Episode 35, Racing to market, executing and getting it right. Fikayo Ogundipe, CEO at ToLet.com.ng

Fikayo Ogundipe is the CEO and cofounder of ToLet, a real estate company he founded with his friends while in the university.   ToLet is a web-based platform for property, rentals and sales.   The founders all made a monthly contribution of N20,000 to start the business. Interestingly, they had to hit the ground running as there was a competitor they needed to beat to the market.   Starting out involved a lot of ground work such as reaching out and getting landlords/agents listed on their platform.   In 2016, they raised $1.2million from Frontier Digital Ventures. A year later, they acquired Jumia House Nigeria in a bold and unexpected move.   In this episode, you’ll learn:   Their inspiration for running a business together. How have they managed to keep the team together? What are the dynamics involved? The importance of having  startup capital no matter how little. Fikayo and his co-founders all committed to contribute N20,000 every month to their business. They did this for a while before joined Spark Incubators and later raised $250,000 The importance of business models and how to find one that suits your business. What was ToLet’s previous business model? What were the challenges? What competition validated their market? How did they validate the market and why did ToLet accelerate their market launch. How they raised $1.2million. How many investors did they reach out to? How many got back to them? Why ToLet acquire JumiaHouse? What is the proposed outcome of this acquisition? And how has it helped them so far? Despite raising close to $1.5million, Fikayo says they are still not profitable. Why is this so? And more Selected Links   Selected book Peter Thiel