TwoCents

Daniel Adeyemi

Senior Writer @ TechCabal

Date

Mar 09th to Mar 16th, 2022

Similar sessions

Yele Bademosi

Investor @ Microtraction

Dr. Stephen Oluwatobi

Founder @ Pertinence Group & Edustart

Dr ARREY Collins

Human Rights & Humanitarian Lawyer @ Avocats Sans Frontieres Humanitaires du Cameroun

This Session has closed

About Daniel Adeyemi

Daniel is curious about how technology is impacting the lives of Africans. As a senior reporter at TechCabal, Daniel writes mostly about big tech and high growth companies operating in Africa. He shares insights from investors in the African ecosystem through his bi-monthly column Ask an Investor. Before joining TechCabal, has spent the past 4 years working in the tech and consulting industry as an Accountant. Daniel is also a two-time top ten winners of the Peter Drucker Global Challenge and he writes a weekly newsletter (Rupt Weekly) about what’s new in blockchain, crypto, NFTs and GameFi, and how they’re changing the world, in easy to understand language for newbies.

INTERVIEW

QUESTIONS

These interview questions were brought to you by TwoCents and Cyrus Majebi

What are some less well-known local and foreign incubators that you think African founders should take note of?

Daniel Adeyemi

These days there are few incubator programs. I'd rather African founders lookout for the full spectrum of possible opportunities available for their businesses, whether it's incubators, accelerators or even investors.

On the first two, Google for startups accelerator, CC Hub, MEST and others mentioned in the article [https://sharpsheets.io/blog/africa-top-startup-accelerators/] are worth looking at.

For investors, I have a column titled Ask an investor [https://techcabal.com/category/ask-an-investor/] where I spotlight different investors in the African tech ecosystem. It's worth looking through that list for anyone that you find fascinating. If there’s one thing that I learned early on from my conversations with different investors, it’s that all investors are not the same.

TwoCents

Who is one Tech startup founder you'd like to do a piece on but haven't yet had the opportunity?

Daniel Adeyemi

Hmmm, at this point, I think it's less about the founder and more about the type of story I want to tell. It'll involve some level of vulnerability from the founders. I want to do a long-form article that touches on a different aspect of the founder's life or their journey.

Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of the international technology group Econet Global, is someone I'd like to talk to.

TwoCents

FinTech has produced phenomenal, seminal successes in the Nigerian and African tech space, and we keep seeing great disruptive products being launched every year. What vertical would you say is the "next Fintech" and why?

Daniel Adeyemi

Everyone keeps asking this question and the truth is nobody knows what'll take off next. The fintech boom was aided by advancement in the adoption of technology and supporting regulation.

I think the energy sector (we can't work without power), the health care sector (the pandemic has taught us) as well as the Web 3 space (the future always seems weird at first), are potential spaces to look out for.

I'll add a caveat here that many times when the market is raving about a sector, it's important to note that there's most likely another 'low-key' sector that's performing equally as well or even better than that people aren't paying attention to. It's helpful to bear in mind that the crowd isn't the sole custodian of truth.

TwoCents

What is the "most difficult" story you have ever had to write?

Daniel Adeyemi

Hmm, that's a difficult one but I'll give it to the story on why was having issues with its banking platforms [https://techcabal.com/2021/07/09/gtbank-mobile-app-ussd-transaction-failures/]

. I had to do investigative journalism for this one. It was a different type of story in the sense that for the first month, I couldn't find anyone who was still at the bank that could give me useful information. I got a lot of rejections. Fortunately, with persistence, I found someone who was willing to talk and with help from my former boss Goke, the rest they say is history.

I'd add that writing the story about Ghana's tech ecosystem [https://techcabal.com/2021/07/30/ghana-tech-startup-ecosystem/] was terrifying at first. It was quite a huge responsibility to write a definitive article about a county’s tech ecosystem. I kept thinking to myself, ‘one mistake like this and the whole of Ghana will drag me 😫😂’

Fortunately, I found a way around it by talking to a lot of people and getting feedback.

I've written about my experiences writing different articles here [https://danieltadeyemi.com/lessons-from-my-first-year-as-a-journalist/] a little bit of some context on why I wrote some stories and unexpected feedback I got.

TwoCents

TechCabal has been able to consistently deliver quality for several years and also steadily grow its newsletter subscriber base - what or who would you attribute this success to?

