This episode is the first installment of a new series called Operator’s Opinion where we examine what it’s like building startups from the operator’s perspective. I could not think of a better person to launch this series with than today’s guest, Gerald Okonkwo also known as Gerald Black.

Gerald’s experience cuts across various roles including as a founder, consultant, sales lead, and more.

During our conversation, we spoke about how Gerald thinks about building a sales operations team for a to B startup. We also spoke about intentionality in branding and life in general. We ended our conversation by speaking about Gerald’s experience as a founder and builder and the lessons he has learned from that journey.

Hope you enjoy this great conversation with Gerald!

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(1:37) – Who is Gerald Black?

(3:50) – Banking as a Service and Embedded Finance

(7:30) – Gerald’s Role as Head of Go to Market at Anchor

(20:15) – How Sales People Should Think About Selling and Choosing the Right StartUp

(24:05) – Branding

(36:08) – Marketing and Communications

(37:56) – Building Effective Structures and Processes

(42:16) – What It Means to Build

(50:35) – Building is Wild!

(1:17:30) – What It Means to Raise Capital

(1:20:05) – Gerald’s Important Lessons in Life and Being Intentional

(1:25:19) – Quick Fire Questions

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Gerald’s Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ijDN3vbhz4Xm6BeYqsKYI?si=3edcb6031de549bc

Companies discussed: Anchor, Fixit45, Parkit, iFixng
Please email paul.agbaje@whatittakesafrica.com for any comments or feedback.

My Guest today is Minuifuong Nghombombong. Minuifuong is the founder of Bongalo,  an online marketplace for short to medium-term homestay.

During this episode, we do a deep dive into Bongalo and how the company is being positioned as an African native travel platform and differentiating itself by using various strategies adapted for the African market. We also spoke about travel as a category and Minuifuong’s motivations behind building in the travel industry. We explored topics including the relationships between companies like Airbnb, Bogalo, and the broader hotel industry. We ended our conversation by speaking about funding, future plans, and expansion.

Hope you enjoy this great conversation with Minuiuong!

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(2:00) – How Bongalo disrupts the hoteling industry

(8:35) – Bongalo’s founding story   

(13:12) – Bongalo’s pricing

(15:07) – Onboarding the buyer and seller side

(18:50) – Building for experiences

(24:05) – Building for scale

(28:23) – Expansion plan

(33:42) – Dealing with the Covid – 19 pandemic

(38:42) – Product Marketing

(42:21) –  Competing with Airbnb 

(45:08) – Using mobile money as a competitive advantage

(50:15) – Regulatory risk in running Bongalo

(52:02) – Raising money from Google

(53:32) – Quick fire questions

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Companies discussed: Bongalo, AirBnB, and Google.
Please email paul.agbaje@whatittakesafrica.com for any comments or feedback.

My Guest today is Vincent Edigin. Vincent is the founder of Greenbii. An enterprise resource planning application.

Before starting Greenbii, Vincent was a founding member of various startups including Traindemy – an educational platform.

During our conversation, we spoke about how his diverse experiences have enabled him to become a better entrepreneur. We also spoke about the various “light bulb” moments that have helped him build and execute his idea, and how these ideas will translate to success for Greenbii.

Hope you enjoy this great conversation with Vincent!

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(1:25) – Vincent’s Background

(3:18) – ERP overview

(5:37) – At what point in a company’s life is ERP software most useful?

(9:10) – Positioning Greenbii for success

(11:22) – Greenbii’s user journey

(16:24) – Issues with African businesses

(19:40) – Founding story of Traindemy and “light bulb moments”

(30:21) – Customer segments

(31:23) – Pricing and product market sales fit

(35:08) – Prioritizing and expanding across industries

(37:10) – Blockchain and ERP

(40:19) – Lessons on building the right team

(46:25) – Running a SaaS platform in Africa

(58:48) – Leveraging diverse experiences to become a better entrepreneur

(1:04:33) – Lessons from joining several incubators

(1:06:37) – Funding and prioritizing growth

(1:11:45) – Lessons from building an unsuccessful startup

(1:17:59) – Quick fire questions

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Companies discussed: Greenbii, Traindemy, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage,

Please email paul.agbaje@whatittakesafrica.com for any comments or feedback.