Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Iyin “E” Aboyeji | The Blueprint for Unicorn Storytelling, the End of the “Curated Founder” & African Tech Press Is Over
33 Plays5 months ago
African tech’s ultimate storyteller breaks down the dark arts behind building the narrative of three unicorns. He argues that the tech press is over, the traditional media business model is broken, and that a "screaming headline" is the only way to align investors, talent, and markets.
Iyinoluwa “E” Aboyeji is a Partner at Future Africa and a co-founder of three of Africa’s most significant tech companies: Andela, Flutterwave and Moove. He also reflects on his storytelling graveyard - where not every idea or angle made it to unicorn status.
A public figure known for his bold conviction, E has spent over a decade pushing uncomfortable questions into public view, using storytelling to frame ideas that others might shy away from.
In this conversation, he doesn’t dodge the controversies he’s been involved in; instead, he unpacks what they taught him about audience intelligence, trust and the limits of “manicure PR”. He also discusses:
◼️ Why storytelling is “infrastructure” and how it determines who gets funded
◼️ The controversial truth about the state of African media and journalism
◼️ Why founders can no longer hide their lack of depth behind a PR machine
◼️ How to create a bar of excellence that competitors cannot match
Download the full episode.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6HDsfUJyVxKZwrqkuk0AsR
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wimbart-way/id1860019526
Read the full blog on why we interviewed E: https://wimbart.com/thinking-in-headlines-iyin-aboyeji-on-story-scale-and-conviction/
Follow Wimbart on Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wimbart/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wimbartpr/
Transcript
The Future of Tech Press: A Grim Outlook
00:00:00
Speaker
Tech press is over. Wow. There is no future for tech press. I have to be extremely clear about the message. And then I have to put it in its most shocking terms. What are some of your coping mechanisms for dealing with negative discourse? however This is The Wimbart Way.
00:00:16
Speaker
I don't think you need an introduction, but please introduce
Introduction and Background of the Speaker
00:00:20
Speaker
yourself. I am a tech founder, tech investor, tech entrepreneur, tech enthusiast. I've been working in the ecosystem for the last 10 plus years.
00:00:31
Speaker
I sound old when I say that. But you're young. I'm not that old. Very passionate about African technology ecosystem and taught in how we can make it the best in the world.
00:00:44
Speaker
So I first came across you, I read about you in the press, so and you've always been a skilled media operator from day one. I used to be a journalist. So you understood the power of... And funny enough, I've said that to people previously when they say, oh, you know, he managed to do this. mike He used to be a journalist. He knows how to construct a narrative and a story.
00:01:03
Speaker
And I think that what really catapulted you and Andela into the headlines is when you coined the term Andela is harder to get into than Harvard. yeah Where did that come from? When you developed that narrative, could you foresee how powerful that would be?
00:01:16
Speaker
I think, to be honest, have to give Jay, who's perhaps one of the greatest storytellers in the world, credit for that. and then And then there was a guy on our team who was an Obama speechwriter called Adam.
The Power of Storytelling in Building a Brand
00:01:29
Speaker
He ended up writing speeches for India as well. So Andal had some very savvy storytelling people. ah And they coined that. and And the big idea was, hey, how do we communicate to a global audience how excellent this talent is?
00:01:45
Speaker
And you know the bar for excellence in America when it comes to talent is Harvard. Higher education participation in Africa is 12%, which is roughly the number of American students that go to an Ivy League. So if you think about the reality, almost everybody who goes to university in these parts of the world is technically Ivy League level.
00:02:07
Speaker
so so So, you know, it it was a good narrative, it was a good twist. It was a way to relate with the audience that we wanted to get. And the success was really in its simplicity and it conveyed ah a lot in one succinct message. But with hindsight, do you think in some ways it was almost oversimplified and it didn't really talk about some of the challenges or it didn't really explain the landscape as much as it needed to? As you know very well with storytelling, the point is for it to be simple and oversimplified.
