Speaking with friends and other founders around me, one thing was clear: 2024 was an incredibly challenging year for startups( AI companies had an incredible year from fundraising, customer awareness/adoption, and much more); it was a year that refined businesses and the teams building them, which for me came with a lot of clarity and growth both personally and for the business( Rayda experienced over 100% growth in 2024).
I am truly grateful to my family, friends, the Rayda team, Investors and everyone who supported me and the businesses in 2024 and helped us accomplish all that we did. I got to travel more than I have ever done, which, though I enjoy experiencing new cities and cultures and the opportunities they present for business, can be a bit intense mentally (please share any travel hacks/tips you have with me).
At the end of last year, in my 2023 review, I talked about launching a fellowship program in 2024; we launched a pilot cohort and selected 13 fellows in the inaugural program( Special thanks to all our mentors and partners for their support); speaking with the fellows at the end of the program and learning of the growth and insights they had unlocked was a key highlight for me in 2024 and was the motivation needed to expand and scale the program. we will be launching a dedicated website for the fellowship program in a few weeks(www.ofofellowship.com) and opening call for new fellows this time for everyone around the world. Please reach out to me if you will like to partner, volunteer, mentor or be involved in one way or another.
One big learning for me from launching the fellowship is seeing how mentorship is incredibly needed not just for individuals starting their careers but also for founders; my mentors have made a huge difference in the scale and pace we progressed in 2024 and even though I have been a mentor for a few programs(Founder Institute, Google for Startups); I definitely will love to mentor more early stage founders on their journey. If you know think I can help you move the needle in 2025 or know a founder that this would be useful for then please encourage them to fill out this form .I am excited to see how this evolves and the learnings from the process.
Looking into 2025
The theme for me going into 2025 is LEVERAGE: for me I want to approach everything in the year by exploring the leverage I have; I believe finding and maximising leverage is how you win both in personal life and in business and we all have something to leverage; in several scriptures in the Bible you would see the reference where God asks about what the individual had in their hands(usually little under-looked/undervalued resource). A good friend of mine would say you should always play from a position of strength.ÂBecome more aware of the leverage and strengths you have and play from a position of strength this new year.
One thing I spoke about doing in 2024 and for the longest time kept postponing was launching a podcast; I had one i recorded a few episodes a few years ago on Money(from the perspective of an everyday individual trying to understand and navigate building financial discipline and wealth as financial education is a topic most people growing up in Africa got properly introduced to when they became adults and responsibilities to deal with); a comment on one of the old videos on the Youtube channel made me realize and re-access how i was measuring the success of the podcast and reignite my desire to share more; so a few weeks ago I started a weekly livestream( Every Saturday by 5pm GMT across my social channels), It has been an amazing experience so far and learning so much from the process; will probably kick0ff a proper podcast series later in year possibly with a good friend of mine.
I am excited about the growth we are experiencing at Rayda; 2025 is set to be a really amazing year for us as a business(Now is the right time to cut us that check if you are actively investing, we will be a behemoth at the end of 2025).
New Interests
1. I have a huge passion for teaching and would love to teach a course or series this year; interested in exploring and seeing what this would look like in 2025.
2. I want to launch a directory for African startups( I have seen in several groups i belong to, people within the tech ecosystem looking for startups in specific sectors/countries) so i can imagine what that must be like for others not in the ecosystem; hopefully this will be live in a few weeks at https://www.africanstartups.co . Hopefully it becomes a useful resource for finding the companies across the continent innovating across different sectors( please reach out if you have any thoughts, feedback or will love to help shape the directory in one way or another).
Cheers to 2025.
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