Tayo Oviosu and I'm the founder and CEO of Paga. In hindsight, actually, it's not as tough to build trust. You just have to be consistent. I had known Endeavor for a few years. I first encountered Endeavor when I visited South Africa in 2004.
Well, thank you so much for having me. My name is Tayo Oviosu and I'm the founder and CEO of Paga. I was born and raised here in Lagos, down the street. And grew up in a single parent family. My mom was single parent for five boys. I was the last of five boys. And that actually has a lot of, you know, now I reflect on it has a lot of impact to my journey and how I went down the entrepreneurial path. The first thing I and about resilience and things like that, I say to people in my household, when lunch was made or dinner was made, if you didn't come to eat, you're not going to have any leftovers because there's four other people scrambling for food. But yeah, so I was in Nigeria till I was 16 and then I went to college in the US. I studied electrical engineering at the University of Southern California and then worked at a couple startups before I then went to Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco and then business school at Stanford Business School. After business school, actually while I was at business school, I thought very strongly about coming back to Nigeria. Nigeria had just gone through democratic reform and we had seen democracy now for two terms and I thought maybe it was time for me to actually go back and be part of the economic redevelopment of Nigeria. But everyone I spoke to said don't come yet. And this was in 2004, 2005 and they all said Nigeria still felt like where you needed to come in at a higher level. So stay in the US, build your career and then come back. I took that to heart. I decided to stay in the US, went to join Cisco Systems in the acquisitions and venture team. And that was just an amazing experience because it really helped me see for a very acquisitive company and a company that invested a lot in startups how startups are the engine of growth for any country. And opened my eyes to the idea of entrepreneurship even more so than I think while I was at Stanford Business School. And I ended up 3 years later decided to move back to Nigeria. Things had changed dramatically in just three years and decided to become, you know, to come back and we can talk about that experience and how I came back into what is now Paga.
I think first of all like when I decided to come back to Nigeria and I remember making that decision sitting in the hills of the Himalayas in Bhutan and overlooking this beautiful view and meditating and thinking that if I didn't go back to Nigeria now I probably never would. And what really drove me about coming back to Nigeria was to be part of the economic redevelopment of not just Nigeria but Africa. And there something a friend of mine Fred Swaniker said to me at the time that had really I reflected on in that moment and that was that if you think back to those who were in India 15 years before. So now this was in 2008. So you think back to those who were in India 15 years before they have become not just Indian conglomerates but global conglomerates. So names like Tata, Infosys, Wipro and it was like that's the kind of impact you can go have. And so that was one of the things that really motivated me to come back and so I chose to come back. I joined a private equity firm ended up not loving that. So 3 months in I decided to leave and do something entrepreneurial. And I said, you know, for the first time in my life, I'm going to look at everything. I'm not going to limit myself to technology. And I'm going to pour myself into exploring ideas. So, one afternoon, I sat down and I wrote 20 different ideas down. And I started, I got a group of friends, three friends, and said, 'Hey guys, I'm going to start exploring these ideas. Would you mind just spending time with me to think through these ideas, throw stones at them, and maybe have your own some of your own ideas and maybe we would all find an idea that we love and we'll go after it together.' Now, you know, and I started, we just start, I started from number one, right? And just kept going down the list. And one day I had an epiphany about this idea that why am I here in Nigeria carrying cash everywhere I go. I was banked with two different banks. But yet I was carrying cash everywhere. And the problem was actually worse for most people because they were not even banked in the first place. But I remember but I carried a phone with me and I actually have multiple phones with me as I still do today. I have two phones and I actually have not only do I have two phones, I actually have four SIMs in this phone. So I have multiple. That's another story. But anyways, I then said, you know, everybody has a mobile phone. And I remember using PayPal by SMS in 2004. And I said at a minimum even if they don't have data they can send an SMS. So why can we not do payments over SMS? And that's what got me excited and got me going into this idea that has now become Paga. Now 3, 4 months into exploring this idea I went back to that list of 20 that I wrote and number 10 was mobile payments. Number 11 was banking the unbanked and number three was cloud payroll and there was a line from 11 to 10 saying do these two go together and do they go with number three right? And so it was a linkage in that of payments, access to finance and access to people's money right for white collar employees who are on a payroll. And that's really what motivated me and I was like, 'This is awesome.' I actually had been thinking about this without me even really, you know, so it's just been percolating. And so I got going on the idea and bootstrapped the company for the first 6 months before I then now started thinking about bringing other people onto the team, raising angel money and taking it on from there.
