My name is Charles Kehinde Dairo. I have over a decade of experience comprising tech entrepreneurship, design and product management. I have always had an interest in computers. When I was young, my dad bought a computer for my siblings and I, and that sparked my interest in the field. When it was time to choose a course of study in university, I naturally chose Computer Science.
This is awesome; I love the fact that you have an inkling of technology even before you got into the higher institution. So, fast-forward to today, what exactly are you working on now?
Sure. For the past eleven years, I have been running a web development agency called CKDigital. I started this business immediately after I finished school, designing websites for friends, family members and anyone who was interested. More recently, I’ve been focusing on building products.
I am currently working with my co-founders to develop a software called Beezop. It is an interactive training manual that helps businesses document their processes and easily share them with their teams. This helps them to systemize their business, train faster, and run their business more efficiently.
With Beezop, business owners and managers don’t have to repeat themselves so much; it generally helps them to run their businesses better. That’s what I’m focused on right now.
That sounds very interesting. Can you tell us more about who Beezop is meant for and what exactly it does?
Beezop is B2B software primarily for businesses, organizations or teams. The idea behind Beezop is that when you’re running a business or managing a team, there are certain tasks and processes that you repeat as a routine.
The software helps document these processes and make them easy to digest so that when you need to train someone new, they can easily follow the steps and understand how to do the task.
This makes it easy for teams to delegate responsibilities, and for companies to upskill their employees.
That’s quite interesting. There must have been a reason for Beezop. What exactly is the back story?
While I was running my web development agency, I was looking for a way to systemize the business and make sure that as I added more people to my team, it wasn’t increasing my workload. I was struggling with how to document processes and make sure that my team was following them.
A business consultant friend of mine, Marieanne, had been solving this problem for her clients. She came up with the idea to build software that solved the problem at scale. We decided to work on it together, and that’s how Beezop started.
Alright, one would have thought you had it all rosy because you started from CK Digital, you moved to this. So, have you had any failed business before?
Yes, I’ve had a couple of ventures that didn’t work out as planned. A few years ago, I joined a team that was working on a platform for educational funding, similar to GoFundMe. However, the business model wasn’t solid and it didn’t work out.
I also attempted to start a chain of private barbershops called Haircot. The first outlet wasn’t profitable enough, so I decided to shut it down.
Can you tell us about some of the challenges you faced building Beezop or throughout your entrepreneurial journey and how you navigated those challenges?
There were a number of challenges I faced. One of the biggest was validating that I was solving a real problem. I’ve had ideas in the past where I was excited about the solution, but didn’t realize that there weren’t enough people who had that problem to make it a viable business.
Another challenge was funding. I haven’t raised money for any of my ventures and sometimes that lack of resources made it difficult to move forward with certain ideas.
Additionally, I’ve learned to look at things objectively and make the difficult decision to shut down ventures that aren’t working, rather than trying to push through.
Great. Tell us your thoughts on whether an entrepreneur should bootstrap or seek funding immediately.
It depends on the specific circumstances of the business. If the entrepreneur is able to build the business on their own or with a co-founder, then bootstrapping may be a viable option. However, if the business requires a significant amount of resources to get off the ground, then seeking funding may be necessary.
It’s also important to consider the potential for generating revenue and the overall goals of the business.
While bootstrapping can be difficult, it can also lead to a more sustainable business in the long run.
Thank you very much Charles. How has the progress of your current product been?
The progress has been positive. We are focused on solving a specific problem and are committed to doing so. We are pleased with the number of people who have subscribed to our product and the businesses that are currently using it. However, it’s been a long process, as we had to take some time to do additional engineering work before we reached our current state. We are focused on continuing to improve the product and getting more people to know about it.
Awesome, in 5 years where do you hope to be?
Our goal is to continue building a business that we are proud of and that is helping people run their businesses more smoothly.
We aim to have a sense of accomplishment in solving the problems we set out to solve and to expand our reach beyond Nigeria to other parts of the world.
Additionally, we hope to see increased revenue for the company.
Excellent. So, what are the learning resources that are keeping you motivated? Where do you learn from? What are some of the podcasts you listen to and the books that you read? Can you share some of them with us?
What is the advice you have for upcoming entrepreneurs that are already doing this tech business and trying to weather their way to success?
My advice to upcoming entrepreneurs in tech is to understand that building a successful business takes a lot of effort, consistency, and perseverance. Don’t expect it to be easy, but also don’t think it’s always going to be hard.
Different businesses face different levels of challenges, and sometimes problems can become opportunities for growth and learning.
No matter where you are in the world, building a company is tough. You can have a lot of money and still fail, or you can have no money and still succeed.
What’s important is to remember that anything worth doing is usually hard, and to be prepared for the challenges that come with entrepreneurship.
My name is Funfere Koroye, a hardware developer, design and technology expert, with a decade of experience. Learned handwork in the US, ITALY, CHINA and more recently the UK. Worked across furniture, FinTech, Fashion and stuff related to consumer goods.
You’ve basically gone everywhere. Kudos to you. So, what are you currently working on?
What I’m currently working on is complex. Firstly, I’d need to explain what happened last year. 12 months ago, I got the Tech Visa; it is a Visa for tech entrepreneurs looking to move to the UK either to start a Tech company or join a tech company. At the time that I was awarded the visa, I wasn’t sure of which one I wanted to do. I’d say I was working freelance and exploring my options in the last 4months. In the last 8years of this Visa being active, only 4,000 people have been awarded this Visa in the tech category, so it is a very difficult Visa to get. More recently I got into an accelerator, incubator, and VC firm called ANTLER. ANTLER is one of the most respected builders in the world and one of the most qualified in the EU, UK region. They have about 50,000 Africans every year globally and they only accept 2,500 globally. It is really good, that is a 5% acceptance rate. With joining ANTLER, the goal is to build a company. The only role ANTLER has is that you find your co-founder in their program and if the two of you have an idea, you pitch to them and you instantly raise $125,000 if they accept your venture. Yeah, so that’s what I’ve been up to in the last 12 months.
I was working on something for the health industry, I was working on something for FinTech and I was working on Fashion. However, these things were more like projects than actual ventures and the reason I took this approach was that I wanted to see what I was very passionate about. I am going to tell anyone reading this right now if you want to validate what you’re working on going through an accelerator, incubator or venture-building studio. Yes, they’re difficult to get into but if you get into one it streamlines your pass to an MVP and your pass to what I will call your first start-up. Fail or Win the key thing is about meeting with seasoned professionals and not building on your own. So, yeah I was working on a few ventures over the last 24 months.
It looks like you don’t have a failure story, seeing what you’re doing now makes it look like everything is rosy.
No, that’s not the case. If you know me on social media, I do a lot of things that people don’t do. I started a hashtag called #unfortunately. What I did was that I posted all my rejections in the last 24 months and these were all jobs that I applied for that said they won’t move forward with my applications. If I’m being totally honest, I have been failing totally forward for the last couple of years and the important reason to fail forward is to learn lessons and one of the lessons I learnt was that you need to talk to the people that understand what you’re doing, you need to apply for jobs and you need to hear NO to understand that you’re either not as good as you think or you need to upskill. I do not like sharing only good news so that’s why when I got into ANTLER I made sure that even when I was sharing this very fantastic news of getting into this VC studio, I was also shocked that there were a lot of rejections because for me, I build products and ideas based on trying to sell them to companies and I can tell you that out of 99 ideas I’ve sold only one just to put it in perspectives.
Not everything gets successful. Maybe I do need to share more failures as time goes on, I’ll be more honest that things are not as rosy as it looks.
Yeah, I understand. This is great. So would you mind running us through your backgrounds and how this all started?
I will start from when I was 13 years old because it’s important to tell from that point. As an average person, 13 years old is when you’re in secondary school in Nigeria, High school in America or College in the UK. When they start to ask you one question, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE? Most people, they’ve been asking you this question for almost 6 years and they’ve been brainwashing you with Lawyers, Doctors, Oil and Gas…. This was where it started.
I was asked what I wanted to be and I said I want to do what I see people doing on TV. I don’t know what it’s called and I use to watch a show called how things are made. There was this Japanese guy in front of a computer moving objects around in a three-dimensional space and eventually got paid and I saw a similar program on the discovery channel about how things are made too. So I said I want to read about people that designed how things are made and people that work in this factory.
This is the story of how I got into this and at my own luck I’d say Nigeria got the internet when I was 13 years old and I started to research this field.
At the time, the field was called manufacturing engineering… but the real turn was design and technology and it lured me into my first-degree Design Engineering which combines Mechanical engineering and three-dimensional designs and the closest field to that in Nigeria is Architecture. So, that is the early stage of this.
I’d say I was very adamant about who I wanted to become and I looked up to people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. These were the guys that took charge of what I will call the second technological Revolution in America. As we all remember cyber café was everywhere but the technology was not personal in Nigeria, it was commercial now we can do everything on our phone but this was a crazy concept.
Computers were seen as things that should only belong to banks or cyber cafes and not things that we should have in our homes. I wanted to be one of those people that brought this kind of technology and I didn’t make it at 13. So, yeah that’s the long short of how I got into the field.
That’s amazing; your story is quite interesting. Alright, you’ve travelled a lot, what exactly is the motivation for it?
So, the travel bug for me started from my own parents, my father and mother moved to Port Harcourt, to Kano State where I was born, and from Kano state to all over Lagos. So, moving has been in my DNA from the beginning.
When I went to school, I just knew that staying in one place was not my destiny. I switched schools at least six times; I’m always on the move. I learnt something from National Geography and discovery channel, you’ll see Americans just get on a plane and go somewhere and discover something. Americans just get on a boat and explore some new waters and dive into a deep ocean, I was attracted to this. My theory is always go where you will grow and that has always been my reason to move around. Let me give you a good example, after university I ended up in China because I walked into an office of a shoe manufacturer in New York, I liked what they were working on and I luckily met the owner in person and he said their shoes were made in China and I said Oh, I wanna work with you and he said can you come to China? And I said Yeah, why not. Ironically, I’d been to Hong Kong a year before.
That was how I ended up in China and before Covid; I lived in China for 4years. Travelling is my destiny.
That’s crazy mehn. I was checking your page and I noticed you’ve visited about 25 countries. That is massive.
25 countries in 15 years and still counting.
What exactly are the things that get you motivated or resources that you read or podcasts that just keep you going?
Okay, I think my first point of inspiration for staying productive will be reading. I read a lot and a lot of what I read are tech journals. I’m always listening to podcasts and I watch a lot of videos from inspirational speakers and content creators that really inspire me and few of them are in the Nigeria space and a good number are internationally and I’d say my largest source of inspiration is that I follow creative people. I’ll always tell people that the internet is a blessing, if you have access to the internet always follow people that do cool things.
Follow all kinds of creators and creatives and those people motivate me. It motivates me when I see someone painting something really cool, carving something cool.
Human beings always find new ways to push themselves into things. These are some of the things to stay motivated.
This is amazing. There are lots of people who are trying to be like you, what insight do you have to give to them?
Okay, first of all, I’d say follow your dreams, if not body go tell you. If you don’t follow your dreams you’ll learn the hard way. I believe that there is no such thing as failing. Failure is just not succeeding at the moment; do not be scared of that thing.
As human beings, we have bills to pay and we have realities to think of. Another thing is you have to rebel a little bit, I know this is not a very popular opinion in our culture but you have to rebel a little bit and you have to ask WHY a lot.
Back that shit up, you have to put in the effort and show results. If you want to do something, you just have to show that you can do it instead of talking about doing it.
A good example I can give is you might be studying a course right now but you don’t want to but that’s the only course you can pay for or are you doing courses of that thing you really want to do?
Let the opportunity present itself to you and show that I can do this thing. A lot of people say what they want to do but don’t actually act on it, they just wait to get approval before they start to move. Move first because what most people call luck is when preparation meets opportunity, you have to be prepared.
Because even with Antler, some that look easy, truth be told my eyes were not even on it but I prepared my portfolio in such a way that, when the opportunity came along I knew that it was the right time to make the move. A lot of people are not even building for when opportunities come around, you never know when opportunities will arise. You need to prepare for when the opportunities will arise.
Give us some exclusive tips on how one can relocate using the Global Talent Visa.
Okay, I believe in going for what you value and I believe in getting to the next level of your career.
If that is what you’re trying to do, I am all for it. What is very dangerous are people trying to leave for the sake of leaving because there are lots of horror stories about just getting on a plane and trying to just land without a plan.
