Tech-Success - Interview with Saheed Adepoju, Nigeria's Tablet Pioneer

To mark the start of our Tech-Success interview series, an interview segment with Entrepreneurs

who have damned all odds and dared to succeed. Which we intend to bring to you periodically,

we are joined by Saheed Adepoju, who is reputed to be Africa's tablet computer pioneer.

Saheed is a Co-founder of the Encipher Group; a Technology Company based in Nigeria that

produced Nigeria's first tablet computer called 'Inye'.

The 'Inye' received global attention for being the first tablet invention to come out of Africa, at

some point Saheed was called Africa's Steve jobs for his innovation.

Both Saheed and the 'Inye' became news and everyone simply wanted to meet this young

Nigerian who had dared tell the world that Africa had potentials and could invent things.

Forbes, CNN, BBC, the Sunday Times, Punch and a host of the global and local media power

houses queued up to hear Saheed's story. He has given speeches at Google day, E-Nigeria, the

Economist conference and a host of others.

We are happy that Saheed found the time to join us for the maiden edition of our Tech-Success

series, and very glad to learn from someone who clearly used online marketing hacks to attract

global attention to a made in Nigeria product.

We wanted him to share his experiences so that we can learn from it and also inspire young

Nigerians and Africans who want to start up their businesses or already running their start-up

companies.

Daniel Obaike: How did you get your idea or concept for business?

Saheed Adepoju: My idea and concept for business came from watching late Steve Jobs launch

the Apple IPAD. I realized that such a product within the Nigerian market would be an instant hit

because the Nigerian internet space is saturated with mobile internet.

So I decided to launch a local product which aimed to provide internet access via a mobile

internet device (aka tablet)

Daniel Obaike: What was your mission at the outset?

Saheed Adepoju: My mission was to actually give the opportunity to IT companies in Nigeria to

test out their mobile apps on actual tablets rather than emulators. In doing so, I realized that end

consumers had interest as well so we pushed into the consumer section.

Daniel Obaike: What is the story of the'INYE'

Saheed Adepoju: INYE translates to number 1 in Igala language. My co-founder is Igala and we

looked for a name which will show the efforts of two people. I am Yoruba and the originator of

the idea so I felt it unwise to go ahead and use a Yoruba word to name the project.

For inclusion purposes we decided to use the igala word for Number '1'. This was to signify that

we were truly first in Nigeria and Africa to launch a localized android tablet PC.

Daniel Obaike: How were you able to attract global attention for the 'INYE'?.i.e. CNN, Wired, CNBC etc?

Saheed Adepoju: Well we did two things. First, we signed an MOU with TechLoy, a growing

technology blog at the time which was widely read worldwide. Secondly, we made sure we used

social media as the main entry point into our company.

So we had a good website, Facebook page, Twitter handle. The very first one was WIRED UK;

we had just used Techloy to announce that Google had acquired Encipher for $1m or so. It

created a frenzy and people called from across the world.

This was April 1st. So we employed the Google strategy of using April 1st to create 'fake' news

in order to gain traction.

It worked. We didn't need to pay for any advertising. The moment WIRED covered our story, the

rest of the media people came calling. Social media was the powerhouse to get attention. We had

zero advertising budgets, no office and no staff.

Daniel Obaike: What role did Social Media play in building the INYE brand?

Saheed Adepoju: Social media was the powerhouse to get attention. We had zero advertising

budgets, no office and no staff.

Daniel Obaike: How did the brand image of the INYE affect you as a person?

Saheed Adepoju: As a person, INYE became a household name for the first tablet PC. I realized

as an individual that one can build a brand from absolutely nothing to international and

worldwide stardom.

As a person, I am grateful to have followed the course of my dream and achieved the goal of

building a consumer brand.

Daniel Obaike: What challenges did you face getting the INYE to the consumer market and its subsequent exit?

Saheed Adepoju: The biggest issue was funding. Funding was important because it enables us

to bring in the precise volume in order to justify a low price. We exited the market in order to

avoid huge debts. The tablet market also became saturated 2-3years after we had started and led

to a false start.

Daniel Obaike: What would you have done different?

Saheed Adepoju: I may have gone the route of pre-ordering devices. Customers would pay and

then get their tablets after a pre-defined period. This may have helped with cash flows.

Daniel Obaike: Did you get any government patronage and what Responsibilities did you handle for the government? Any Regrets?

Saheed Adepoju: The government did not support the INYE. They were keen to use our success

of the brand internationally for their own brand management but that was it. However, I had the

privilege of being part of the committee that finalized the ICT policy document and this was the

biggest highlight from a government perspective.

Daniel Obaike: What have you been up too after the exit of the INYE from the consumer market?

Saheed Adepoju: I have since decided to concentrate on building specialized hardware products

with the aim of solving local problems. At the moment, there is a specialized device for vehicle

traffic counting.

Daniel Obaike: Are you leveraging the brand success of INYE to boost the Marketing of your current endeavour?

Saheed Adepoju: The experience of branding INYE is helping me create strategies to build

other brands including my current start-up. For now, nothing has eclipsed the attention the INYE

got.

Daniel Obaike: Describe an outline of your typical day

Saheed Adepoju: Day starts at 9-10am for me. Typically will do research and catch up on new

things within the space I work with.

If there are clients to see, I drive up to them. By 4pm, I pick up my wife from the bank. I work

within the kitchen section of the bank right up to 8pm when the traffic is clear. I get home at

about 10pm.

Daniel Obaike: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Saheed Adepoju: Only give up on your dream if the person discouraging you and saying it is

impossible can predict the future.

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