Well, I was of all my brothers, I was the very last person anyone would think would come back to Nigeria. My mom was surprised when I told her. She was happy, but she was surprised that I would be the first to actually come back of all my brothers. And then when I left my very cushy private equity job at the height of the Lehman Brothers, you know, fall, so the fall of the markets. Again, everybody thought I was crazy, like why are you doing that right at this moment? And you know, but I remember one entrepreneur who I had actually tried to invest in his business while I was at Cisco. He reached out to me and he said, you know, Tayo, the best time to start companies is during economic downturns. And actually in hindsight, I think he was right. And so that was a good encouragement. But yeah, people didn't understand what I was trying to do. And for the first few months or so, we actually kept it quite secret like what we were working on. And I would tell people I'm working on something but I was on a need to know basis as to if I need to explain it to you to get something understand something else that I would share what it was. But in that moment aside from my three friends who were at work who were helping me with the idea I started reaching out to people who became advisers, so people who I had gotten to know and just spending time with them to get their feedback and their input into the opportunity as well and doing that on a fairly regular basis.
Yeah. So the very first thing I did actually was I said I needed a way to demonstrate to people what I had in my mind. And so I got a friend of mine to help me design a BlackBerry app that was functional. And so I think I had that in a matter of maybe three months or so from when I started working on the idea. And I mean this is the days of BlackBerry, right? And this app was beautiful. I mean but we never once, it never once saw the day of proper life, right? But it was always great because I could bring out my BlackBerry and show people and they could actually like play around with a working prototype. So that was great. But then if you fast forward, that was in 2009. If you fast forward to 2010 when we actually had the first day, I'll never forget the first day we had a working product live environment. And I sent the SMS. And back then when we send an SMS to make a payment, you'll say send the amount you want to send 2,000 to the phone number you want to send to. And then what will happen is you get an automated phone call back that would tell you hi calling from Paga. You are trying to send X amount to this phone number. Please enter your PIN to confirm the transaction. And I got that phone call back immediately. I screamed and everybody downstairs, we're working in this house. And everybody downstairs is like is everything okay? Is everything okay? And I'm like it works. It works. And I was like so excited. And Jay came running up the stairs. I'm like, 'It works. I put my pin in and the money got transferred in the very first transaction.' So yeah, I'll never forget that first transaction. I think that was probably June time frame, 2010, somewhere around there. And then I think the first public demonstration of it was in September to other people, but in June we had it had worked.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean the first, it's interesting like the first product, the first service was sending money. And I think the second was buying airtime and there was no data back then so it was just airtime. But you know we had to do a lot of things that didn't scale to get going right. The mobile operators tried to block us. And so to send an SMS, we literally had SIM modems in USB cards that we had to put, we had four, there were four mobile networks in Nigeria. So, we had four GSM modems and I had to go put them into our servers in the data center. And back then, if you remember, there was no way to automatically top up in Nigeria. Airtime till today is prepaid. You have to prepay for the service before you can make a call. And so back then we had to use vouchers to top up the phones. So literally we had on each of the networks I would go to the data center and have to top it up like manually take the SIM card out, put it into my phone and then top it up. So just things that don't scale. And then we developed a small software that would allow us to check the balance on each of the cards remotely so that we know when to go and when to top it up. And then to sell the airtime we just bought a ton of vouchers and then we put it into our system and then when you tell us you want to buy MTN, Airtel then we're dispensing our own vouchers that we already bought because the Telcos do not allow us to be distributors of their product. So we just did a bunch of things that didn't scale but validated the opportunity and validated what we're trying to do or helped us to validate what we're trying to do. And in terms of team, you know when I got started I spent a lot of time thinking about who would I want to have on this journey with me and there were two key criteria for me is one I wanted to have people who were smarter than me who I really trusted and I think and I hope would add value. And then the second criteria was actually people who I enjoy spending time with because we're going to spend a lot of time together. And we don't have to be best friends but we enjoy spending time with these people. And so a friend of mine Aisha Bashir, I asked her to join and then very shortly after Jay Alaba, I asked him also to join and then we started building a team around us. And eventually both of them became co-founders into the business. So yeah, 16 years on, Jay and I are still here. We're still running this business together. It feels like it's been a, you know, it feels like it's been like a marriage in some ways, right? Like it's a long-term relationship. And that's been beautiful to see.
