In this episode of the Talking To Investors podcast, I'm speaking with Yusuf Bilesanmi, CEO and founder of Eja-Ice.
We discuss:
- How Eja-Ice went from solving one Nigerian woman’s refrigeration problem to designing a path to saving 39.8 million tons of fish from going to waste.
- Yusuf’s advice on how to boost your funding without giving away equity.
- How to attract donors and strategic investors when the traditional ones don’t understand your market.
- How a customer-focused mindset can help founders develop products that are both impactful and profitable (and make investors notice).
- The best ways to get your foot in the door with investors and secure funding from day one - even when you’re starting from scratch.
- Why rushing to raise funds hurts your long-term success - and how to avoid that trap.
- Yusuf’s secret to balancing long-term client relationships and short-term investor demands.
- How understanding local market needs can unlock global business opportunities for impact startups.
Want to know more about Yusuf or get in touch with him?
- Yusuf’s LinkedIn profile
- If you’re interested in his products, visit his website here: www.ejaice.com
If you prefer to read, here's the transcript:
Ben: Yusuf, welcome to Talking to Investors, the Impact Startup Negotiations Podcast. I am so happy to have you here today.
Yusuf: Thanks for having me, Ben. Thank you.
Getting Your Foot in the Door with Investors
Ben: The hot topic that I'd like to kick us off with today is when you want to talk to investors, you want to build a network, you want to fundraise, how do you even get your foot in the door?
Yusuf: My experience with that is usually events.
If you go to a sector centered event, usually you would meet people with shared interests.
And over networking, you might be speaking to somebody who's got interests in your sector and then knows, a different organization who might be better fit to support your aspirations.
That has always been the trend for me.
Ben: This is an interesting point. How do you get conversations going?
I remember we met at an event, right? We met in.
Yusuf: Yes, exactly.
Ben: Paris.
Yusuf: Exactly. Yeah.
Ben: And two things that we found out very quickly is that we both speak Japanese.
Yusuf: Right? Yeah, that's true.
Ben: And so sometimes it's totally unrelated to business, right? You went exactly to Waseda University, is that right?
Yusuf: Waseda University, yes.
Ben: Yeah. Which is in Tokyo.
Yusuf: Tokyo, yeah.
Yusuf's Journey to Waseda University
Ben: How did your journey take you to Waseda University?
Yusuf: Oh, it's, it started out with, my undergrad, in Nigeria, I started out as a law student.
I went into law with an inspiration to become a political leader at some point, go into politics and with aspirations to make my country, Nigeria, where I'm from, a better place.
But then You start that journey and then I just found more possibilities and impact in the space of technology than the space of politics.
And that has been it for me. So I went back to my parents and said, "look,I wanna go into IT, I wanna go into engineering." And they were like, "okay, you can still finish a program." I was able to, convince them was a lot of back and forth.
Ben: I can imagine.
Yusuf: Yeah. A lot of back and forth.
But eventually, they, came around and then I, went to Japan.
I went to Japan. I studied in Japan because I was, I a lot of my early years I did karate and I just loved the blend of culture and technology in Japanese society. and I, really wanted to experience that.
I loved it. it's like it's like your MIT, or Harvard university.
Ben: So for everybody who doesn't know, Waseda, Waseda, is the Japanese Ivy league?
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: Yeah, absolutely.
Yusuf: It's a great school and I had a very good time there in my program.
And, yeah, that was it.
Early Career and Shift to Sustainability
Ben: And then at the beginning of your work experience, you worked for some corporates.
Do I remember that correctly?
Yusuf: Yeah, I started out my early years with microsoft and then moved on to a wind energy company. And all of this, again, happens 2011, 2012 when the earthquake happened in Japan.
So the questions of sustainability and how you address, events of that kind with that level of magnitude, which losing about 20,000 people, dealing with the aftermath, dealing with the cleanup, dealing with the economy and so much.
It's changed my perspective about what I'm doing and how I'm doing what I'm doing.
So for me at that time was really putting sustainability at the core. My master's work was focused on smart grid. But I then gradually moved towards buildings. Because when the earthquake struck in 2011, it was evident Tohoku looking at the community, the, role of buildings in our society meant a lot.
And it was really interesting to see how companies like Panasonic then came up with Panahome.
And Panahome was, it's quite interesting for me because the Panasonic produces almost every other thing in the house, except the buildings.
And I joined Panasonic because of Panahome.
I really wanted to be in that space of understanding buildings and working with buildings.
But then, Panasonic's interest with me was different.