00:02:37
Speaker
um Narrative doesn't have time for nuance, right? um and And of course, there there were challenges. There continue to be challenges. There were subtleties, but I don't think that that narrative necessarily harmed in any way.
00:02:51
Speaker
If anything, it just set the bar so high that it made it very difficult for our competitors to match. I think that's true because even now people still talk about Andela. Andela is the category. mark But it's really those heady years of like 20... 2014, 2015. So...
00:03:09
Speaker
And then I guess the the next narrative shift has gone on to Andela Mafia as well. yeah You cannot move in the ecosystem without Andela Mafia being, creating, building, operating. Yeah, I mean, that's that's the idea. you know you You want to create a bar for excellence. so You want to set it up really, really high.
Authenticity and Simplicity in Narratives
00:03:25
Speaker
and And to be honest, the the the narrative, and this is one thing I would say I've learned in my own career, the narrative has to be true. So the the reality is, like I said, these young people were just on the numbers, quite frankly, more talented than a lot of people who get to go to Harvard.
00:03:43
Speaker
um And they've proved that out. yeah um So it was just, what is the one key insight that drives this entire narrative? and And I think that's what Andela have done. and it's what I tell founders till today. i I tell them, storytelling is really about finding the screaming headline nobody else can print.
00:04:04
Speaker
Love that point. And I think it was backed up, as you say, it was authentic, it was true. you could When you met Andellans, you got it, you understood it. And they were proud to be part of Andella, and they were very much part of that storytelling. yeah So it was super authentic. It wasn't just, here's a corporate line. I'm wearing the first to do what we did, to be honest, right? But it was just hard for other people to follow that.
00:04:26
Speaker
in terms of of of the way the narrative is. And and it's the it's a biggest lesson I i keep telling them. And what you would notice is with the companies I'm deeply involved with as a concerned storytelling, I always try to repeat that, which is Florida Wave, you know, Africa is not a country, but we make it feel like one.
00:04:45
Speaker
Yes. Okay. You know, and you know and even with MOVE, right? Telling this story about providing access to mobility across across cultures and and everything. So it just keeps going.
00:04:58
Speaker
So when you then you leave Andela and then, you know, you start Flutterwave and I guess even your work with Move, do people have certain expectations of how you're going to help them shape that narrative? Are you that sort of chief
The Role of Storytelling in Stakeholder Alignment
00:05:10
Speaker
storyteller? Yeah, I mean, that's my job, right? The the biggest thing, and it's funny that storytelling is often underrated by founders, but the reality is it's what creates the most value because when you're building a company, a company is nothing really, right? It's just an idea.
00:05:26
Speaker
But depending on how powerfully you communicate that idea, you can align a lot of disparate stakeholders to come together and make something work. um So government, even competitors, you know your customers who are often competitive, investors, employees, um you know everybody has to come together behind a very clear narrative around what you're trying to do.
00:05:50
Speaker
um future Future Africa, for example, the Fund for Africa's Future. you got to keep it very simple yeah make it very clear what exactly it is that you're trying to do. So when you then went on to Flutterwave, did you use exactly the same approach as you have have done at Andela or did you think actually, did you modify it or? No, no. Quite literally myself and Ian Cannavale, was very critical to Andela's brand, yeah sat down in a loft in San Francisco and spent half a day crafting Flutterwave's brand story. And honestly, most of the stuff, including this cock and bull story about Flutterwave butterfly and when you just created it, Are you The butterfly effect. We created the story one sitting. I love that. And then so move then, how did that come
Creating Brand Stories for Flutterwave and MOVE
00:06:39
Speaker
about? Yeah, seeing was is basically, you know, the the story we were telling was one of the biggest challenges for people to be able to earn a living is being able to move from wherever they lived, which was typically going to be cheaper in the hinterland, to work in the morning, right? And so we're going to move them.