Yeah, it's a really good question like what do people believe in? Because I think fundamentally everyone believed that the way payments and financial services were in Nigeria was not the way it should be for success of the country and there was a unique opportunity to help change that. And that if we were bold and if we went after it we could play a critical role in doing this and why not us. And I think that's it right. But I do remember the first time we sat together as a team eight of us to refine our mission and vision. And at the time when I was bringing everybody in the mission as I defined it was to a cashless society like a world where cash did not exist at all. Physical notes did not exist. And when we got into that session, it was fascinating to me that that was scary to most everyone in the room. And I was like, 'What?' But you left your jobs to come onto this thing with me. But I remember stepping out of the room and going for a walk because I was like, 'What? How did everybody not buy into the same mission?' And realizing that but actually we need to as a team come together to what our joint mission is and that needs to be a joint agreement. And so coming out of that we refined what we all put together as our mission. You know and that we all bought into. So, but at the core of it ultimately was that here was a small team of people who really truly believe that we could change the world, right? And we're going to go do it, right? Come rain or shine. And I think that has been a core part of our DNA at Paga and with our team. Is that regardless and we really embody the definition of entrepreneurship that Irv Grousbeck who's a professor at Stanford Business School really espouses which is that we pursue opportunity without regard of the resources currently controlled right. And that's something that we really, really embody.
Yeah, building trust. We thought early days we thought to ourselves to say, look, trust is going to be the toughest thing to build. In hindsight, actually, it's not as tough to build trust. You just have to be consistent. When you say something's going to work in a certain way, it should generally work it that way. And just stick to your word. Do it over and over and over again and just repeat to it. And that's what builds trust. But with everyone I've seen it, first time we launched Paga, the very first person who put money into Paga after explaining everything to him, he put in 25,000 naira and he used it very quickly and it was successful. He was paying for his DSTV. He paid for his DSTV. Television came on. He called me. He's like, 'How do I fund more?' I'm like, 'You didn't pay attention, but okay, here's how you do it.' So he went and he funded 50,000 naira. And by the way when he funds the 50,000 naira, I'll come back to the story but he funds 50,000 naira and it worked. Then he funded 100,000 to everyone and I've seen this over and over again. We just launched in the US recently. I still see it with the new people. The first time they fund they fund a small amount right everybody let me test right and then it works and then oh okay then bigger amount bigger amount. So everybody it's always that way. So I think it's just that trust that you build trust by delivering to what you said you would do right. Now, what was interesting about this first guy who put money in Paga, he was doing it to pay the cable television service called DSTV. And when you at that time when you go fund at the bank, you have to remember there was no interbanking system in Nigeria back then. So when you go fund at any one of our bank branches, we had opened like four or five banks accounts, you had to come back to the Paga app and tell us you funded a specific amount and tell us which bank and then we had a team at the back that will go and verify it. Two people verify it and then we'll give you credit. So very manual process but it worked very manual process. Again we just had to do things that work. At some point at the height we had about 20 people whose job was to verify these transactions. And they were working hard all the time. Their SLA was no transaction in the queue could last an hour like everybody got to like you know and so it was really intense. Now, with DSTV, it was also interesting because there's a South African company here in Nigeria. And the way we convinced them, we said, 'Okay, let's pilot this, right?' And so when you paid your DSTV on Paga, your television turned on within like 30 minutes. And it looked like a miracle to everybody. But the way it worked is that when you paid on Paga, we sent an email to two people who would then say, 'Okay, the money is on Paga and we'll manually turn you on in their system.' There was no integration for the first 6 months. And then finally, after that worked, again, things that don't scale. After that worked, DSTV allowed us to integrate to their systems in South Africa, and we're the first external company they ever allowed to integrate into their systems directly, right? Because not only did the transactions work, but again, not one day did we ever miss paying them their money. Again, trust, building trust, because we didn't put any deposits down. There was no collateral. And so they turned on service based on the fact that we delivered the money to them. And so till today, 16 years later, we have an amazing relationship with them. Have never once missed paying them. But that got us going and that example convinced all the other billers in Nigeria to trust Paga and now we're connected to all the billers in Nigeria. In fact, we're now the aggregator for other people to come through us to billers. And so but again, I think it really goes back to keeping our word and doing what we say we would do is what builds trust in the system.
Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, like I remember Jay would tell the story as I took him to probably the dingiest lounge in Nigeria to tell him, you know, and I went to one small corner to tell him about this top secret idea that I was working on and ask him to join and he had just come back to Nigeria. We had met each other actually at Stanford Business School. He would have been a year behind me. But he deferred for a year but when he did start I was still in the Bay Area and so we kept in touch and would have dinners with a bunch of people. So when he looked at coming back to Nigeria he had reached out to me and we talked and kept in touch. So he moved and he was back on ground and so then we had this meeting. I shared with him what I was working on and I said I think you should come join, give it some thought. And he got excited about it and decided to join and come on the journey. Actually decided to start working with us before he could leave his job. So he leaves in good terms with the people he was working with. So that was great to bring him on and it accelerated how fast we could actually, we were delivering. So that was completely brilliant and I think for me and then soon after also our CTO Eric Chichok joined us along the journey first as a consultant and then more full-time and really I think what has led to, and Eric is still our CTO, is still here 16 years later as well right. And I think what has led to that not only with them but also with the extended leadership team is really about transparency. It's really about having open dialogue, open conversation, being clear as to and in agreement as to what we're doing, why we're doing it. Refining that, holding ourselves accountable. And not being afraid to make tough decisions when we need to make them, right?
Yeah. I think what's been also really good is that we're very clear that I'm the CEO, right? And that's been very clear. So the buck stops with me, right? And so but again, you know, if you are leading A+ players and you want people who have high EQ, high energy, you know, these are all people that stand on their own feet. You don't lead by banging the table. So I think even though the buck stops with me, I definitely take in account the views of everyone but ultimately I decide like you know things that ultimately may come to my table. Doesn't mean I decide everything. I also, you know, people have the authority to make decisions in their area that they're responsible for. So I think that's the real key thing is that everyone has their area of responsibility. They're expected to focus and drive that. But even within that there is transparency on what's going on, why, you know, if I'm making a decision why am I making that decision. We don't have to always agree right but you have to be clear why you don't agree and also clear that I've listened and I've heard but here's why I'm going a different way if I'm going a different way.
Yeah. I mean, look, I think it's a very lonely journey and having a co-founder does make it a bit easier, but doesn't take away from the loneliness because I think even it really just depends to be honest on the people. But I think even at that the weight falls in a different way, right? Because ultimately, again, I'm wearing the CEO hat, right? I think I probably feel things a little differently than Jay does or than Eric does. But it's also good to, they don't feel it, but also just feel a bit differently and the weight of it might be maybe a bit different. I think part of that is also that they're trusting that Tayo's got it right. So, you know, but meanwhile Tayo doesn't have anybody else like okay, who's that person, right? So I think that balance is out there. So, I do think as entrepreneurs, it's really important to find your outlets, to find your trusted way to have conversations and ways to make sure that you're not carrying all that burden by yourself. And I think a key part of it actually is making sure you're bringing along your co-founder, you're bringing along your investors, right? But beyond them you also have people who are not attached to what you're actually doing who can actually bring outside perspectives right. So one thing that I should have done earlier on in my journey was have a professional coach right. I've had a professional coach now since 2020 and she's been amazing right. And I actually don't think I'd be here today
Without her support, I've only met her once in my life in person. And so it's really cool having someone who is not emotionally attached to what we're doing but can give a dispassionate view and call me out as well, right? And help me navigate a number of different things.