They wanted me to focus on sales and helping them work and develop the Nigerian markets, giving my understanding of both languages and cultures.
So I returned back to Nigeria. I was working across, I think, eight different segments, managing over 40 to 50 different products.
Innovating for the African Market
Yusuf: A very interesting one, one of the most interesting products I really did work on was a clipper. Now
Ben: The what, sorry?
Yusuf: A clipper..
Ben: Oh, like a hair clipper or?
Yusuf: A hair clipper, yes.
Ben: Okay.
Yusuf: And why, is that important? The African hair, is very coily and very much different from, most of the hair which is straight because of the coily nature.
Now, the clippers that were coming from Japan was designed for straight hair, not coily hair. So it was essential to begin to understand two things.
One, the hair and how the, barbers barb.
Ben: Ah, how they, okay. How they use it.
Yusuf: How they use it. Because most Africans would love to have a shape cross their hair, right?
When you, we have a low cut, there's weight. The hair has been cut. So there was a whole lot of that study going into how we redesigned that clipper.
And then got it to my time was, it was, a great way.
And at the time, solar was new when I was thinking, okay, what about now that we've got this clipper and it's the favorite ride of the barbers now we've done that.
What about if we putting a whole solar system behind that to get it running and see how it cuts down the cost.
Because there was a whole lot of product efficiencies we're able to integrate into the product. The battery, there's a battery embedded in it, so there's a power cost.
The battery still runs for a minimal amount of time. The blades were so sharp that if they needed to replace them, they could take them off and get that resharpened and then refitted again.
So there was a whole lot that went into the product and its suitability and alignment.
So it was a lot of human centered design that went to that.
And that detail was really, helpful.
Ben: So if I understand correctly, like this experience is also an experience that helps you understand, okay, how do I work a design towards to fit exactly what my client needs, right?
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: That whole exploration.
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: And I want to take one step back too, because I was thinking, actually, you were talking about exploration and going to a different country and then coming back to Nigeria.
And now you're basically doing the exploring for your employer, right? For Panasonic.
Explorative Mindset and Networking
Ben: Tell me a little bit about explorative mindset and how that affects possibly also how you network.
Yusuf: One, if you're going to explore, you need to have an open mind. That's it.
Ben: Doesn't work without exploration.
Yusuf: Exactly. So being open to other cultures, being open to everything from food to communities, the desire to understand people. And there's a way you, are able to see your society very differently.
And I think you might have experienced this.
Ben: I totally feel you. Yeah.
Yusuf: You're a part of a community. You've grown up in the community.
So our view of the world is informed by our society, our parents, our families. Their belief system is going to be our belief system.
And then as we grow, we are then opportuned to experience a lot of other belief systems and then make our own judgments as to what we want to believe or not believe. Which is great.
And that really helped a lot because when I was able to, get out of my society, be in a different society, I'm able to look back at my society in a very, different way.
Not a crit, not being critical of any society, but being able to appreciate it for what it is. How it is structured, all those bits and pieces are very important in service delivery.
Ben: Absolutely. Absolutely. This whole idea of understanding people and understanding your needs, is a huge thing. And I'd like to bring in a little metaphor that I really love.
Imagine that you as a personality, you're in a jar, right? People around you are in jars too. Here's the problem:
You can't read the label on your own jar.
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: I think this holds true for cultures too.
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: If you're stuck in one sociological context in one culture, you can't read the label on it. You can't understand what it's like unless you get out.
Yusuf: Out. Exactly.
Ben: And so do you think that kind of explorative mindset also does that inform how you connect with people when you're networking?
Even for example, investors?
Yusuf: It does.
It helps you also understand limitations of the other party and to be empathetic about it, rather than take it personal.
Yeah.
Just like you rightly said, you're in your own jar, you're in your own world, and you don't really understand the other party, but you've been to both parties.
So you understand, okay, I understand how he's looking at this.
This might not happen.
This might happen.
It also helps you manage expectations and it helps you build a very positive mindset on how to deal with outcomes.
Which is very, important because you engage an investor or even in a relationship with someone for the first time, you don't, you're possibly maybe not able to identify a connection that doesn't cost you to have a mindset of, oh, there's nothing there.
And you close that door, right?
It helps you leave that door opened.
It helps you have that opportunity to recycle that opportunity whenever it comes back.
Like there was an investor I had engaged with back in 2020. And, while I was in Paris with you, I met them again and it was good to connect and there was no reservations about, oh, you didn't, we didn't engage last time.
