Doers Within Us Podcast-Celebrating Builders of Tomorrow!

Victor Asemota is a technology entrepreneur and investor who serves as a board member and advisor to leading fintech and investment firms across Africa. He is Africa Partner for Alta Global Ventures, the founder of SwiftaCorp, and an advisory board member of Assets and Resource Management.   

A co-founder of the African Diaspora Mentorship and Investment Network, Victor is committed to the growth and mentorship of the next generation of talent on the continent. He volunteers as a global mentor for the Google Launchpad startup community and the Interaction Design Foundation where he is the continent manager for Africa.   

Educated in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, he has been a pioneer in the African Information Technology industry.  

Victor's Ted talk on a future built on role models (mentioned in this conversation): https://www.ted.com/talks/victor_asemota_a_future_built_on_role_models 

The book that Victor mentioned in the conversation: https://www.amazon.com/Winners-successful-strategies-entrepreneurs-businesses/dp/0030018870

Victor's twitter handle: https://twitter.com/asemota 

Victor's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asemota/

Victor Asemota is a technology entrepreneur and investor who serves as a board member and advisor to leading fintech and investment firms across Africa. He is Africa Partner for Alta Global Ventures, the founder of SwiftaCorp, and an advisory board member of Assets and Resource Management.   

A co-founder of the African Diaspora Mentorship and Investment Network, Victor is committed to the growth and mentorship of the next generation of talent on the continent. He volunteers as a global mentor for the Google Launchpad startup community and the Interaction Design Foundation where he is the continent manager for Africa.   Educated in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, he has been a pioneer in the African Information Technology industry.    

Victor's Ted talk on a future built on role models (mentioned in this conversation): https://www.ted.com/talks/victor_asemota_a_future_built_on_role_models 

Victor's twitter handle: https://twitter.com/asemota  

Victor's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asemota/

David Akinin is changing the way informal sector retailers source and interact with brands in Namibia. He is the Founder and CEO of JABU. He and his team recently raised $3.2 million. JABU (YC S21) is a B2B marketplace and last-mile distribution partner, offering tech-enabled, route-to-market development and merchandising for FMCG brands in undeveloped areas while helping unbanked businesses grow through efficient delivery, an affordable product basket, inventory management, and credit facilities.  

Headquartered in Windhoek, Namibia, they are reinventing the way retailers in the informal sector order, stock, and receive supplies for their shops in Southern Africa.  

Akinin was kind enough to spend sometime on JamanInclusive, a platform within Jamani Corporate Group, LLC. We're more than pleased  to have him share the story of JABU, Lessons learned, and what of advice to entrepreneurs and simply every human who wants to make an impact on the world out there.

Pelkins Ajanoh is A Harvard Scholar and A Young Entrepreneur! A young Cameroonian born in Limbe, Pelkins rose to prominence when he obtained the highest score at the GCE Advanced Level in Cameroon. He then moved to the US where he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he graduated in 2018 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics. His goal of improving his community and creating a difference in people’s lives inspired him to launch a tech-enabled agribusiness CassVita Inc with his childhood friend Nembu Milton. 

The company they created is one of the fastest growing companies in Cameroon with endorsement from the Minister of Economy and got international recognition when MIT sent 3 students to Cameroon for internship in the Summer of 2018. CassVita products are available worldwide including in the US market. 

Besides founding CassVita, Pelkins has also been a Product Manager at Microsoft and has patented novel technologies for self-driving cars while working for General Motors. He is currently pursuing dual Master’s degrees in both the Harvard School of Engineering and the Harvard Business School.

Masachs J. Boungou holds a PhD degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell). His dissertation research focused on how prior adverse experiences (civil war/or genocide) influence the creation of businesses or entrepreneurial ventures. In particular, Boungou’s PHD thesis looked at how immigrants from post-conflict countries connect their past events of civil war and/or genocide to their business creation and succeed as entrepreneurs in Portland, ME. You can access the abstract of his research here. This section will be updated once the research paper is out. 

