Last week, our Founder & CEO, Onyeka Akumah attended the Ogun State Digital Digital Summit 2021 where he spoke on the topic; Digital Strategies to Aid Business and Startup Growth.
The Ogun Digital Summit is at the heart of bringing together great minds and ideas that will results into blueprints to the enhancement of digital technology in the nation. This summit is open to youths and young minds who are ready to see how to make professional use of digital technology as a springboard to advance your enterprise.
During his presentation on “Growing Your Startup Digitally; The Story of a Nigerian Entrepreneur.” Onyeka shared his journey to entrepreneurship which began when he created a website called “Divas and Blokes” to sell people’s clothes and shoes online in 2012. He also explained how he joined Jumia as Director of Marketing and was told to launch the company in one week.
“I reached out to over 30 media personalities, inviting them to lunch. While they were eating, I told them about “the new Amazon for Nigeria.” They came for the lunch, we talked about the company, and they left talking about it.”
He also explained how he launched his first startup, Quickgist, which had 300,000 downloads in six weeks. He further raised $50,000 to launch the business. However, it took three months, during which he had to use his savings, house rent, and had to sell his car to sustain the business, but the business failed.
“The business failed woefully because I didn’t listen to anybody when they told me I should stay true to the model which got me 300,000 users. I raised money and decided to change my model because I thought I had enough money.”
He shared that the lessons he learnt from that failed startup helped him when he worked in Travelbeta, and when he eventually launched Farmcrowdy.
“Everyday, everyone in this hall will need food to eat, where to sleep, education, security, how to move, how to pay for things, information, health, and how to communicate. If these are the problems everyone is facing daily, these should be the things I should focus on when building companies. So, I took food, shelter, and transportation and created Farmcrowdy in the food area, Rent Small Small in the Shelter area, and Plentywaka in the transportation area.”
He further explained what has helped the businesses grow to where they are today.
“People sometimes think of capital as only cash. However, what an entrepreneur should focus on in terms of capital includes; money, integrity, charisma, mentors, peers, associations, proteges, certificates, books, and resourcefulness.”
He also shared six personal notes to every entrepreneur which are:
- Read good books.
- Build a team around you.
- Always observe for opportunities to be flexible.
- Know when to stop, pivot, or scale.
- You are your chief sales officer.
- You don’t have a unique IP, your IP is scaling faster than others.
Also present at the event were Abel Abejoh (CEO of Pettysave), Blessing Abeng (Director of Communication at Ingressive for Good), Adekunle Owolabi (Creative Director at Nest Digital Agency), and other important dignitaries.
