Afropolitan

Quote- “You don't have to raise funds to get validation. A lot of people will raise funds just for validation.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.
This episode features Ray Youssef, CEO of ‘Paxful’ - a peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace used by millions worldwide. As an immigrant from Egypt raised in New York, Ray has always been passionate about helping others.
Ray believes that education is important in creating equitable opportunities and through his non-profit organization, built with bitcoin he has been able to provide that for so many children in Africa.

He has always dreamed of a world where finance is accessible to everyone and that idea manifested as Paxful.
Listen and enjoy as Ray talks to us about the African crypto market and the exceptional human capital on the continent.

Ray’s reading list
King, Warrior, magician, lover : Rediscovering the Archetype of Mature Masculine by Robert Moore
​​https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861

The fiat standard by Saifedean Ammous
https://www.amazon.com/Fiat-Standard-Slavery-Alternative-Civilization/dp/1544526474

History of Money by Jack Weatherford
https://www.amazon.com/History-Money-Jack-Weatherford/dp/0609801724

Show Notes

1:02 Mission and vision of Paxful.
5:19 African crypto market.
8:15 Advice to founders on navigating regulatory framework.
12:12 COVID-19 impact on Paxful.
13:35 Paxful approach to recruiting and retaining talent.
15:30 Advice to founders during fundraising process
18:02 The Mission of built with bitcoin.
22:51 Significant encounter with failure.
27:10 Ray’s reading list.
34:22 What does being Afropolitan mean to you?

The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?
Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linkt

Adeniyi Abiodun

Quote- “No one says you need to be an engineer or a PA for life. Nobody said you'll have one particular role for life but you can actually be capable of a lot more.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Adeniyi Abiodun,co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Mysten labs. Mysten Labs is creating infrastructure and tools for the decentralized future.

Fedup by the red tape of Big Tech, Adeniyi together with three former facebook employees created mysten lab. A startup focused on web3 and block chain infrastructure.

They were instrumental in the development of the diem blockchain and move programming language. A cross-platform smart contract language that helps developers secure against exploits.

Adeniyi realized programming and writing applications was something he cared about and hasn't looked back ever since. His career cuts across finance, product and blockchain technology.

Adeniyi is passionate about leveraging deep tech to solve developer and consumer problems.
Listen and enjoy as Adeniyi talks to us about the newly launched Sui blockchain network and his experience fundraising for Mysten labs.

Adeniyi’s reading list

The Bible
​​https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+holy+bible&adgrpid=84105609520&gclid=CjwKCAjwi8iXBhB
Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke
https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Focus-Achieving-Important-Objectives/dp/099600602
8
Inspired by Marty Cagan
https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers/dp/1119387507

Show Notes
1:20 Journey to becoming CPO of mysten lab
4:19 Mysten lab’s vision
5:18 Sui’s role in the blockchain ecosystem
11:14 Decentralization VS Centralization
15:19 Advice to founders on recruiting and retaining talent
17:15 Gaming sector VS other sectors in the ecosystem
18:57 Advice to newcomers in the blockchain ecosystem
20:39 Most significant encounter with failure and lessons learned
23:50 Adeniyi’s reading list
25:36 Advice to founders on the fundraising process
The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?
Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linktr.ee/afropolitangroup

Naithan Jones

Quote - “There's a fundamental misunderstanding of how success actually happens, how success happens is, you pick something to work on, that you don't mind working on in the wee hours of the night, for 20 plus years”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Naithan Jones, former partner at A16z and current Head of Growth at Royal. Royal enables anyone to own and earn royalties for their favorite songs.

In 2011, Naithan drove out to silicon valley in his 1994 Corolla with everything he owned and went on to build Ag local, an ecommerce startup that eventually folded up.He later joined Andreessen Horowitz(A16z) where he did amazing work for seven years.

Naithan is a tech executive with over 20 years background in market strategy with emphasis on entrepreneurship, startups and entertainment driven business.

Listen and enjoy as Naithan talks to us about the misconceptions about being a VC and royal’s mission to redistribute the ownership of digital property.