00:06:57
Speaker
Very simple. so yeah How do we make sure that we have the mobility, we increase mobility assets so it's cheap enough for us to get them from Eiji-Go to Ikoi every morning and take them back home at night, period.
00:07:11
Speaker
So we've just casually name-dropped three unicorns, Andela, Flutterwave, Moo. How many companies have you spent that time, that whole half a day time, where it hasn't sort of scaled that far? Like what what does the e-storytelling graveyard look like? Ah, there's many. Because not every story you tell catches on it. Sometimes, actually, you have to change it a few times.
00:07:32
Speaker
So I'm sure many people know about Town City, which isn't a graveyard company. It's just taking longer. okay um and And we had to change the name to Etonon. Many people don't know about Street Capital. That was probably we maybe one of our earliest storytelling graveyards. And we tried to tell a story about being the capital that's on the street. We still use the name, but we don't use it publicly. So it's just kind of somewhere in the graveyard charm. And you're reflective of them. How do you kind of process that? Or you just move on and think, I've got another half day's worth of work and need to come up with a whole lot work. I think I pick up a bunch of heuristics from those lessons, right? The one thing is you have to be very unique. Yeah.
00:08:12
Speaker
and And when I say very unique, like Talon City versus Itana, you know, it's like in the name, you know, you can use a phrase to describe an entire entity, but you have to be very particular about how you build a movement around the name. And that means that you have to give it identity and it has to have some gravitate and has to be something nobody has heard before. How intentional are you about having brand Andela, brand Flutterwave, brand Move, brand Future Africa and brand e
00:08:43
Speaker
how does How can you or do you differentiate between all
Integrating Tech and Politics in Brand Identity
00:08:46
Speaker
of them? Because even for a while, a few years back, you were operating in the political space. Yeah, yeah. Which doesn't always kind of um sit that closely with TechSpace, for example. How do you navigate all these different personas, all these different brands? I think the first thing is to recognize that most of the rules are not designed for you.
00:09:07
Speaker
um You have to make your own rules when it comes to this stuff. And i think... maybe one of the few areas where PR people don't really do their clients any any service is like when it's like a template thing, right? yeah And you're not actually styling it. I think, yes, for most people, tech and politics don't mix. But for me, absolutely. yeah right Because like I play in the policy space, right? um And um even when you know, you take very risque moves.
00:09:36
Speaker
Ultimately, you're looking at the upside in the end and you're thinking much broader about influence and power because that's really what media gives you. gives you power and visibility.
00:09:48
Speaker
And you're thinking about, okay, I'm going to take a bet on this crazy bet and could lose it all and in this crazy bet. But there's also a chance that you could you could make it tops too. And I guess I've made it tops more times than I've not. So you have so like walk us through your decision making in terms of how intentional you are about which media you speak to, how you engage with them, when you engage with them. Like what are your thought process? What are your decision processes?
00:10:16
Speaker
So, um I mean, the first thing is I have to be extremely clear about the message and and then I have to put it in its most shocking terms. So that that part is very intentional, extremism. And why is that?
00:10:30
Speaker
Because otherwise you don't get attention. Okay, so you're thinking in headlines. I always think in headlines. It's headlines, bold caps. Donald Trump, thank you for your attention, quite literally, to this. ah um that's That's literally how media works. So you have a few seconds to say something profound. You can't get professorial.
00:10:52
Speaker
You have to deliver a big, bold message. And perhaps there is no nuance in that. But then you get to nuance when people are paying attention, for those who need it So you have to grab attention first, and then once you have that attention, then you can spend a little bit more time and energy on nuance and
Engaging Modern Audiences: Beyond Templates
00:11:06
Speaker
complexities. Yeah, yeah. But if you don't have the attention, one's listening.
00:11:09
Speaker
So you speak to a lot of founders just generally as a mentor, as as an elder at your young age in the ecosystem as well. um And then obviously through Future Africa, you're investing in huge number of startups too.
