When the Forbes was going to introduce them, it wrote: “the 30 young African entrepreneurs, disruptors and innovators featured on this list are impatient to change Africa. Together, they represent the entrepreneurial, innovative and intellectual best of their generation.” Now, a round of applause for Africa’s 30 Under 30 – the continent’s best young entrepreneurs, today’s disruptors and tomorrow’s brightest stars and they are… Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Ayodeji Adewunmi, Red Media’s Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams.
These young CEOs and founders of Jobberman, Nairaland, Flying Doctors and Red Media are among the listed 30 under 30 Best Young Entrepreneurs in Africa by Forbes and according to Forbes, these young entrepreneurs are changing the face of Africa, making the most dramatic impact across the continent, Forbes said. Now, let’s take a peep into what these young entrepreneurs do:
Opeyemi Awoyemi, Olalekan Olude and Ayodeji Adewunmi, are Jobberman founders and they run the biggest job search engine and aggregator. You would remember that Jobberman went live in August 2009, but what you may not know is that today, the site attracts over 50,000 users each day. Through simple, yet cutting-edge technology, Jobberman helps to link qualified personnel to the right job opportunities. Jobberman is one of the few companies in Nigeria’s tech space that enjoys venture capital backing,” Forbes said.
The trio of Opeyemi Awoyemi, 25, Olalekan Olude, 29, and Ayodeji Adewunmi, 29, are Obafemi Awolowo University graduates, who have carefully harnessed their ideas and skills to bring the Jobberman dream into reality. The trio met as undergraduates and sustained a friendship in school, which has evolved into a profitable business relationship. While Opeyemi and Olalekan studied Computer Engineering, Ayodeji studied Medicine but the Doctor said he is “passionate about building, monetising and engaging online content, users and platforms.”
According to Opeyemi, in an exclusive interview with Bellanaija, Ayodeji, who he met in his second year in the university was really forward looking and knowledgeable.
“Here was a medical student talking non-profits, business and making impact. He was very humble and ironically had no modesty of ambition. I loved that in him and we ended up doing lots of stuff together before Jobberman,” he added.
But he didn’t initially start off as friends with Olalekan who was his course mate. “Ironically, we were never close as class mates but we became friends and brothers on a business level. We’ve got this hate-love relationship of being each other’s devils advocate,” Opeyemi said of his course mate.
Speaking on how they “got together,” Olalekan, Opeyemi’s course mate, said that they initially hardly did stuff together in school. “We only respected each other based on our business acumen” he said, while adding that “we got together at some point due to a business deal and we’ve been together since then. Now, I am his elder brother from another mother.” He however refers to Ayodeji as someone who has helped him make some important decisions in life. “Deji was once my school mentor when I realised that I was hitting a celling in my networking career. He helped shaped some of my life changing decisions and we’ve been close ever since,” he added.
Before starting Jobberman, Olalekan and Ayodeji had a bit of work experience at other firms, according to what they told Bellanaija. “Well, I have worked all my life. I’ve been working since 2001 and I have always had one project or the other to work on at any given time. I also interned at Goldman Sachs over a space of 3 years,” said Olakekan. Similarly, Ayodeji has “worked on a number of profits and non-profits projects and had a short stint at Goldman Sachs.” But for Opeyemi, he has always had the entrepreneurial spirit even as an undergraduate. “I started Jobberman as an undergrad in OAU. I have previous experience running businesses but I have never worked for anyone in my life,” Opeyemi said.
Everybody knows that running a company in partnership with others is sometimes a difficult task. But these young people have found a secret that works for them. They are just the perfect fit, in the words of Olalekan in reference to working with his team members. “We’ve always handled different roles in the business. Someone had strength where others had weakness and we respected each other’s opinion when it comes to that. Our argument has always been objective and we try not to take it personal and that has seriously helped us, the trio said.”
Challenges? Of course! The challenge of meeting up with the server capacity for one, according to the trio. As traffic on the site is constantly on the increase, they are faced with the challenge of meeting up with the server capacity and to upgrade the server often. Then there is the situation of epileptic power supply and inadequate payment systems in the country.
But all in all, this trio has managed to find ways past their challenges, forging ahead with what they have and changing the face of Nigerian technology along the way.
Source: Tribune
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