Naithan’s Twitter post
​​https://twitter.com/naithanjones/status/1550151720319303683?s=21

Naithan’s reading list

Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hard+thing+about+hard+things&adgrpid=82923967095&gclid=Cj

Cybernetics by Nobert Weiner
https://www.amazon.com/Cybernetics-Second-Control-Communication-Machine/dp/026273009X

The Human Use Of Human Beings by Nobert Weiner
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Use-Beings-Cybernetics-Society/dp/0306803208

Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Engineering-Yogis-Guide-Joy/dp/0812997794

Man's Search For Meaning
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

The Black Jacobins by C.L.R James
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Jacobins-Toussaint-LOuverture-Revolution/dp/0679724672

Power vs Force by David Hawkins
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Force-David-Hawkins-M-D/dp/1401945074

Psychology Of Unconsciousness by C.G Jung
https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Unconscious-C-G-Jung/dp/0486424995



Show Notes
5:32 What inspired the mindset behind the tweet
11:25 How serving has changed Naithans’s perspective on life and humanity
17:11 Journey to Tech
24:43 Misconceptions about being a VC
33:15 Advice to founders
40:48 The role healing/therapy plays in dealing with past trauma
46:46 Royal’s mission
52:33 Naithan’s Reading list

Tayo Oviosu

Quote- “A life of service is worth living.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Tayo Oviosu, founder and group CEO Paga,a mobile payments company focused on digitizing cash in emerging economies.

The Stanford educated professional saw a huge opportunity in the financial service industry and came up with what is now paga.

With over 19 million users, paga is unrelenting in bringing financial services to the unbanked.

Listen and enjoy as Tayo talks to us about the impact of FinTech companies in Africa and how Paga aims to serve the unbanked.

Tayo’s reading list

True North by Bill George
https://www.amazon.com/True-North-Discover-Authentic-Leadership/dp/0787987514

My American Journey by Colin Powell
https://www.amazon.com/My-American-Journey-Colin-Powell/dp/0345466411

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike-ebook/dp/B0176M1A44

Show Notes
1:33 Paga Mission
4:00 Has paga solved the pain point of carrying cash around in Nigeria
6:26 Unique challenges faced while starting paga
8:43 Fundraising challenges founders in Africa face
12:28 How paga has engaged regulatory bodies
15:58 Insights on agency banking model
22:01 How paga has been able to recruit and retain talent
25:52 Operational challenges paga faced during covid
30:01 leadership challenges
31:26 Books that have impacted Tayo’s life
36:05 First encounter with failure as an entrepreneur
42:46 Concept of product management in the tech ecosystem.


The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linktr.ee/afropolitangroup

Deeze's Quote

"Don't enjoy to the point where you're not doing hard work again and don't do hard work to the point where you don't take a moment to enjoy just a little bit."

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Today’s episode features Deeze, the Director of vibes at Fractional, a decentralized protocol that enables collective ownership and governance of one or more NFTs.

Deeze is most known for his outstanding work in supporting the NFT community, he hosts twitter spaces to spotlight up and coming artists with quality work in the scene.

Listen and enjoy as Deeze talks to us about everything from fractional and how he got started with NFTs.

Twitter thread
https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1507787390114488322?


Deeze reading list

https://www.amazon.com/Million-Stuffed-Shark-Economics-Contemporary/dp/0230620590 The 12 Million Stuffed Shark by Don Thompson

https://www.amazon.com/Pre-Suasion-Robert-Cialdini-Ph-D-audiobook/dp/B01JAYK6HI/ref=sr_1_1? Pre-suasion by Robert Cialdini

https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X Influence by Robert Cialdini

https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914995X/ref=sr_1_1? Lessons of history by Will and Ariel Durant

https://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Mentors-Short-Advice-World/dp/B082VM5VZN/ref=sr_1 _1? Tribe of Mentors by Will Ferriss


Show Notes
1:15 How did you get started with NFT
7:52 What are NFTs and what can be their use in the future
10:52 Journey to fractional
14:33 Owning a collectible with a group of strangers/ friends
17:21 Advice to newbies joining NFT projects
21:25 Pseudonymity within the NFT ecosystem
27:40 Thoughts on the Azuki scandal
34:50 Favorite books
39:03 Highs and lows of NFT
47:32 First encounter with failure and lessons learned.

The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linktr.ee/afropolitangroup

MERCEDES BENT

Quote - “one of the biggest, most profound realization I've had is there is no life path that can be planned or followed.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Mercedes Bent, partner at Lightspeed, a venture capital firm based in the USA, with her focus on consumer investments in crypto.

Born in North Carolina and raised in California, Mercedes’ parents introduced her to web development at a young age and dinner table conversations were centered around the next invention. It’s no surprise Mercedes found herself working at startups in her early career as a Product Manager and later as a General Manager.