00:11:22
Speaker
What are the founders getting rights and what are the areas that you see broadly in terms of need for improvement when it comes to storytelling and engaging not just media, but also investors?
00:11:35
Speaker
I think they're hewing too closely to the templates. okay like I think they're listening too much to PR. oh wow um I think they're losing authenticity. okay right they Many of them are just not themselves. And I think it's because they're optimizing for an audience that, quite frankly, no longer cares about them and what they have to say. Who's the audience that doesn't care about them anymore? US investors. Yes, okay. Like, I don't see any reason why you should be on TechCrunch as opposed to on your own blog now or having your own Twitter. yeah um Like, you quite frankly, us investors don't care. They used to. Now they don't.
00:12:09
Speaker
It's always been a red flag for me when we have new business calls with people and they just start reeling off economists, CNN, BBC. yeah But they're almost adamant that they don't want to be in local tech press.
00:12:21
Speaker
And there's a sort of slight snobbishness around it or, I don't know, mistrust. And for me, it's important to engage your local press and get that sort of local... Well, I also think the local press haven't done themselves any favors. Okay. In what ways? um They just aren't telling incredible stories.
00:12:36
Speaker
They're not getting the attention of the local crowd either. I mean, if you if you ask your local, not-plugged-in investor where do you get your news from, it's not it's not local press. it's Where do they get their press from? TikTok.
00:12:49
Speaker
TikTok? Yes, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn. Okay. like There has never been a better time for a founder to build a direct... to consumer brand. And actually, if you notice, Future Africa has actually stayed off news since 2022. I don't want to be next, and I try to advise our companies do the same, I don't want to be sharing a page with a company with a scandal, right?
00:13:11
Speaker
It's just not, it's not good PR for me, it's bad energy, you know? Really? Why that? It's just bad energy. Even if I have something good to say, I just don't want it to be right after you've read a piece about some founder stealing money. It's just not what I'm trying to do. So that means you don't want to be part of a news cycle because obviously news cycles have the good, the bad, and the ugly. I don't want to. Well, I want to create my own news cycle. Okay. That's what I want to do. But do you not think that people are sort of skeptical enough if it's just positive spin news stories, they might sort It doesn't have to be positive spin. I mean, I don't think...
00:13:46
Speaker
You're delivering a message to a very to an audience, right? it's not It's not positive spin. It's just... It's not even spin. It's just, hey, I'm just saying something different. okay You know what I mean? And um you don't want to be part of the news cycle because people forget very quickly, right? News cycles last all of 15 seconds. Unless it's a scandal.
00:14:07
Speaker
Especially if it's a scandal. Some of them have, like... Well, except you keep getting into trouble and and then it becomes a problem. But I mean, even scandals, they blow over after a while, as you know very well. So want to create your own audience and you want to tell, curate and create your own audience. And I think the founders that have done that have done exceptionally well over the last few years, particularly because tech media, which used to be a fantastic aggregator of perspectives um in the days of like Raider and all of that, like it's just become kind of a press release machine.
00:14:40
Speaker
right So you don't want to be in that, you know, press release, punctuated by breaking news. And that's like what you don't want to be. Tech press is over. wow There is no future for tech press.
00:14:51
Speaker
All the independent journalists who are the personalities behind the news are going to build their own platforms, which is what you're seeing. right And there are going to be so many of them that they'll just have to design and talk about their own audience. You're already seeing it with some of the Techaba alum.
00:15:06
Speaker
Their investors are still lazy. That's the problem. But it's already here. Like when I'm thinking about a new a brand new company, I'm reading Twitter, I'm reading Instagram, or I'm going on campus myself, yeah which is where I'm coming from now.
00:15:20
Speaker
Because I don't think TechAbar can deliver on that mandate. Or any any other trade publication. They're all dead. They're all for sale. So then what would your advice be for founders who aren't at your stage yet? Because you're like 10 years in and this journey Building an audience. Just building an audience. Building an audience. Look at Haxoltan, for example, right? Not always a big fan of his theme, but he built a really interesting audience with MBTWS, right?
