers Information and communications technology to the underserved, and has been hugely involved in work on ICT for development, ICT policy, and Capacity building talks about the improvements he's seen in two decades of work on these issues, opportunities for growth and development, and how we should be thinking about the digital economy in Nigeria.
Adaeze Zita (@Adaeze_zita), regional program manager at seedstars ( a Swiss based private group of companies with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology entrepreneurship) is on to talk about strategic planning and business development for early stage companies, fostering partnerships, & organizing events and communities to connect entrepreneurs to mentors and investors, and what she looks out for in scouting and pre-pitching startups that are connected in the programs, and events.
Felix Imafidon, Cofounder and CEO of investment aggregator platform reQuid, also known as the amazon of safe investment discusses the four-pronged problem around investment opportunities they set out to solve, his work and experiences building the company that profiles and aggregates investment opportunities, making them available in smaller units to expand access.
Kelvin (@kelvinobazz), discusses with experience designer, tourism strategist, and travel entrepreneur Funmi Oyatogun (@Funmioyatogun) — Founder and CEO of TVP adventures -- about current digital trends in experience design to keep people connected, and stimulated; adapting her company’s offering in light of current international travel restrictions due to the Covid-19, curation for her YouTube channel where “curiosity meets learning” and what goes into designing fulfilling travel experiences. Find full hand edited transcripts at kelvinobazz.com/podcast, and follow on Twitter at Podcast_africa.
Co-founder and CEO of Malawian fixed wireless broadband operator -- Brian Munyao Longwe, chats with Kelvin (@Kelvinobazz) about starting and running a technology company working to connect more homes and people to the internet. He is a technology entrepreneur and Internet strategist with over 25 years of experience including in the earliest days of internet adoption in Africa. He talks about a major flaw in the evolution of the Internet and the distribution networks in Africa, Content delivery networks ( CDNs), and limitations to improved interconnectedness across Africa. Notes on Kelvinobazz.com/podcast.
Ugo Iwuchukwu (@ugotalksalot), communications professional at Helium health — the largest health tech provider in west Africa for healthcare providers, and Bamboo talks to Kelvin (@kelvinobazz) about his journey into the communications space, and shares insights on building a winning communications strategy in a detailed and continuing 5 step process. The conversation also includes thoughts on History and Journalism in Nigeria. Find show notes at Kelvinobazz.com/podcast, follow on twitter @podcast_africa.
Content marketer, storyteller, and brand manager Aisha Owolabi (@sheistheaisha) talks to Kelvin (@kelvinobazz) about her not so straightforward path to content marketing starting from a desire to study medicine to creating magic with exciting African brands. She talks about her creative process with insights into navigating this process to produce the best possible content, dealing with and surpassing creative blocks, and the community she’s building for budding marketers to learn faster and smarter.
Dr. Tayo Oyedeji (@Tayooye), founder and CEO of Investment firm @overwoodng, talks about making career decisions, tribe making - creating, sustaining, and harnessing the power of corporate tribes, the story behind overwood, the experiences leading up to the overwood launch, and snippets on the African tech scene. He is an Oxford educated professor, entrepreneur, and business leader with over 18 years of corporate and academic experience in Finance, marketing, and marketing consulting in Africa, Europe, and North America. Show notes : kelvinobazz.com/podcast.
Read show notes here (kelvinobazz.com/podcast), and follow us on twitter (@podcast_africa) to be kept in the loop. Kelvin (@kelvinobazz) interviews Yemi Johnson(@yemi_uc), Entrepreneur, and ex-coo at hotels.ng - an online travel agency with over 30 million visitors. Yemi is a business leader with a focus on scaling innovative business models into big businesses. Today’s topics include : His experience building and scaling his first Internet venture, climbing up the ranks from user retention specialist to COO in 2 years, transition from agriculture to tech, and thoughts on the Internet and entrepreneurship in Africa.
A dive into the intricacies of tech blogging with Benjamin Dada, founder and editor-in-chief at African tech blog Benjamindada.com. He talks about blogging with insights from his own experience starting and growing a tech-blog, the creative process from content to publishing, and marketing. He also shares his thoughts on the African tech scene.
Wiza Jalakasi discusses entrepreneurship in less than ideal African environments with his experience building an API company in one of the poorest countries in Africa, and how it impacts his work as a VP scout for early-stage funds. He also discusses the evolution of mobile money in Africa from text based to smartphone native -- based on his essays on the same topic; banks, telcos, and financial inclusion in Africa. Wiza’s essays are available on medium @wizaj. You can find more info on the podcast kelvinobazz.com/podcast. Twitter @Podcast_Africa. Dive in!!
What's the reality of building a tech-driven, forward-thinking business in Africa? what is peculiar about the African entrepreneurial climate? how should founders approach selling their products without scaring their customers? how important is culture to scale?. Samuel Akinosho, co-founder of African tech company - Spydar, talks about his experiences building and scaling his business, and answers these questions in this insightful episode. Dive in!!