Onyeka Akumah is a technology entrepreneur with a focus on the agriculture, real estate, and transportation sectors. He is popularly known as the founder and CEO of Farmcrowdy, but he is also a co-founder at CrowdyVest, PlentyWaka and Rent Smallsmall.
In this episode of #FoundersConnect, Onyeka and I discuss his entire career and entrepreneurship journey so far - from his days at British council, Jumia, Konga to setting up a business that failed before finally launching Farmcrowdy. This is a very interesting, enlightening, and insightful episode. Amazing conversation, good vibes and best of all, a lot of lessons to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSy1LXbivNw
00:00 - Introduction, growing up and early career stories
15:00 - The part he played in helping to set up Jumia in Nigeria
26:00 - Becoming VP, Marketing at Konga
28:05 - First business that failed
33:00 - Farmcrowdy
37:30 - The challenge at Farmcrowdy (early days)
41:30 - Raising funds for Farmcrowdy and pitching to 80+
42:00 - Farmcrowdy is doing well, competitors are springing up every day
42:50 - Farmcrowdy moves away from crowdfunding
45:15 - Launching Crowdyvest
46:30 - How Plentywaka Started
48:00 - How Plentywaka survived the 2020 lockdown
53:00 - Launching Rent Smallsmall
55:00 - Raising money for all the businesses
56:50 - Lessons about creating the best team
1:00:00 - Most important business lessons so far