And then on top of that also I've had a group of four other entrepreneurs, three other entrepreneurs sorry, who are also fintech founders in other parts of the world that I met through Endeavor and we meet every other month and that's been amazing as well, right? And just to have very candid open conversations with each other and we've now done that for about four years now and that's been really really steady and really cool.
Yeah, I think the hardest part of raising funds early days of Paga was just that in Nigeria people were not used to the idea of venture investing or angel investing and so we had to help teach a lot of that to people and pass the hat around a lot. If you look at our cap table today, we have probably about 35 angel investors. And if I look at how much we've raised from those individuals, if I were in the US or in the west, there's no way I'd have raised that from 35. It would be a smaller group of people. But that's just the nature of the African capital at the time we raised money. So that's a key that I think that's probably the biggest challenge.
Yeah. I mean I think finally in fact I think what finally changed was more than you know there being more venture funds that were looking at the region and you know and then being able to raise capital fairly quickly from those funds and be able to drive that forward as we go.
I'm not sure that there was a specific myth about African fintech to push. In fact, if anything, I think the challenge is more that two challenges I think. One is more that people went to Silicon Valley to tell stories about what is on ground that weren't actually true. And so I think that created or you know creates things that we just had to help distill, right? And then two is there was a lot of story about the size of the market and the earning potential of the market that I don't think actually matches what's on ground. And so you can tell the story of 200 million people, tell the story of Africa is going to be a billion plus people etc. But people don't tell the earning power story which I think is something that we have tried to stay steady about in how we convey the opportunity, right? There's a massive opportunity but we have to be clear about what the earning potential is today and where those opportunities actually lie.
Look, I think you have to be very realistic in your numbers. Very realistic. And I remember sitting in New York talking to a very well-known investor from a very well-known firm and he said to me, 'You're not ambitious enough looking at my numbers.' And I was like, 'Wow, are you serious?' And fast forward two years later, he invested in another company that clearly was ambitious enough. The founder stole about $460 million of their money. He got fired. And I was like, well, there you go for your ambition, right? So, I think be realistic, be grounded. Don't put up numbers for the sake of numbers. And just stay steady, right? And I think that wins long term, right? Trying to be flashy, trying to like, you know, just throw big numbers out to, you know, help you raise money also leads to the counter which is that yes, that founder raised a 60 million, but he blew it. Now unfortunately for the rest of us that story and that particular firm is probably not going to invest in Africa for a very long time and a lot of others around them are probably going to look at that story and it's going to reflect poorly on the entire ecosystem, right? So I think as founders we have to be clear that what we're doing is not just our own story but also impact the ecosystem as well.
No, you know, I've never had that moment, actually. Yeah. You know, I really feel genuinely like I'm on a god-given mission. Are there moments that I'm tired? Yep. Are there moments that I burn out? Yep. But that I should never have done it? No. I don't feel that. And I've been very fortunate to have a really good group of people around me. My wife to really support me who's also an entrepreneur. And really help me through those down moments as well, right? And help motivate me to see the picture again. But you know when I hear the stories of how our work has impacted people's lives when I talk to people when you know as has happened many times we're sitting outside and people are talking about Paga, don't even know who I am and I'm like that's awesome. You know I remember one particular story, these two women were talking about using Paga and I wanted to like go ask them questions, my wife was like no don't, you know, and they had no clue who I was but that was just amazing. I was like that's cool. Like, you know, like that's something that we work and that people are using it. And so I actually have to remind the team here a lot because we're very very fanatical about customer experience and making sure that things work for the customer. And so we spend a lot of time dealing with issues that come up and we all plug into it, you know, and whether we hear it on Twitter or whether we see it or someone calls in, etc. And then I have to remind the team that all of those issues represent less than 1% of our transactions, right? And everything for most 99 something percent is working smoothly, right? So we always have to remember that because you spend so much time on dealing with issues, you think of a lot of issues. But you know, but we're now processing over a billion dollars a month in transactions and working for the likes of Meta, the likes of LemFi, the likes of Branch, the likes of Amazon who are using our platform and building on the infrastructure we've built. And so we're really proud of those partnerships and that's what drives us. When I remember those things, when I remember that we're making a difference for people, we're helping people, give them the freedom to thrive, like that really then, you know, jazzes me back up again.
