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Angel Investing in Africa With Biola Alabi (Co-Founder of Atika Ventures)

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Show Notes

Quote: “Technology is bringing us back all together.”

The Afropolitan Podcast highlights Afropolitans who embrace the unknown and walk with purpose. Through this podcast, we aim to empower Africans in the Diaspora to maximize their potential and contribute to the development of a vibrant and progressive black community.

In this episode, we speak with Biola Alabi, Co-Founder of Atika Ventures, a women-led venture fund providing early-stage capital to consumer technology startups in West and East Africa. Biola is a Non-Executive Director at Unilever Nig. Plc. and Monty Mobile, an Angel Investor at Lagos Angel Network, and the Executive Producer at Biola Alabi Media and Entertainment. She is passionate about investing in startups that will solve real problems at scale.

Listen and enjoy as Biola Alabi talks to us about investing in startups and how the investment landscape has changed over the last decade. Biola also shares her insights on what she looks for when investing in startups, how founders can recruit and retain talent, and managing expectations of Limited Partners (LPs). She also talks about her first angel investment, her background and upbringing, and what it means to be Afropolitan.

Biola's Reading List:

  1. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson - https://amzn.to/3EXXWDE
  2. Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) by Cathie Black - https://amzn.to/3Sclh7L
  3. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George - https://amzn.to/2AkWI67
  4. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown - https://amzn.to/3MH5tst

Show Notes:

1:37 Biola's role at Lagos Angel Network
2:43 Changes and challenges in the investment landscape over the last decade
3:59 Advice for startups in the current regulatory environment
5:37 Criteria for investing in startups
7:20 Strategies for recruiting and retaining talent as a founder
8:54 Managing expectations of Limited Partners (LPs)
11:22 Biola's first angel investment
12:50 Biola's first significant encounter with failure and lessons learned
15:44 The importance of transparency as a founder
18:09 Biola's background and upbringing
23:19 Books that have profoundly impacted Biola’s life
27:26 Hypothetical title of a book about Biola's life
28:59 Biola's perspective on what it means to be Afropolitan

The Afropolitan Podcast is hosted by Eche Emole, co-founder of Afropolitan. Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Jamit, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Connect with Afropolitan:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/afropolitan
Website - https://www.afropolitan.io/

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