That being said, if you have a plan and you know what you want to do, these are the key major tips for getting into the talent visa.
One is there’s no particular job field that is more important than the other. I personally have coached people in HR, Digital Marketing, UI/UX… to get this Visa.
So whatever field you are in, rest assured that if you have three to five years of experience you can get this Visa. All you need is a portfolio that shows that you are a talented hardworking person, that portfolio should include nine very solid pieces of work; you need three recommendation letters from industries in tech. They can be spread between Africa and Abroad but the more spread out the better for you. They need to be CTOs, CEOs, and CIOs and they should be leading tech companies that have some reputations.
Last but not least is your letter of intent, you need to be able to explain why you move to the UK and do you want to build something or expand an existing business or join a business. If you have employers that are interested in you in the UK that helps you to accelerate your application because it shows that something is waiting for you on the other end.
This is extremely competitive so you need to show a range of skills from your core competency to ensure that you do those things really well and you’ve been doing them for a while. You need to show other things outside of your core competency, you volunteered; you’ve done certifications to touch up your new technology and new ways of doing things within your field. You just need to show that you add value to the United Kingdom.
Now the UK is not the only country with a talent visa, there are more countries popping up every day with a similar visa. Australia has one, Canada has one, Portugal has one, and somewhere in Asia has one, and Dubai has one that is coming up soon. There are other countries to look into.
So post on your social media, don’t just believe that just by doing a low thing in your room someone is going to find you and appreciate you.
While I worked in a logistics company, I discovered the biggest challenge we had at the time was drivers’ issues, from finding a qualified driver to testing them and then managing them. At home, I also faced a similar problem when I had to hire a driver for my family. These experiences shaped the idea and gave the inspiration to birth DriveMe.
What specific problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
At DriveMe, we are solving the problem of low access to quality driver education in the transport industry and access to verified and professional drivers in Africa.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
In attracting customers, we have been fortunate to have many customers who are evangelists of DriveMe and have consistently referred our company to their friends and family. To retain customers, we are consciously creating an outstanding customer experience and rewards for loyalty.
Customer retention is always a top priority for us at DriveMe because we understand for every customer that remains satisfied, we are sure to get many referrals from them.
Describe what makes your business unique.
At DriveMe, we are operating in a space that is the engine of the logistics and mobility industry. Vehicles currently will not move themselves and the need for drivers continues to soar. We are the No. 1 company offering digitizing driver education as well as building the largest database of professional drivers on the continent.
How did you fund your startup?
The company was bootstrapped until 2022 when were comfortable enough to raise some venture capital.
Oh, yea I have. My first company was a computer hardware distribution company. Long story short, it failed.
What is your greatest business achievement to date?
I will say being able to lead a company that is responsible for the livelihood of several people is a great achievement. I really do not take the privilege for granted.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
Where would you like your startup to be in five years?
We are working smart to ensure we can utilize the technology we have built to scale across several African cities. In the next 5 years, we would be present in 3 countries and be doing millions of $ in revenue annually.
What software or technology has made the biggest difference to your business?
We built a platform that aggregates driving schools in different cities/countries. This has made a huge difference in our business and has shaped our direction over the next few years.
What one thing do you wish someone had told you when you started on your business journey?
I wish I saw enough failure stories from entrepreneurs, it would have braced me for the challenges I experienced trying to operate a growing business like ours. Entrepreneurs need to tell their failure stories better.
What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
Hi Dare, what’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
My name is Dare Olatoye. I am the CEO and Co Founder of TrueFlutter. TrueFlutter is a match making app and we launched this about two years ago. We first started with the MVP three years ago just to test the market, and we launched the new app about year ago. And here we are now. TrueFlutter is the number one dating app in Nigeria. In regards the number and in regards so many matrixes.
We’ve had nine (9) weddings at TrueFlutter and still counting. I’d say TrueFlutter is a dating app for serious minded people looking for genuine and committed relationships.
What problem are you exactly solving with Trueflutter?
We are solving the problem of Singleness, Loneliness, Depression. If you can solve the question of singleness, you can eliminate those other things when someone is not single. There are millions of people that are single. I’m sure everyone has at least five people that are single that are looking for genuine relationships. You can tell from people that are using the app whether engaged or married. It’s a problem that needs attention.
What are some of the challenges you faced while building Trueflutter?
Well, It was a new job for me when I started , I just thought that we will just build something and the app will keep running for the rest of its life and we don’t have to do maintenance.
But building the app made me knew that I need to get the best hands on deck. When we started the major issue was getting the right people to build what we actually wanted and it took a lot of time to get the right team to work with us.
Right now we have the best team ever but it took us a while before we could get this people. Some people tend to dump some certain products because its giving them a lot of stress especially when you have customer feedback with a lot of complains.
I learnt something from Elon Musk when he launched PayPal, he had so many complains, he told his team to gather all the complains and just fix it. So that was the mind set I had when I started because there were so many complaints then and we are still fixing. Being able to weather the storm and being able to build something that is very impressive takes a lot of time and patience. You have to have a thick skin as an entrepreneur because at a point in time there will be a lot of things you have to fix and you have to be very objective about it. You also have to be pragmatic while fixing your products and you have to be very timely as well.
How do you feel receiving a lot of success stories from people who are using your app?
It’s a good feeling. It’s a good feeling in the sense that we actually set up the platform for that purpose. We set up the platform with the goal to be the best dating platform in Africa and also with the goal to connect as many people as possible. So, yeah I felt really good when I heard of the story and I’m expecting more stories, it is a way of building the company and also a way of adding value to humanity while you are rendering the service.
How are you able to get these success stories. Do you track users conversations?
We can’t track people’s conversation because that’s very unethical. What they do is that they tell us themselves if they’re engaged or married. So they basically share their stories with us.
One of the problems with dating startups is actually verifying people who have registered. So, how have you been able to solve that?
We have few things on our platforms that solve that problem to some extent.
We have Security features. Since we launched our dating app we’ve deactivated over 1,000 subscribers for different reasons. Like some being married, or people looking for just hookups and all of that. So we’ve been able to deactivate so many. But going forward, we are launching a security feature in the next few weeks, and it is the same security feature that banks use to verify certain users and subscribers.
We want to make sure that the data are safeguarded and our subscribers are safeguarded. We have the voice and video call functionality which is free. So what I always tell people is that when you’re on the app always calls the person on the app just to verify the persons face to know if the person is actually who they say they are.
Was Trueflutter your first attempt at starting a business?
I won’t say it was my first attempt at starting a business. I was in the oil and gas sector for like some years. So, I’d say it was my company and I did that for couple of years. I learnt how to trade and got to know the dynamics of the downstream sector. I did very well in that industry. I’d say that was my first time of venturing into the entrepreneurial space before I started TrueFlutter.
Why then did you leave the Oil and Gas sector. Did your business fail?
Not at all. I stopped the downstream sector as a result of starting TrueFlutter and I knew that it would have been very difficult to divide my attention into like two different businesses that was why I focused on one. People know me that when they offer other jobs to me, I decline those kinds of jobs because I don’t like being distracted from what I’m doing in my company. So, my oil and gas business didn’t fail, I just put a stop to it because I started this, and everything was just me reflecting on myself, reflecting on life, reflecting on the gifts I felt I had and never utilized those gifts and that was why I moved into something I felt that I have a lot of passion for and I knew that come sun, come rain I’d still be doing what I’m doing now.
When you first started Trueflutter, did you nursed any fear of failure?
I think a lot of people will say that I am stubborn and some will say that I am driven. People have different takes on me as a person. I could be stubborn and I could be driven, I don’t believe in failure.
That reflects on who I am as a person. When I started TrueFlutter I could be at the radio station at 2am in the morning just trying to promote my platform. You know that most of these love stories on radio stations are always at night, around 12am or 1am in the morning.
That is when most of the listeners listen to love stories. I was always that kind of guy that would drive to the radio station because of the love of TrueFlutter and the love of just trying to connect people. I didn’t have any fear In failure even some of my friends told me that I was crazy, they were asking questions like, are you sure?, will this thing work?. And me as a person I knew something that there was a problem and I needed to create a solution and I knew TrueFlutter was the solution.
I knew that it would take a lot of efforts to make sure to put myself out there and for people to know my company. I never thought for one second that TrueFlutter would fail because there’s a problem and I am here creating a solution and every successful entrepreneur knows that they’re creating a solution to a problem and they know that as long as there’s demand for that thing, there will always be supply.
What advice do you have for Entrepreneurs out there who are getting started?
The number one advice is; Stay grounded as a founder, you know where you’re going to as a founder of a company. Be very strategic about how you grow your company.
There’s something called Bootstrapping, make sure your business is self sustaining without external factors. It’s very important because I’ve seen it these days when a lot of people loose their head when they feel like they’ve gotten to a certain level and they just start misbehaving. So, Know where you’re going to. You’re raising a baby, you know the funds you need to invest in that baby, you know when you need to just hold back a bit because you know when your baby is growing, you know what you want your baby to accomplish.
Your company is your baby, know what you need to invest in. Make sure you pamper your baby and make it grow the way you want it to grow. It takes a lot of efforts and sacrifice, it takes a lot of you being grounded and being an entrepreneur.
Refer us to some of your Learning Resources Like Books, Videos or Podcast.
My Mentors are founders and people that are older than me in the space.
Learn from people that are older than you in the space, it doesn’t have to be reading books it could also be learning from people who have like 30years or 40years experience in the industry you’re in. let them show you the way and tell you the things not to do. Sometimes I don’t read books, sometimes I just read articles that older people sent to me, articles on different stories of startups and anything related to my space and helping the growth of my company. Last week I watched the interview of the owner of BetterHalf. BetterHalf is a dating app based in India and when I watched that interview I learned a lot about what we could do as a company to be able to even be better than BetterHalf. Those guys are doing a phenomenal job , it’s a fantastic dating app and I learnt just by watching the podcast. Some people don’t like reading, some people like listening. For those that like listening you can listen to Podcast, you can just go to YouTube and learn from founders that are already existing in the space.
What are your plans for TrueFlutter in this new year?
TrueFlutter is definitely going to be apart with other dating apps because what we are building is really solid because we put Africa into consideration when it comes to optimizing the algorithm and machinery, and being able to give it better match as an app.
So there are lot of things we are doing now as a company and we are launching in few weeks . TrueFlutter will definitely be a household name and we are very optimistic about the numbers. So we know we are going to grow like 3X the number we have now and we are definitely going to be a household name and that is what we are striving to be as a company this year.
We want to be in different parts of Africa and also grow as a company. Most importantly we want to connect as many people as possible.
Mobile Car Detailing is a service that involves cleaning and rejuvenating the inside and outside of a vehicle while it is at the customer’s location.
Mobile Car Detailing services can be provided at the customer’s home, place of work, or other location, and typically include a range of services such as washing and waxing the exterior of the vehicle, cleaning and conditioning the interior, and detailing specific areas such as the wheels and engine.
Some mobile car detailing businesses also offer additional services such as paint touch-ups, headlight restoration, and windshield repair. Mobile car detailing is a convenient option for people who do not have the time or access to a traditional car wash or detailing facility.
Starting a mobile car detailing business can be a lucrative and rewarding venture, as long as you are willing to put in the time and effort to plan and execute your business effectively.
Here are some steps to consider when starting a mobile car detailing service:
Research your market: Who are the people that would likely need a Car Detailing Service? Of course the Wealthy Nigerians in Urban Cities like Lagos, Abuja, Portharcourt, Busy Business Men and Women, Celebrities and many more. Just figure that out.
Create a business plan: This will help you clarify your goals, define your target market, and map out a plan for how you will market and operate your business.
Acquire the necessary equipment and supplies: Depending on the services you plan to offer, you will need to purchase or lease equipment such as a pressure washer, polisher, and waxing machine. You will also need to stock up on supplies such as towels, sponges, and cleaning chemicals.
Choose a vehicle: You will need a reliable vehicle to use as a mobile detailing unit. Consider purchasing a van or truck that can accommodate your equipment and supplies.
Set your pricing: Determine how much you will charge for your services based on your costs.
Market your business: Spread the word about your business through advertising, networking, and word-of-mouth. Consider creating a website and social media presence to reach a wider audience.
Build relationships with customers: Providing excellent customer service will help you retain clients and attract new ones. Be prompt, professional, and reliable, and make sure to ask for feedback and take it into account when improving your services.
My Name is Musa Friday, founder Besko-Osha Farms, an agro-consultant, Farm Management, and also Backyard Farming in Nigeria.