I don't think I had a fear so to speak. I think I was very clear and I think maybe it's because, you know, there's something I remember once along this point a friend of mine, you know, I remember telling him I was like, we're going to invest over $100 million to achieve the vision that I have. And he said, you know, did you think about that when you started? And I was like, no. And I was like, 'Wow.' He was like, 'That's bold.' You know, and then we paused for a minute. I was like, 'Or very stupid, you know, and like there's a real thin line between bravery and stupidity, right?' But I think I leaned on that bravery line. And I think it came from Cisco actually. I really really think time at Cisco, time at Stanford around other entrepreneurs really helped me realize that why not us, like what is it that we cannot do. And it's really about pouring yourself into it and putting your foot forward to do it. So I don't think fear is something I've had on this. What's been clear though is that you have to mitigate risk, right? And I separate risk from ambiguity. So ambiguity is I don't know what the future holds, but risk I know what the risks are. So I got to mitigate the risk out of it, right? Like you know and make sure that we're mitigating risk. But ambiguity we're comfortable. We walk into it, right? And at each point we make the best decision we can make. And if it's wrong, we go back, right? We keep going, right? Like what's the worst that happens? Like we keep going. So yeah.
Yeah, I mean not necessarily, right? Even though we're one of the earliest, it doesn't come with any pressure specifically. I think the place I do feel is more that we need to be and I want us to continue being the example, right? The example of doing things properly. The example of staying steady to our goal and to our mission. The example of not paying attention to whatever flashy thing anybody else is doing, right? Oh, this founder is flying a jet. Okay, that business is dead today. Okay, this founder is doing that, right? Like, doesn't matter. Has a house in Chelsea. Awesome. Great for him, right? That's fine. But we stay steady to what we're doing and we build out and build our mission, right? So I think for us that's the only thing that is in the mind is that we're doing what we're doing. We're playing a long game and we recognize we're maybe playing a different game from others but we're playing a long game.
Yeah. So I think staying grounded is realizing that I'm not Paga. Like I think that's the first step, right? That I'm not defined by my company and that what matters the most is actually my family, my friends and the impact I have in the world on a personal basis, how I help other people. And so I spend a lot of time on that and make sure that I'm giving myself to my two lovely kids, to my friends, people who are dearest to me. And when other people reach out to me, I do my best to be helpful. And that I have other hobbies outside of work. I love my Chelsea football. And pour myself into that quite a lot. The best team in the world. I actually had a very interesting experience this weekend with a six-year-old kid who asked me, you know, he told me he supports Liverpool, right? And I said, 'Oh, okay. That's interesting.' He's like, 'Who do you support? Arsenal?' And I was like, 'No, no, no. I support Chelsea, the best team in the world.' And he goes, 'They're not the best team.' He said, 'PSG is the best team.' And I'm like, 'Oh, okay. Well, Chelsea beat PSG in the Club World Cup finals and we beat Liverpool, champions. So PSG champions of Europe, Liverpool champions of England, we beat Barcelona champions of Spain. So we're the best team.' And then he looks at me and he's like, 'But Chelsea's in Europe.' So PSG is the champion of Europe, right? Like, and I was like, 'All right, you got me there, right?' But I, you know, just having those kind of exchanges about football, like I think football does bring people together. So I really love pouring myself into football for that reason. It really helps me stay grounded and actually it really gives me a perfect example of life and work, right? Is that you know I think life is a team sport. It really is both in your personal life and at work. And not everybody is going to be the striker. Not everybody is going to be a good midfielder. Not everybody can be the goalkeeper. So whatever your role is, what you're great at, you need to find that and stay with it, right? And actually practice that even more, right? Like whatever you're good at, practice that more. And I think that's true in personal life as well at home. There are things that I'm better doing that my wife, the things that she's better doing than me. So, she should do that. I should do this other thing, right? And we make it work. So I love football for many reasons and that helps me stay grounded.