Daniel Adeyemi

We can attribute this success to the desire to do excellent work and tell important stories that matter. The stories are out there, they exist we're just telling them. Of course, there's a lot of rigour in ensuring that the stories come out right. Fortunately, there are systems in place to ensure that this happens.

For instance, I'm a fantastic writer but you should see some of my first drafts or see the comments on my article after the editor has worked on it.

One day a colleague in another department was casually showing me comments on her work and asking why they were so many. I was confused at what the issue was because there were like 5 comments. Later that day, I showed her one of my articles that had just been edited. It had 118 comments/suggestions! Granted that was a bit unusual and the draft I submitted wasn't the best, but the point is the system helps correct that.

Constant experimentation is also vital. We're always trying out new things. Having ideas is the easy part, executing is where the work is at. For the newsletter, for example, we've worked on things like monitoring the time it takes for the images to load, to how likely people are to click on the share button. There's a lot of intentionality that goes into ensuring that we keep delivering quality content.

Who: The team. When I say the team it's the editorial, growth team and anyone else who chips in a piece of advice. If I start to name names now I'd leave out someone important, so I'd leave it at that.

TwoCents

Are there any African startups that are not so well known that you feel deserve more exposure/visibility?

Daniel Adeyemi

Yes, definitely. Now I can't name them one by one but every now and then as a journalist, I hear about what a company is doing and I wonder why they don't have more visibility.

It might be because the company intentionally wants to stay under the radar, so they don't talk much or announce their milestones. That's fine. Being more visible is an intentional act that involves a lot of effort. Many times, the nature of the founder or founding team towards publicity tends to rub off on how the company approaches the media.

It might also be a result of a disconnect between how they're explaining their story to the media. Often we'll get pitches that don't really say anything about why a company is noteworthy or in some cases, it's even difficult to understand what these companies even do. Startups have to make a compelling case, talk about their impact and quantify it.

As a journalist, it's also important for us to seek out these startups and tell their stories. Every now and then we tend to do that. We're constantly asking ourselves, other people and listening to conversations for what we might be missing or should be covering.

Of course, we have different editorial objectives to meet so it means we can't just always share the story of every startup because it 'deserves' more exposure. There's a lot happening and we have to balance sharing useful information on different things that are happening.

TwoCents

Do your personal biases ever affect your view/perspective on a story you are about to write? What do you do to ensure you always remain objective?

Daniel Adeyemi

Most definitely, biases are simply the lens through which we process information.

Often, there's presentation bias where just because a startup isn't able to communicate well, it's easy to conclude that they're not doing anything noteworthy, sometimes it's not so. It can also be the reverse where there's a lot of hype but no substance. I'm aware of these and lookout for this.

Prior knowledge or preconceived notions also play a part in clouding my judgement. To mitigate this I just go ahead and still listen in on a conversation or take a call to learn more about the situation.

For me, recalibrating myself starts with remembering and returning to what my editorial objectives are. I'm trying to shed more light on an important story or explain a concept. I strive to simply look at the facts and simply state them.

For instance, there's a story I'm currently working on that I sincerely doubt the startup is legit and many people share the same sentiment but I'm a journalist, those things don't matter. My job is to simply listen to different parties and gather enough information. You don't just wake up and decide someone is lying, you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that that's the case.

In closing, a few years ago I read an article titled In the Praise for Bias, [https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/in-praise-of-bias/].

The author of the article argues that biases are not necessarily evil, they simply exist because the answer to the big questions of life many times can't be answered by facts. They then go on to make a case that we should seek to improve and refine our biases rather than trying to ignore them. I agree with this and think it's worth considering in the quest for objectivity.

TwoCents

Have you written any interesting pieces on NFTs?

Daniel Adeyemi

No, I haven't but my former colleagues Alex [https://techcabal.com/2021/03/19/osinachi-nigeria-nft-crypto-art-artist/] and Edwin [https://techcabal.com/2021/03/09/into-the-unreal-world-of-nfts/] have written brilliant pieces on the space.

Notably, I recently started an easy to understand weekly newsletter on the blockchain and the web 3 space, so it's only a matter of time before I write one.

If you're interested, you should sign up here: https://mailchi.mp/194f937229ed/werupt-weekly-newsletter.

I'm also currently working on different explainers. Every day there are new products built upon existing technologies and it can be difficult to follow because oftentimes you need to understand the foundational technology first. Looking forward to helping bridge the gap for people.

