The African Pre-seed Podcast - Powered by 54 Collective

Adegoke 0:04
Hey, I'm Adegoke Oyeniyi! Coming at you from Lagos, Nigeria. And you are listening to Vibe Check on the African Pre-seed Podcast.

Unknown Speaker 0:17
Hashtag flutter gate, Toxic Workplaces.

Adegoke 0:21
Wow. I mean, that's a massive conversation happening right now within the tech ecosystem. There was a really big exclusive report by Dr. Dain. On the CEO flutterwave, which is like the biggest, most valued Nigerian unicorn startup.

Adegoke 0:41
There were reports about him denying some former employees stock options. There were sexual allegation reports in the article, there were reports around him creating a fictional co-founder character that the other co-founders didn't know about, just so that he could have more shares. That was crazy, a really damning report. The really interesting thing was a week or two before that there had been a report from Tech about Ebun, who is also the CEO and founder of Bento. It's a company that does employee financial financing, the employees' PD, and all of that. And Ebun already had a video online on Twitter that had gone viral like two years prior, where he was shouting at a customer you like really, really, really aggressive and all of that, you know, and now this time around six former employees came forward with screenshots and receipts of conversations that they've had with him, where he, like really lambasted them threatened to fire them, or whatever it was, you know, so that really triggered a lot of conversation around toxicity in the workplace, you know, a lot of conversation and it went viral. The conversation went viral beyond the Nigerian startup ecosystem into like workplaces, and all the sub-sectors in Nigeria. How business owners or bosses treat their employees and all of that. you know, so following that output, the most valued natural startup, and all these allegations like it was just back to back, you know, boom, and all of that. So, I think I think the cool thing is, it's sending a message. And a lot of founders are getting that message, the fact that someone as powerful as influential, leading figure like Agboola, who's the CEO of flutterwave he's been put on the spotlight, it sends a loud message to the rest of you know, that no one can escape this, no one really can escape this, you know, the founders are becoming more careful and the conversations are going on.

The first issue really did trigger the following concern, you know, about the bias around news media, because after the bento story, Clara Wanjiku, who is like an ex-employee of flutterwave, came on Twitter, and published a thread around Agboola CEO of flutterwave, bullying her even after she's left the company. You know, there was a thread around that, you know, so a lot of people were just treating techcabal investigate this, do this jump on the story. Techcabal has like that reputation and precedents. They've done a lot of investigative reports in the past very respected technology publication in Nigeria and Africa as well.
So within a week of that, then David then he was like an investigative reporter then releases the massive bombshell on Agboola. So a lot of people were like, "oh, Techcabal you guys are complicit in disregard or bias because he's your friend or because it's like, he's a very official person in the tech ecosystem. Why didn't you investigate this?" You know, and it really triggered a lot of conversation around, bias for news operators, how to achieve objectivity as well and transparency. The tricky thing is the co founders of flutterwave invested in techcabal. Future Africa, a collective founded by Iyin Aboyeje, and invested in Picabo media, which is like the parent company for techcabal. Recently announced this year, a $2.3 million foundries, Agboola also invested in that round. So it was a very tricky situation as well for techcabal, the moment people got to know like, "Oh, these guys are even investors", sort of really pitted them in a bad way. Like "you guys couldn't report on your investors", you know, but I think techcabal did something really instructive and enviable. They did publish a report and exclusive ed in Aboyeje

Adegoke 4:45
Which corroborates what was in the expose by David, that Agboola did have a fictional character a Greg. Greg had some shares. They never met a Greg and they agreed that Agboola would

Adegoke 4:59
hold Greg's shares until he returns from MIT or something like that. And then at the end of the article, techcabal published that Inyi

Adegoke 5:09
and Agboola, these two guys have invested in PCM. So I think I think that was a lesson, I did see some Twitter conversation around that like "Oh, that's instructive, that was really good transparency", and all of that. But I would just like to share that I've worked on these kind of stories before. These investigative reports, do take weeks, in some cases, months. Because you're talking to parties, you're talking to lawyers, it's investigating, doing a lot of due diligence at times you have to go through financial records and all of that. People don't understand this. They don't understand the pressure, that the newsroom goes through, a journalist go through and expect you to just put out these kind of things in a week, you know, you want to do a really good job and protect your credibility.

Unknown Speaker 5:52
Web 3.0. It's all hype?

Adegoke 5:56
So Web 3.0. In Nigeria, Lagos, I think it's a hit. I don't think it's hype. Because the numbers don't lie. Year on year, the amount of transaction volume going over crypto over blockchain just actually just keeps increasing. Also, because of the fundamentals of the economy. The Naira has been eroded every day, every week. So Nigerians are looking for an alternative way to store their money, they're trying to earn in dollars. There are some scenarios where employers are beginning to pay their employees in dollars itself in the local currency. So people are looking for ways to store this money, whether it's stable coin or dollar, whatever it is. Now, this is where web 3.0 comes in. It enables that solution. It enables that opportunity and a lot of startups are jumping on that tren and building solutions here. They are very tough regulatory environments.Entrepreneurs are expanding beyond Nigeria, coming up with different solutions.

