Grit & Growth

What are the unique challenges facing the African entrepreneurial ecosystem? How is the rapid growth of fintech startups impacting the Nigerian economy? And what does it take to become a modern business leader? Hakeem Belo-Osagie, accomplished businessman, philanthropist, and educator, has the experience and expertise to tackle all three.Few business leaders understand the systemic challenges facing African finance as well as Hakeem Belo-Osagie. For three decades, he’s been a driving force in the Nigerian economy, working across the energy, finance, and telecom sectors. He left a decade-long career in the Nigerian government for the life of an entrepreneur — and he hasn’t looked back. But it didn’t start well, as Belo-Osagie explains:“I think I mightily over-estimated my abilities, and my first entrepreneurial venture in finance was a complete failure, the bulk of which was entirely my own fault. It was a wonderful lesson. And I was able to pick myself up. The second venture of mine, which was a securities trading company, went very well. Subsequent to that, I staged the takeover of a large government-owned bank that I realized after buying was effectively bankrupt.”Managing a hostile workforce at that bank, UBA, and working with seemingly hostile government regulators has taught Belo-Osagie about the importance of empathy, patience, and courage. Being aware of how much your employees and regulators really understand about the situation is key to success. As he explains about the bureaucratic mindset, when government officials don’t understand something, the instinctive reaction is to say no.Ultimately, Belo-Osagie defines success, especially in Africa, this way:“We have to measure how well we're doing, not by how many people are on the Forbes cover, or by how many billionaires Africa has, but basically what has happened to the bottom 40 percent. Business success has to enable people to make good sums of money, but it also has to be a system that lifts people out of poverty, large proportions of the overall population.”Listen to Belo-Osagie’s turnaround story at UBA, his thoughts on the role of regulation in the future of fintech, and what it takes to be an effective leader … in Africa and beyond.As we said at the beginning of the episode, the Seed Transformation Program will open applications for the 2023 class on April 1st, 2020. Founders and CEOs of companies based in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with annual revenue of at least $300,000 are eligible to apply. To apply or find out more, visit: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/seed/transformation-program/admissionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to Grit & Growth from Stanford Graduate School of Business. We’re tackling the complex issues facing entrepreneurs who are building businesses in Africa and South Asia. These emerging markets are exploding with opportunity and obstacles. And you’ll hear firsthand from entrepreneurs about their trials and triumphs, along with insights from Stanford faculty and global experts on how to overcome challenges and achieve success. We dig deep on product innovation, negotiation, corporate governance, regulation, and retention. We hear stories about corruption, women in business, and the role of power. Listen in and learn from entrepreneurs and experts on Grit & Growth Season 2.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a year of Grit & Growth podcasts, Darius Teter, our host and executive director of Stanford Seed, looks back on his conversations with intrepid entrepreneurs from Africa and India. He not only shares powerful moments but also some of the lessons he’s learned along the way about the struggles and opportunities of entrepreneurship in emerging markets. It’s hard to pick favorites, but some stories held special resonance and, in retrospect, revealed key themes about the long, often lonely, yet rewarding journey of entrepreneurship. No surprise, grit is one of the qualities that stood out in the entrepreneurs Teter spoke with, especially in the face of unprecedented adversity. Kwami Williams, whose company suffered from two fires, the pandemic lockdown, and personal tragedy, talked about the importance of taking one step at a time to stay resilient and recover.Working to solve important problems is a red thread throughout many of the conversations. “It got me thinking that much of what we take for granted are really fundamental human rights — access to food, water, basic health care, and information,” Teter explains. “The phrase ‘purpose and profit’ may be overused, but these remarkable people are solving important problems as a business, not a charity.”Teter points to Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, who built a network of affordable yet sophisticated hospitals across India and staffed a 1,000-bed hospital in weeks during the darkest days of the pandemic, and Samuel Appenteng, whose company brings drinking water to seven countries in Africa. Often, just doing business in some of these markets is a problem worth solving, from providing access to markets or using machine learning to providing short term financing.From creating dignified work and highlighting the importance of mission to considering the role of governance and securing financing to scale their businesses, these entrepreneurs showed true grit and growth.As Teter looks back and to the future of entrepreneurship in the region, he says, “What I have learned through my association with these incredible people is that the locus of innovation is rapidly shifting to these emerging markets, where a combination of necessity, untapped consumer demand, network penetration, and new technologies is leading to an explosion of business activity. And I learned that being an entrepreneur in these markets can be a lonely journey, and they value the opportunity to network and learn from each other.”Listen to highlights and observations from our first season, tune in to the full stories of these amazing entrepreneurs, and get ready for Season Two.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Profile of Purpose: A Tough Nut to CrackMeet Frank Omondi, wildlife biologist turned entrepreneur. As CEO, he took Ten Senses Africa, a Kenyan producer and distributor of macadamia nuts, from the brink of bankruptcy to a modern, sustainable, and successful venture that satisfies customers and supports farmers.Frank Omondi approaches business differently than most entrepreneurs: “I look at business in a way that helps uplift more people. I think the future of Africa's food production lies in the hands of the small-holders.” This belief influences every decision that Omondi makes for Ten Senses.  “Ten years ago, we set it up as a company that is going to be fair to farmers. We found small-holders were being taken advantage of,” Omondi explained. Instead, Ten Senses developed long-term relationships with farmers, committing to buy all their products and pay them a fair price. And they brought in technology to facilitate mobile payments and farm-to-shelf traceability.“We're able to pay farmers directly on mobile phones,” Omondi said. “Instantly, each person can move nearly $2,000 to $3,000 on their phone. You don't get that anywhere else.”Ten Senses is not only doing right by farmers. The company is also helping to combat climate change and deforestation. To date, Ten Senses has provided over one million seedlings to farmers. And it has doubled its sales in the past five years, too, proving that success and sustainability can go hand in hand. Omondi explained, “We are not only helping vulnerable farmers to get income, but also giving them climate change resiliency.”Listen to Omondi’s mini profile to hear how his company is cracking the nut on sustainability, traceability, and profitability for small farmers in Kenya and soon Tanzania and Ethiopia. Bonus: Two of our future guests, Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld and Dr. Margaret Neale, are the faculty directors of Stanford’s executive program in women’s leadership. This intensive, one-week workshop will take place on campus from May 1–6, and it will transform the way you negotiate, manage teams, and lead. The deadline to apply to the program is March 18, so don’t wait. Learn more and apply here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Samuel Appenteng, managing director of Joissam Ghana, a company working to make clean water more accessible to rural communities in West Africa. By collaborating with the communities his firm serves, Appenteng is pumping hope and health into the people who need it most.Unfortunately, the scale of the problem is immense. Appenteng explained, “In sub-Saharan Africa, over 320 million people have no access to potable water. As we went more and more into the rural communities and saw the kind of deprivation and denials of a decent living, I began to realize that we need to bring relief to people.”From groundwater exploration and research drilling to water quality analysis and water treatment, Joissam is changing lives with clean water. Joissam began its work in Ghana, but the company has already expanded to seven more countries: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Togo, and Gabon in Central Africa. Its approach is unique: to involve the community in the clean water effort from the very beginning. “They will all come around and help you as you go and pass the lines to be able to start sending electrical charges into the earth,” Appenteng said. And once drilling starts, he continued, “You will have everybody in, down there observing, and there's a lot of tension. And then the technical team was saying, we are getting there. We're getting there. You start getting a lot of excitement. Believe you me, as soon as you hit water, and it starts gushing out, women and children start jubilating like it's a football game with a lot of goals.”Listen to Appenteng’s mini profile to hear how his company is increasing its impact across Africa and providing health and economic benefits to millions.And for more information on the Executive Program in Women’s Leadership mentioned at the top of the episode, visit https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exec-ed/programs/executive-program-womens-leadership See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Afolabi Abiodun, founder and CEO of SB Telecoms and Devices, a company creating HR solutions for small and medium businesses in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa. From street hawker to debtor to entrepreneur, Afolabi is proof positive that a boy from the streets can find success.No one ever doubted that Afolabi had the drive to succeed. But his lack of business knowledge often got him into hot water…and lots of debt. After incurring millions in debt, he actually ran away from home to avoid embarrassment and move on to a new life.To make matters worse, Abiodun explains “it was actually my grandma's property that was used as collateral for my business. The banking office went straight to my grandmother and told her ‘your property will be sold’”.A message from his brother changed his course. “He said: you can run fast as long as you want, but the problem that you've left behind will haunt you for the rest of your life.” Abiodun came back and the rest is history in the making.The problems Abiodun faced running his own businesses — recruitment, payroll, and other HR tasks — led him to create SB Telecoms, an easy-to-use HR application that handles everything from recruitment to retirement and hire to fire.“When people talk about problems. I say to people, yes. It's easy to say. We don't have infrastructure in Africa. Power is a problem, but I mean, for me, this is a way of life for me all my life, the road has always been bad. This is the world I know. I try not to complain about it. I try to solve it.”Listen to his mini profile to hear how street smarts and business smarts can help propel entrepreneurs on their journey forward.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Lerang Selolwane, co-founder of Lucient Engineering, a company that’s bringing water, power, roads, and rail to the people of Botswana. By constructing and maintaining the essential infrastructure his country and people need, Lerang is also creating pathways out of poverty.Selolwane is not your typical 20-something entrepreneur. He began his career working for the largest diamond mining company in the world — a job that literally took him around the world. It was an exciting time, but he realized that his priorities were somewhere else … specifically, back in Botswana. “These experiences I'm having are great, but what about my people? Who's going to build a London for my people? And after a while, it goes from being a great experience to not being so great because you realize that this isn't yours. Your people, people who look like you, don't get to have this,” he said.So, he came back home to build a business that would make an impact on his country and people. He started by focusing on the basics — roads, water, power, and transportation.Selolwane explains why:“When you don't have access to clean, reliable water … when you don't have access to transportation that can get goods to market … when you don't have power that allows you to even dream about building a tech or an IT company … everything else just doesn't happen.”While Selolwane has recently transitioned out of Lucient Engineering, the company’s work continues. And, in true entrepreneurial spirit, he’s involved in two new ventures designed to drive further economic development in Botswana.Listen to his mini profile to hear how a strong purpose can drive both value and impact for mission-minded entrepreneurs.