Mercedes’ path to VC is a true convergence of her life experiences, finance roles managing P&Ls at two consumer startups (including growing one from $2 to $100M in revenue), and her long-term goal of empowering communities she cares about.

A member of Lightspeed’s consumer and crypto investing team, Mercedes is primarily focused on investing in crypto, fintech, and other wealth-building and consumer products.

Listen and enjoy as Mercedes talks to us about venture capital.

Mercedes reading list
https://www.amazon.com/Anne-Green-Gables-Complete-8-Book/dp/0553609416 Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery.

https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Nearer-Ray-Kurzweil-ebook/dp/B08Y6FYJVY The Singularity Is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil

Show Notes
6:59 Journey to Venture Capital and Lightspeed
8:41 Evaluating startups
11:00 Common misconceptions about VC
12:40 Why Lightspeed
15:01 Covid’s impact on deal flow and personally
17:41 How the barrier can be broken for women trying to raise capital
21:25 First encounter with failure and lessons learned.
24:17 Advice to founders struggling to recruit and retain talent
28:24 Advice to people trying to break into VC
29:51 If the only thing left in the world was to read a book about your life, what will the title be
33:41 What does being Afropolitan mean to you



The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/
Afropolitan Community - https://linktr.ee/afropolitangroup

Atsu Davoh

Quote- “Focus on the process, the destination will eventually come but the process is what gets you there.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Our guests will share their working formulas, the hard facts about leaving familiar terrain, embracing the unknown, and staying relevant afterwards.

This episode features Atsu Davoh, the MD of Bitsika, a payment platform that helps people send money across countries.

With several startups under his belt, Atsu has always been determined to build his multi million dollar company and he seems to have achieved that with Bitsika. While in college in the United states Atsu realized school wasn't for him.

Atsu was more interested in building websites, working on small projects, learning HTML and CSS.He eventually dropped out and focused on entrepreneurship full time, a move that has eventually paid off.

Bitsika was a pioneer in afrobeats and fintech collaboration. In 2020, they signed renowned music giant Davido as an official brand ambassador. This partnership was a pivotal moment for the organization as it led to the acquisition of numerous customers.

Listen and enjoy as Atsu talks to us about building Bitsika and future plans.

Atsu reading list
AntiFragile by Nicholas Taleb
The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous
Inventing Bitcoin by Yan Pritzker

Show notes:
4:55 How Atsu scales ideas as a software engineer and technical founder.

8:25 How Bitsika plans to accommodate the central bank of Nigeria's regulation on crypto companies.

16:36 The process of engaging Davido as a brand ambassador and the results after the campaign was launched.

30:10 challenges with hiring and maintaining talent as a startup in Africa.

37:39 The promise of crypto and decentralization.

42:28 Atsu’s entrepreneurial mind set.

48:37 First experience with failure and lesson learnt.

1:02:03 What does being Afropolitan mean to Atsu

1:03:45 Mission behind the social tokens and what it represents in the crypto ecosystem.


The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/

Gossy Ukanwoke

Quote
"Don't enjoy to the point where you're not doing hard work again and don't do hard work to the point where you don't take a moment to enjoy just a little bit."

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.


Today’s episode features Gossy Ukanwoke, the MD of KingMakers, owners of the BetKing brand.

With Gossy at the helm of affairs, the brand is evolving to encompass sports entertainment and gaming services. “It’s not just a roadside gambling company, it’s a proper technology business. It’s a product in gaming. It can easily be a fintech company tomorrow, given the spread across the continent, the number of users, the number of transactions. It can roll it out and it can be anything.”

Gossy started out reselling Internet services in his late teens to wealthy customers, at a time when wireless routers were not yet commonplace.

The Internet service provider caught on to what Gossy was doing and in no time, he found himself out of business. “You know when they say, cut you at the knees, day by day, my clients were just dropping off one by one.”

It was a steep learning curve for him, but the lessons he learned would serve him well in the future.

Listen and find out what those lessons are.

You can also fuel your mind with Gossy’s impactful reading list.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996 Good To Great by Jim Collins

https://www.amazon.com/Talent-Never-Enough-Discover-Choices/dp/0785214038 Talent is never Enough by John C Maxwell
https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Solve-Problems-Test-Ideas/dp/1442397683 Sprint by Jake Knapp




Show Notes:
11:05 Gossy mentions one of the things people don’t really talk about in entrepreneurship?