You can reach out to him via his LinkedIn profile. 

Mr. Kara Diallo is the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Specialist for the USAID-funded West Africa Trade & Investment Hub. He is based in Dakar, Senegal, and provides technical assistance and training to export-ready businesses across the region on AGOA and U.S. import requirements.

In addition to this work, Kara also assists U.S. companies in finding, vetting, and doing business with West Africa-based companies, thus providing critical market linkages between these two entities. He also collaborates with governments and private sector representatives on the development of national AGOA export strategies.

Mr. Diallo’s experience within the region and deep understanding of AGOA comes from his work for the former Trade Hub (2016–2017), where he coordinated and supported the activities of the AGOA Trade Resource Centers (ATRCs) in West Africa. Mr. Diallo also previously served as Trade Advisor at the ATRC in Bamako, Mali, from 2010 to 2012, where he led all AGOA-related activities.

Mr. Diallo is a citizen of Mali and holds a master’s degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Blida in Algeria.

More about Diallo here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diallo-kara-a27a2692/?originalSubdomain=sn  

More about West Africa Trade & Investment Hub: https://westafricatradehub.com/?fbclid=IwAR1VkHfPV41y_nLthPob3YsL2-Twucx-8Lr0jHBbVJASmSjDDJit9r_KKvg

Upon graduation, Timbo joined Google where he spent seven years working in product management and marketing. Highlights of his time at Google include thelaunch of Google Maps across EMEA, and taking Chromecast from idea to launch, filing seven patents along the way.

In 2014, Timbo took a sabbatical from Google and used this time to travel across East and West Africa. It was during this time he recognised some of the addressing challenges that people living in these territories faced, and he decided to dedicate his time to finding solutions. The result of this exploration was OkHi.

As OkHi’s CEO and Co-Founder, Timbo launched the company in Nairobi on the back of validating the addressing problem space in Kenya, He now leads the company as they prepare to officially launch in Nigeria.

Timbo holds a MEng from the University of Oxford.

Intellectual property isn’t one-size-fits-all. Every business is different, with different needs, challenges and goals. As a registered patent agent who also happens to hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Yoriko has deep experience across the entire innovation lifecycle, bringing that experience to startups, public companies, government entities, law firms and more.

Ibrahim Aroyewun is Product Lead (Payments) at Seerbit, a Pan-African enterprise payment platform that enables fast, seamless, inclusive and secure payments for leading local and global companies present on the continent.

At Seerbit, Ibrahim manages a team of product managers, designers and engineers that are responsible for building the brand's customer centric online and offline payment products, which are tailored to the different verticals in Africa.

Prior to Seerbit, Ibrahim was Product Manager at Guaranty Trust Bank in Nigeria, where he led the bank's product ideation, design and development efforts targeted to SME’s and large corporates across Africa.

Ibrahim has over 5 years of product creation and management experience and has spent his time building products for both government agencies and private-owned businesses in Nigeria. Across the product creation value chain, he is especially well versed in customer segmentation, product discovery and growth.

Ibrahim holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry from The University of florin in Nigeria and graduated with top honors. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Information Technology at the Prestigious University of Lagos.

She is a passionate, motivated entrepreneur in the tech industry aspiring to contribute to machine vision. She is curious but optimistic about the positive changes that AI could bring to our next generations. She is eager to be a part of this movement to make a change while achieving her career success.

In this episode, we talked about local and foreign investments in Vietnam, the best food and place to visit in Vietnam(according to Chia), the best and worst advice she has ever received, her advice to female entrepreneurs out there, and the legacy that she wants to leave behind.

Her story will continue to inspire you as you listen to this second portion of a 2 part series of our conversation. This episode is as well dedicated to all young female entrepreneurs breaking boundaries in leadership, technology, AI, machine learning, and fields that males have dominated for decades.

Techvico is a vision-based sensor fusion startup focusing on solutions for machine based in Hanoi, Vietnam.

More information:

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A recent article on Chia: How one Penn State grad is helping businesses ‘see’ with intelligence