Fejiro Hanu Agbodje is no longer an alien name in the African fintech ecosystem. A 26 years old young and hard-working visionary behind Patricia, a four-year-old multi-million-dollar company servicing over 30,000 clients on daily transactions with over 300 staff spread across Africa, Asia, and UAE, and interestingly, he bootstrapped the company off WhatsApp without receiving a grant or raising institutional funding.
Patricia poise as Africa’s most prominent cryptocurrency company on a mission to rewrite financial experiences across the globe using a simple, intelligent, and accessible solution to build refreshing products and services for her users. The company’s purpose is summarised into the phrase “Crypto Made Easy” and pride itself as the fastest growing bitcoin brand in Africa.
At this time, Patricia housed three fast-growing brands: Glover – home for gift cards trading and non-crypto assets, Rooomxix – luxury urban street wears, and Double H – automated luxury short let apartments.
Hanu is an Urhobo man born in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. He had had a passion for entrepreneurship since he was eight years old when he sold sweets to his mates and made a good profit doing that.
Hanu, who has received numerous awards and recognition, which include CEO of the year, Tech Entrepreneur of the year, Ones to watch Under 35, Amplify 2021 fellow and many others, gained the spotlight and became more famous when his company Patricia sponsored Big Brother Naija (BBN) – Africa’s most-watched reality entertainment shows, with viewers cutting across the globe and fans spending billions of naira voting for their favourite housemate to win – for the second consecutive time in 2021 and this time as the associate sponsor second to Abeg, the headline sponsor. The sponsorship was sealed at 1 billion naira, according to reports.
In an interview with Muyiwa Matuluko of Techpoint Africa, Hanu shared his entrepreneurship journey and told his tale of 13 failed businesses, friends’ betrayal, swindling, mockery, scam, and life lessons, principles, and gut and how it all added to his success in building Patricia. I summarised and paraphrased the interview into five lessons to help you learn and be inspired.
5 Mighty Lessons to Learn From Fejiro Hanu’s Tale
Have an Idea Journal
I have a journal where I write all my ideas, even the stupid or dumb ones. In the beginning, I had to open my idea journal to see which idea I could build to make me at least ₦30,000 a month after realizing my savings of about 1 million naira after University days were gradually reducing from daily expenses. Patricia happened to be number 37 on that idea book and saw it was a promising idea that could fetch me that amount. I wasn’t looking to build anything elaborate. I was trying to survive, says Hanu.
He further advises budding entrepreneurs to write their ideas down in a journal. He added that I’d never have had something to look back to if I had never written Patricia down.
Don’t Stop Trying and Failing.
On failing, he advises –
Try as many ideas as you can, and don’t stress over failing. You are young and still have time to fail, and you know, most people don’t even try because they are afraid of failing.
Before I founded Patricia, I tried and failed at 13 businesses. The businesses ranged from recharge card business, commercial bike business, fast-food joint, ‘meshai business’ (indomie, tea and egg) — of which it all ended in tears.
That didn’t discourage me, and trust me; I would if I had to try 100 businesses. Because I read that Thomas Edison tried the light bulb a thousand times, and I don’t even know if it’s true, but I do know if anyone can try something a thousand times, they must succeed.
My success today was that I had gained so much first-hand experience from the failed businesses that in the first two years of running Patricia, there was barely any new challenge to me, Hanu added.
Live with Jungle Rules
One of the most remarkable business lessons I learned is “Jungle Rules”. It’s about knowing who to trust in business and not letting shame be why I don’t try or fail to achieve my goals.
In 200 Level, I had to quit school to mount my popcorn stand business because the lady I employed swindled me and opened a competing shop opposite mine. My coursemates would take photos and post them on our WhatsApp group to make fun of me. But I didn’t mind because I was already familiar with the concept of no shame in business. I knew they were not going to feed me anyway, so I had to trick my mind into seeing it as a free advertisement, and it didn’t get to me as they expected.
Invest Back in Your Business As You Earn
I started Patricia with ₦800,000 in personal savings. I rented a boy’s quarters for ₦500,000, furnished it with about ₦100,000, and bought a few second-hand laptops. I had about ₦120,000 left for paying the initial salaries of two people I hired, 30k each.
But one month into starting the company, no sale was recorded. I was quite frustrated but did not relent. So I had to think creatively about how we’ll start making sales and maintain cash flow.
Growing up, I saw the power of influencers. I remember back in school (University of Port Harcourt) when Olamide dyed brown hair, and half of my school had dyed their hair brown in less than one week. Now, imagine if Olamide says, “use Patricia”? I was pretty sure many people would because Olamide said so.
Since I couldn’t afford Olamide, I reached out to Mr Jollof (Comedian), which I could afford, and negotiated with him to make an ad for ₦80,000 to promote Patricia to his audience. He made the ad and put it out to his audience. Before we know it, enquiries and transactions started trickling in. By the end of the day, we had completed about 40 to 50 transactions, excluding enquiries, and made ₦180,000 in one day. I took all of that money, paid him again, and paid somebody else. And that was how things kicked off.
Understand Shifting Goal Post
Don’t try to figure it all out in the beginning. Build your ship as you sail. When you execute and reach the end of a goal, another one will definitely surface. I started Patricia to make ₦30,000 a month to survive. After we made ₦180,000 in one day, I realized we could do more, and I pushed for more. The dream keeps getting bigger as we crush one goal after another.
I have many principles I live by, and one of them is Occam’s Razor. Occam’s Razor basically states that sometimes, and most times (90% of the time in my experience), the best solution is usually the simplest solution. I’m not particularly eager to overthink things; the first idea that comes to mind is what I implement first. That way, I’ve saved almost two weeks of planning and already have a foundation to build on and keep building.
He further added – another blessing that is a stumbling block for young entrepreneurs today is the fact that there’s a tech community. So they want to operate within the laws of the tech community. They want to go and raise funds; they want to go and seek somebody’s advice.
I did not do any of that. I didn’t even know there was a tech community for the first two years of running Patricia. That was a blessing because it was just from idea to execution, and I did not know that I could actually get money from somebody. All I knew was this business needed a certain amount of money to execute this, and that was our next goal. And somehow, we always got it with just sheer tenacity.
Conclusion
I won’t be wrong to say Fejiro Hanu is a force to reckon with. He poses as a dreaded young god inspiring budding entrepreneurs to do the most and conquer their world. In fact, Do The Most is his favourite phrase and one of the values that drive Patricians.