14:55 Gossy talks about his boat business and building confidence in a low-trust environment.

19:42 First and best entrepreneurial experience ever as a reseller of Internet services and lessons learned.

31:21 How he created Beni American University. Building out a school that will address the issues of access, quality and relevance.

42:19 From bootstrapping to fundraising.

46:10: BetKing's growth and expansion.

50:50 What’s important when it comes to recruiting the right talent.

52:33 Gossy’s biggest leadership lessons in managing people


The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/

Eke Eleanya Urum

Quote: “Start up is a Marathon. You want to make sure that the value you're creating, you're not just building for investors because you sold too much too early.”

The Afropolitan Podcast spotlights Afropolitans who aren’t afraid to step into the unknown and walk in purpose. With this podcast we hope to empower Africans in the Diaspora to harness their full potential and contribute to the development of a bold and progressive black community.

Today’s episode features Eke Eleanya Urum, Founder and CEO of Rise Vest - a dollar denominated investment platform.

“I've always been passionate about finance, investments. It's what I studied in school, what I worked in, it’s what I did personally. And as a hobby, I just love it.”

Following the peak of the Shale revolution and the subsequent crash of oil prices, Eke published a blog post in November of 2014 advising people to find ways to move their money to dollar investments.

He went on to co-found BuyCoins with Timi Ajiboye. They later parted ways so that Eke could focus on building core investment products, and this eventually led to the start of Rise Vest.

Having to deal with regulatory challenges from the government taught Eke a thing or two about the rules of engagement when dealing with regulators.

Listen and enjoy as Eke takes us through the rise of Rise Vest

Eke’s reading list

The Bible
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho-ebook/dp/B00U6SFUSS/ The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future-ebook/dp/B00J6YBOFQ/ Zero To One by Peter Thiel
Show Notes:
03:57 How 2021 Rise Vest’s year of ascent.
05:46 The idea that became Rise Vest.

07:09 Starting BuyCoins with Timi Ajiboye.

08:02 Parting ways with Timi and BuyCoins.

08:17 The beginning of Rise Vest.

10:18 Eke talks about recruiting tech talent even if you are a non-tech founder.

11:06 Partnerships that work. How Eke met his co-founder Bosun Olanrewaju.

11:49 Building the first products at Rise Vest

12:35 Building the team at Rise Vest

13:22 How equity works at Rise Vest.

14:24 The process of fundraising according to Eke

17:54 Dealing with regulators. The cases with CBN and EFCC.

23:25 The founders who inspire Eke.

26:24 Eke’s thoughts on running a company in Nigeria versus going abroad.

29:20 The future of Crypto in Africa and why it should be embraced

34:13 Eke’s multiple lens on failure.



The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/

Quote:
“I often say to people that you want to be careful how you challenge yourself. You don't want to change too many things at once when changing a job.”

Today’s episode features Adia Sowho, the CMO of MTN Nigeria, and also the first woman to occupy that position.

“I'm not a classic CMO, but interestingly, I think I'm the CMO the tech company needs. I hope to try to, from my role, reconnect MTN to that deeper purpose and start taking the conversation forward. What happens beyond connectivity? How do we make MTN a part of the next bunch of unicorn stories?”

Starting with her first degree in Electrical Engineering, Adia’s career has cut across technology, telecommunications, and finance.

Adia has been referred to as the Sheryl Sandberg of the startup ecosystem and later as the Olivia Pope of the Nigerian tech ecosystem.

Listen and learn how Adia built her track record of creating impactful work in her positions.

Adia’s Reading List
https://www.amazon.com/Sovereign-Individual-James-Dale-Davidson-ebook/dp/B00AK9IXXM-The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
https://www.amazon.com/Formula-Universal-Laws-Success-ebook/dp/B07B863X6B/- The Formula by Albert-László Barabási



Show Notes:
03:42 Adia talks about her role as the CMO of MTN Nigeria?

07:03 Adia explains MTN’s position in the tech space.

12:02 How digital finance services help build legacy and trust.

16:32 On corporate companies versus startups.

21:44 Why founders need structure in their companies.

24:37 The turnaround process of Thrive Agric.

29:46 How to navigate intergenerational spaces.

35:56 Building synergy between fintechs, banks and telcos.

39:36 How managing her reputation and making relationship investments have paid off.


The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan.
Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Want to learn more about Afropolitan?

Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/