So we're not going to talk this time.
It was very, open minded, oh, forget about that.
Let's just carry on and start out new things. So is that flexibility that it does offer you and that is essential in life and business as well.
Ben: And that you don't walk into a situation with hard expectations on outcomes, walk in with a flexible mind and see, okay, let's see where we can discover the potential synergies.
And sometimes the synergies might be in places where you didn't even think it'd be there.
Yusuf: Honestly.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
That's true.
I've seen that happen a lot of times where you just meet somebody, or someone even overhears your conversation says, "Oh good, can you tell me more about that?"
And you're like, okay, you have that child, you're like, you never even knew are actually speaking to an investor. Yeah. So, there's a whole lot that happens when you're not, we don't have a limited or fixed mind.
It's a journey and it takes us to businesses sometimes, or rather most times, and they need to see this close happen as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next thing.
That's understandable. and investors who are looking at what works for them right now.
Challenges and Strategies in Fundraising
Ben: Would you also say that the more time pressure founders feel under, the more they would like to have a very, almost transactional approach to the conversation and they lose opportunities because of that transactional and time pressure approach?
Yusuf: Yes.
I'm, there might be people who've needed, to raise in three months and they've just gone into it and you go to raise, we're able to raise the money in three months.
There might've been people who have been able to do that, but I don't see success in it because:
It's one thing to get the money.
It's another thing to get the expectations of the investors delivered.
It's another thing to meet with the needs of the market. It's a whole lot of things. And it's a symphony.
Sometimes you go into an investment with a company, you raise the capital, you hit the ground running, and then relationships begin to fall apart. Misunderstandings.
Oh, I didn't get this. I didn't understand this.
There's a lot of pressure here and pressure there.
So what kicked off as great then becomes a soured relationship.
So all that as well, are things that one needs to be wary of, right?
Because once you, once the relationship between the investor and the business begins to fall apart, you don't get much productivity from it.
Ben: And that's ugly. That's a real tough time that people go through when you're not on good terms with your investors.
So would you say that is something that founders should have at the back of their mind at the beginning of the journey, even when they're just reaching out and they're just thinking about, are they going to invest in me to already be thinking about also, "Hey, this is not just a transaction is going to be a relationship and I need to build that relationship carefully and make sure that the relationship lasts."
Yusuf: Yeah. I think it's both ways. The founder is in his own job, in his own country, in his own context, in his own market.
Investors most times are global.
They're not on ground.
They don't know what it feels like.
They don't know what, they don't understand what it means to engage in that market.
And it's really tough.
A lot of investors really do not understand these bits and pieces.
They don't.
So for me, it's also part of that, if okay, if somebody doesn't understand your sector, and I say, I've spoken to a lot of investors, particularly in the early 2020s, who would say, "Ah, I see what you're trying to do, but I don't, think the market is that developed yet."
And you're like, "That's the opportunity?"
Ben: Exactly. You're going to develop the market.
Yusuf: Exactly. There is a need.
Ben: Sorry to interrupt you, Yusuf, but there's an important piece here that, of course, the listeners of this podcast don't know yet, right?
Eja-Ice: Solar-Powered Refrigeration
Ben: When the investor says, I see what you're trying to do, we haven't spoken about what you're doing yet.
So what does Eja-Ice do?
Tell us about that.
Yusuf: That's true. So Eja-Ice is a solar powered refrigeration and coaching company.
According to the FAO, one of three features never make it to the table. Earlier reports says we captured about 171 million metric tons of fish in 2022.
And about, 59.8 million metric tons of that actually went to waste. And those are global numbers.
Ben: Hit me with those numbers again.
Yusuf: 171 million metric tons of fish were caught.
59. 8 million metric tons of fish went to waste.
Now 65 percent of that were fishes that went to rot because of lack of refrigeration, making 39. 8 million metric tons of fish that went to waste.
Due to lack of refrigeration.
Ben: How long has Eja-Ice been around now?
Yusuf: Eja-Ice actually kicked off in a very interesting way.
2017 December, I went to buy fish at the store.
But lady offered me a rotten fish because she didn't have refrigeration.
I told her, I can't buy this fish but let me come back and see you in January.
And we'll, I can share some ideas between how you can address your power problems.
On the 3rd of January, 2018, I dashed off to a store and I said, look, "Why don't we go solar?"
She was like, "Solar, isn't that expensive?" I said, "Don't worry about it. Maybe we made it out, work on the numbers and everything carried out an energy audits.
We eventually ended up with about 4, 000 in cost.
