Peace Itimi is the Head of Growth at Stax. Over the years, she has worked with many agencies and startups (consumer-focused, B2B & SaaS) providing services such as Digital Marketing, Marketing Consulting, Advertising- to name a few. On her YouTube channel with almost 25,000 subscribers, she creates videos that foster growth in business, career and life. We had a chat with Peace about her life in tech as a Growth marketer, the tech ecosystem and her show Founders Connect.
1.Describe what you do like a Gen Z would.
In my 9–5, I help tech companies and startups acquire new users. Outside my 9–5, I make YouTube videos, create content and tell the stories of African founders and operators in the tech ecosystem.
2.Tell us about Founders Connect and how it came to be.
Founders Connect is a show on YouTube that focuses on showcasing and exploring the stories, motivations and challenges of tech founders, startups and leading operators in the tech ecosystem.
It ranges from 30 minutes to 1 hour; an informal conversation between me and the founder or operator where we learn how they got into entrepreneurship and the lessons they have learned along the way.
The goal of the show is to create a repository of the largest African tech stories and document the African startup history so that generations to come can benefit from them. Even startup founders themselves can reference the videos and say, “Hey, I did this at this stage!”
Founders Connect also aims to inspire the entire ecosystem: talent that is currently working in tech and aim to be founders, senior operators, or those who are not in tech but want to get into tech and want to understand what it feels like. Founders Connect is about telling stories, documenting history, creating a repository and simply inspiring everyone who watches the show.
3.What are some of the most interesting lessons you’ve learned about Founders and running a company during your interviews?
Some of the most interesting lessons I’ve learned are:
How great your company is going to do is not just about the product, it is really about the team; who you choose to be your co-founder, your first key hires, and how you value these people. You will hear many founders say that their biggest challenge or success is their people. If they have great people on their team, it makes it worth it. Sometimes, they might get great talent but realise they don’t fit into their company culture. At the centre of it, you will see that it is really about the people.
The second lesson is that success is just a result of repeated iterations. Being able to repeat the same thing, so even if you fail with your first startup, being able to try again and again. Even if the idea isn’t sticking too much, success entails being open and flexible enough in trying what you need to, as well as learning lessons and listening. It is about being able to pivot as fast as you can when you’re building early.
Lastly: You can’t do it alone. In an ecosystem, you need connections, you need a network. Connections and network are what gives you access to capital, advisors, customers, and contracts. Beyond hiring and getting a cofounder, it is also important for founders to have connections. Not just connections but to deliberately build their network and be a part of a community because it comes in really handy in helping them preach the word, build a brand, raise capital, speak to advisors, and more.
4.What can you advise aspiring founders about starting?
These are kind of the same lessons I will advise for founders:
1. Get yourself inside a community. Build a network.
2. Be very deliberate about the people you put in your team, who you choose to be your co-founders and your very first hires.
3. Iterate as much as possible. Pivot. Finding a product market is not just sticking to the initial idea, it’s being able to learn and absorb. Learn from your customers, learn from your ecosystem, from advisors, and from investors. Just focus on learning and getting as much feedback as you can, and if that feedback means a little bit of pivot, then be open to it.
5.How do you think the entrepreneurship scene has grown in the last 5 years in Nigeria? What do you think will grow and evolve with the scene in the next 5 years
In the last five years, the tech ecosystem has seen an increase in funding. There is also an increase in the number of companies that are being built- we see new startups springing up every day. I am in this early investor network and there are loads and loads of deal flow. So a lot more people are building because they see that there are opportunities to do so. There is a market, there are investors, more tension, and more knowledge of what tech even is generally for consumers so there is a bit more trust and it is easier to adopt products. This makes it easier for more people to start their companies.
Something that has also changed is the number of angel investors in the ecosystem as well. A lot more people are looking to not just get their stock options or start their own companies, but they are also thinking of how to impact other people and help them build their companies. They are doing so by being able to invest there — say, a 1000 or 5000 dollars. And that just makes entrepreneurship easier because it is easier to raise pre-seed funding without focusing on VC alone.
Also, the amount of talent that is more visible in the ecosystem. We have a lot more people that are able to get international jobs, remote jobs, and relocate because of their tech talent. There is a talent problem but it is also easier now for you to find tech talent, and there are more people who want to get into tech just because they are seeing friends and family doing well in tech.
So it’s just the growth of talent, the growth in angel investment, and startups that keep coming up because there is a better atmosphere now. I think in the next five years it is going to become a lot better than it is now; 10x or 5x of what we currently have.
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