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Sriram Gopal, founder and CEO of Future Farms, a hydroponics company on a mission to deliver clean, healthy food to all Indians. With a trillion dollar market potential and a vision to make clean food a fundamental right, not a privilege, Sriram is growing his company for a greater good.Sriram always wanted to be an entrepreneur because his father was one, too. Motivated by his role model, Sriram set out to build a business that would also create an impact. Hydroponic farming seemed to be a perfect solution, saving 90% more water than traditional farming and protecting people from pesticides, bio toxicity, and heavy metal contaminants. “The main reason why we do this is because in India there are no mechanisms to check where the food comes from and it can be very, very, contaminated. People can choose organic food, but they're paying like three times more. What it actually means is only people who can afford to pay three times more, can actually have access to clean food. And to me that just feels wrong because I think clean food is not a privilege. If anything, it should be a fundamental right.”Future Farms didn’t become the largest hydroponic and controlled-environment agriculture technology company in India overnight. Like most startups, it happened one small step at a time — from building small hobby kits with his father to creating rooftop farms and quarter acre commercial farms. Sriram has set his sights beyond India, expanding his greenhouses and technology to Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, and Singapore…so far. “I want to grow a company that is global and that creates a lot of good. And if our technology works in India, I'm pretty sure it will work in all the other parts of the world where people are still struggling.”Listen to Sriram’s mini profile to learn how doing the right thing for people can be the right thing for your  business, too.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Wandia Gichuru, CEO and co-founder of Vivo Activewear, a Kenya-based fashion brand made for the modern African woman. In an industry dominated by imports, Wandia is creating clothing that instills confidence and makes a difference in the lives of both her customers and her employees.Wandia didn’t dream of being a designer all her life. But she has always been passionate about making an  impact. Now she’s doing that one dress at a time —creating clothes made in Africa, for African women that “takes into account our different body shapes, sizes, skin tones, lifestyles, and style preferences. Women haven't known what it feels like to wear something that was made with you in mind. It’s more than just clothing and style. It's about what makes you feel more confident, appreciated, or accepted.”Empowering women extends to her company as well. She strives to create work- life balance for her employees, 70% of whom are women. Vivo provides meals everyday, health insurance, training, and no one works more than five days a week, which is uncommon in Kenya. While it hasn’t been easy, the struggles are turning into successes — Vivo is increasing its revenue, employing more women, raised capital, launched an e-commerce fashion platform, and expanded to Rwanda.Wandia does it all for the women. “What drives me for sure, and hopefully the business as a whole, is the opportunity that we have to inspire women and change the way we see ourselves.”Listen to Wandia’s mini profile to learn how one entrepreneur’s passion can make a world of difference.To participate in Grit & Growth’s paid focus group, visit http://stanfordseed.co/podcastsurveySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do you convince Africans — both buyers and sellers — to move from informal outdoor markets to e-commerce? Juliet Anammah of Jumia Group is up for the challenge. Listen to her interview for the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series to learn how Jumia is breaking down traditional barriers with technology.Jumia operates in 11 countries. It’s the largest e-commerce platform on the African continent and the first African tech startup to be listed on the NYSE. But e-commerce still represents less than 5% of total retail, which means there is tremendous upside if the company can overcome all the obstacles. Jumia is seeking to do just that by creating a marketplace that connects buyers with sellers, integrating with third-party providers, building trust with buyers, providing training and data analytics to sellers, and engaging with regulators. The ultimate goal: to improve lives on the continent using the power of the internet.As former CEO and now chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and chief sustainability officer of Jumia Group, Anammah has her hands in all of it, as she explained at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series event.Jumia’s strategy is to integrate with existing third-party solutions to handle everything from logistics to delivery to payments, creating a full digital ecosystem. “It's an asset-light model. You have people who have tricycles and vans and so on, but what was lacking was always the technology to integrate that together and to use the data to make quality decisions.” Anammah continues, “The real value you bring to consumers is not limiting them to your own solution — it is actually giving them a platform through which they could use whatever payment method methodology that they have.”Jumia is breaking down more than just trade barriers, but gender ones as well. ​​“At least in Nigeria and Kenya, which are key markets, about 51% of our sellers are actually women. It’s a gender agnostic environment. You could be a fashion seller, you could be an electronic seller, and you know you don't have a lot of physical markets where someone can make those kinds of gender-related decisions that could be forbidden.”Anammah believes that the power of the platform extends far beyond commerce, driving development and creating jobs across the continent. “In the end, reducing inequality is so critical and is a big part of how we create value. And how we create sustainable improvement in quality of lives on the continent is by asking ourselves: What more can we do?”Listen to Anammah’s entrepreneurial journey as a guide for your own. Hear about the challenges of building a marketplace business, competition, expansion plans, sustainability efforts, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.