What motivated you to get started with Backyard fish Farming?
I have never in my life thought of becoming a farmer, the thought came during my Service year in Edo State when we were told that we are over 3000 Youths corp members serving in Edo State.
Then I did a statistics, I multiply the figure ( 3000 ) by the number of states we have in Nigeria then I discovered that it’s a lot and there’s no job out there and the Youths keep passing out from the system every 3-4 months because as at then, we have 3 Batches passing out.
I said to myself that I need to find a way out that instead of looking for a job after my service, I will rather create a job for myself and also help my society in terms of employment.
That was when the thought of farming came to me then I started acquiring knowledge about poultry business and Management, I worked with a local poultry farmer for free and I also went to one of the biggest poultry farms in Agbor just to seek knowledge.
After I have acquired some knowledge, I formed a monthly contribution group with my corp members, it was that money I used to book for my first-day-old chicks and I was running the farms with my allawee.
My target markets were the community and my corps members. I sold to them and make a profit.
What problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
one of the unique problems that I’m trying to solve is to make sure that every home plants what they eat at home in their Backyard.
That’s the reason I started Backyard Farming by helping people develop their backyard into farming by this every home will have healthy food to eat and it will lessen their cost of feeding which eventually decreases the prices of food in the market because most people now plant what they wanted to eat at home.
Backyard Farming is the act of you utilizing the small availability of small space in your backyard to grow your own food for yourself and your family and at the same time still making money from it by selling the remaining produce from that your Backyard.
So one of the ways to solve the hunger problem in the country and provide jobs for the Youths and also development to the community is by Starting a Backyard Fish Farming program which I have helped a lot of people and most of them started small and some of them are now into commercial farming now.
The Backyard Fish Farming is a program whereby you can start your own Backyard fish farming with a startup capital of ₦100,000, I will give the client Starter kits which are A Tarpaulin pond size of 5″6 with 1000 standard Fingerlings with a bag of feed and drugs, I will also give the Client an ebook that cost about ₦10,000 for free and the person will also be under my Mentorship and Consultation for free too.
And in terms of sales, I will bring an offtaker that will come and buy the whole fish.
What differentiates you from other farmers?
What really Differentiate me from other Farmers is that I was able to associate myself with other farmers in different fields aside from my own area of specialization that is one the reason why I went to Leventis Agricultural Training School to learn further about mostly everything about Agriculture both crop, livestock, and Agri-business. Aside from that, I always attend events and seminars on Agriculture In other to expand my scope of the business.
How do you get customers for your business?
We have Central Market for all Agric produce, for instance, the Mile 12 international market and Ile Epo in Lagos are for vegetable Market which happens to be the largest in the country, most farmers all over the state bring their produce there, we also have those that do come to the farm and buy directly, we call those ones off-takers. So there are different ways we can get customers, we either take it to the market or we look for off-takers, but I prefer taking mine to the Central Market.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
Generally, the challenges most farmers are facing are pricing. we don’t have a well-regulated body that oversees the pricing control of our products and this is really affecting the farmers and making the middlemen and women stinkingly rich instead of the farmers.
The middlemen determine the prices of agro-produce instead of the farmers.
How I was able to solve the challenges was to eliminate the middlemen and sell directly to the end users.
And lastly, Government should be able to fund the agricultural sector by providing a ground level for farmers and subsidizing some other things.
What are some of your sources of learning and inspiration?
I don’t joke with learning, that’s why I surrounded myself with people that we both share the same goals and how we can achieve them.
I have learned a lot from people that are ahead of me in farming, those guys are my great learning source.
Advice for others who want to get started or are just starting out with farming?
My advice is very simple, they should just remain focused. The Agricultural sector is one the largest sector in the Country they should just pick a niche and start small no matter the millions they have to throw around, learning is very important when starting out, they will learn how to climb the ropes and, before they know it, they’ll have become an expert in that niche. Moreso, join a community and attend seminars and events.
What books, podcasts, or resources do you recommend for entrepreneurs out there?
The good thing is that information is now easy to come by compared to when we started back then, We will have to travel widely to be able to learn whatever things we wanted to learn in our own niche.
But now information is everywhere, so what I will strongly advise them to use is YouTube.
Where would you like your business to be in five years?
My plan for the next 5 years is to establish a farm Estate and also be part of the people that will end hunger in Africa and beyond.
Most importantly be able to create employment for thousands of our youths and also contribute to the GDP of the Nation
How can people get started with farming?
Anyone can start, but the issue is to go for learning first, don’t just start farming without learning the tricks behind it, if not you will fail. We have several Agricultural Training Schools now some are free while some are paid.
Just make sure you acquire adequate knowledge about it before starting.
Supercar Blondie is an Australian automotive YouTuber known for her luxury car videos. Real name Alex Hirschi, the vlogger, and presenter have a massive following across all the top social media platforms. As of 2022, Supercar Blondie has an estimated net worth of $17 million.
How She Started
In Dubai, she initially worked at a radio station called Eye 103.8 and was first known as “Radio Blondie,” serving as a presenter and newsreader. After five years of hosting her own radio show, she was contacted by Bentley Motors.
The luxury car company wanted her to test drive one of their models in 2015. This is when she decided to make an Instagram page and make automotive-related content. Not long after, she created accounts on Facebook and YouTube.
After working with Bentley, she got brand deals with other major car companies. Currently, Supercar Blondie has 9.52 million followers on YouTube, 10.7 million on Instagram, and 48 million on Facebook.
What’s Unique About Her?
Alex’s journey to success definitely wasn’t a short one. It took a lot of evenings, weekends, and hard work to pull it off.
Before making the switch to full-time content creation, she had already built up a pretty good network and known expertise in the car niche – which ultimately led to Bentley’s offer. From then on, she took the initiative to approach other big car brands to see if they would be interested in doing the same. And it worked out.
Targeting an existing niche of supercar lovers, Alex saw an opportunity to add a different perspective to the mix. She came at it from the angle of a female, supercar enthusiast who was more focused on aesthetics, rather than hearing it from a male, car expert who would be more focused on the mechanics.
This approach helped her stand out and even attract a whole new audience of people with the same type of interest when it came to supercars.
She describes herself as a “car entertainer” instead of a specialist. She enters each car and makes each video with a beginner’s mind, or as she calls it: the “girl next door” approach.
Her story has shown how anyone can become rich and famous by using Social Media to one’s advantage.
All you have to do is Pick a Niche, Create awesome content, and be consistent then watch the sky being your limit.
My name is Mat De Sousa and I’m currently working on WideBundle, a solution that helps merchants earn more on Shopify
Mat
What motivated you to get started with WideBundle?
The journey didn’t start with WideBundle. I built many projects before that. And WideBundle wasn’t the first application. I built my first app in 2017 but didn’t know much about SaaS back then.
So I learned. The first app did pretty well and we reached $1000 MRR but we had to close it because Shopify made changes to their platform.
I tried to build 2 other Shopify Apps after this one but it didn’t work so I gave up Shopify apps and went back to “normal” SaaS.
The thing is, I wasn’t that successful and in 2020 I had to do my final internship at the end of the year and I didn’t have a sustainable business. I asked my school if, instead of doing the internship, I could just create a company. And they accepted!
So I just gathered everything I had learned and asked myself: What can I build?
What problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
We help merchants earn more on Shopify. Simple as that. To do that we help them build “bundles” on their product page. It’s basically packs of products that you offer to your customers.
So if they are coming to buy a tee-shirt, they may end up buying 2 of them, or 3.
We increase this with a beautiful design on the page.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Tracking data worked. It’s probably the best thing to work on. If you have a poor conversion rate, you can try what you want you’ll never get traction.
So this was the first thing. We installed Mixpanel and started to track everything. From there we tracked important metrics like: Activation Rate, Conversion Rate, Churn
And the goal is then to improve them by taking some actions, talking to customers.
If you have 5% activation rate and you improve it to 10%, it means you’ll get 2x more customers, which is amazing!
Then I think the beauty of this market is that you have the Shopify App Store that attracts customers automatically.
widebundle
Describe your business model and what makes your business unique?
We have a single monthly plan but we’re working to add more in the future with different features. So people use our apps and pay a monthly fee.
The business is unique because we built an app on top of another platform (Shopify). And thus, you have things you can do and others that you can’t.
The rules are a bit different than “classic” SaaS.
The business is totally bootstrapped. It means that I never had to fund it.
I’m a developer, I built the app myself and didn’t need anything else to start it.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
Probably Zero to Sold by Arvid Khal. This book explains exactly how I build my apps today. And I think that if this book was written years ago, I would have probably saved many years.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
I can think about 3 challenges. The first one was to hire my first employee. I didn’t know how to do it and was overwhelmed by customer support. I had to learn and chat with people who went through this.
But at some point, I think you figure this out when you really need something. And that’s what happened here.
The second thing was when I had problems with servers for my app. You know, the app grew so quickly that I couldn’t follow and my technical skills were not good enough.
As we got more users, we started having server problems, crashes and bugs. And I didn’t know what to do. But thanks I met the team from Northflank, they helped me structure my servers and scale them.
The last one was when I had to hire developers. I knew how to hire people now but not developers. I was a developer myself and working with them is completely different. Your processes and the way you work have to evolve. But again, you figure this out. You try something, it doesn’t work, so you change it. And at some point, you find something good.
What is your greatest business achievement to date?
I’d say reaching the $30,000 MRR mark for my business. Making $30,000 every month.
Where would you like your startup to be in five years?
I’d like to have more Shopify Apps, like a studio, helping more and more customers.
What software or technology has made the biggest difference to your business?
The first one is probably Mixpanel. Tracking your data is so important. Then I’d say Notion, we have everything on it, our processes, etc. And finally Slack because I don’t know how I would chat with my team without it haha.
What one thing do you wish someone had told you when you started on your business journey?
Probably “Start with a problem, not an idea”. When people want to build an app, they usually think about “What idea should I build”? And then they think about how they can get customers to this idea.
And that’s why it never works.
But if you first start with the customer and the problems they face, it’s easier to find a solution that people actually want.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
I built 2 Shopify apps, but I think I built the second one too early in my journey. I should have focused instead on the first app, crushed it, delegated it, and then gone to the second one.
Have you had any failed business?
Yes, I built 3 Shopify apps before the successful one. And each time I learned something new.
It takes failures to finally find success and that’s normal!
What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
I think books are underestimated. You can find great information in books that never get old. So go read books in your business category!
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Never stop testing, never stop validating and never stop working. Test things, track data, then iterate. Validate everything you do and never assume you know what is good. Never stop working, if you fail at some point, keep trying.
One business app and one personal app you can’t do without?
My Twitter app, because I love Twitter. Whether it’s for business or personal stuff. Then I’d say the calendar app haha
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Ben Francis is the Founder and ambitious entrepreneur behind the leading UK fitness brand, Gymshark. Ben founded Gymshark when he was 19 out of his bedroom in his parent’s house, while still a student at Aston University. In addition to his full-time commitment to his studies, Ben juggled working as a pizza delivery man to fund his Gymshark venture. Now the fitness apparel and accessories brand is one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.K.
Ben francis
How He Got Started
When Ben was still a young teenager, he created an online store to sell car license plates. He developed two iPhone fitness tracking apps, and then made around £8,000 from one of which. He also worked as a pizza delivery man at Pizza Hut.
In 2012, his idea of Gymshark was born. At that time, he was just a full-time, 19-year-old student. At first, Francis focused on only health supplements.
Since he started with zero funding, he had to dropship the products from other retailers. “You have to be creative with the front end and back end of your business when starting”, he said.
Not long after that, he realized the profit margins of this business were too low and had no potential in the future. So, he decided to switch to clothing. Francis admitted he didn’t have any immediate grand business plan. He just thought “it was more a case of ‘I really want to wear this,’ so I made it,”. He also had no idea how to price items. “It was literally a case of what would we want to pay for something… There was no considered approach. We were like, ‘we would pay £20.”
Why Gymshark Is So Big
Ben has always believed in customer satisfaction, in fact something interesting happened in 2015.
Gymshark suffered a website outage on Black Friday, resulting in customers not being able to get their deals. Whilst this might have broken many companies, Gymshark’s founder ( Ben Francis ) personally hand-wrote 2500 apology letters to customers, including discounts, who weren’t able to purchase during the crash.
This singular act has endeared a lot of loyal customers to them.