But I think the goldmine, what a lot of people are looking for what founders are also trying to build are card solutions backed by crypto, but where you can spend daily and buy you know, just go to the store and buy something regular. You don't have to convert to the naira. That's where the goldmine is. That's where people are trying to strike gold up. I know that there are a few startups that have done something interesting around here. I think there's changed era has a good card that works. I know that Patricia used to have something maybe like a year ago, but they stopped their card solution. I do not know why do the two players that I know have done well. Bridge is trying to do something interesting around police to earn, but I'm here to test the police to earn solutions out there. I don't think it's vibrant yet as vibrant as Excel infinity on binance. You know, but it would be really cool to see lots of play to earn solutions again, because people are trying to earn money. So if I can put $100 somewhere and play and make money, that'd be really great. It would probably be like some alternative or at least a cushion to the high unemployment rates out there.

Unknown Speaker 8:08
MTN then and now.

Adegoke:
So there was a time about four or five years ago where the Nigerian Communication Commission fined MTN for unregistered Sims. And that is because I guess a lot of people know about the terrorist operations happening in Nigeria, you know, this guy that using their phones to call, they're going to expect every SIM card to be registered so that the countries the owners of those calls, they will find very hefty fines about $3 billion. And it was a very shaky period for MTN. I remember I was doing due diligence for a certain company in the UK, then on MTN and the operations and do ask him like, are they going to survive this? I was like at the end of the day is going to become like a political play. And yeah, it did happen. Where I think the South African President got involved. I did have a meeting with the Nigerian president as well. But again, as you see in business you grow so big, that you almost kind of die. I think that also played well for MTN. MTN is the largest telecom operator significantly. It was just until recently the ATO began to like really catch up it'd be really devastating for them to have shut down you know, it didn't look scary but I think they had like really good strengths and wings on that.

Unknown Speaker 12:01
Are you trying to "Japa"?

Adegoke 9:33
Interesting, so for the uninitiated, "Japa" is like when you escape Nigeria, you know, a lot of people feel like they're like harsh economic realities. They're like, "man, I need to escape". And it's interesting, even people that have good jobs, somebody living in posh areas, they're trying to escape, you know, "Japa" is like an escape, escape and go to Canada or the US or the UK. Something, because I mean, yeah, you can have a lot of money but what happens when, for example, you get shot. And this has happened, right? There was a story that went viral I think about four years ago or something on Twitter, where a really wealthy man died just because there was traffic. He had a heart attack and the ambulance couldn't get into the hospital on time.

There's that scare for even people that are doing financially okay, like, Oh, I could have money, but what have the quality of life, you know, so why do you want to be in that environment where you can Jack Ma, you know, so Tech offers very easy and brilliant roots for a lot of people to Japa, we know people who, who didn't even go to university and just they just learned whether it was graphics, or programming, got jobs, built up their profile. Next thing they applied on LinkedIn, go to remote job and travelled. I have friends back in the day who is struggling, like really, really struggling with a family wife, kids really struggling. And now I see them on Instagram, living the life coding for I don't know, Reebok, Adidas, whatever it is, it does offer the opportunity to travel and live a better life earn well. And also some of these opportunities give you provide permanent residences and even citizenships in some example, you know, so it's like a ticket to a golden life, a lot of people have considered taking this leap. And it's worked out for them.

They've been very few conversations online, whether YouTube videos or Twitter threads, about ho if you travel, it can be lonely, maybe for people in some cities in Canada, where they're in a lot of Nigerian communities, you know, it can be lonely, it can be difficult. It's culture shock, you know, but generally, it's good because you have a good skill, the skill that is hot in demand, and you can get well paid. So why should you know Japa? I always say this humorously that the only reason you should know Japa, is if you had God, call your name, "You're going to make it in Nigeria, start a business in Nigeria" That's about the only reason why you shouldn't Japa.

For founders, they are building value. I go back six, seven years where the only option for to receive payments online was interswitch. And interswitch API was 150,000 Naira was probably like $700 people couldn't afford it, then now it's plug and play with paystack, flutterwave, we pay nothing, you know, they're just earning commissions on your transactions. You know. So like, founders and operators are building a lot of value down here creating a lot of value. Look at what Andela has done, helped train a lot of local engineers, software developers and created upon opportunities for them in the global market space. You got to give it to them, founders are doing something brilliant for this economy. Any serious government, every serious president and his serious governor should appreciate them.

Adegoke 13:02
They are building value. They are creating jobs, employment, and they are attracting foreign investment. Look at what Jumia and Konga have done from 2012. Yeah, ecommerce has not been as big as it was promised. But these guys have attracted nothing like that 300 100 million dollars into the tech startup space. A lot of people have learned in that space. You know, that money has gone to the altar to build what we have right now to fund a lot of learnings. A lot of talent, a lot of technology, a lot of relationships, you know, and now we have what we have. I think they're doing something good.

I must add to that even found us seize this opportunity to get a second passport. I mean, you know, the UK has global talent, they're trying to attract really good technical talent. So a lot of founders use this opportunity to get a second passport, but they still keep touch with homebase. So thanks for listening. If you're in Africa focus founder investor looking to learn more about Africa's Tech ecosystem, check out Africanpreseed.com For more great content. Otherwise, that's all for now. I am Adegoke Oyeniyi this has been the Vibe Check. Remember, built something people want and take care!