Kemeshi Samuel, host of the Made in Africa podcast, is joined by the co-founders of Jamit Studios, Ike Orizu and Stan Agbadugo, for the first episode of the show. Ike is a creative technologist who has been in the audio space for over 15 years and has experienced success and failure. Stan is the Chief Content Officer and was previously with TruSpot. Throughout the conversation, Ike and Stan share their stories and experiences of founding and running a successful business, discussing how they handled operations, creative technology, and other aspects of their business. The conversation provides insight into the ups and downs of being an African entrepreneur and the importance of learning from mistakes.
The conversation discussed TruSpot, the company that was the genesis of the speaker's journey into creativity. The speaker met a coder who asked him why he wanted to pursue creativity and the speaker responded that he wanted to touch people's lives. The speaker was inspired by the coder's dedication and commitment to his work and decided to stay and pursue creativity. Initially, the speaker was very introverted and did not have an Instagram account to showcase his work, but he eventually decided to pursue his creativity and put himself out there.
Ike was the founder of TruSpot, a tech startup. He grew up in different countries, including the US, London, Nigeria, and Ikotun. His childhood experience was filled with adventure and culture shock as he moved from one place to another. His father had been successful but lost it all. This was what motivated Ikea to do more for Africa and seek out TruSpot. He wanted to touch Africa through his work and use his experience to create something special. His goal is to help African countries, and his startup is his way of making that happen.
Ike is a digital entrepreneur from Lagos, Nigeria, who started out by teaching people how to open emails in a cyber cafe and charging them for his time. He then moved on to create Niger Space, a platform for African music, which eventually became TruSpot, a popular platform for Nigerian artists to distribute their music. Unfortunately, due to a lack of the right infrastructure and leadership team, the venture was not successful. Despite this, Ike feels the experience was worth it and wouldn't take it back.
Quotes…
“We want to get people to speak in their languages…we plan to have a global impact in the park and the audio space entirely.”
- Ike Orizu
“When it's a podcast, you are connecting directly with the listeners, sometimes it is how the story is told by the host that shows that connectivity, and that's what makes a podcast.”
-Stan Agbadugo