Gymshark is not just a company, its a Lifestyle and a Community
Gymshark was the earliest adopter of the influencer marketing model, partnering with YouTubers including Lex Griffin and Nikki Blackketter. Now, the brand markets products through its community of Instagram influencers and YouTubers and sponsors a range of athletes, each of whom operates at the top of their game.
The athletes include Irish professional boxer Katie Taylor and Ross Edgley, who in 2018 became the first person to swim (1780 miles) all the way around Great Britain. Francis said, “From the point of view of the athletes we work with, we want to create a real, strong team that speaks to our values. And we work with them for a long, sustained period of time.” The lessons: Don’t think of influencer marketing as a quick smash and grab, think of it as building relationships with people over a long period of time, for the benefit of both of your brands. The goal isn’t shallow and fleeting promotion.
Be prepared to invest in the process and communicate what you’re looking for long-term.
My name is Luca Restagno and I’m currently working on Hivoe, Hivoe is a Twitter DMs tool for kickstarting conversations.
What motivated you to get started with Hivoe?
After selling a SaaS in 2021, I was looking for a new product idea. Around March 2021 I started being active on Twitter and posting content related to web development (I’m a Frontend Engineer) — I wanted to build an audience to support me, get feedback, and grow my future projects. Many Twitter big accounts talk about Twitter DMs as a powerful tool to create good relationships, but I was doing this on the side of a day job, and I didn’t have time to reach out to every follower. So, I thought about automating the process, and I built the first MVP, an automated welcome message to kickstart new conversations.
What problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
I’m solving the problem of kickstarting new conversations via Twitter DMs. Some people on Twitter are introverts, who are worried about reaching out to people. They are worried about being rejected or ignored. The automated welcome message removes all that pain, as you don’t know when the message is sent, and you start chatting when and if the users reply back (and it happens more often than you can imagine).
Since then, I also added the possibility of cold outreach via DMs, to automate the giveaways (automatic messages sent based on the tweet reply of a user), and lately external webhook support (for integrations with Slack, AirTable, Google Sheet, and many external services).
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
building in public is what I love doing, and I do that well on Twitter. It means that I share my struggles, what I’m building even before it’s ready, I share my MRR growth publicly, and so on. People are interested in stories and learning from others. Also, Hivoe is a product related to Twitter, so my audience quite often converts to new subscribers.
Describe your business model and what makes your business unique.?
The business model is very simple, it is a subscription-based (monthly or annual) model.
There’s a free trial period of 14-days, during which you can try some of the features without limits. I don’t think that my business is unique, and usually, a business doesn’t need to be unique in the space but diversified. Maybe just a bit better compared to the competitors, or simply known by a big enough audience to sustain your business.
How did you fund your business?
My business is completely bootstrapped. The customers support its development via the subscription they purchase and renew. I like this model, as it goes to the foundation of entrepreneurship. If a product solves a problem, then people will pay you (via your product) to have it solved.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
My favorite podcast is the Wannabe Entrepreneur Podcast by Tiago Ferreira. He shares his journey as an indie hacker and he interviews many entrepreneurs.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
None at the moment. Running a small business on the side, means that whatever you get is a surplus.
What is your greatest business achievement to date?
I’m very happy about having one or two new users per day, on average, and of course about the current MRR! It’s €250 and it is very promising 💪
Where would you like your startup to be in five years?
I hope that Hivoe becomes the must-have product to manage Twitter DMs (and potentially other platforms too). And of course a much higher MRR!
What software or technology has made the biggest difference to your business?
I use a very lean technical stack. I’m a software engineer, so coding is my daily activity. I use Next.js to develop the web app, Vercel to host it, and AWS to run some background scheduled jobs.
What one thing do you wish someone had told you when you started on your business journey?
Focus on building an audience as soon as possible, create a curated newsletter and focus on marketing more than building. You need to have a voice that resonates in the web, and someone willing to hear you.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
Until now, nothing different to be honest 😉
Have you had any failed business?
None at the moment. Hove is my first business. Even if I sold one SaaS in 2021, that product was pre-revenue.
What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
I suggest joining the Tech and Indie Hackers community on Twitter — it’s such an amazing and supportive community! And of course Indie Hackers — it’s a great community as well. It’s going to take some time, as you need to interact with people and read content, but you’ll find inside these two resources, all the information you need.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Build and audience first of all, it’s going to create many opportunities that you can’t even imagine now. Talk to people and pay attention to the pain points that raise, often those are great business opportunities.
One business app and one personal app you can’t do without?
On a business level I really appreciate LogSnag by Shayan, it’s a simple, yet effective product, and the design is so clean.
As personal app, I can’t live without the app Podcast, by Apple.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
I’m not hiring at the moment. I’ll go solo until the business will sustain and requires new people to help me (if that’ll ever happen 🤞).
My name is Niyi and my startup name is Niyi Art, I’ve always had a passion for art. So apparently, that’s where I got my startup name from.
What problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
I have always loved to put a smile on the face of people, so I started Niyi Artto inspire people through my art.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
The importance of good customer service cannot be overemphasized in business. With good customer service, I have been able to attract and retain customers for my business.
How did you fund your business?
I funded my business by myself and most importantly i re-invest my profit back into the business to keep the business running.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
The Value of Everything is one great documentary that inspires me, and i urge everyone to go see the documentary too.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
My biggest challenge is not getting enough support as a child growing up regarding my passion for art. I got a lot of discouragement from family and friends but, but i didn’t allow that to deter me while growing up, I kept on pushing because I was convinced I was doing the right thing.
What is your greatest business achievement to date?
One great achievement i cherished so much till date is being able to work with and exhibit my works in galleries. This is what every artists look forward to.
Where would you like your startup to be in five years?
Wow, in the next five years, I want to build a strong portfolio and have my work displayed in various renowned museums in Nigeria and Africa.
What software or technology has made the biggest difference to your business?
Instagram and WhatsApp are the major apps that I use for my business and they are super effective. Unfortunately, a lot of businessmen and businesswomen are sleeping on it.
After graduating from the University of Leicester, Ifayemi set out on a career in finance, working for Deutsche Bank before moving to Barclays and also Edmond de Rothschild.
While his experience in these positions gave him a precious sapience into the world of finance, more importantly, it opened his eyes to the vibrant community of spanning UK businesses at the forefront of invention.
And this window into business reignited an idea he ’d been thinking about since university.
While in his alternate time of study, Ifayemi worked as a student minister helping connect students with landlords and rental accommodation. And it wasn’t long before he realized just how inefficient and clumsy the process was for students moving from halls into private accommodation.
Determined that there must be a better, digital solution that millennials could get before, Ifayemi quit finance to partner up with co-founder Omar Fahmi (a seasoned designer who ran his own brand design consultancy) to launch SPCE.
The app connects students and landlords together while automating the entire rental process, from the property search to the signing of contracts.
And it’s clear that the app has struck a chord.
Having exceeded its crowdfunding target on Seedrs to raise £280,000 – with a stunning 82% of the rounds secured within 24 hours of the campaign launching –
Ifayemi feels more confident than ever that other people love the idea of SPCE as much as him.
Moreover, crowdfunding has enabled the young entrepreneur to surround himself with a group of investors suitable to share not just funds but knowledge and advice to help propel the business forward.
Now in the midst of a Series A round, Ifayemi has big intentions for the app in the coming many years.
By 2025, he wants SPCE to “become a globally recognized app for students on the hunt for their next rental property”.
Hi Rohit, what’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
My name is Rohit Raj and I’m a student in my first year in college. Apart from that I also have my own company named ‘Techsics’. Started my journey when I was 15 years old by working on Arduino and Raspberry Pi based projects. I’m a guy who is in love with technologies. When I was in class 8th standard, I have made my first project i.e. ‘Model & working Lie detector’ and from there, my interest towards electronics and technologies increased.
During these past years of my life I have learned and explore many skills as possible. By actively increasing interest in the field of technology, I have developed some drones keening to my interest.
Apart from that, I’m a member of various Google Developer Groups like GDGs Jalandhar, Delhi, Mumbai etc. In 2020, I had being the youngest delegate as well campus ambassador at International Model United Nation(IMUN) conference which has been held across the world. Recently, I have written book on robotics named ‘The Robotics Dimension’.
Raj
What motivated you to get started with Techsics?
When I was initially started with electronics related stuffs, I usually borrow money from my parents. At the time when I started of making drones, then some parts of my drones like the propellers, batteries got damaged because I’m still a newbie with drones and electronic hardware, and my parents doesn’t believe in me then, they said there’s no future in those things, that i should first focus on my academics.
More so, at that time I also don’t know about the future of drones and uses, i was just doing it for fun, but I was crazy about those flying machines and I wanted to get more into them.
But the main problem was money, and I did not know how to source for money that time for my projects. I started searching on Google and YouTube about ways to make money online and then I found lots of ways to make money. But the most viable way I found was Freelancing, Then after studying more about freelancing, I created accounts on different freelancing sites. I waited for few weeks before i could get a client who paid me a very small amount for his project. I couldn’t make do with that so i started exploring more skills like logo designing, video editing and more.
What problem are you solving with your startup and how are you solving it?
Techsics is a tech service provider as well as Edtech based company located in Bihar (Patna). We mainly focuses on drones development, app development, web development, home automation, DIY based projects , Edtech (focusing on 21st generation skills) and many more tech related stuffs.
We provide 21st generation skills courses to young people which crosses beyond just the academics, because in this generation, skills matter more than degrees.
Train students, youths on the topics like drone development, application development, AI, IOTs, ML and many more. We help students fine tune their careers by providing adequate knowledge and skills needed for their future.
Most of the students in India had only two career options, either engineering or medical because our Indian education doesn’t allow us to explore some extra skills, and most importantly we don’t get surrounded by people who would motivate us to think about skills.
Another primary factor is the fact the Universities are following an outdated which are not relevant today. The companies are demanding modern skills because of the rapid technology change but the colleges are still teaching the 20 years old frameworks and syllabus.
This becomes the reason why 80% of the graduated engineers in India remain unemployed and 80% of students have to undergo an additional training program to become job ready.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Techsics officially launched in 2020 and we initially started as only a tech service provider company but after that we dived into Edtech sector, and then the two together. To retain the customers, initially we provided 10+ free webinars on 21st generation skills and explain to students about the future and values of these skills.
More importantly, the feedback we are getting make us start expanding in every tech fields and hence, more customers.
What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?
We work on both B2B as well as B2C business model. We generate and grow our revenue by giving exciting offers on courses and services, playing adds, using referral method and more.
What differentiate you from other competitors?
Techsics is basically a Tech service provider as well as Edtech company.
So anyone with their skills and knowledge can work with Techsics.
For example, if I find even a student of any class having amazing level of knowledge and creative skills I will offer him a job rather than asking him to show his degree and qualifications. Because age doesn’t matter for doing any work or learn something new. The only thing which works is your passion towards your work.
I think this thing makes Techsics a different company as compare to other companies.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
One of the ways i grow my business is running ads on Social Media, in addition to that, referrals is also a great method and most importantly promoting and offering some extra benefits monthly.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
I am a 19 years old teenager, so at initial stage of my startup, people wouldn’t consider my ideas and opinions, owing to my young age.
In fact they always used to tell me that ” you are very young, you don’t have knowledge about business, you can’t do it, you don’t have any ability, and talent “
So many things they said to me.
Have you had any failed business?
Yes. ‘Techsics’ is not my first company, it’s actually the second.
Before Techsics, I owned a company called ‘TheNeway’ when I was 17 years old in which we works on academics education sector.
But due to some reasons we shut down the company and after which I started ‘Techsics’ and started growing.
Advice for other young entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
For those entrepreneurs who are just starting, I want to advice that before starting anything, first do a proper research about that particular field, analyze the market, study and get proper knowledge about that sector, study about basic terms in startups and then go through your idea.
Don’t think about what society is saying about you and your idea, if you ever believe and have confidence that your idea will work then put your time, money, effort and knowledge into your startup idea and grow.
I always believe that if you really want to do something in life and wanted to reach your desired goals, then always keep your focus and believe in yourself and your ideas, be passionate about what you do, be productive, be patient, and work smarter than harder.
Zach Sims is the co-founder and CEO of Codecademy; a leading platform for coding education, with over 50 million learners to date.
Zach Sims
How He Started
With software eating the world and very few ways to learn to create it, to Sims it was a very huge opportunity, so by 2011, he built Codecademy in YC, having gotten started, they posted it to Hacker News as a Hail Mary before the Demo Day and that got them about 200,000 signups in just 3 days.
They were everywhere, the press loved it, they were on every 30 Under 30 list, won awards, and more. As a founder, all of this felt great to them until they had to raise to stay alive.