00:15:47
Speaker
Now, if he wants to pull anything through it, he can very... easily pull stuff through it. I think a lot more founders are going to want to go that route and become experts in their own areas. and then Same thing with Jason, actually. Jason was the was the number one model for this, right? like He basically did direct... No, he did because he was, i mean, his name, you'll not be surprised, has come up a lot as a case study throughout my conversations this podcast because he gave commentary whilst building and it was that warts and all commentary and it was transparent and cutting and brutal. exactly But I think that once people got over the shock of how he...
00:16:28
Speaker
expressed himself and talked about the difficulties of it. People actually found it cathartic reading it because though they recognized themselves and their own journeys in some of it. Yeah. I mean, I think part of it was that the way he got to people was through the brutality of it, right? I don't think if he wrote it like a journal from like a normal tech founder, he would have had any attention. There's no dear diary. You know what I mean? It goes back to exactly what you were saying, is he's speaking in capital letters. Yeah, you've got to speak in capital letters, got speak like Donald Trump.
00:16:57
Speaker
But there are the text phase isn't filled with E's and Jasons. It should be,
Navigating Media Criticism and Controlling Narratives
00:17:06
Speaker
though. It should be, there are there are i suppose the I love the idea about building community and speaking directly to people. I mean, we have this is a podcast, right? We're speaking directly to certain audiences as well. But I'm wondering if that the negative impact could be the fact that people kind of become polarized and they're not actually absorbing different perspectives because they're only reading one narrative at a time.
00:17:31
Speaker
why Well, it's because of the policy of narratives, right? You can't ask a Jason or myself to have other people's perspectives, right? You see what I mean? But I think you've got to give people more credit.
00:17:41
Speaker
They're very intelligent. They know what's bullshit. I'm not sure people do. Oh, trust me. I think people know what's bullshit. They may not say they do. Okay, and why don't they say it? because it's not polite to say. ok um And it's not popular.
00:17:55
Speaker
But I can tell you many times when I see something that everybody says, wow, that's not nice. There are people in my DM saying, somebody needed to say it. ye
00:18:08
Speaker
So they know, they know. And I think it's in that debate, that public debate that we actually find we have a real authentic experience of the ecosystem.
00:18:20
Speaker
And so you have come across your fair share of ah criticism, critiques, analysis as part of the course, yeah because I guess putting yourself above the parapet, you're open, you know people discuss freely. What are some of your coping mechanisms for dealing with negative discourse?
00:18:38
Speaker
I don't take it personally. yeah I think that's number one. Most people are very surprised that like they'll criticize me personally on social media. And I'm happy to talk to them whenever, wherever I see them. And then I just think of it as two separate personalities. right um I mean, the other thing is also that i when I put it away, I put it away. You see? i just like It's just not in my memory. I don't even remember what was said.
00:19:01
Speaker
um um And you know if somebody makes a false claim, I defend myself. I think that's the most important thing. I don't really believe in this. ah cute, cute manicured PR image. I like to get to the facts, to get to things very quickly because ultimately your only currency when you go directly is your integrity and your on authenticity. The moment people detect fakeness, they will only tolerate you for so long.
00:19:29
Speaker
And have you ever had a situation or a scenario where you've been speaking to the media or using social media where you instantly got a s sinking feeling and you thought, A, this is going to be troublesome, or I wish I hadn't said that, and you're thinking, how how can I row back from this? Or is it a case of you've put it out there, you stand by it? Once it goes out, that's it. That's it. Once it goes out, that's it.
