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In Pursuit
Journeys in African Entrepreneurship
by Osaretin Oswald Guobadia and Chukuka Chukuma

Overview


In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting business, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.
Read more

Description


In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting business, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.

Through their personal insights, they relay information relevant not only to entrepreneurs and investors seeking to do business in Nigeria, but anywhere on the globe—after all, the heart of business is human interaction. Their conversational banter-jab style, for which they're known in person and on social media, invites readers into their circle where they can share the wisdom gained through continuous pursuits to fulfill their dreams.

Business and life intersect. No matter your goal, you're not crazy, and no, you're not alone! Through In Pursuit, two Bendel boys invite you to laugh, yell, and reflect, as they converse from head and heart.

Read more

About the author


Osaretin Oswald Guobadia is co-founder, executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of DBH Solutions, a building infrastructure and top tier technology solutions provider in West Africa. He is a business strategy and technology consultant with over 20 years' experience in technology and business strategy, and a non-executive director of Renaissance Capital (Nigeria), a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank with access to over 50 markets globally. He sits on the Alumni Board of Wesley College, USA. His interests also span venture capitalism and entrepreneurship, with significant interests in mentorship and funding startups. He is actively engaged on several boards, providing guidance and oversight for their business operations, and contributes to an African economic renaissance by advising organizations on IT strategy, infrastructure and operations optimization, startup consulting, people development and leadership, process improvement, and business continuity. His goal is to help build sustainable businesses that contribute to economic development and job creation.

He is committed to supporting social welfare programs that improve lives and communities. He created the Resolve Foundation, which offers credible and visible opportunities for private individuals and enterprises to execute their philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives. He is also a founding director of the Edo Global Foundation, an initiative focused on the development and support of the next generation Edo creatives; and the founder of Edo Development Organization, a non-partisan political and social group whose members collaborate on opportunities to support their respective communities. He is also involved in several other charitable initiatives through the Lagos Nigeria chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where he is a founding member.

He makes his home in Lagos, Nigeria and Delaware, USA. He's married to Tanisha and blessed with four children. As a family, they support philanthropic initiatives and enjoy travelling, reading and watching movies. On any given day, you'll find them piled up in a minivan driving cross-country and hoping for a rest stop.



Chukuka Chukuma is an investment banker, entrepreneur and partner at Racecourse Capital, a private investment and advisory firm.  With a career spanning over 20 years at world-class financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Salomon Smith Barney, Citibank Nigeria, Afrinvest West Africa, and Stanbic IBTC Bank, he has executed deals in corporate and project financings across multiple sectors.  He specializes in structuring and raising large, complex, multi-source and multi-currency financings from cradle to grave.

He is committed to raising the economic potential of Africa through investments in human capital, the arts, technology and infrastructure where he sits on the board of several companies. One of them, Sponsors for Economic Opportunity (SEO) Africa, has impacted the lives of over 350 students from 10 African countries placing them in well regarded firms across 4 continents.

As part of his contributions to raising the next set of entrepreneurs in Africa, he mentors new entrants in the Nigerian market and provides strategic insights on innovation.  Chukuka draws from his wealth of experience across various markets in Nigeria and globally, while leveraging his extensive network to help startup entrepreneurs bring their ideas to the market and scale globally.

He lives between Dallas and Lagos.  He is married to an amazing woman, Elisa, and together they have three wonderful kids. Together they share a passion for food, travel, sports and are a very competitive family.

Read more

Book details

Genre:BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Subgenre:Entrepreneurship

Language:English

Pages:192

Paperback ISBN:9781734752304


Overview


In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting business, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.

Read more

Description


In Pursuit - Journeys in African Entrepreneurship chronicles the journeys of two friends whose experiences in America shaped their approach to starting their own businesses in Nigeria. Drawing on their experiences of working, building and supporting business, and exposure to multimillion-dollar projects around the world, they uncover what it takes to own, run, and grow a profitable business.

Through their personal insights, they relay information relevant not only to entrepreneurs and investors seeking to do business in Nigeria, but anywhere on the globe—after all, the heart of business is human interaction. Their conversational banter-jab style, for which they're known in person and on social media, invites readers into their circle where they can share the wisdom gained through continuous pursuits to fulfill their dreams.

Business and life intersect. No matter your goal, you're not crazy, and no, you're not alone! Through In Pursuit, two Bendel boys invite you to laugh, yell, and reflect, as they converse from head and heart.