All the press clippings didn’t add up to enough $$ money to demonstrate that they’d built something people would pay for.
With a few months of cash left in 2015, they scrambled to build Codecademy Pro, their first paid product, with new courses and new features for learners.
Going from the center of attention to the brink of bankruptcy was a rude awakening for them.
They struggled, but hit $1m ARR in 6 months to raise a successful Series C to keep the company alive.
Learning a Big Lesson
On the way, they learned an important lesson: hype doesn’t pay the bills.
From then on, they pledged to do things differently this time they focused not on vanity metrics, but on real metrics.
They stopped tracking press mentions and started tracking how quickly they could get to cash flow positive. It felt impossible, but they made it happen 18 months later.
For the past 5 years, they’ve built Codecademy to be a generational and sustainable company.
They’ve built a $50m+ revenue business, controlling their own destiny, all while avoiding the hype they’d built the first four years of the business.
This time, they raised money not on hype, but on substance, with a business growing nearly 2x/year scale, with a growing market and a product that helps millions of learners access economic opportunities.
But they know the truth: fundraising doesn’t mean much. Here’s what does:
Sims
In Sims Word:
“Building a sustainable company: raising money doesn’t make you sustainable.
Understanding how to make more than you spend does.
Ignoring the hype: I find this one hard myself. Every day, one of your competitors is in the news or goes viral on Twitter.
Don’t pay attention. Your Twitter followers don’t pay the bills.
If someone really wants something you’ve built, they’ll pay you for it”.
According to Sims,
“Most startups die of self-inflicted wounds, not because of their competitors. Keep your head down and focus less on competitors and more on product market fit.
Hire the right people and remember that the user is your customer, and your investors and journalists aren’t.
We’ve learned these lessons @Codecademy, but have tons more to learn. One of the hardest things in startups is to be persistent, but it’s easier when what you’re building makes the lives of tens of millions of learners better”.
Now, Sims’ product affects millions of people.
Codecademy helps equip people with the skills they need to find a job in the 21st century, and it’s helping bridge the employment and education gap that Sims wanted to fix all along.
Hi Kemi What’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
My name is Kemi Olawoye and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of Babymigo; Nigeria’s fastest growing pregnancy and parenting community.
Babymigo provides expert-verified health information, education, resources, and concierge services relating to pregnancy, parenting, childbirth, and reproductive health via SMS(Text), mobile app, and web at scale.
What motivated you to get started with Babymigo?
I had previously worked as a Physiotherapist in a private hospital in Nigeria and coordinated the women’s health unit of the department.
During this time, I interacted with several pregnant women who constantly shared their struggles with me. These challenges included untimely access to trained medical personnel, lack of culturally relevant health information, resources, and tools, and inadequate hyper-local support services among several others.
Subsequently, I met my co-founder who had a similar experience working in a Primary Health Care Centre. We decided to leverage technology to solve the problem and founded Babymigo.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Listening to users, addressing pain points and constantly improving our products and services.
We aim to be seen not just as a parenting company by users but as a parenting partner.
What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?
Our business model combines the B2B and B2C approach. We offer a range of products for mums including Mamacare, a maternity care service and Bloomcare, a digital family health clinic.
What are your business goals for the future?
Expand and reach more mums across Africa while continuing to launch and deliver innovative solutions to users.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
We have engaged and combined several strategies over the years to grow as a business.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
Hiring right. This was a major challenge for us in the early stages and I have noticed it is also a major challenge for many entrepreneurs in Africa. Hiring is also one thing, steering the team to produce desired results is another. However, our team members have grown to understand the vision and are running with it.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
Involve users more in our product development journey from the get-go. However, we learnt and made necessary changes quickly.
Have you had any failed business?
No
What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
Mentorship. Leadership, management and business development courses and trainings.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who are struggling with their startups?
Seek help from business experts and professionals. Learn and unlearn quickly. Speak to your customers and involve them to know the solutions and products they truly need.
Oreoluwa Shonibare is the Co-founder and CEO of WiiCreate; a brand that helps startups and companies source and ship custom branded boxes with the use of technology.
He’s the last born of 3 and a graduate of Mass Communication from Bowen University.
Oreoluwa Shonibare
How He Started
The idea of WiiCreatewas the dream of Donald Onwochei, a student at Covenant University, who sold t-shirts and other custom merchandise to students in his school.
Oreoluwa was also doing a similar business in his school, and when Donald was about to graduate from university, he put out a tweet that he was looking for a co-founder to build a bigger business with, which Oreoluwa saw on his timeline.
The rest is history.
Obstacles and Future Plans
Funding and Focus were the biggest challenges he had when he started WiiCreate. WiiCreatekicked off with savings of N200,000.
He made sure growth was the backbone of the business and this attracted more funding.
One major thing that helped them overcome the challenges was prioritizing the growth of the business for as long as was needed.
His business goal for the future is to make WiiCreatebe the biggest merchandising company in Africa serving thousands of companies across the continent.
His Word of Advice to New and Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Start with what you have, do not wait for the perfect time. There is no perfect time for starting. Just do it. Test the idea, if it works, scale it. If it doesn’t, check around for competition that is thriving, assess their business, and do some experiments.
Learn more than you earn for as long as possible; it would help you stay ahead of the curve.
Donald Meckanzy Okaragba is the Co-founder of MeckHealth; a digital health company that’s focused on patient safety and working to reduce medical errors by at least 60%.
He has a background in Mechanical Engineering.
Donald Meckanzy Okaragba
How He Started
Sometime in 2020, Donald visited the hospital as he wasn’t feeling too well. When he got there, they couldn’t find his file, so he had to wait for hours. Eventually, a new file was opened for him.
When it was time for him to see the doctor, the doctor just asked him questions without touching him or taking any blood samples. He then wondered why he had to wait for hours just for the doctor to be able to diagnose him by asking questions.
He then thought to himself to create an app that can assist doctors.
He believed that medical records should already be digitized instead of having paper files that take time to find.
When he closed their very first deal in a hospital, it was a rainy day. He walked into the hospital and asked to see the medical director, but was told that he was busy and won’t be able to see him till he was done with the patients.
So, he stood waiting for like 5 hours till the medical director stormed out angrily and complained to the nurses for making someone wait that long.
The medical director then asked him if he was sick and Donald said yes. It wasn’t until he got into the medical director’s office that he then pitched his idea.
Eventually, he was able to close the deal. His first deal.
Adewale Adedamola is the Founder of Aorthar; a design agency.
Damola is a graduate of Agriculture from the University of Ilorin.
Adewale Adedamola
How He Started
When Damola started, he wanted Aortharto be a training hub for the next generation of designers. He wanted to model it like Andela which is for Software Developers.
In his university days, he organized little trainings, and he figured he was good at teaching, hence why he decided to create a brand centered on training people to become designers.
So, he started with two other people – a Developer and a Content Writer.
They then launched their website then.
They started by offering their individual services so as to generate cash to be able to build the hub they were planning to build; so that by the time they generate enough cash, they could then venture into teaching people.
That was the initial plan for starting up Aorthar.
Obstacles
The first challenge he faced was Capital. Another challenge is also Human Resource.
Government Policy is also another challenge for him as there was a time his clientele base consisted of mostly crypto guys, but with the government clamping down on crypto, that has also impacted him.
Hi Damola, what’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
My name is Adewale Adedamola.
I don’t like to call myself a founder. I understand that I’m someone that has started something. I’ve started a lot of things actually. There are some that are still running, and there are some that have stopped.
The main one is Aortharwhich is a design agency and it’s comprised of a team of brilliant individuals.
So what happened is that in the course of my experience and exposure, I get people that have the potential; I discuss with some of my friends and some come to discuss with me about joining me and all that.
I gathered these guys and orient them a bit and we start taking jobs together and sharing the money.
It’s not really a founder thing, because we would have been talking about salary and startup.
In the context, it’s a business that’s registered; then a lot of training, a lot of HR stuff, a lot of official stuff, meetings, etc. So that’s the vibe of the business.
Adewale Adedamola
Maybe it’s okay to call it something that I founded but naturally, we don’t really operate like that. Right now, I call it a group of people, a team. And I call myself a team lead.
We’ve done so many amazing things together. We’ve done projects for ourselves, like personal projects. We’ve done some for clients also and then we also have representatives, like we get clients on behalf of Aorthar, and then we have someone that’s running the operational dealings of that company.
Sometimes, we get contracts, sometimes we do trainings.
What motivated you to get started with Aorthar?
When I started it initially, I wanted it to be like a hub for training the next generation of designers. I had the model of Andela. Andela used to be like a software talent developer. They have this 6-months internship, they train young talents and then they ship them out to any company that’s in need of developers.
It’s just like a school; the fact that you learned with Andela, you are going to be worth a lot of experience and value.
So I think the business model is that the company gets paid on their behalf, I’m not really sure of the deal, but whatever it was, I kind of wanted to do something like that for designers, because we don’t really have a design school.
So basically, I wanted to create a hub that trains designers; that was the initial plan. Those days in school that I do little trainings, and I see the way people respond to it. I realized that I’m ready to teach properly and people really grabbed what I taught them and they become professionals.
My first set of students are all designers to date. Compared to when I learned design, the teacher taught about 10 of us and I think I’m still the only person using this design to eat; every other person has kind of given up.
I wanted to make something out of it then and that was when the whole idea came up. So I started writing a lot of strategies. I had like 2 people then; a developer and a content writer. We also launched our website then.
Let’s talk about how we offer design services.
The model was to, first of all, offer the service so that we can have enough cash to build the hub we were planning to build. Since we already had the talent of people who can design and develop apps and websites; I can design, my CTO can develop and my content writer can write, let’s offer our services and make cash because the whole idea of starting things up is that the team members will give up along the way. That was the model.
So the strategy I had in mind was to first offer some design services for a while, then after, if I get a lot of profit, I’ll venture into teaching people. That was initially the plan.
That was what motivated me.
How did you move from design to marketing and why did you have to move to marketing?
It’s not marketing per se, it’s just your task to sell because you want to survive; you need to make money and you have to learn it. So marketing just comes in naturally, because the only way you can make money is to get yourself out there and the only way you can get yourself out there is to market yourself.
So, I’m a designer. Just imagine entrepreneurs come to ask me that “Damola, can you design a flyer for me because I want to host an event and in that event, I want to sell my book” or people saying “I want to launch a project or product and I need designs”.
So definitely, design solves people’s problems, so why shouldn’t I use it to solve my own problem. That makes a lot of sense and that’s the reason why I have to start engaging with what design does for entrepreneurs.
It’s not like I went to do marketing; this is me using what I know to actually get cash and the term now becomes sales and marketing whereby you design a flyer of what you do, then you ship it out to people, then people will inquire and they’ll do business with you.
Apart from that, for people, if they want to use my product or my service to do marketing, so they’ll be telling me a lot of specifications, so I learned from them indirectly.
In fact, every CEO has to be a good marketer, because if you are a CEO and not a marketer or a salesperson, there’s a big chance that your business will fail.
There are 2 different kinds of people that start a business; there are products people and what they are interested in is offering services and there are business people and what they are interested in is selling something. These 2 sets of people do things differently.
A business person is always looking for ways to get money and sell back money like they use money to get money basically; they hire people, they pay for things.
What the products or service people do is that they use their skills to get money.
Definitely, one is going to have a marketing ability than the other; the one that will have the marketing ability is the one that does everything in his power to make money and that’s the business people, they need money, they are looking for investors, they are looking for cash, they don’t mind selling their houses to get money.
Let me give an example, if a CTO, or a coder, or a programmer decides to start running a business, he’s most likely not going to spend anything. All he has to do is to sit with his system and then be coding, so if he fails, it doesn’t really hurt him a bit. But compared to a businessman, if he fails, he’s going to go broke and he doesn’t want that to happen so, the energy is different.
This set of people are the people I mostly dealt with in my early stages and they taught me a lot, so being a product person, I started learning marketing that way. I now became a businessman that has that skill set.
I’m now combining those 2 energies. I don’t have to spend to hire people to do my work for me; still, I’m able to generate money for myself.
So that’s how everything synced together.
How do you think designers can learn how to market their products?
There are 2 ways to do this.
You might naturally be someone that doesn’t want to be seen which is fine, so one of the things I’ll advise is that you should get somebody that doesn’t mind being seen as your assistant or your co-founder. A lot of people do this a lot.