00:19:52
Speaker
Are there moments where i feel like on review, i could have phrased things differently or better? um or maybe I trusted too much? For sure. i mean, i would definitely, meant I mean, the whole issue with like Flutterwave scandal, because, you know, at the end of the day,
00:20:09
Speaker
um There was an agenda at play, very clearly, um but it didn't really have much, like, it was unfortunate that the agenda didn't work the way it was supposed to, because there was nothing really that was scandalous about what happened.
00:20:23
Speaker
But I perhaps trusted a bit too much in filtered press. Yeah. And what I've learned since that time is if there is an issue, put up your own statement about it, engage in your own conversation about it, make it about yourself. Definitely make it about yourself um and and dispel it immediately. And then once you're done, you're done.
00:20:45
Speaker
The real E is actually quite introverted.
00:20:51
Speaker
So I've learned over the years how to be very much an actor. you know um And so, i mean, without necessarily losing my authenticity, but being but being emphatic and learning that that works. Because what I've learned is that if you sound dispassionate, people think you're lying.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, no one wants to engage with someone robotic. You know what I mean? So even if you're telling the truth, that's the funniest part, right? Do think a case that sometimes people are so focused on telling the truth, they lose that authenticity and there's that... Yeah, they want to be factual. and And the reality is no one ever is. Everyone's telling a little lie every day. What lie are you telling today?
00:21:29
Speaker
Well, I'm being a little bit extremist about the media stuff, giving them an investor in tech a bow.
00:21:37
Speaker
But I do want to invest in more media companies. I actually think that TechBull's monopoly on the tech media space is very bad for the ecosystem. There's just something missing. No, but i mean, even the, you know recently TechBull, they've done more long format journalism. yeah they think They evolve so quickly. and They're like really, they're really good income platform now.
00:21:59
Speaker
Beyond that, I think it's a really good income. event Like they listen and they actually quickly implement feedback. um But at the same time, I do think that they need to be challenged by a lot of younger, better writers on Substack.
00:22:12
Speaker
So what does that look like? it can't be TechAbal2. Is it something more sort of long format? I think will be founder led. Because I think the missing piece for TechAbal is that most of the reporters don't have an insider's perspective.
00:22:24
Speaker
And honestly speaking, my dream job will be to retire and then actually just go build my own tech publication. And it's funny because that was actually um why we started Future Africa. That was what it was supposed to be. As in it was a content platform to start It was supposed to be a content platform. And then you just decided to evolve into a fund.
00:22:42
Speaker
Well, it had to e evolve into a fund because what happened during COVID, and this is kind of the story of my life, what happened during COVID was that a lot of capital stepped back yeah and and then the ecosystem
Future Africa: From Content Platform to Fund
00:22:53
Speaker
was at risk. And so we had to step forward to fill that gap.
00:22:56
Speaker
um But left to me, like, I thought my work was done after Flood-A-Wave and i ran a campaign and I was like, I just want to write about what everybody's doing. And that was ah the original idea. And what do you write about these? Do you still write?
00:23:09
Speaker
I write not as much as I would like to. um But these days, I think what I want to share is more the perspective that... either the insiders don't want to share or can't, you know, because because it would make them look bad or it would make them look vulnerable. I want to talk about that piece. The part everybody doesn't understand about how this sausage gets minted.
00:23:35
Speaker
So that's an interesting perspective because lot of founders, mean, we've dealt with hundreds over the years and some of them are amazing. Some of them really lack emotional intelligence. Some of them have so much bravado, you almost can't tell if they're serious or not. And then, so the idea, so I find it quite tricky just having only founders write and commentate about the ecosystem because I don't know if there's enough of them who have the ability to write journalistically. you can smell the fake.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, You can smell the fakes. Well, mean, look. In the last couple of years, there's been a lot of people who've been and gone quite quickly. And I don't think at the time people were able to smell the fakes. Certainly the investors weren't when the investors were just throwing out. Yeah, investors are very naive. I think we can generally agree about that. No, because I've had people in my office and I'm like, how have you raised all like how have you raised so much money? mean, part of me is like, okay, great, because you've chosen Wimba to be your PR partner. But I can't match the two in terms of how they've ran managed to raise so much money and that they don't necessarily seem that savvy.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the truth is, you know, you guys do a fantastic job of dressing folks up. Yeah.
