Maya Horgan Famodu (Ingressive Capital) - Investing in Sub-Saharan Africa, What She Looks For When Entering New Countries, How to Build Startup Ecosystems in Frontier Markets

Thank you Soraya Darabi for the intro to our guest today Maya Horgan Famodu. Maya's the partner and founder of Ingressive Capital. Ingressive Capital is an early venture capital fund located in Nigeria and invests in founders and companies in sub-saharan Africa. Some of her investments include Paystack, AWA Bike, and Vesicash.

I highly recommend following Maya on Twitter @mayahorgan. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

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A few books that inspired Maya personally are Why Buddism is True? by Robert Wright, Fear by Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, The Enlightened Gardner by Sydney Banks. A couple books that inspired her professionally are The Hard Things About Things by Ben Horowitz and Superforecast by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner.

In this episode you'll learn -

1. What inspired her to found Ingressive? What is special about founding a fund that seeks to invest in a frontier market like Sub-Saharan Africa? What are the particular opportunities and problems. What are some of the biggest opportunities that you focus on? What are some of the challenges when starting a technology company in Nigeria. Is finding exits difficult? I remember you mentioned how lots of folks talk about Kenya and the incredible innovation that's happening there, but 75% of those companies were founded by ex-pats. How do you see the process of building a local Nigerian, entrepreneurial community?
2. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about a frontier region, like West Africa? What are some of the differences when it comes to your due diligence process and what milestones does a company have to achieve in order for you to be interested? What's one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital?
3. 10 day silent meditation retreat - passana
4. Helped takeaway preconceived notion
5. What's your most recent investment and what makes you excited about it?
6. What's one piece of advice for founders? Should more of them be looking at Africa?