Go and check all the histories of every businessman that you see, maybe Jeff Bezos for example; there’s a big chance that his co-founder is going to be a developer or product designer or product developer because these two have to sync. One has to build amazing products, and one has to sell to the biggest bidders or to get a lot of people to buy. That’s how business works.
If you know that you are not the kind of person that’s good in marketing, maybe because of the way you grew up or you are an introvert, the best thing is to actually find someone loud that can sell for you. That’s number one.
Secondly, you can learn it. There’s another thing I use to tell people to do in the aspect of learning. I use to feel like the beginning of our lives is very important, maybe that’s one of the mistakes I made.
I use to tell people that the experience I have today was paid for by my blood. I used my time to buy it.
Some people buy courses these days to learn marketing, how to run ads. But for me, it’s possible that I’ve spent millions of time trying to get it right and I keep failing and the day I get it right, I’ll never get it wrong again.
You don’t need to start up something immediately after school or the first ideation. I rather advise people to do internships. You learning under someone who’s good at selling will help you sell better when it’s time for you to do that.
The time I was building Aorthar, I was working under others, so some things they did towards marketing that they made mistakes and I felt that I won’t do something like that and there are some things that they did which clicked and I was like “oh, this is what I’ll do”.
So, it now becomes you knowing how to do these things with somebody else’s sweat. It’s not that you are not using your sweat, but people that teach all these things as a course must have passed through those things with experience and they decided to sell it to you, then you use money to pay for it.
So another way you can learn some of these things is probably go through apprenticeship; just serve under someone that’s good. Most of these CEOs already have someone they claimed to be their mentor, they’ve served before, someone who was their boss in their early days and learned so much under. That’s how it works basically.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
This is both personal and it’s sort of my own standard. The only marketing style that I use to retain people is excellence; just make sure that you are doing a good job.
There are people that have worked with me for 5 years. From the onset of learning design, there are people still patronizing me. Some have left though. But most of those that have left were because of change of rates; maybe they could not afford it any longer.
Sometimes, you can also sack some clients; you know when it gets to a period of time and then like I can’t work with you anymore, because you are too toxic or you don’t value me, things like that.
As a product person, there’s a big chance of going faster than a business person. I’m a designer at level 1, and within 6 months, I can be at level 5, but for a business person, it might not take 6 months before they finally get that inch of wealth. No matter how much you dedicate yourself, you won’t scale that fast compared to if you have a skill you want to scale.
The way I retain customers is excellence, and then the way I acquire customers is referral. Those are the 2 basic methods that I use. I don’t think ads, promos really work for me. I’ve tried most of them.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
I think the first challenge we mostly faced was capital. Capital was one of my challenges then but maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the first place because I don’t really see excuses for that because I was making money, although it was not enough but the idea I had, it was something we could start without money but when I started growing it, I realized that money is important.
Another thing is human resources. I feel like in my small circle, a lot of people regard me as someone they would love to work with so I didn’t really have a problem with pitching to people to come and join me.
If I put it out there that I’m looking for a designer to join me at Aorthar, people will send applications, but the problem is how to now pay them because the way running business works is that, before you get to the peak it’s going to be difficult and a lot of people cannot wait that far for you or with you.
You are the owner of the business, there’s a big chance that no matter the sufferness, you’ll stick with it to the end but nobody will stay till the end for you so human resources can be a very big problem; people to scale alongside you.
The money that you might use to sustain them, might not be easy. There are days whereby nobody patronized us for like 6 months and then you need to start paying people and you realize that you are finished because all your money has finished and you are even going into more debts and then you are lonely as the CEO/Founder because if you go o Twitter now, you’ll see a lot of people dragging their CEOs that he has not paid for 5 years and then nobody is actually empathetic about how they make money.
And then there are days whereby you guys are not really hitting the jackpot, not really getting customers. There are times whereby in a year, I’ve noticed around January to March, nobody patronizes during those times. A lot of people are still trying to come up from the festive period, nobody wants to spend, and everybody is on a low budget, but your business still has to run, people need to be paid salary, then things start getting really messy, you’ll now see CEOs going to collect loans just to keep “business running”.
What this “business running” means is that you still have to keep paying those bills, you still have to keep paying salaries and at the end of the day, it will not be enough and then the people you don’t want them leaving will still eventually leave.
So human resource is a problem because you can’t do everything alone obviously. You might need more people, but as you are thinking of bringing more people onboard, also be thinking of paying them and that’s when it becomes difficult and you get scared, then you don’t want to bring people, you want to keep running it yourself and maybe you get exhausted and maybe you have to close down.
Those are the problems.
You see some founders, and the first breakdown they ever had with their trusted co-founders is mostly a capital problem.
The people I started with gave up and then others started leaving. As a business person, you don’t mind, you can go through that desert but people are not ready to go with you and you can’t blame them, they want to eat obviously.
Sometimes, some people will rather just go for like invest your cash, get those pressures from investors because they too are like business owners and they understand the journey of trying to build until you get to that peak. So they might give you the money or borrow you, or invest in you and then you have like maybe a full year to reach your highest potential because the salary is somewhere that has been saved, people just have to keep working and you are not scared of sacking people and bringing in a better person and paying the person. You are not scared because you have the money on ground.
So, capital and human resources work hand in hand.
Then there is also government policy as an obstacle. I believe that during my time, the best gigs I usually have are usually from the crypto industry and the early customers I had were all crypto guys, they were builders; they built apps so they need my services but suddenly government says that we cannot operate crypto in this country and then the business will start running down.
You will now be looking for ways to enter a new market and then the market is already filled up because 3-5 years ago, people were picking their niche and you decided to build apps and websites and now, that niche has now crashed and now you want to enter a saturated niche, and it becomes really tough.
How do you get motivated?
First of all, you need alternatives; as you are making plan A, there should be a plan B. That’s the first thing you should do as a person.
As I’m running businesses, I have other things I do. Apart from the fact I freelance, I also work in a place that gives me salary. All I have to do is just split my time into 2; morning sessions, I’ll resume at work, while night sessions, I’ll freelance.
The best way to run a business is to have a cash flow, so salary is a very effective way to have a cash flow. For instance, if you have one sum that’s coming into your account every month, and your business is crashing, there’s a big chance that it’s going to survive because you can use your salary to settle outstanding bills and keep your business afloat.
If you already have a problem which is capital; how do you solve it? You need to make money.
How do you make money? You need to become a human resource yourself. You also have to go out there and work for people. You cannot say you are a CEO, then you just stick that title on your head, it doesn’t make any sense; it makes a lot of sense that you offer to work for people. You need to network; you need to put yourself out there in terms of work, time, meeting people, learning, going for more trainings, attending classes, attending webinars, etc.
Personally, I have goals, and one way or the other, those goals are making me survive. The hunger to get better makes your business or whatever you set your hands upon to survive.
Sometimes, when a business can affect your lifestyle because you want your business to grow, you have to grow. So the pressure of your business is making you actually find more ways to survive.
For Aortharto grow, I have to grow personally. I have to grow in income, skills. This is not a motivation, it’s like poverty is what’s motivating me, the fear of failing is what’s motivating me.
I just have to do the right things to stay on my feet, I have to watch more courses, learn more things. Before, I just used to be a regular designer; now I went from regular design to graphics design to UI/UX design to product design to product management all in the space of 2 years.
And then you keep wondering why I’m going this far and what the speed is about. Some of my friends are just designers but I’ve learned a lot of things just to make my business survive. I’ve learned how to write content, how to run social media, how to run ads, and how to design, and probably still going to learn coding, project management, team management, and some other soft skills.
And then if I ever want to apply for jobs, it’s going to be at the executive or lead roles, I can’t be working under a HOD and it helps me to get a fatter salary. So I keep getting value because of that pressure of businesses that I have, so you have to keep that status quo.
It’s just like let’s say you rent a 5-bedroom flat, you’ll want to do everything to maintain that status quo, you don’t want to go back to a one-room apartment.
So these things help me to stay more motivated.
What are some sources of learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
I learned from a lot of teachers like Jack Ma, Dan Lok, Gary Vee, etc. It just depends on what I want to learn at that point.
If I’m feeling down, and I need to stay motivated, I’ll listen to Gary Vee.
Maybe I want to sell products, I’ll go and listen to Dan Lok.
We have teachers in different niches, and there will be a time in your life where you’ll need to listen to one of them. You’ll need to listen to a mentor, or even a colleague because mentors can be overrated sometimes because they speak and you’ll want to fit into their story because you can relate to it, and sometimes your story is completely new to your generation, maybe a relationship issue.
I’ve never heard most CEOs say that their businesses crashed because of a relationship and maybe the reason your business is on the line is because of a relationship, so at that point in time you might not have anybody to discuss it with except probably with a friend, then the person will tell you what to do.
So, it’s you being able to notice or detect your problem, be honest about it, and find a solution.
What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
First of all:
You need plan A, you need plan B, you need plan C.
Secondly:
You need to be very innovative.
I think when I started boot camp, people that come to my house to learn, I use to sell like 10 slots at #50k each which is #500k a week, so everyone is usually wowed that I made 500k in a week, but I’m sacrificing a lot of things. I’m sacrificing my time, my strength. Everyone is just interested in the figure.
The first time I launched it, about 4 people paid, it was discouraging because #200k was little. So what I did was that I did 2 styles of teaching. A lot of feedbacks were that they can’t travel down, COVID-19, etc, so I recorded those sessions that I taught in the boot camp and I sold it at maybe a lesser price and I made like x3. It was very crazy.
This is where your creativity comes in; you don’t sell with one channel or one style. If you sell with one style and you realize you are not making money, you can rebrand it and sell it another way. If you’ve been targeting business owners and you are not selling, maybe you could target students or somewhere else. It doesn’t mean your product is bad, it means the people you are selling to are not buying or your target is wrong, so you need to innovate and be creative.
Another piece of advice I’ll give is that:
You need to keep learning. Learn from people that have failed, not people that have succeeded.
Most of the time, unconsciously, people like Elon Musk talk about their failures, but then they’ve succeeded. So what you should pay attention to is what Elon Musk did that made him fail, not how he eventually made the billions of dollars he’s now making, because you can’t be selling Tesla cars but you can stay up at night to learn to code.
Be courageous; don’t give up; fail; enjoy the chaos.
There are so many times Aortharwants to sell branding; we want to be one of the best brand agencies in Nigeria, it crashed, then I went into UI/UX, it crashed, then I’m considering going into like boot camps and education, that one too might crash and I’ll try another thing.
It’s just making me smile because the more these things crash, the more I learn.
I have a website called Motivv, the intention is that anytime I train students, I want to connect them to clients. A lot of clients used to come and meet me to give them designers because they can’t afford me, because of the plenty of requests, I decided to create a platform where they can get and pay. It’s just like LinkedIn, but for design niche.
And then, I decided to do something else with Motivv, let’s create a job posting. Instead of people posting on their status that they need a designer, they can just go to Motivv.
Everyone registered on that Motivvwill get the email notification of the job posting. You can apply directly or just reply to the email because the email you’ll be replying to is the email the poster puts there.
It didn’t really generate a lot of traction from the clients’ side; people will still rather post on WhatsApp status, but a lot of designers came in.
So let’s try another thing, we introduced Motivv Challenge. That’s like a daily task that we can be sending to designers every time to do. A lot of people did that also and a lot of clients were looking for the best student.
I’ve tried everything that I can try and each feature or project that I release is an episode of a lot of lessons and new skills.
Apart from the fact that I’m learning all these for my business, now imagine working for like 2 more people; just imagine how much I consume daily.
Something happened recently in where I work, they’ve not made sales for about 2 months, even the marketing guy was complaining about the ads not converting; I just told them just one thing that I’ve done and they were wowed and it was something that’s basic for me.
Before, I was an employee, now they are looking at me as an asset, and maybe before you know it, the CEO will start asking me for opinions.
Don’t be afraid at all, just enjoy the process, you are still very young.
Don’t waste your time; time is very valuable. This is not time to party, this is the time to learn.
I spend 100% of my time on my computers. I actually lack social skills, but there’s time for everything. I feel like maybe my 26, 27, 28 years, I’m going to probably get better. There is actually time to consume a lot of knowledge and I used my early 20s to do that.
Hi Donald, What’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
Alright, thank you Founder Story. I’m the Co-founder of Meck Health. I have a Mechanical Engineering background.
We are digitalizing hospital operations to reduce medical errors. Primarily, medical error is the third leading cause of death. That means more people die from medical mistakes than many other diseases that take people to the hospital.