And I said, "This is not too much. Your load is quite high as well."
I went to the bank and this has me coming in from years of engagement with the banks, raising over 2 billion Dollars for projects I've done.
So when I went to the bank. the bank offered, said that they couldn't finance the lady because they had no documentation of her.
And this was my first experience to financial exclusion of women.
So I said, "This is wrong. This woman supplies the fish you consume, probably going to stop by our store to buy some fish on your way home.
Why are you not financing?"
"Well, we can't finance this and that."
Okay.
I left it, went back. And I first of all looked at the assets. What can we change here?
Our system is an AC system consumed a lot of energy.
We designed to be a DC freezer, and we were able to get the cost down from 4,000 to a thousand dollars. And at that, this is 2018, 2019 now, at that, we were able to, repackage it and take it to her for a thousand dollars instead of 4,000, and I did the financing for the assets.
Just to because the bank wasn't willing to finance it just to see if she's able to pay back.
This is wanting to solve one woman's problem of refrigeration.
And when we did, it was a great success because she was able to sell more and pay back.
And in that year, we did 19 more freezers. And it was really exciting.
Then we were able to understand that the market is way more bigger than just fishes as a whole lot of market need there and we started developing the business.
So we spent a whole year and a half on R&D, no sales.
We just employed. I just put a team together, paid the salaries every month.
All we wanted to do was just to understand the market, right?
A lot of R&D, a lot of market understanding and you know how the market evolved.
The market back then as well as evolved way more than what it is in now.
And that's that flexibility of having an open mind and really interested in understanding your clients journey.
Where they're going, how the markets is changing, how consumer patterns are changing and how they are reacting to them and where in that value chain that we come in to support businesses.
So over time, we started out with the freezers.
Over time, we recognized very quickly that if we only stayed with the freezers, we might be refrigerating rotten fish, right?
Because, yeah, because the fish rots 30 minutes out of sea, you need a cold room where the fish is collected and aggregated and stored.
And that is for both vegetables as well as fisheries and seafood. So, that was the initial bit.
The next was the logistics between the cold room and the retail market needed to happen.
So, we developed a solar powered cooling tricycle.
This is a world first product.
We've got two patents on this product now, which allows us to be the main company that can develop and distribute this globally.
And, with them, if you want, develop new trucks and trolleys and scale the business into new markets, now, for example, to Nigeria, Kenya, and the UK.
Scaling Up and Investor Relations
Ben: When you started bringing on investors, what was the first type of investors that you brought on? Or maybe it was something like grants even, or things like that.
Yusuf: What we did is we engaged investors.
A lot of them didn't see the opportunities we saw.
A lot of them didn't understand the market and we understood that we just had to go beyond those metrics to be able to attract other types of investors.
And we carried on, we designed our products, got to market, carried on and we were able to get donors who saw what we've done and believed in us that we'll be able to push to the next level and were happy to invest in the development of those products.
And that's, that's the IFC. The IFC has worked very closely with us in supporting a lot of our developments.
Ben: I remember when we talked in Paris, you said that you had a strategic mindset about what to, how to use a grant, right? Because the grant gives you money upfront, but there's something you want in return at the end of it.
Yusuf: The grant was designed to finance pilots, right?
You want to understand.
How this new technology would work, but then that's the science of it.
But the science of it is not the business of it.
Ben: Exactly.
Yusuf: So I had to help my, my, my donors at the time see that, "look, if all we're doing is understanding the science of it, we're not being able to create a commercial valuation here."
So to create a commercial valuation, assets ownership would remain with us and we would offer services.
And we're like, "Okay, that's great. That actually makes a whole lot of sense."
And they invested, so they part invested, they didn't give us the whole money.
They part invested in the asset, because the asset was, since you're going to become the asset owners, you should have a shared investment in it.
We had no problem with that.
We part invested in the asset, which means they fairly gave us about maybe 50%, and we brought in 50% of the funding.
So we deployed our products.
Carried out the initial technical pilots.
Post pilots we then went commercial.
And that commercialization has then helped us to build significant business success with those pilots.
Which has helped us grow the team. And that has also helped us grow the profitability of the company.
Ben: Where are you at right now with regard to revenue, team size and maybe future vision too?
Yusuf: Revenue last year, we did over a hundred thousand, dollars in sales. And this is we not having any capital, right?
We did over a hundred thousand dollars in sales.
We've grown the team, about. We are over 10 members. We've also moved offices.
