Founders View: What’s it really 🕵️♀️ like in Greenhouse Lab in Lagos 🇳🇬 ?
So… I’ve always felt you’re only as good an investor as your portfolio says you are and you’re only as good as a program as your participating cohort says you are so after hearing about all the great things about Greenhouse Lab directly from Mary Joseph at Greenhouse Capital, I decided to grab a chat with 2 of the founders that actually went through the program to share their perspectives on the program — Angela Essien from Schoolable and Abdul-Jabbar Momoh from AMPZ. (as always, full conversation above 👆🏾)
“We all know, women do it better.” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
Networks referring more Networks
One thing that really stood out through our whole conversation was the constant emphasis on the role networks played through the program.
Schoolable was referred by an investor and AMPZ knew about Venture Garden Group through other founders that were working in their space. They were clearly already using the strength of their networks — and saw the value in amplifying 🔊 that strength through Greenhouse Lab.
“We wanted experts in the ecosystem looking at what we were doing, to help guide us through rough waters” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPz
Mary and I talked about how relevant mentors were important and Angela, Co-Founder at Schoolable, mentioned this as well, specifically calling out her time with MTN’s GM for Network Planning, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, as an experience she “wouldn’t just get everyday”.
“Having women talk to you, telling you not so far away you are from what you want to achieve as a women in the space.” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
It really struck me how important it is for mentors and coaches in early stage entrepreneurship programs to be a figure and a personality that’s relatable and approachable to founders. It’s not just about the message but who the message is coming from.
Application Process was Teamwork
Another theme was how the application process in itself felt really collaborative 🤝 and was already adding value to both Angela and Jabbar.
Jabbar talked about a Customer Journey mapping exercise that the Greenhouse Lab team went through with AMPZ as part of their application.
Angela wasn’t sure what to expect applying to their 1st ever program but help she got from the team was really a stand-out point for her to this day.
“They helped us finesse and refine our application, it felt like teamwork.” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
Other programs I’ve been involved in have tried to different degrees to this as well, African Leadership Academy’s Anzisha Prize has a screening team walk applicants through a Business Model Canvas exercise as part of their application and MEST Africa’s Tobi Lafinhan ensures candidates invited to the final round walk away with a refreshed perspective of how to clearly communicate their pitch ideas by not only providing feedback but a broader framework they can continue to use.
“Filling in the online application, we had to be clear about the problem, and use data to back up our claims around that.” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
A FOCUS 🔍 on DATA & FINANCIALS
During my chat with Mary, the team’s focus on data 👩🔬 was clear (data around female founder outperformance informed the kickstart of a female focused accelerator) and it was awesome to see that focus extend through to the program.
“We left the lab with a much stronger business model. Using market data, which was a focus of the lab, realised we should focus on a specific — previously smaller — part of the business.” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
Ensuring that customer value proposition and product decisions were informed by market data 🖥 was certainly a strong take-away for AMPZ but both teams felt that the real step-change to their businesses came from now deeply understanding why financial models are key to both running / thinking about a business and fundraising — but also that they were given the tools and resources to implement that financial focus in their businesses.
“You need to be able to match your numbers with your narrative.” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
This is the hard stuff 😓, some would argue the boring stuff — that many founders (hey me included) don’t really thrill at going through but boy is it important and critical when communicating to investors 💵 .
If you’re a founder needing a bit of help to supercharge ⚡️ this bit of your business — I can definitely recommend the teams at IDEV (they supported Kenya’s #startup star Twiga Foods) and Open Capital Advisors, also individuals who’ve been through the process like Yacob Berhane 🇰🇪 (led m-Survey’s $3.5m raise) and Saul Wainwright 🇿🇦 (great consulting CFO) who can jump in to help.
Continuing the tradition of Nigerian #Startups in YC!
Silicon Valley programs, especially YC, have really risen up as the go-to source for validation among Nigerian startups — 5 joined in 2017 and in 2019 — it was great to see that Greenhouse Lab too (like Yele Bademosi’s microtraction) have alumni heading to join a program that brought to life Airbnb and Flutterwave.
“YC really helped us validate our model to the world!” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
It gets intense in the Greenhouse
Greenhouse Lab puts in place 2 pre-determined classroom sessions a week and also pre-scheduled deep-dives with team members like Mary.
“You need to be open to learning, we thought we had mastered the craft.” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
Jabbar remembers that through the program, classroom days were certainly intense ones, interesting and rigorous for sure but it sounded like it wasn’t the most pleasant thing to head back to continue pushing 200% on his sports 🥎 #startup in the evening after it all.
“I’ve actually been through other acceleration programs, none were as intense as this.” — Jabbar, Co-Founder, AMPZ
Not regretting it one bit though he reminded the next cohort to dive, milk it as hard as they can and focus on getting as much as they can out of the 3 very short months. I couldn’t agree more, founders should always be very clear about what they anticipate they will get out of a program (it is after all a massive time ⏰ and resource commitment), make a plan to achieve that and make sure you stay on track towards that.
“When we got there it was like moving from 1.0 to 2.0.” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
Fun, Food & Family
If the epic Demochella shoot didn’t show it — the fun and energy the cohort enjoyed through the program really came through in our chat. Clearly a team that experiments with ways to push boundaries of what a program should be — the memory of preparing for the shoot really stood out in both Angela and Jabbar’s minds.
“We learnt the importance of telling a compelling story and making sure people could connect to your vision” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
It also felt very much like the cohort was a family that shared and cared for each and every member. Everyone was open and supportive (Mary got a special shout out!). That you didn’t have to ask for help, that if someone on the Greenhouse team or another cohort member heard you had a problem, they would find a way to find a resource or solution for you — that’s what family does.
And once family always family right? From Jabbar catching up at least quarterly with the Greenhouse team through to Angela getting to catch their parent Venture Garden Group CEO Bunmi Akinyemiju while she was in San Francisco — this felt like one great big global family that had each others backs.
“We didn’t feel like different startups in the same cohort, it really was one family.” — Abdul-Jabbar Momoh, CEO & Co-Founder, AMPZ
Finally, like any good Nigerian family home, it certainly sounded like there was always good food to be had!
So that’s it guys! There you have it, direct from founders who’ve been through the 1st ever Greenhouse Lab and the 1st ever female-focused startup accelerator in Lagos!
Maybe this could finally be your excuse to apply for an intense (but fun), finance and data focused, couple months in Lagos, Nigeria 🇳🇬 !
Application Link — http://bit.ly/GRLBAF19
“Somebody is actually doing something that is focused around women in tech, we rarely get that in Nigeria!” — Angela Essien, Co-Founder, Schoolable