TwoCents

What are the 3 biggest insights you have gleaned about the Tech Ecosystem since you started writing about Tech?

Daniel Adeyemi

I've been following the tech ecosystem since as far back as I can remember, probably actively since 2012, but writing has given me a different perspective.

First, it's changed the way I consume content. Since I now have a better sense of what it’s like to write stories, when I read other people’s, I’m a bit more attentive to what’s said, how it’s said, and what’s not said.

There's more to tech than being technical. The recent hype around tech can be misleading, as many people think they need to become programmers to fit it. This quote from an article [https://future.a16z.com/excel-in-tech-without-learning-to-code/] by Justin Gage sums it up for me:

"...an underappreciated reality is that inside startups and tech companies, most roles aren’t technical. Every organization employs marketers, salespeople, recruiters, and executives whose job descriptions don’t involve any meaningful knowledge of computer science or even basic HTML..."

Even with all the hype, the African and even the global tech ecosystem is still young. A lot of sectors are nascent, meaning many people all still figuring it out. With that said, I'm constantly reminded of the fact that it's not enough for you to understand what you're building, you need to be able to explain it to others in a compelling way. As Morgan housel will say, the best story wins [http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/story/].

Israel Sani Digittal marketing partner @ Beyond Homes Group

Lagos, Nigeria •

Hello Daniel, feel.s great having you around!😃 I have been following Tech Cabal since 2019 and every year the company holds a town hall meeting for different sectors in the country. My question is this, is there a plan to hold a town hall meeting for technical writers and media agencies? I stand to be corrected but I haven't come across any information as regards this. It is my opinion that since the media controls the way people see things and reacts to them, then we can reduce the cost of digitalization in Nigeria by rigorously and systematically promoting it.

2 Answer requests

Daniel Adeyemi Senior Writer @ TechCabal

Lagos •

Hi Israel,

That's a good question. As the world opens up, we're also thinking about different event formats.

While I'm not sure we might follow the townhall format, we have a few events lined up this year, there's even going to be one relating to the content creation, so watch out for that.

Hero James

Lagos, Nigeria •

Having written about big tech and high growth companies operating in Africa, what are the necessary steps you proffer one should take in moving ideas to projects ? Outline limitations and possible solutions. Thanks

2 Answer requests

Daniel Adeyemi Senior Writer @ TechCabal

Lagos •

I'm not sure I understand your question but I'm just going to go ahead and answer what I can interpret.

First off, all big things start small. It's all about intentionality,

If you're building a company, it has to have products or services that solve a problem. Beyond that, you have to find a way to monetize it. There are different monetization strategies available depending on what you're building.

To get people to buy it you have to market/sell it. Alongside this, you need to hire good people and build the right systems that ensure they're able to do their best work.

Depending on the type of company you're building, you'll face a couple of challenges like regulatory pushback, infrastructural limitations and keeping the lights on.

Generally, constant experimentation along the way and focus are valuable traits to have.

Mund Jude

Good day Sir, In a number of Academic institutions, many students are still a bit oblivious about Tech, Innovation, and the present state of things in that regard. How possible would it be to reach this (and similar) audience (s) in order to foster awareness about the possibilities in Tech and also ready them for financial stability beyond school borders. And where do you see the African Tech Ecosystem in the hands of a younger generation in the next couple of decades....?

2 Answer requests

Daniel Adeyemi Senior Writer @ TechCabal

Lagos •

Hmmm, I think most people have been in contact with tech already, they just might not think much about it. Most people in these academic institutions have smartphones and access to the internet. That's a valuable tool at their disposal.

While some of them are taking advantage of this opportunity like Emmanuel Njoku [https://techcabal.com/2022/02/24/meet-the-19-year-old-nigerian-building-his-own-blockchain-empire/], others aren't or aren't privileged to have access to this.

Fortunately, different organisations and agencies have different initiatives targeted at exposing young people to tech. We share some of them in our daily newsletter [https://techcabal.com/category/tc-daily/]

Also, at TechCabal, we're definitely looking forward to working with schools and communities to tell them more about tech. We even have a newsletter focused on people interested in entering tech coming up soon.

I think the younger generation is privileged to have more resources at their disposal and will do greater than this generation. Technological advancements tend to get better as time goes by. All is well.

Sponsor this session

Similar sessions

This Session has closed

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents

TwoCents