And in terms of scale up, cause right now we're in three countries, we've developed a whole lot of new products, understanding market needs, understanding business, understanding the whole value chain, and markets affordability.
Forge new relationships with, financial partners.
Banks, to be precise. And, we are now at that phase where we are trying to raise our first capital at 4.5 million Dollars. We are raising 2 million in equity and 2.5 million Dollars in trade finance.
Ben: As you're raising that, what's your process for reaching out to investors?
Yusuf: We now have an engagement, letter from the IFC for investment.
The wonderful rights of force refusal, because they understand us.
They see what we do.
They've seen how over the years we've delivered on technology from technology, tried to develop new things that we've delivered on that promise to them.
And also commercialize that technology for profitability in very interesting ways.
Particularly in the cooling as a service sector.
So for that reason, they said, "Look, we want the right of first refusals for your investment going forward."
And they're happy and very easy to look at, whatever it is we're trying to raise for.
So we've just leveraged on that.
We've got a network of people who've engaged at some point in time and are happy to go back to kick off that conversation again, and then build from that point onward.
Because like you've rightly said, you're leveraging on that existing relationship.
It's easier for these companies to say, we know Yusuf, we know the business, we know how long this business has been on for, we know what they need, we know what it's strengths and it's weaknesses.
We know how to come in.
We know how to help them get that money and to move the business forward.
Ben: So part of your outreach strategy is using connections that you've built over a long time.
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: You, let's say leverage those connections and get them to help you with the outreach, right?
Yusuf: Exactly.
Ben: IFC. Like BCG.
Yusuf: Also the Royal Academy of Engineering whom I was awarded the "One To Watch"- award with back in 2021.
These are companies who engage the individual beyond the business because they understand that if you've got that engineering capability, you could always bring it back to something else.
And we are working closely with real academy of engineering as well.
Ben: Not all startup founders have these longstanding relationships with larger scale institutions like BCG, Royal Academy of Engineers, or the ICF.
So if you had to give advice to founders, okay, what do you have to pay attention to when you're at the beginning of your journey, when you're starting that outreach towards investors?
Advice for Founders and Final Thoughts
Yusuf: Don't focus on investors, focus on your business.
Because what investors want to see is that you have a solid business case.
If all you're doing is preparing balance sheets, paper sheets to woo the investor, you're going to struggle over time.
Because when it gets to you going back to market, once you get the money, when it gets to you going back to market to now deliver on the promises, you would have to then learn the consumers again.
And if you don't, if you didn't get it right, if you didn't invest in that relationship, you're not going to get anything.
Ben: So would you say, would you agree that there's a whole bunch of relationships that as a founder, you're going to have to keep on track in parallel. You have to track your client relationships.
You have to keep on track, your investor relationships.
And somehow you also managed to keep on track of relationship with BCG and the Royal Academy of Engineers.
How do you do that? Like, how do you think about relationships in that kind of long term perspective and just keeping them warm?
Yusuf: As a founder, you are building your company's reputation.
You're building your technological prowess to deliver on the promises you've made to these businesses.
You're building the commercialization strategy to ensure that your products are affordable and can get to market.
You're building your workforce.
It's a whole lot that's in your company's culture, right?
It's a whole lot to pull together.
And sometimes in the day you will just lose it.
And lose it means you just let me take a break five minutes. I'll come back to it.
It happens every single day and you need to, know when it's, when is that time or even in the week, just take time to relax.
Not get onto it because it is a lot of work it is a whole lot of work.
Keeping in touch is important. When you do anything new, if you're big on social media and you like to talk about every single thing you've done, that's good.
That's a good thing to do.
Another thing is to reach out and look for ways to connect and communicate your company's progress with your team, your vision, your consumers, your clients, to assure them that you're there for the next phase of their growth.
Because as a business they're growing as well.
They're like, okay, we use this business when when we had 100 customers.
Now we've got a thousand customers.
They might not have the capacity to deliver.
Your ability to then go back in and say, "Look, you have a thousand customers. I've got a thousand resources for you as well. We can deliver."
The ability to communicate that and consistently match that expectation and even, supersede it is essential. Right?
Ben: So obviously also one of the things that happens is you have to put other people in place, be they co-founders, employees, or C level managers who represent you.
Yusuf: What we've been looking at is country heads.
Because now we've got operations in other countries, so having country leads to manage the businesses in those countries while we'll carry on with stuff.
It's hard.
Also when you're building a business and you're building a culture, you need to have a shared level of passion, madness, and believe in whatever it is you're doing.