00:24:49
Speaker
This, that. I'm going to say that as backhanded compliment. It is a compliment. um But I also think that medium-wise, it was easy when most things were text.
00:25:00
Speaker
I think now we're moving to an age of podcasts, video. You can't hide your lack of knowledge and general incompetence around how how what do you know about what you're doing. True. The lack of depth is harder to hide.
00:25:16
Speaker
Very true. So then when you're so you're talking about depth, what levels of depth are looking for when it comes to early stage founders, people that you invest in with Future Africa? Because we can't necessarily expect them to be as polished as you are, or, you know, but...
00:25:31
Speaker
What communication skills do you look for? Not necessarily how they engage with media, but even how they engage with you and other investors. So what i really care about is a founder who is bold enough to share the one thing that they believe that everybody will crucify them for.
Searching for Founders with Bold Visions
00:25:49
Speaker
um whether And especially if it's about their customer. um The question I always ask is, like what do you know about your customer or that everybody else is missing? And that question is the most important question I ask because it gives me a sense of whether that person has the courage of conviction to say, this is what people believe, but like this is really what believe.
00:26:13
Speaker
is is going on. And that contrast is is it. I mean, back to the example we started with, right? Andela was willing to say, there's Harvard quality material in Africa.
00:26:23
Speaker
Actually, there is better than Harvard quality material in Africa. I don't know how many founders have the boldness to stand up and say, we will go toe to toe with Harvard and win. It feels like it will bold in 2025, let alone years ago. Exactly. And this was 2014. So I just feel like that that boldness is rare to find. And I think that's perhaps why we're but finding less and less you know suitable founders, because not enough founders have the courage of conviction to be able to make a bold claim and back it up with data.
00:27:00
Speaker
So what do you do? What is your secret sauce in terms of coaxing some of that energy, ah the communication skills out of founders? Like you you might meet a founder and they might be technically brilliant and they might be able to scrutinize and analyze their audience, but they can't communicate it or they're not compelling or they don't have those skills. Like, can they be taught?
00:27:21
Speaker
Or is it a case of they might just make a good business, but not a great business because they can't sell it? So, that i mean, because authenticity is a core requirement, like they have to be believable and you can't teach believability. you You either believe or you don't.
00:27:36
Speaker
You know what I mean? So for me, the key thing is, do you believe? And If you believe, but the only issue is that you don't have courage, I can give you courage. yeah I can tell you, go see that and put Future Africa on your page and everyone take you seriously. Okay. um But if you don't believe it, I can't i can't help you believe it And have you got examples of you being able to take a founder or someone that you want to like to invest in through that process? Yeah, yeah absolutely. I mean, um FMM is a practical example. When we started talking to FMM, they they were very content to be a multi-choice vendor, helping them find locations and blah, blah, blah. And by the time we were done with them, they were like, we're going to disrupt Hollywood.
00:28:21
Speaker
We're going to end studios globally. and I love that energy. So then the ah the opposite of that would be, how do you find founders who are maybe intimidated by your story and your brand, and then they kind of hide themselves a bit?
00:28:40
Speaker
If you're intimidated, you're not a fit. No? Yeah. You have to have your own star power. So then just to finish off, what is the line? What's the winning slogan for 2025 beyond?
00:28:52
Speaker
Invest in Nigeria. It's the only winning thing in Africa. Beautiful. Thank you very much, E. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the Wimbuk way. You've been amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's been a fascinating journey speaking to some of the continent's most impressive, compelling storytellers, commentators, thought leaders.
00:29:12
Speaker
I cannot thank all of them enough for taking their time out from their busy lives to discuss comms, PR, communications for African tech. I hope you've enjoyed it too. Here's to the next season.