A lot of things actually. We're very intentional about our culture here. And maybe the biggest one is ownership. That I think we have found a way to really build an ownership mindset across the entire organization. And that ownership mindset means that I'm confident everyone in any decision they're making they're making it from a perspective of this is my business and what is the best decision for this moment and this particular thing. It's not a what would Tayo think? How would the boss think about it? No, it's for them making the best decision here.
Yeah, I remember saying yes to Endeavor in this room actually of like going through the process. And this is when Endeavor started in Nigeria. I think Jay and I were the first Endeavor entrepreneurs to go through the Nigeria ISP process. And the big reason I had known Endeavor for a few years. I had first encountered Endeavor when I visited South Africa in 2004. And the big reason that I said yes was two. One is that Endeavor gives us the opportunity to get exposure to other people in the fintech financial services space globally. Exposure to mentors and investors. So that was on one side. And people who could help us accelerate what we're doing. And then the second was an opportunity to give back in a constructive way where I knew that if Endeavor was asking me to speak to any entrepreneur that entrepreneur has gone through a filter already and I can almost guarantee I'm not wasting my time. And in a world where I get a lot of different pings, I thought that was a very useful way to do it. So it was not a very long conversation for myself and Jay to think about saying yes to go through the process. And I also appreciated that there was a very clear rigor to that process and that made me even appreciate the second point even more so and yeah and that's been the key.
Yeah, I do. I do. I remember we met with the country manager a couple times and then we met with different mentors who maybe three or so. And after that we had the country selection process where I think it was at the Eko Hotel. We had a conference room and four people interviewed us, two panels and then there were people watching us actually through the interview process. And then they celebrated and then they came out with we're the only company but still there was a celebration, you know, and then they came out and told us we're successful. I remember us waiting for their decision, you know. And then we had the international panel in South Africa later that fall and so yeah, so we flew down to Cape Town and again but this now there were more companies, more people and similar kind of thing, two different panels, two different entrepreneur groups. Yeah. And I'm still in touch with of the four interviewers, two of them I'm still very much in touch with them. Through the process got to meet a number of different people who I've stayed in touch with over the years as well.
If not for Endeavor, how would I say that? I would say if not for Endeavor, it would have been very hard for me to make it through over the last four years because Endeavor led me to one of the key groups that has helped me in the last four years, which is my peer group that we meet, my fintech peer group. And we've all met through Endeavor from the Outliers program. And we're in all different parts of the world, Sao Paulo, Milan, Jakarta, Lagos, and yet it's fascinating when we talk because even though we're in different parts of the world, our fintechs are different, we still face very similar kind of challenges, both personal and professional. And we're able to help each other and that's really really precious. And you know and then now actually one of them we're doing business together which is also really cool like his company has come into Nigeria and like we're their partner in Nigeria and that's also really cool to see and so I think that has been a special gift from Endeavor to us. There are a lot of other people we've met on the journey who've advised us on different things but I think that one really stays very special to me.
Yeah, there are a number of ways in which I try to give back. You know, actually one of them I do is having conversations like this one, right? Like and just sharing my experience so that hopefully people can view it online and that is a learning point for them. The second is that I actually take the time to also speak at events, speak at schools. You know at Stanford Business School I guest lecture in a couple classes on a regular basis. I've guest lectured in a number of other schools as well. The African Leadership Academy University as an example. But also just directly talking to entrepreneurs, right? And then you know, Endeavor has a scale up program and I've done breakfast sessions with entrepreneurs in that as well. So I try to find organized ways to do it where I give back. I'm also an angel investor, so I angel invest in some companies and then help with that. Later this week I'm actually participating in a unique program that the folks at Hustle Fund are putting together where they're doing a 24-hour hotline where entrepreneurs can apply to get a 30-minute slot and you get to speak with another entrepreneur or VCs and really just come in with whatever problems you want them to help you with and get their idea and their feedback, right? And so I'm participating in that. So it's 24 hours. I'm not on for 24 hours. We're all on for like an hour each, but the whole thing's 24 hours. So it's like a marathon. And you know, and I think that's really cool and that's another way just to give back, right? To participate.