Read more

About the author


Osaretin Oswald Guobadia is co-founder, executive Vice President, and Chief Operating Officer of DBH Solutions, a building infrastructure and top tier technology solutions provider in West Africa. He is a business strategy and technology consultant with over 20 years' experience in technology and business strategy, and a non-executive director of Renaissance Capital (Nigeria), a leading emerging and frontier markets investment bank with access to over 50 markets globally. He sits on the Alumni Board of Wesley College, USA. His interests also span venture capitalism and entrepreneurship, with significant interests in mentorship and funding startups. He is actively engaged on several boards, providing guidance and oversight for their business operations, and contributes to an African economic renaissance by advising organizations on IT strategy, infrastructure and operations optimization, startup consulting, people development and leadership, process improvement, and business continuity. His goal is to help build sustainable businesses that contribute to economic development and job creation.

He is committed to supporting social welfare programs that improve lives and communities. He created the Resolve Foundation, which offers credible and visible opportunities for private individuals and enterprises to execute their philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives. He is also a founding director of the Edo Global Foundation, an initiative focused on the development and support of the next generation Edo creatives; and the founder of Edo Development Organization, a non-partisan political and social group whose members collaborate on opportunities to support their respective communities. He is also involved in several other charitable initiatives through the Lagos Nigeria chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, where he is a founding member.

He makes his home in Lagos, Nigeria and Delaware, USA. He's married to Tanisha and blessed with four children. As a family, they support philanthropic initiatives and enjoy travelling, reading and watching movies. On any given day, you'll find them piled up in a minivan driving cross-country and hoping for a rest stop.



Chukuka Chukuma is an investment banker, entrepreneur and partner at Racecourse Capital, a private investment and advisory firm.  With a career spanning over 20 years at world-class financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Salomon Smith Barney, Citibank Nigeria, Afrinvest West Africa, and Stanbic IBTC Bank, he has executed deals in corporate and project financings across multiple sectors.  He specializes in structuring and raising large, complex, multi-source and multi-currency financings from cradle to grave.

He is committed to raising the economic potential of Africa through investments in human capital, the arts, technology and infrastructure where he sits on the board of several companies. One of them, Sponsors for Economic Opportunity (SEO) Africa, has impacted the lives of over 350 students from 10 African countries placing them in well regarded firms across 4 continents.

As part of his contributions to raising the next set of entrepreneurs in Africa, he mentors new entrants in the Nigerian market and provides strategic insights on innovation.  Chukuka draws from his wealth of experience across various markets in Nigeria and globally, while leveraging his extensive network to help startup entrepreneurs bring their ideas to the market and scale globally.

He lives between Dallas and Lagos.  He is married to an amazing woman, Elisa, and together they have three wonderful kids. Together they share a passion for food, travel, sports and are a very competitive family.

Read more

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Book Reviews

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Toma
In Pursuit A fantastically smooth and easy read. Deceptively informative and inspiring. Almost makes a non-entrepreneur want to be in Naija in pursuit... Excellent work! Read more
Folake
The missing 300 is there! My husband ordered this book for himself and after learning a little bit about the authors backgrounds, I decided to read it. I am SO glad I did! Not just because the style is deeply engaging and hilarious (the best books always are!) but because they did something you don't see often enough. They painted a complete picture of their journey. One of the concepts in the book is this idea of the missing 300 pages in the stories of many famous entrepreneurs. Especially in Africa, this missing 300 is usually where you would find the hidden stories - good and bad. For some entrepreneurs it's the N10million loan their big uncle gave them to 'just manage' (lucky them) and for others, it's shady activities done to acquire startup capital or that first big contract. The effect on young entrepreneurs is the lack of an accurate blueprint to follow. What In Pursuit does really well is unveil some of the things that can happen along the entrepreneurship journey and how any smart, ambitious entrepreneur can overcome the challenges. I loved the conversational writing style, the banter and stories, and I really loved that at the end of the book, I wanted Osaretin and Chukuka to be my friends and business advisors. I wanted to hang out with them and joke around as much as I wanted to discuss business with them. This is a great read, I can't recommend it enough. Worth every dollar. Read more
shawn
Satisfying It is magnificently written. I took my time in reading to enjoy the banter. And I adore the glossary. It helped me understand more. This book is revelatory, it is art. Read more
Ized
Conundrum... You open this book expecting the typical "I have the experience, now I must mentor" motivational speeches in the book and you are steeling yourself for an “aspire to perspire, if you believe, you can achieve” content type book because it is after all a book for entrepreneurs. So you promise yourself that you will quickly scan through and pick out only the important bits, then you open and without warning you are immediately hit with fun banter and content that is so relatable it feels like the authors had you in mind and were thinking about your business life at every chapter, One minute, you are laughing your way through page one and then another, you are nodding in agreement (business in Nigeria will literally almost break you,) then you are laughing again and you look up and you are at page ‘almost ending,’ how??? In one sitting?? Still, you don’t want it to end because you just made new best friends with Oswald and Chukuka and it feels like you have known them forever, what’s great is you have learnt a tonne of shit that you didn't plan to and didn’t even perspire and aspire to. It’s a conundrum... This book. But it's a really great read. Again, don't take my word for it. My vocabulary is flawed. How would you describe it? Read more