4 Important Building Lessons For First-Time Founders
An interview with OliliFood CEO and Founder
When Nweze Ikechukwu Emeka and his co-founders had the idea to start OliliFood - a food delivery service- it was born out of their own pain as busy programmers who didn’t always have the free time to cook or go out to buy food.
Cooking, while a life skill, isn’t the easiest especially if you work long hours. And even if you do enjoy cooking, not everyone can make foods like burgers, shawarma, small chops, etc from the comfort of their homes. This is where Olili comes in. Now residents of Asaba and Warri who don’t have the time or strength to hop restaurants checking what’s available, can easily do so on the app and have the food delivered to them.
Olili is providing customers with a variety of food options, ease of buying (and paying through 3 mediums including crypto), and vendors/restaurants with access to a wider range of customers. When Olili launched in August 2019, there were only 2 other well known logistics businesses in Asaba. And they weren’t specialized in this area. So they were basically the first in this market and faced initial issues getting vendors to trust the platform and sign up.
I caught up with Nweze Ikechukwu Emeka; CEO of OliliFood to discuss his entrepreneurial journey so far, these are the 4 most important lessons to takeaway as a first-time founder.
Solve simple problems. Better still, solve your own problems.
As obvious as this may seem, it isn’t really the first choice. If you’re anything like me you want to solve complex/big problems maybe because you believe that’s what will make your startup stand out or be more successful? Well complex problems aren’t always the way. As someone who built five other (failed) startups before OliliFood, Ikechukwu knows this.
Olili wasn’t just another venture for the co-founders, it was a solution to their personal problem as busy programmers. In his words:
Due to the nature of my job as an active programmer, I spend more time writing code, buying coins, marketing and all that. I have no time to go to the market to get groceries. I have no time to cook. I have no time transporting myself from my house to the restaurant. I thought of something; why not bridge the gap?
When asked who he built this product for, asides people with a problem like his, he mentioned people who may be able to cook but still need a variety of food choices or have cravings that need immediate satisfaction.
OliliFood was also built for people who like choices and for people who cook but need some certain types of food. For example, you’ll agree with me that it’s not everyone who makes pizza, shawarma, burgers and the rest at home. So even if you’re good at making local dishes in your house, you still need OliliFood to get those things you can’t prepare yourself.
Simple problems are relatable to many people which means the market and demand for a solution is large. What started as a fix to their own problem is now a platform that helps its over 3,400 users save time.
“Convenience is king. If you can simplify a current market, product or experience, you have a real opportunity to provide value to the end consumer.” Gary Vaynerchuk in Why Startups Really Sell.
You need a solid team to make the dream work.
Olili is Ikechukwu’s sixth startup and the first successful one. Before this he had tried building several other startups like a social platform which was to compete with Nairaland, and VMail an indigenous email service provider.
These failed mostly due to the lack of a solid team of people to work with. In fact for VMail, he already had investment interests and a platform that was 80% ready to be launched. But because he didn’t have a committed team, this startup failed before it started.
When compared to his journey with Olili now, there’s a difference. He has 5 other co-founders who had similar problems and who also benefit from this product they’ve built together. When picking a team he says to find people who are as passionate about solving that problem, as you are and who understand the vision.
If you all share the same passion and vision, it’s easier to work together and build successfully because you’ll see the project/startup as a personal investment, not just another scheme to try.
Build what people want by testing your idea.
It’s never enough to find a problem or market gap. You need to follow the problem till you’re sure:
It has a sizable number of people experiencing it
These people are willing to pay to get it solved and have the means of affording a solution
The fact that you have a problem doesn’t always mean other people have same problem or even want it solved. That’s why before running with your idea and investing money and time building it, you must be sure it’s viable. In Ikechukwu’s words:
I saw myself as an end-user that needs this solution so I assumed that for a fast-developing market/city like Asaba, there are other people who have this same problem and need a solution. But the thing is, you won’t know the depth of a water until you set foot in it.
There are several ways to do this, Ikechukwu and his co-founders did theirs by simply asking people one question:
If Jumia Food should come to Asaba, will you use it?
Olili’s co-founders took their time gathering insights from friends and residents of the city, and from the amount of positive responses they got they were able to move on to building their version 1 or MVP which was a simple web app.
The feedback from people was the assurance they needed to know that
The market was ripe for a product like this seeing as none of the 2 other logistics companies were specialized in this.
Their idea was something people actually needed and were going to use. It wasn’t just a solution for them, there was a market need.
Let go of fear, you’ll fail sometimes but you won’t succeed at all if you never start.
“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”— Buddha
What stood out the most to me in this interview, is Ikechukwu’s acceptance of failure as a part of the journey.
5 failed startups are enough reason for anyone to quit and give up on the thought of becoming a successful founder, but not Ikechukwu. With each failure, he learned lessons and refined his processes which led to OliliFood today.
While talking about how they tested their idea and found it was viable, he said
I was not afraid of failure. I had failed several times so it was not new to me. I felt like if I start it and it doesn't work out and I fail, I'll move on.
If 90% of startups fail, this means if you were to build 10 startups in your lifetime there's a possibility of at least one succeeding. But you'll never know or learn if you're too afraid to try.