I invest in great founders who have a deep understanding of a customer problem and are driven to build a solution that is disruptive to a growing market.
I am an operator first - my personal experience as an entrepreneur has informed my perspective that the rising tide of a growing market is the best path to building a high-growth company. My global perspective helps me to identify markets opportunities. I seek frontier markets - both geographic markets and sectors that are poised for growth.
I believe there are two types of investors - engineers and financiers - and the difference is an investor's focus on creating value or extracting value. I’ve been an engineer my entire life and this allows me to build trusted relationships with founders because of the strategic value I can bring to their company.
I believe fundamentally that innovation happens everywhere, and being early in emerging markets is winning formula. The tricky thing is quickly identifying the signal that is capable of scale. My global perspective combines an understanding of what drives success in Silicon Valley with boots on the ground around the world in frontier markets and deep research on emerging sectors to understand where the value will be captured.
As CEO of Launch Pad, I run a network of workspaces and build relationships into growing startup markets around the US. Living in San Francisco, my viewpoint is that of an outsider inside Silicon Valley, so I don’t get caught in the echo chamber, but I do keep my finger on the pulse of innovation. My global perspective is unique, I was born in Nigeria, grew up in Kenya, have run a business in Russia for 15 years and travel the world extensively consulting on developing startup ecosystem in rising markets and meeting incredible entrepreneurs along the way. This allows me to build authentic relationships early with founders who want me to invest in deals that can get competitive to get into, allowing me to get access to that deal flow for investors in my syndicate.
For investors seeking exposure to the best companies in frontier markets - markets that are on the cusp of tremendous growth - my proprietary deal flow comes from extensive travel and boots on the ground work to find the best companies in which to invest.
I will syndicate deals I invest in when permitted by the company. I syndicate deals after extensive due diligence on the team, market, and company.