Who are you and what exactly are you working on?
My name is Stephanie Osaji, I’m a product manager and founder of PageChap.
I started my career in the banking industry and I used to be a writer at Ventures AFRICA. I studied English Language from Obafemi Awolowo University. The banking industry geared my passion for being a product manager and building PAGECHAP.
I interface with customers and I know what a good product should look like, I know what people want to see and what they don’t want to see. I sort of peered into their world and their problems and that was when I realized that I want to be a product manager to be honest. I started to transition; I started to work into becoming a product manager. I currently work as an associate product manager in CLAFIYA, it’s a health tech company. CLAFIYA provides health care services for people in Nigeria using USSD. I’ve always had PageChap in mind; I’ve always known that I was going to build a solution for content creators and creatives in general.
That was awesome. What motivated you to build PageChap?
My friend’s issue motivated me to build PageChap. There was a day I was waiting for him after work because he was trying to transfer some of his documents and it took a lot of time. It came to mind that there should be a solution where you can collate all your documents in one place so as to avoid lost documents. And I wanted to build a product that I could use and a product that was very unique to me.
There’s no better person to build a product order than a person in the same industry
Incredible. What problem are you exactly solving with PageChap?
It helps when you’re trying to put your work in one place. It helps when you’re trying to engage with your audience. It is one thing to push out some of your content, it is also another thing to keep a community or keep communication with your targeted audience. With PageChap you can communicate with your audience via several platforms. I just want every creative to see a part of them whenever they see PageChap.
How are you able to build PageChap? Did you do it yourself? Did you contract some people or do you have a technical co-founder?
I didn’t build it myself, I’m a product manager and I don’t write codes. I have a team and a co-founder. The team is made up of a backend engineer, a Frontend engineer, the social media person and a graphics designer. I handle most of the marketing stuff, so it is really a small team.
What is your business model for PageChap? How are you making money?
Right now we are not making money, we are bootstrapping. Our product is still a free product; it’s not going to be free forever. It’s just a lot of passion fueling whatever we are doing; everyone is just trying to make something out of it. There’s no money anywhere and we’ve not even gone public.
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This is great. Where do you see this startup in the next five years?
PageChap is my baby and no mother gives up on a child. In five years, I want African curators to be able to access the global world. They should be able to showcase their work, engage their audience and also get paid for their skills, right there on PageChap. I want you to be able to see yourself in the brand; I also want to compete with a bigger and international audience.
I love that. Have you had any failed businesses or start-ups before?
This is my first attempt at starting a business. It’s okay to get it right the first time. There’s no failure story from me, I have to get it the first time.
I was wondering, how are you able to get users for PageChap?
People say that a good product speaks for itself. My product is good enough and it sells. Though we still need to put in a lot of work. Most of our customer base is through running sponsored ads on social media and a lot of referrals and word of mouth.
Our communities refer a lot of creators to us and that has helped to build the brand and increase our numbers. Marketing is a lot of strategizing and figuring out what works for us.
I love that. While you’re building PageChap what is the craziest thing that has happened to you from building your startup?
The hardest part of being a founder is the fact that I have to act like I know it all while in the true sense of it, I don’t know a damn thing. It’s crazy. As a founder, you have to be confident and know things. The hardest part is that I have to act like I know what I am doing because I am ‘supposedly’ the leader when half the time, i am equally trying to figure it out.
Interesting. What are the resources that get you motivated?
I’m grateful for the gift of people. It’s one thing to read books and listen to many motivational speakers as much as possible but sometimes you need a bit of human touch, you need someone that has worked through that path. My community is the biggest motivation for me, I’m surrounded by friends that I go back to and ask questions, and we sit down together and brainstorm. I tell my friends my problems, they might not give me solutions but we talk through them together. My community is my biggest motivation.
Incredible. Any advice for entrepreneurs who are also trying to weather the storm?
Take it daily and you’ll figure it out. It’s hard and tough especially when it’s not yielding the type of result you want but keeps showing up one day after the next and one day, the hindrances will not be there anymore.
