“The partnership in Andela was amazing, but I had to leave because of diversities in Business view.” — Iyin Aboyeji Explains!

Iyin Aboyeji is one of the new avatars of the new generation of Corporate builders and internationally recognized celebrities.

In this interview, we have an honest conversation about what it means to build startups, to leave startups – including iconic ones like Andela and Flutterwave, which he co-founded and to assemble an ecosystem.

I didn’t want the press release corporate version. I want to know exactly what it means to start succeeding as a young person. What the growth and evolution that happens truly feels like.

Iyin is incredibly honest in this conversation.

It’s a Masterclass.

Here is why He left Andela!

“I had to leave Andela because there were a number of clear divergences when it came to how I saw the business evolve and how the business was going to evolve – because I didn’t have the power to determine otherwise. And you had to make a decision about your own goals and what you were doing there. As you think about the way the business is going, you also have to think about what’s your utility in that system and whether you could be making much more somewhere else.

A debate was done and a decision was made that people had to wait 18 months after their training to be able to… because we had paid for their training. So they had to wait to recover the cost of the training and that was it, the decision has been made because, at the end of the day,  the only reason why you will appoint somebody is that you have other uses for them as opposed to giving them their agency. It wasn’t an evil decision and it could have been necessary at the time.

I thought there were other ways to build it if the first business was the focus. But naturally, the business meant that the second model was an easier reach and it was going to be a huge risk to build the first one. The first business model in Nigeria so that was the reason why.

The risk in the first one was a lot, you have to have a good faith in Nigeria to be able to build that business. I do, that’s why I was able to do it.

How He feels about Nigerian Politics!

I genuinely believed that whole trope about people is generally good, okay if we can support the leaders and show them how our interests align and the good ones among them, we can support them and go far. I genuinely believed that.

Then I went and I worked really, really hard (on politics) and I saw what happened. The biggest lesson for me is that intention is the most powerful energy in the world. Everything else supports intention.  So if I wake up today and say my goal is to make 100 people millionaires, even if I don’t have the money and that’s really what I want to do, I might be able to find a way to make it happen. But if I wake up today and say I want to make a billion dollars and I don’t care who I kill to make it happen, it doesn’t matter what somebody is telling you. You’re going to be like “How do I steal a billion dollars from all these people.

That’s the problem with government, the intentions and energy and power birthing government are not aligned with us goody two shoes and because our intentions are not as extreme, we can’t match them.

My faith in Nigeria was shaken (in the 2019 elections).

 

 

 

 

 

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Head over to watch.withchude.com to watch the full interview.

You can also listen to the full podcast on listen.withchude.com