We are working to digitize hospital operations such as prescriptions, diagnosis, lab tests, and all of that to cut out the medical errors by as much as 60-70% for now.
Founder Story
What motivated you to get started with Meck Health?
That’s an interesting question. is very interesting. I visited the hospital sometime in 2020, I wasn’t feeling too well, I left the office at lunchtime hoping that in maybe an hour or two I’d be back to the office. When I got there, they couldn’t find the file containing my medical records. I kept waiting and they kept searching for about 6hrs. The nurse decided to open a new file.
So eventually she did that, took my vitals and it was time for me to see the doctor. When I sat next to the doctor, the doctor did not touch me, the doctor did not take blood samples, he essentially just asked me questions. So, I thought about why I went through all this stress. I mean, I’ve already spent 6hrs at the hospital just to have the doctor ask me all these questions and from the questions, the doctor asked me, he was able to diagnose and know what was wrong, and many other times the doctor could tell the patient when he/she needs to have a test.
So, I thought to myself, why can’t we have an app that can essentially assist the doctor.
Doctors are very busy, why have them ask five-seven repeated questions or maybe more than that over and over again. Your medical records should already be digitized in the first place instead of having papers files that take much time to find.
So, that’s like where this came from. And researching into the industry, talking to experts, professionals to know where the industry is and where we can begin to assist because it’s crucial. We eventually found out that more people die from medical errors.
So mine was not a very critical stage and I spent that much time, maybe for somebody else, it could have been something else and because of that need, it was crucial to start solving this problem.
What exactly is Meck Health?
MeckHealth is a digital health company that is focused on patient safety and we are working to reduce medical errors by at least 60%. As I mentioned, medical error is the third leading cause of death. More people die from medical errors than from many of the diseases we hear and know about that people suffer from.
When the pharmacist tries to transcribe the prescription the doctor has written that’s where 60% of medical errors come from. You see that by digitizing the prescription you’ve taken out 60% of the errors. You digitize the prescription and other aspects of the record to even make a better decision on a patient’s health. You’re cutting errors significantly.
We are patient-focused, essentially we partner with hospitals since we have support from Amazon Activate and a few other organizations. We focus on the patients for them to get the most value from hospitals.
Our product is a web app that is used by hospitals and patients.
From the web app, patients book their appointments, they can transfer their prescription to an online pharmacy that they trust and those recommended by the hospital.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
It’s about mindset and I believe that success is luck.
It’s really about getting ready to get lucky. When I was going to start, one mind said I should probably get an iPhone 12 (that was the latest then) and I thought about getting a new car this year. I just thought about those things and I had to put it into what we were doing and there are lots of challenges you couldn’t even expect.
But the thing is that you keep going for the right mindset and spirit of resilience.
When we closed our very first deal in a hospital. It was rainy. I walked into the hospital and I asked to see the medical director and they said the medical director was busy and he won’t see me unless he was done with patients. So I stood there at the counter, I was asked to sit but I said: “no I’m good”. I didn’t know that there was a CCTV camera at the counter that was connected to the medical director’s office.
So, this lady came out from the medical director’s office, she wasn’t a patient so I asked her if she could help me drop a “message” for the medical director and she agreed. I stood there for about 5 hrs.
The medical director came out of his office in anger. He said this young man has been standing there for over 5 hrs. He asked me, “young man, are you sick?”, I told him: yes I’m sick. I got a card and paid to see the doctor, just like a normal patient. So I got to his office, told him it’s not that kind of sickness. I needed him to adopt the solution that my team and I have been working on.
The interesting thing was that one of the nurses asked me to go home that the medical director does not believe in technology and doesn’t like anything technology and when I sat in front of the medical director, I’ve never seen a doctor pay so much attention to me. Eventually, we closed the deal. I came out in the rain and was shouting.
I updated my team and everyone was excited and that was the starting point for us to know that challenges are expected. If you condition your mind to say that if this doesn’t work, this will eventually work.
I recently gave a TEDx talk and one of the things I shared is this concept of putting all your eggs in one basket and watching that basket close (FOCUS). Whether you’re in health or agriculture, e-commerce or whatever industry, or dealing with the challenges you’d face with your team, your competitors, the customer or market is normal. If you’re distracted you’re probably doing like 20% of your capacity. You may not be able to navigate and move fast. Yes, there’d be challenges but the right mindset is very important. I learn how to improve in various aspects.
Entrepreneurship is many skills put together like sales, product, marketing, negotiation, etc. As an entrepreneur, you need to know as much as you can. I try to learn as much as I can. There’s a book I am currently reading called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini. It’s something that could help with working with people, relating with customers, and leadership.
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
We don’t do marketing. It’s more B2B, which is business to business. But we try to keep a marketing profile online for those who might be interested. We run sales campaigns not marketing campaigns.
The idea is we are looking to be able to assist people at that micro-level when they begin to experience symptoms so they can quickly report it and the hospital will know what to do. But right now the patient doesn’t really need to worry about the use of the software because the hospital does most of the work.
What motivates you?
That’s a very interesting question. Funny story, I have a favorite book from 2021 and I’ve read it like twelve times. The name of the book is Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier. It talks about identity and mindset. I see work as a way of showing my gratitude, I try to work as hard as I can and the thing is when you’re lucky to have something you’re doing then it’s important to try as much as you can to put your energy.
Coming back to the mindset, I don’t believe in passion, I believe in being passionate.
The difference is while I am waiting for that $1 Billion deal or something, whatever I have in front of me, I do it as passionately as I can. So many days I feel like I can scale a wall. Many victories mean many rejections as well.
But on many other days when I don’t feel excited, I take energy drinks or coffee when I need to, I look beyond myself, I look at my team, I look at how we can cut medical errors because the work has to be done and what we are trying to achieve at the end of the day. I also rest when I have the opportunity.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
I have an active subscription with Scribd. If anyone wants to have up to two months of access to try Scribd for free, I will drop my link with you. I hope that will help someone get started.
I’ve read Traction written by Gabriel Weinberg. He’s a billionaire, the co-founder, and the CEO of Duckduckgo search engine. I’ve read Skip the Line and Think Like a Billionaire both by James Altucher and it’s one of my best books. I’ve read How to sell to Nigerians by Akin Alabi.
I’ve read how to make people like you in 90 secs. This particular book helps with human relationships. It’s crucial that you look beyond yourself to see how you can connect with other people and find out the needs of other people and how you can meet them.
Sadly, I’ve read the 48 laws of power by Robert Grene. I read a lot of books on public speaking, communication, strategic analytics, and resilience. Some of the most successful people in the world, when they win they celebrate and get it out of their mind and get back to work and when they lose, they cry and get done with it.
One of my favorite authors is Grant Cardone and I’ve read all his books.
We need to be well-positioned to see how we can save more lives. For us, looking into 2022 we want to reduce medical errors for at least 1 million patients.
Oh yes many! I fail often. In fact, let me mention one that I find very interesting. I put together a proposal on education technology software for secondary schools and primary schools. I paid and shipped the proposals through DHL. I got no replies. It was shocking for me and that’s one of the experiences that made me realize that money doesn’t solve problems. The fact that you have money to start a business doesn’t exactly mean that it’s going to be successful.
Success in business depends on a number of factors. Strategic planning, execution, and getting feedback from your customers are some crucial factors.
What is your typical day like?
I will start with how I end my day. I have a bedtime. I sleep by 10 pm and typically at 2 am I’m up and I try to meditate and have the right mindset.
Most of my mornings I write. I try to have my bath before 4:30 am and I read a little bit, I get some rest within 5:30-6:30 am. I communicate with my team. These days, my work revolves around creating/editing documents, strategies, designs, product development, sales, and relationship building. I try to have breakfast early as well. I spend most of my time working and I play games too.
Where can we go to learn more about you and Meck Health?
Paul Victor Balogun (Pozar) is the Co-founder of Beepsoft; a brand and corporate design agency which he co-founded with Tolulope Hannah Oyinloye on 12th July 2018.
Pozar is a graduate of Agriculture from the University of Ilorin.
Paul Victor Balogun
How He Started
As an undergraduate, Pozar was into other things like media blogging, web design, and e-commerce. He left some of these due to how demanding it was as a student.
Around 2016, while still in school, he walked his way into graphic design, after which he now later founded Beepsoftin 2018.
Beepsoftis a brand and corporate design agency and has now evolved to add a fashion house under her which deals in wigging services, sales of hairs and also sewing of bespoke female dresses.
Also, they now have Beepsoft Academy, where they train people who are interested in learning graphic design from a beginner’s level.
What motivated him to get started with Beepsoftwas his passion for creative design, his desire to see how meaningful design can help brands and businesses, and also discovered what he was meant to do.
Obstacles and Future Plans
According to Pozar, every startup struggles to commit to investment, both time and resources.
This is a challenge he has also faced but he has been able to successfully navigate through this phase.
His goal is for Beepsoftto take over the digital branding space across the globe and also help as many businesses/brands through designs and branding.
He also wants Beepsoft Academy positioned to train and produce excellent designers across the globe.
His Word of Advice to New and Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Start from somewhere, I repeat start from somewhere but “follow who know road”.
Put God first and also be willing to put in your all to get better daily. No one is an island so don’t be sorry to look up to people or check up on people’s creative works to learn from.
Humility will take nothing from you but will add so much to you.
Wisdom Chidozie is the CEO and Founder of BingPay; a mobile payments platform which he started in April 2021.
He’s from Abia State, but resides in Port Harcourt.
What is BingPay All About?
What Wisdom is trig to do is to solve Africa’s payment problem; to allow users to make every kind of payment in just one app.
The products they have at BingPayare to allow users to send money and to also pay for a lot of stuff. You can buy airtime, data, gift cards, pay for utility bills, etc.
They also offer a virtual card you can use to make purchases for things not listed on BingPay.
Obstacles and Future Plans
The major challenge Wisdom is facing right now is regulations.
He’s working on allowing users to send money in Dollars via cryptocurrency, but he can’t do that because of the CBN ban.
There was also a time when all BingPayaccounts got frozen; the banks said they were running so many transactions and were requesting CBN licensing.
In a bid to solve this issue, BingPaypartnered with Providus Bank to back them up via licensing as they currently do not have enough resources for it.
One of his business goals is maximizing the wide range of supported countries available on BingPay.
He also hopes to make API available on BingPayfor other Fintech firms to be able to use to build amazing products.
Hi Oreoluwa, What’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
My name is Oreoluwa Shoinbare, co-founder and CEO of WiiCreate. I am the last born of 3, a graduate of Mass Communication from Bowen University (specializing in Integrated Marketing Communication). I grew up in Lagos state and am an alumnus of Igbobi College and Oxbridge Tutorial College. I have worked all my life as an entrepreneur, trying to solve one problem or the other.
What motivated you to get started with Wiicreate?
The idea of Wii create was the dream of a student at Covenant University. It was the first idea of Donald Onwochei, He sold t-shirts and other custom merchandise to students at his university. I was doing a similar business at Bowen University, and when Donald was about to graduate from university, he searched for a cofounder to build a bigger business with. He put out a tweet, and I saw it on my timeline. Thankfully, the rest is history.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Good service and value. Wii have been able to get our MVP right, and this has led to many referrals. This has been the case since our first month of launch. It has helped us stand out from the clutter.
What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?
Wii helps startups and companies source, and ship custom branded boxes with the use of technology. We launched our first product in 2021 – wiicreate.com. On this platform, companies can mix and select the merchandise they want. We have grown our revenue by an average of 100% year on year.
What are your business goals for the future?
To be the biggest merchandising company in Africa serving thousands of companies across the continent.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
The first book helped me understand why companies scaled, and how. It opened my mind to the dynamics of growth as a company. There are so many gems in that book.
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
Positioning, learning how to market, and leveraging storytelling. Your experiences are relatable, social media helps us to share and amplify our stories. You also get to gather like-minded people. I have folks that have been following our growth for years. You would need a community to scale in this time and age.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
Funding and Focus were the biggest challenges I had when Wii started. Wii kicked off with 200k in savings. However, we focused on scaling the economics of our business. The growth of our business helped me with focus and funding. I made sure our growth was the backbone of our business, and our growth attracted even more funding. I focused on how sustainable our model was and also managed our revenue frugally. One major thing that helped us overcome our challenges was prioritizing the growth of the businesses over myself for as long as was needed.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
I would watch my numbers early and probably take more leaps earlier. Sometimes what we are waiting for to happen would never happen, and no better time would come to take the risk.
Have you had any failed business?
