Titilayo Obasanya is a startup coach, venture builder, author and social entrepreneur. In this interview by KINGSLEY ALUMONA, she speaks about her passion for business and how secondary schools can incorporate technology into their curriculum and other issues.
What do you do?
I’m a venture builder, start-up coach and entrepreneur. I help founders navigate the hurdles of entrepreneurship from the moment they have an idea till they launch a product, and eventually build a business. In the early stages of my career, I supported business owners across multiple sectors through strategic advice and writing business plans. I’m a non-practising Fellow Chartered certified Accountant (FCCA).
After studying Industrial Relations and Personnel Management at the University of Lagos, you went for a second degree in Applied Accounting in Oxford Brookes University in England. Why Accounting?
I had always wanted to study accounting. In fact, I started sitting for the AAT exams right after secondary school. You know how it works in Nigeria—if you don’t get your initial or preferred choice of study, you get admission to study for another course or degree. So, that was the case and the reason I studied Industrial Relations and not accounting. However, during my ACCA studies, I had the opportunity to get another degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.
What inspired your passion for the technology ecosystem?
Whilst studying for the ACCA in London, I knew I was not going to be a traditional accountant. I knew I was going to help entrepreneurs, and in particular, use my strategic knowledge to help small business owners make better general business decisions. ACCA gave me the foundation.
Not too long, my career accelerated from working in various roles, business consulting and management to the beautiful world of start-ups where it was quite easy for me to fit into because I’ve a lot of cross-functional experience that is of tremendous value to founders. I found that the easiest way for traditional businesses to scale and bring their solution to many people across the globe is to fuse technology into their business and operational model. Technology, in many ways, is shaping the way we do live and I think it’s surreal to be part of an ecosystem that makes doing life better and easier.
How did you found your Startup Desk and how is it going?
In 2016, I was selected as one of the top 10 winners of the British Council’s Creative Enterprise Challenge out of over 10,000 entrepreneurs. It was shortly after that I launched Start-up Desk,www.startupdesk.org. Startup Desk is currently focused on helping university students take the first step to starting a business. We want to create entrepreneurship clubs in schools with the objective of helping student entrepreneurs understand what it takes to start a business. This is a deliberate act of co-creating a sustainable or, shall I say, a clearly thought-out alternative employment route for students before they graduate.
It has not been an easy ride. We’ve changed our business model a few times just to make sure we arrive at an ideal market fit. The entrepreneurship landscape in Nigeria is peculiar and you’ve to stay agile to stay relevant.
What is Semicolon all about?
I’m the Director of Startups at Semicolon. I support first-time founders, who opt for our techpreneurship route from Idea to MVP. You can think of Idea to MVP as pre-incubation. At this phase, we help founders build products by taking a human-centred approach and lean methodology to problem-solving. During the intensive 12 weeks program, they also learn about pitching and are well-positioned to pitch their start-up to investors at DEMO Day. At the end of the 12 weeks program, some of them are invited to join our Growth Lab—the venture-building arm of the start-up unit.
Is Techpreneurship Semicolon aimed at tackling youth unemployment in Nigeria and Africa?
Youth unemployment is a global problem, but I think the impact of youth employment on Africa is more pronounced, deep-rooted and will generationally have a negative impact, if not addressed from multiple perspectives in a systematic way. Semicolon is tackling unemployment head-on through two paths—we’re a social enterprise, creating employment and economic opportunities by training software engineers and techpreneurs.
Our core focus, on the one hand, is to develop technical skills in young people through a one-year intensive program that includes classroom learning, hands-on project experience and internships. Our course curriculum focuses on developing skills in design thinking, software engineering and entrepreneurship. Secondly, we act as an incubator for innovative technology that can solve local and global problems. We identify the most viable solutions and bring them to reality by providing early support on technology and business development.
Our work is focused on preparing young people for the future. We envisage a future driven by the fourth industrial revolution based on a digital economy. In preparing young people for participation in this digital economy, we emphasise the importance of digital skills and digital entrepreneurship.
As a business coach and start-up builder, what would you say to an aspiring entrepreneur with no capital or funding but desirous to start a business?
We all know and agree that capital is an essential resource to launch or grow your business. However, the business model, ensuring you’re solving a real problem, choosing the right team and validating your business model is much more important when starting out. The first thing is not to look for funding. This is particularly relevant for startups. SMEs can apply some of these thinking too. In addition, they may get a business plan done. This will help them think clearly about their proposed business, target market, industry size and trends, and also have a clear financial forecast showing their path to profitability.
Either way, collaboration is a currency. Whether you’re a start-up or SME, seek the right collaboration.
For Nigeria to be on par with countries like China and Japan in terms of technological innovation, which kind of education/curriculum would you recommend for the schools?
I think the benchmarking or early comparison of Nigeria with other advanced ecosystems may be distracting for obvious reasons—the systems and infrastructure required for each country’s founders to thrive are different. This is why not all working solution in developed countries is completely or easily adaptable in Nigeria.
Having said that, I think approaching innovation from education and creating an outlet to test innovation—either through research or partnerships between educational institutions and corporations—will create a faster growth trajectory to Nigeria becoming a more innovative country.
One crucial suggestion which I think can be included in the secondary or university education curriculum is design thinking. Design thinking is a creative and human-centred approach to solving critical problems, which means you put the end-user at the core of your problem-solving process as opposed to building a product which no one needs. The process is interactive, and in five stages. Design thinkers can get a better understanding of their user’s needs, redefine the problem they’re trying to solve, and then create innovative solutions to prototype and test.
Most people do not know you are a writer. Tell us about your writing.
I started writing fiction many years ago. I enjoy writing short stories. My first book ‘Tales of a Dressmaker, which is a novella, was published under a traditional publishing engagement by Evans Group of Publishers. ‘Tales of a Dressmaker’ is approved by the Lagos State Ministry of Education (Curriculum) as a recommended literature text for all Junior Secondary 1 students.
I self-published a motivational fiction story for young adults and adults last year December. You can find the title and get a digital copy of ‘The Girl My Father Never Wanted’ on Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and Okada Books.
You are also a singer. Do you do that as a hobby and how do you relax?
Singing is a pastime. I find shutting it all down—literally taking time off work—the best way to refuel. That way, there will be no burnouts.
What advice do you have for young people, especially the female ones, who are aspiring to be like you?
Life is a journey, segmented into many phases. Each phase having its own lesson and blessing. Whatever phase you’re in, remember that one day, it’ll fit into the sum total called life. So, make it count. Put in the best version of yourself at every given opportunity. Trust your process, trust God and keep working hard.
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