The Bulletproof Entrepreneur™

At the age of 19 yrs old Churchill decided to that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. Instead of enrolling in university,  he took a year off after graduating from high school to follow his dream. In that time, he taught himself to write software code by working in cybercafés for free. His strategy of giving out his services for free enabled him to he learn while on the job through visiting online forums and garnering skills sets from there. That year off enabled him to parlay his knowledge of into a teaching position, and while at this teaching position he came up with his first start-up.  Today, he is the brains behind the company Forbes.com dubbed "Africa’s fastest growing job search engine, Njorku.com, an online platform that bridges the gap between employers and job-seekers". Churchill is currently working to ensure that Njorku.com becomes a tool as necessary as your daily toothbrush. 

Today’s bulletproof entrepreneur, Raphael Afaedor, is the co-founder of SupermartNG, a leading online grocery store in Nigeria. Prior to founding SupermartNG, he was the co-founder of Jumia.com, Nigeria’s largest e-commerce store, where he and his co-founder helped oversee the company’s rapid growth from a start-up team of 10 people to 450 people in roughly two years. Before dipping his toes in the entrepreneurial waters, Raphael gained valuable business and technology experience at some of the world’s best companies i.e. Monster.com, Goldman Sachs, and Notore Chemicals.  However, his love for business and passion to contribute to Africa’s development led him to turn his back on a lucrative career in favour of the arduous, but rewarding life of an Entrepreneur. Now, his company is currently revolutionizing the grocery business by providing a 3 hour home delivery service of fresh produce and other goods to families that are pressed for time. The grocery business in Lagos, Nigeria is conservatively estimated to be a $72 billion a year industry that is largely informal in structure and fragmented. SupermartNG aims to differentiate itself by taking the stress and hassle  involved in the weekly grocery shopping (Families spend an average of 6 hours a week  trying to shop for groceries primarily due to the notorious traffic jams in the Lagos metropolis).

Adekunbi starts her entrepreneurial journey at the tender age of 9 years , when she noticed that there were few quality greetings in the city where she attended boarding school compared to her hometown Lagos. She then smartly decides to buy the cards and sell them at school at a decent profit margin . Many years later as an undergraduate, she realized that with graduation fast approaching she did not have the necessary skills required to make her an effective employee. She then proceeds to pound the pavement in search of an internship opportunity. Upon encountering resistance and confusion from potential employers, she realizes that several companies were unaware of the power of internships.  Her epiphany coupled with several long months spent developing her business plan, she launches her company while still in school. Today, her company has helped train and place over 300 students in several small and medium scale companies as short term interns. With several interns being retained on a full-time basis post engagement. Through Sesewa's efforts the problem of rising youth unemployment (90% of college grads are jobless 1year after graduation) is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Her goal is to reach the students while their still in school, train them on the necessary soft skills required to keep their jobs and help them locate the best matched internship positions that will enable the young careerists become better professionals in and outside the workplace.

Victor starts his entrepreneurial journey by putting together computer systems in exchange for transportation fare. With little experience and the aide of a friend  he launches an indigenous technology company  to service the growing demands of the Nigerian market. However, cash flow problems, project scope creep and undisciplined operations leads him down the path for 7 years on a failed project. He eventually joins a new telecom company at the early stage of Nigeria's information technology boom and learns about the industry, finance, project management and other requisite skills.  He eventually relaunches his prior failed business and today operates a successful pan African technology company from Ghana.

Oo goes from launching two failed startups, one with Buffer App co-founder Joel Gascoigne to launching a SAAS business in Nigeria. Along the way he's been credited with almost single handedly building up the tech ecosystem in Lagos, Nigeria. Through grit, determination and old fashioned hustle he's building a new business that is changing the face of call center operations.

aith goes from unemployed internet marketer to rejecting two job offers to eventually starting her own perfumery business" LA FAME ACCOUTRE" . With little capital, poor packaging and lots of hustle she was able to drive sales by targeting wedding souvernirs as a primary distribution channel. She now helps mentor students interested in the perfumery business and is growing her business with several new distribution channels and products.