No, I have not.
What are some sources for learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
Follow those that have built successful businesses on social media. I have always held on to the words of those that have gone ahead of me, especially in my industry, off the top of my mind I can recommend, cofounders of Piggyvest, Cowrywise, and Schoolable.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Start with what you have, do not wait for the perfect time. There is no perfect time for starting. Just do it. Test the idea, If it works, scale it. If it doesn’t, check around for competition that is thriving, assess their business, and do some experiments. Also, learn more than you earn for as long as possible; it would help you stay ahead of the curve.
Where can we go to learn more about you?
Twitter and Medium, I share my thoughts a lot. @amb_ore on Twitter, Oreoluwa Shonibare on Medium.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Wii are looking to add a junior or mid-level graphics designer to our team. You can send an email to [email protected].
Hi Pozar, what’s your background, and what are you currently working on?
Thank you Guys at Founders’ Story for this. I feel honored and I count this a beautiful privilege. Thank you once again.
To begin with, my name is Paul Victor Balogun (Pozar). I’m a graduate of Agriculture from the University of Ilorin. A lot have wondered and still wondering how an agriculturist by discipline will be walking the design path.
Well, aside from my unwavering passion for art and creative design ever since I began to discover myself as a young lad, also as I advanced in life God began to unfold the scrolls of my destiny to me which then was confusing but also comforting all together because all still resonated with my passion.
So, though I was confused at those times, still I could understand why I had so much thing for art and design only that the word from God gave me directions and specified my path amongst so many paths in the design industry to follow in fulfilling purpose.
And by now I’m sure a lot of readers would begin to ask about so much of the God factor up there, well, I would love to break it to you that it’s totally incomplete to talk about myself and my brand Beepsoftwithout bringing God into the picture. There are just some things we cannot leave without saying.
Paul Victor Balogun
So as an undergraduate then, studying. I was also into other things which I started and tried out also, some of which were news and media blogging, creation of blogger sites designs by building their HTML themes to my taste. I was also into E-commerce. Some from all of these which I left due to how much time they demanded of me as a student and ALL which I left due to my understanding of my life’s map.
So, sometime around 2016 while still in school, I started walking my way into design, graphic design to be specific. And on the 12th of July, 2018 I founded Beepsoft alongside my wonderful co-founder; Tolulope Hannah Oyinloye.
Since then we’ve been on this design journey up till today and we’re still moving by God’s Grace.
Beepsoft which is a brand and corporate design agency also has evolved to add a fashion house under her which deals in wigging services, sales of hairs, and also sewing of bespoke female dresses.
Also, we now have Beepsoft Academy started, where we train people who are interested in learning graphic design even from beginners level, professionally.
What motivated you to get started with (Beepsoft)?
Okay, what really motivated me to get started with Beepsoft was first my passion for creative design and my desire to see how functional and meaningful design can help brands and businesses across every niche.
Secondly was when I discovered and understood what I was supposed to be doing, it was then that I left every other engagement and pushed to bring Beepsoft on the landscape.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
What has always attracted customers since launch is the level of quality, excellence, and worth we give customers for their capital investment. How well and best we help brands to communicate their messages through our designs has always been an attractive force.
Also, referral. You see, what many service-rendering brands do not understand is that one of the major tools for attracting and retaining customers is “customer”. How well you treat your customers and give good deliveries leaves you to how loyal they can be to your brand and how far they can trust your brand to recommend to anybody who needs the services of what your brand provides.
But we must admit that if God hasn’t been helping in this, we attract and retain in vain.
What’s your business model, and how have you grown your revenue?
Our business model rests on simply giving the best services/output at subsidized prices or charges compared to the industry’s rate. Not underpaid charges but reasonably subsidized still with assurance for excellent deliveries.
And how we manage to grow our revenue is simply pumping a certain percentage of our gross income into our branding and acquisition of more tools, resources, and new age/trending knowledge, that way we don’t fall short of customer satisfaction and much more income is generated.
What are your business goals for the future?
Definitely, taking over the digital branding and design space across the globe 🌎 by bringing meanings, functions, and life into designs and also helping as many businesses/brands find their place in their respective industries through our designs and branding.
And Beepsoft Academy is also positioned to train and produce excellent, vibrant, and prolific designers across the globe.
Beepsoft
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources for you?
Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
Alright, at Beepsoft we mainly use education on branding and designs, awareness, and also our works as a marketing strategy. Just because this helps to tell much deeper of how well our customers and potential customers can trust their brands in our hands.
What were the biggest challenges you faced and the obstacles you overcame?
Hmm, really one common truth about every startup is the struggle to commit to investment of all kinds that is required into that startup/business.
Many founders don’t understand the place of investing, and not just the investment of time but investing heavy resources and trusting the plans on their drawing board to play out.
There is always a place where sacrifices cannot be taken away and this is majorly what challenges many entrepreneurs, where their moving forward demands that they put their all into the business.
We also faced this as a challenge not because we were not willing to invest but because we started from zero and our rising was totally from the scratch. But God helping us and we are also very intentional about the commission, we gave it our all and still doing till tomorrow.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
Lol! I would have chosen to study designing for my five years in school instead. Well, that’s on a lighter note because none of my past is a waste, and all that happened profits for good.
I was into news and media blogging. I never really spent on that because I created the blog myself and I was earning from it even though very little at that time. I was into E-commerce also which has been on hold since I discovered it was affecting my study (time-wise). I was also into sales of agro produce which I also put on hold.
Many of which I put on hold just to have my eyes single. But God willing, there are plans to revisit them.
What are some sources of learning you would recommend for entrepreneurs who are just starting?
For the creative design industry, firstly, I’ll recommend you learn from someone or an agency that understands what they’re doing.
Then you could use resources such as YouTube and Udemy to really update your learning. Instagram is also there to meet up and link up with matured creative minds, Pinterest and Behance as sources to get inspiration.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
My advice for other entrepreneurs who want to walk this path is that:
Start from somewhere, I repeat start from somewhere but “follow who know road”.
Most importantly:
Put God first and also be willing to put in your all to get better daily. No one is an island so don’t be sorry to look up to people or check up people’s creative works to learn from.
And lastly:
Humility will take nothing from you but will add so much to you.
We care about the well-being and constant personal and professional growth of entrepreneurs, so we couldn’t skip creating this list – the best TV shows for entrepreneurs! We have it all here, from real-life TV shows to more intriguing fictional ones. Plus, most of them are humorous, so you’ll have a few giggles while watching them!
Here’s a list of the best business shows for entrepreneurs, a description of each, and the places where you can watch them.
1.Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch
Description of the show:
A pitch show brought to you by Entrepreneur Media. Entrepreneurs have 60 seconds to pitch their business, product, and/or idea in an elevator. If the investors like what they hear, the business owner is invited into the board room to discuss further and negotiate.
What if all struggling businesses have someone to help them, both moneywise and through mentorship? That would be noble, right?
Well, that’s what The Profit is based on. Marcus Lemonis, the host of the show, discovers businesses who have trouble making ends meet and helps them out – in exchange for a piece of their profit cake! It’s an excellent TV show for entrepreneurs to learn how to develop a thick skin and handle tough business times, but also how to receive help when times are difficult.
As the name says, the main topic of this business TV show is Silicon Valley – the influence it has on any prospective founder and the quick transformation it can create in an entrepreneurs’ life.
The storyline in this Emmy nominated show is about the tech world and the cohesion of good and greed – can these two elements coexist in the business world? You’ll learn more about ethics and morality in the business world, as well as the actual power of the people who ultimately call the shots.
One of Netflix’s original documentaries, this popular business TV show tells a story about corruption, securities fraud, and the world of crime circling hungrily over the world’s economy.
Dirty Money counts as one of the best business TV shows that present a bigger picture of the largest corporations and their ‘dark sides’, making it excellent to help up-starting entrepreneurs discover the background stories of the corporate world.
Set in major financial capitals in the US, Billions is about two powerful figures from New York City.
This show can be of great value for entrepreneurs: it tells the secrets of hedge fund managers and their tactics to tilt the capital markets in their favor, but it also shows the world of financial market strategists and how can they be played by the richest participants, who often consider extreme actions to earn the ‘big bucks!’
The Office is one of the best comedy business shows that has ever aired on TV – no questions about it! The online community loves the cast, the story, and the plots and subplots so much that they’ve become one giant TV-show meme!
The Office presents the work environment from a different perspective. It’s a TV show for entrepreneurs who want to learn more about people’s different personalities and their influence on the job. Also, it’s a good choice to learn small tricks and tips on managing such a diversity of employees in one office, for 8 hours a day.
It’s entertaining, sure, but it also gives you an edgy psychological perspective of the office world!
This Netflix original documentary focuses on former Microsoft CEO and one of the richest men on the planet, Bill Gates. Every episode is approximately 50 minutes long and each tells a different story of Bill’s life – starting from his humble beginnings, all the way to his peak.
Watching this show can help you in many ways. First of all, you can see how Bill Gates thinks, and use that method for your own purposes. From business ideas and techniques, Inside Bill’s Brain can be quite useful for entrepreneurs all over the world!
Halt and Catch fire is a TV show for entrepreneurs, released by AMC. The series focuses on a group of innovators during the technological revolution of the ’80s and the growth of the World Wide Web. As one of the unique business tv shows, Halt and Catch Fire offers various insights for entrepreneurs, such as the earliest techniques and work methods that evolved to what we use today.
Planet of the Apps is Apple’s first original television show, hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Will.I.Am.
In each episode, software makers have 1 minute to present their ideas to the hosts. If the bigshots like the idea, the lucky entrepreneurs will be mentored to prepare their ideas for pitching to VC investors. Planet of the Apps offers challenging content and shows what inventors are prepared to do to earn a spot among the elite – and coming up with a great product is just part of the game!
A one-of-a-kind show for the business-minded, Shark Tank puts a light on investors and venture capitalists and how entrepreneurs should deal with them when pitching their ideas.
You’ll get to see how investors think and act when it’s time to get the wallets out, as well as see how entrepreneurs develop their ideas to create their own success stories!
However, not all of the businesses that go through Shark Tank are a success.
As an entrepreneur, you need to master the art of pitching, and Dragon’s Den is one of those business TV shows that explore this topic. Basically, the storyline is this one: bidding entrepreneurs face five ‘dragons’ (successful people) and pitch their business ideas, hoping to get the life-changing ‘yes’ out of them.
Each pitch ends with questions from the dragons, which the pitchers don’t always have to answer.
It’s the perfect show for anyone who likes the adrenaline of pitching, but also to learn and master the art of selling your ideas and yourself!
Even though it falls in the drama category, this business TV show is a great teacher when it comes to working with diverse groups. As an entrepreneur, you can choose your employees or business network – to a certain point.
Sometimes though, you won’t have that liberty, and if you find yourself in a situation where personnel is the problem, becoming more flexible is the key to your long-lasting success! The StartUp Show is here to teach you the principle of flexibility – what more could you want from a TV program?
It focuses on tech entrepreneurs, but anyone can find something to learn from it!
This popular reality business TV show is hosted by billionaire and CEO of Landry’s, Inc. Tilman Fertitta. In every 60-minute episode, Tilman travels throughout the US to supervise innovative hospitality products. The goal in the series is for small business owners to impress Tilman and receive a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ deal – to partner with Landry’s Inc.
Billion Dollar Buyer is the perfect example of the effects of helping and doing noble things for others. The show presents Fertitta’s effective methods and over-the-top work ethic that helped him throughout his life.
The 25-episodes long series The Newsroom is set around the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN). It’s about the unexpected changes in work ethic and morals once a new team comes in.
The Newsroom features plenty of decision-making situations solved through a fantastically-acted synergy and coherence between the characters. Learn information that can be used in real life, such as making the right choices when new people get hired in high positions, joining an already-established vibe with their own methods and work ethic.
Empire is one of the best-known business TV shows on the air today. Terrence Howard stars as the main protagonist in the series as Lucious Lyon, CEO of Empire Entertainment (and former drug dealer) who created a multi-million dollar hip-hop and entertainment company.
Empire is a good example of how competition for company control and greed can influence the lives of entrepreneurs.
The series offers plenty of scenes, ideas, and solutions concerning difficult choices and what comes after they’re made.
That’s it. You wanted the best of the best shows for entrepreneurs? Now you have them.
We took are time to curate these list.
If we missed your favorite show, please let us know – we’re always ready to update our list with quality suggestions! We aim to help entrepreneurs reach their goals faster and better, and your feedback will mean a lot!
