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How much is a mother’s love worth? For Yinka Daramola, the CEO of Ǫucoon—a tech firm that specializes in web development, app development, Cloud development, Ǫuality Assurance and testing—everything. “I would see my mom hug my brilliant friends, and pray for them and kiss them and I also wanted that for her. If I do well in school, this woman will be happy. So, I started beating the smart guys.”
His life has been one of converting the sceptics, his religion built on the rock of hard work and betting on yourself. I mean, in an image-conscious world, he rocks up to our interview with plaited hair. Back in graduate school, they told us that perception is reality. Perceptions are incredibly easy to establish and difficult to shake; for the same reason the taller candidate usually gets voted president and anyone with an arm tattoo usually intimidates my parents. Thus, it would be remiss of me not to ask, how is he perceived with that kind of hair, especially as CEO? “It is more acceptable in Kenya for me being a foreigner, it is going to be less acceptable for a local.”
Perhaps also, it is easier when you are CEO, when you have done your time in the trenches, and have earned the stars on your shoulders. With an undergraduate in law from the University of London and an MBA from London Business School to complement his Computer Science and Engineering degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Yinka has walked the walk after talking the talk.
They are far removed from his days when he was a bright but not exceptional student, languishing in the backwaters of academic minimum pass sheets, until his mother got terminally ill, and in the tradition of the classic, almost generic, African parent, what else could bring a smile to their face other than good grades? So, he worked hard. His mother smiled. He hasn’t stopped working.
What’s the best part about being CEO? It depends on what the company stands for. We are a tech consulting firm, and the best part is people. They are at the center of everything we do. That could be your colleagues or customers, and the hope that you create in them.
What has been the hardest part, especially in the business environment of setting up a business? Assumptions that you have to make. When you are setting up a strategy, you have to make a lot of assumptions, hopes, and projections. Everybody—the investors, people working for your company, the customers—everybody banks on how accurately you
can predict the future. You have to constantly make predictions, and make a bet about the future.
What has been the fine balance you’ve had to tread between expanding to Kenya and the cautiousness involved in a new market? Cultural differences. Across the borders. Two is perception, which runs deep as you move from one geography to another. Perception could be driven culturally, by religion, or even by country differences. The best way to go about it is to learn and adapt as quickly as you can. How customers behave in any country is driven by cultural differences that you see across.
What’s a challenge you faced in both Kenya and Nigeria that you have not solved yet? The Nigerian market is highly competitive, maybe because of the population. Everything happens at the speed of light, even the air you breathe in, we compete for it [chuckles]. It’s more of survival of the fittest, we are competing but nobody tends to get anything. In the Kenyan market it is a bit slower—Kenyans are more deliberate; the competition is not as stiff as in Nigeria. As an entrepreneur, all you have to do is make the best blend of every culture that you come across and do business.
What’s that one different thing you are bringing to the Kenyan market? Nigeria has a population advantage over Kenya, but both markets have a young population—which means the Kenyan market offers the skill supply that you would find difficult in most countries. Compared to Nigeria, there are a lot of opportunities here. From our experience, the Kenya public sector is really up there, and we have seen the startup space is quite rich in Kenya. One thing we have noticed is the monopolistic view of the Kenyan payment system, unlike in Nigeria whose payment ecosystem is highly competed for.
Where do you see the most opportunity in this industry? Consultants tell you what you want to hear. We play in tech consulting, where we build software. We have a cloud consulting division where we are helping customers reduce costs—the value they feel and touch. We work with customers to reduce costs by up to 30% of what they are spending now. We also help customers to deploy AI—they can see, feel, smell and touch the values we hold. The traditional belief about consultants asking you questions and telling you back what they asked you, that is not the case here. That perception is popular with management consultancy where they take the information from you, they merge it with information they have, and publicly available information, and they layer on their expertise and provide a solution to your problem. We are different, Eddy.
How do you quantify success? At the centre of everything we do is people. People tend to ask this question, “Where did the name Ǫucoon come from?” The idea of Ǫucoon is to create beautiful minds, the same way butterflies come out of cocoons. We define success in that view—how many lives we have touched is the number one quantifier: how many people have gone through us in terms of colleagues and gone into becoming highly skilled;
and two, in terms of customers, how much happiness we bring to their faces. Of course, we have to make enough money to continue to support this process. We invest and innovate in how we engage employees and customers, and that’s how we define success.
