BTF 003 - Tayo Bamiduro: solving hyperlocal logistic problems for ecommerce in Africa

Tayo Bamiduro is the co-founder of Max.ng. He is an interesting guy….  and I’ve got lots of time for him. I understand his business. My first startup was trying to solve similar problem. Max.ng is a hyperlocal, on-demand delivery service based in Lagos, Nigeria. Max.ng aims to tackle Lagos’ notorious logistics problem (traffic) using proprietary geotagging technology and also help reduce youth unemployment rate in the city. So about 50% of MAX’s Delivery Champions are below the age of 30. And they aim to create 500+ more jobs this year. Since launching in 2015, Tayo and his team have been up to a lot of good! They acquired food startup, Easy Appetite and also founded Max.Go, Nigeria’s first motorcycle transport app. The Max.ng team was the first African team to be admitted into the Techstars startup accelerator programme in New York, raised a funding round of almost US$1 million afterwards. They were  named runner-up at the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield event in London and named a “Top 12 Global Inclusive Growth Idea” by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Harvard Center for International Development. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to gather a team around your vision and product How Max.ng is solving a big problem and doing social good in the process by employing internally displaced people from Chibok Real hustlers… the founders learnt how to ride a motorbike in order to validate their business hypotheses Why they turned down Plug and Play accelerator programme in New York Raising money is not a walk in the park… Tayo pitched to over 100 investors and got less than 10 to invest and the kind of people they employ Innovative companies solving Africa’s deep-seated problems Notable quote “The way Africa will leapfrog into first-world status is using technology”   Resources/links mentioned in the podcast: