Not My First Guess Banker to changemaker: empowering SMES in emerging markets featuring Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, Co-founder of Liquify
Today I’m joined by Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, a social entrepreneur and educationalist, and co-founder of Liquify, an invoice marketplace that enables SMEs in emerging markets to get quick access to affordable cash.
Having started her career building deep expertise in the financial world, Alberta left banking in 2018 to pursue a career in impact investing because she wanted to combine her knowledge and experience in financing, with her passion for social issues and social change.
This led Alberta to founding Algebra In The City (AITC), an educational tuition and consultancy business. Having spent some time as a tutor, Alberta had seen a disparity between students that went to private schools and students who went to state schools, including differences in the way students had been taught to process information and problem solve. This led Alberta to wanting to make education more equitable for young people by making tuition much cheaper in order to increase accessibility.
However, one of the things we dive into in this episode is Alberta’s desire to build something at scale- and once she realised this wasn’t the business she wanted to be building for the next 10 years, it was time for a pivot to build something more VC backable… one that ultimately led her to liquify.
In this episode we talk about:
- Internships and the importance of taking a step back when you’re starting something new
- Mistakes you make when starting a new business
- The importance of deciding whether you want your business to be scaelable
- What VCs want
- The importance of finding the right co founder
- Prioritising your personal life whilst running a business
- And so much more
Check out Alberta’s company Liquify:
Check out Algebra in the City:
WMassive thank you to this episode’s sponsor ShipShape. If you want to tailor your search for VCs, check them out at www.shipshape.vc