What three benefits do you find in Kenya when you compare your operations here with the one in Lagos? Typically, for every Nigerian everywhere we go they are too slow. That though was not much of a surprise. The second surprise is that of all the places I have been to, Kenya is the most receptive. I was surprised that, even as a Nigerian, the love the typical Nigerian receives here is much. Kenyans are loving people and they welcome foreigners when it comes to business. The third surprise as a person, Kenyans are a lot more liberal than one would expect.
What gap in the private sector partnerships/bottlenecks that you have noticed that perhaps exists in our government that is not in your government that might help this ecosystem mature faster? In the payment space, perhaps because of my bias of how Nigeria runs, there is a big argument around monopoly. We want everything to be on the table for competition. Here, the payment space is highly monopolised. Competition drives prices down, and drives values up, and it will improve inclusivity.
What’s a particularly unique challenge you are facing as Ǫucoon in the Kenyan ecosystem? I have insisted on being seen as a Nigerian company spreading across the world. Typically, as a Nigerian, to avoid the usual animosity and profiling of Nigerian, they register the company elsewhere and come to Kenya and say, for instance they are based in the US, as a way of avoiding the animosity Nigerians get. I have insisted on remaining a Nigerian and African firm. I don’t know if it is typical of other nationalities as well.
Now that you have brought that up, how was your experience? Has this—xenophobia—been something that happened to you and how has it played out in your business? Kenya is far more welcoming to foreigners and foreign business. It is not 100% smooth, but relative to, say South Africa, Kenya is more welcoming. Maybe because of our population, we are naturally aggressive, you must be exceptionally good because there are fewer positions for a huge population. Even Rehema, my Kenyan colleague, when I hired her, she too had her doubts, but I told her we drive people for results, and we could come out as emotionless, but I assured her that she would like it if she opens her mind.
Now Rehema Minoo is a Nigerian evangelist haha! [Rehema interjects and says, “They [Nigerians] work so hard].
Has it in any way affected your business? Reputation is everything in business, if you and say, MPesa were bidding for the same job, you have to start from further back. Has this been your case? This is typical all over the world. So my response is yes and no. Yes, it has affected the business because in some sectors we don’t stand a chance as a foreign
country and vice versa. For instance, we are partnering with a local firm to build an AI solution for the Kenyan government. In some countries that would be impossible.
How long have you been in Kenya? We registered about a year and a half ago.
What qualities do you think make for a foreign company to come and set up a business, and stay afloat? Perseverance. You must be able to wait it out. Second, you must learn pretty fast and learn to adapt. Finally, collaboration and partnership. Look for a healthy local collaboration—it helps you to learn quickly and strengthens you and gives you the strength to persevere. But you must also deliver value—don’t look for immediate gratification.
What is Ǫucoon doing to grow in the next 24 months? We are in Kenya for a long time and that means we have a budget that will sustain us. We have an estimate when our Kenyan operations can breakeven, which should be in about four or five years. At least that’s what we thought, but surprisingly that happened in the first year. Two, we have to learn fast and thirdly, we have to collaborate with local firms. We shall continue to do that until we have a name locally. Recently we hired a number of interns seconded to us by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology—so we continue to make a promise and deliver value to our customers, but it takes time, and we are in for that long haul.
Did you always know you would be a businessman? There is this statistic that firstborns are more likely to be CEOs or entrepreneurs. I grew up in a typical way. I became a parent as a child. At 10/11 years old, family challenges got me as a first child to take care of my younger ones. I have always had to look after the house. Because of economic hardships, I remember there was a man who had a large compound with mangoes, and I would go there and pick mangoes, and pay him some money and I’d go there and sell said mangoes. As the first son, I was close to my mom, and I understood how to buy during the dry season and sell during the rainy season and vice versa. We have two seasons in Nigeria—a very dry season and a very wet season. That’s how I learned how to handle money and multiply it, and because of my mom, how to look after people, which became very handy later on in life. I grew up quite fast, at a young age, I was a CIO of a large bank. I have worked for CitiBank and Ecobank. A lot of my colleagues would tell me that I should be an entrepreneur. I hated my company hiring consultants because that made me feel like I wasn’t capable. Those are the things that shaped me, I was meant to be adding value to lives, and multiplying things and making customers happy. It was clear to me I would be a CEO from age 11.
Firstborns’ strength is also their weakness. Stubbornness. But how important is one remaining obdurate and wedded to their vision—where is the fine line, if at all there is a line? Eddy the opposite is actually my case [chuckles]. everything human is touching for me.