And if you don't see that in that person, it's totally up to anyone, but I wouldn't be sold to bring them on to take a lead.
It's different from when somebody is excited about an established business and when somebody is crazy about a market problem you're solving.
Two different things.
Ben: Absolutely. We were just talking about how it's valuable to stay in touch with people over the longterm, right?
Because you never know when that relationship might become valuable in the future again, like BCG or the Royal Academy of Engineers.
Do you find that there's certain kinds of people that is easier to stay in touch with.
Maybe there's a personal connection, maybe it's a bit of a friendship there too, or whatever it is.
But what is it that keeps you wanting to stay connected with people?
Yusuf: Back in 2008, 2009, I did an internship at Microsoft and I worked very closely with some persons in the company who were heads of the sustainability department and others.
And even though they wouldn't go around on my page and click like on every single thing I post, they're there watching and saying, "Oh, I'm glad to see his progress. I'm glad to see that he's making that progress to getting this done."
When I started Eja-Ice, I actually sought advice from two persons.
One was my line manager at Microsoft. And the other was chairman of the [inaudible] program, the factory manager.
And I engage both of them and sought their advice, it was back in 2018, after the initial engagement.
And they gave me so much advice and took out their time, wrote a detailed analysis, still heavily invested and said, "Okay, what do you do with this?"
And now they're able to look back and see what we've built this product into, got into new markets, this and that.
And they're really excited.
So sometimes you're invested in reaching out to people and say, "Look, this is what I'm doing."
But sometimes a lot of people also are equally invested in your progress.
And sometimes it can be managed, sometimes it can be tailored.
And sometimes it's just sheer luck where people meet you and just see something in you, that they would like to connect to.
So for me, I wanted to make, that, to say this because of that Japanese connection that's, looks like started and ended a few years back, but that's not true.
It's still there.
The great network of friends, lecturers, scholarship donors, internship programs, all that network is still there that you can always tap into and connect with and that's my network.
So across those markets, across those sectors, that's my network.
Ben: Which looks like a huge network and it brings us full circle to the topic of networking again. And it's a network built over what's it, 15 or 20 years.
It's a mature network, I would say.
Maybe there's lessons to be learned there about what turns a network into a mature network. And part of that is really personal interest.
Right?
Yusuf: Yeah.
Ben: It's personal interest that people are personally interested in you and your journey and your progress.
You're also obviously personally interested in other people who you stay in touch with.
I would like to say to founders who are beginning their outreach towards be it investors or potential clients, look out for the best personal relationships.
It makes a difference.
Yusuf, if people are interested in Eja-Ice and your journey, how can they get in touch with you?
Yusuf: Happy to connect.
LinkedIn, Email. My email address is ybilesanmi@ejaice.com.
If you're in markets that we're not in and you feel our products will be a great fit for that market, please let us know.
We are happy to come into new markets.
We are always looking out for collaborations and always looking out for amazing people to work with. We're solving a global problem.
Ben: Yes. Yes, you are. Yeah.
And on a final note, what one piece of advice would you give to young founders who are at the beginning of their fundraising journey?
Yusuf: Focus. Focus. Focus on your customer.
Be obsessed with your clients.
Be obsessed with them.
Because the numbers you need to show to the investors, which they really want to see is the numbers that you are able to aggregate from your customers.
You can't get those numbers if you're investing elsewhere.
You have to invest your time and your engagement in your clients.
Get your help on virtual clients from aspirational clients to paying customers.
There's nothing as free as the money you get paid for a service you've rendered.
Because you're not going to pay back to anybody.
It's your money.
And more importantly, when you want to raise, that's the viability you want to show the financial viability.
You want to show to your investors that, "Look, we actually make money and we want you to help us double this impact."
So when they see the financial flows and more importantly, the impact in the lives of the communities you're working with, then, if it's within their scope of investment, it ticks all the boxes.
So I would say, focus on the work, do the job. There's no quick way to success.
Even if you raise that money and you've not done the job, the business is going to go down.
So if you want to build a company that would last for generations to come and leave a great legacy behind and leave real impact behind.
Just do the job, invest in your customer, invest in your team, invest in your people. And I think it all comes together.
Ben: Yusuf I want to thank you for joining me today.
It's been a real pleasure talking to you.
Yusuf: Same here, Ben. Thanks so much for having me. I'm glad we're able to eventually pull it through.
Ben: With all the crazy stuff going on left, right, and center.
Yusuf: Yeah. I'm off to Kenya next week again, with the Royal Academy of engineering.