Yeah. I think for me it's about the multiplier effect is really about like you know you not just taking but giving back to the community and to the ecosystem, right? And letting your story also inspire other people and let's make sure that we build an ecosystem that benefits everybody as we go.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm really proud that we've been part of Outliers for the last four years or so now. You know and I think this year you know I should say that we've now concluded act one of Paga. We've built a profitable business. There's still venture growth. We have built a brand that's well known and we've product market fit across our three business lines. And now in act two, it's day one. And the first key part of act two is building multicurrency capabilities into our infrastructure. And then building in, you know, stable coins, cryptocurrencies, and leaning into the new future of money movement. So a big thing that I was really proud of this year is us launching a US dollar banking service. And that being really around how do we enable Africans to not just have access to domestic payments and financial services, but global financial rails, right? And so bringing that into the infrastructure layer for us is a real exciting point. And that's going to drive a new level of scale for our business.
Yeah. So the future's elsewhere for me really is about helping people particularly in the west to realize that talent is evenly distributed the world, right? And so people with ideas and ability to scale those ideas is distributed and I actually think and I'm not just saying this because I'm Nigerian but maybe because I'm Nigerian I see it a little more closely is that I think Nigerians are some of the most brilliant people in the world, right? Like if you look at the best surgeons in the world, you'll find Nigerians. If you go look at the best neuroscientists, you'll find Nigerians. You go space, you find Nigerians. Crypto, you find Nigerians. Sui was founded by a Nigerian, right? Like, you know, so we're everywhere, right? And I think helping people realize that they are talented people and ideas and the world and the future of the world is and with technology today is democratizing a lot of things. The access to capital is still not democratized but the ideas are democratized and people able to go after the ideas. So I do think it's about helping the venture world, helping, you know, people realize that there could be opportunities to invest in companies in other parts of the world that would be the multi-billion dollar businesses of the future, right? And that those companies would not only serve like the local markets, but global markets, right? And so I think that's really what sort of helped me think about.
I think Paga's chapter and what I hope it stands for is that Paga built the global infrastructure for Africans. The global payments and financial services infrastructure for Africans. And for me what that means is that we are the foundational layer that other tech companies build on top of, right, to accelerate what they're solving, right? And that through that infrastructure layer, we give access to individuals and to businesses, domestic and international rails, and we connect the world together, right? And that we're that hub that connects Africa to the world.
I'm just proud of what we built, like you know, that we have created over a thousand jobs directly, we've created over 200,000 indirectly and we have been able to help people achieve so much in their lives. I remember being on this Twitter space. I've told this story once recently and this lady came on the space. I was actually just at I went up to ask a question and she came up and she's like, 'Are you Tayo of Paga?' And I was like, 'Yeah.' She's like, 'Well, I just want to say thank you for building Paga because I was a Paga agent and that's how I paid for med school and that's how I earned money to pay for my med school.' And I was like, 'What? That's amazing.' you know, like that's just a different level of amazing. And so I'm just really proud of everything we've done and the fact that we've been through tough moments. We've been through tough economy. We've not had the it's not like we've been in the most supportive of economies or governments that support entrepreneurs in any way. But we've been able to build a business that is profitable, that is scaling really fast, that's earning millions of dollars and is having a real impact in people's lives. So, I think that's what I'm most proud of.
Probably the biggest thing I would say is like get a coach, a professional coach earlier on in the journey. I think that's the biggest thing. You know, then maybe the second thing I would say is raise more money early, right? You know, I think that would have made a difference. Yeah, but otherwise go for it. Be bold. Venture boldly.