My biggest weakness is actually being emotional about anything that touches on human beings. I work really hard—because if a Nigerian says I work really hard, you need to be careful. I haven’t slept till this moment. I demand the same from people and when they fall short, it can be painful. If you have staff that is not pulling its weight, a typical Nigerian will fire you immediately. I don’t do that haha! I give people a long rope, that is what I grew up doing since I was 11 years old with my three siblings whom I had to represent in school.
Everywhere I have been I have been a father figure, even for people much older than me. where do you draw the line of putting your feet and saying enough is enough? That is why I have people to support me in that decision. I spend good time making sure I hire the right person because I know it Is not easy to let people go. Secondly, I create an enabling environment. Everybody's free to talk with me, I spend quality time with my people. I want you to have an environment where you can be at your best. We also train, in fact, we overtrain. If you look at our KPIs, 60% of your KPI is about the knowledge you need to get. The 40% is what you are expected to give back to the company.
What did you believe about yourself that helped you become successful and deal with the hard times? At 30, I was a general manager in a large firm. It was unusual at the time. Everything I have done and things responsible for my success are the things I have done to make other people happy. For instance, when I was in primary school, the only thing I was good at was dancing, and being cheeky. I was exceptional at telling stories. But in an African setting, those are rubbish! If you are not good at Math, Science and English, you are in trouble. I was poor at that. Until I realised my mom was ill and I knew I had to make her smile, and what else would that be? That’s what got me to studying. I studied a little and got to position 7 from 24. So, I studied more. And that was the beginning of my transformation. From that moment till I finished university, I was always the best in my class. And I did that just to make my mom happy. I started my company when unemployment was rampant in Nigeria, I wasn’t looking for money, any job I applied for I would get on account of my grades. I had friends living with me, I was feeding them, and I realised some would get jobs some wouldn’t, so what can I do? That was the beginning of my first firm. I started it to create opportunities and feed people. I was 22 then. Everything I have done that has been successful is a higher reason than money, and two, hard work after having to struggle with poverty. And finally, you have to have strong belief in yourself. If I find that I have to fly a plane, then I shall fly that plane. I am competing with myself; I am obsessed with excellence and creativity. I am an engineer, but I put more value on creativity than engineering, and the art side of anything is the best thing that can happen to whatever your creation is.
What is the price you are paying for your ambition? Very good question. One, I have near zero social life. Secondly, I am convinced that if I don’t live a long life, I caused it haha. I work really hard and I am obsessed with wanting to make a change and a difference to people’s lives. whatever I take to achieve that, so be it.
What is the one question you are asking yourself at this point in your life? When is it going to be enough? I want to go back to my first love, art. Either drawing or painting or drama or filmmaking. I was exceptional at that. From my Primary three to six, I was one of the dullest in class, but every teacher would say I was exceptional. What did they see? I was number 24 out of 30—so why did they look at me and say that? It is much later in life that I realised what they meant. When is it time that I shall call it quits and go back to my first love, art? Engineering is a precise Science, but what makes my work different is that art side of it.
What is a lesson you wish you’d learned sooner in life? There was an event in the office and my son was there, and he sat next to me and said, Dad , I am proud of you. you are living a life that is so unbelievable. I hope you are documenting it. Then he asked me, “If this picture had been shown to you when you were my age, what would have been your response?” He is 15. I said, my 15-year-old self wouldn't believe this is possible. I wish I had started as an entrepreneur from the word go. But that was a wish because after university I had a long list of responsibilities I had to fulfil. But I wish I had started before I was 30, I started at 37.
For what it’s worth, you don’t look older than 30-something. You are right about that haha!
What is a tradition you would like to pass through your family that will outlive you? In whatever he does, he needs to put people at the centre of everything. That is key. Secondly, hard work. To believe in realities, not superstitions or religious beliefs—but believe in reality. In everything you do, if you have to pay a price for putting people first it is okay. You cannot discount the value of hard work in everything you do.
Are you smart or lucky? Ha! I would say a combination of both. I am kind of smart, maybe a little. But the luck I have is unusual, especially from the kind of mom I had. If I have been lucky 10 times, I can always relate it to my mom. If not for her nothing would have been possible to be honest. I was lucky in that regard. Even my smartness is due to her. My parents were uneducated, but imagine them bringing up kids who in the national exams, my siblings and I were always the best. The luck I had was that my mom was terminally ill, I was close to her on the sick bed, and I knew that every good news I could bring to her is what I was looking for. If she hadn’t gone through that I probably would have ended up as a very dull child. I just wanted to make her smile.
By Eddy Ashioya