On September 28th, Wetech celebrated its 5th anniversary in Lagos, Nigeria. At this event, the PitchHer contest brought together five startup founders. Omolara Sanni, the co-founder of Midddleman, a platform helping e-commerce businesses pay suppliers in China, emerged as the winner of the Pitch contest.
The Stack Journal spoke with Omolara to discuss her background and the lessons she learned.
Congratulations on your win. Can you share a bit about your background and how it influenced your entrepreneurial path?
Thank you. I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering in school, and quite honestly, I didn’t exactly see myself doing entrepreneurship, but that changed in my final year. I took a training that sort of exposed me to the technology and startup world.
My first business was in e-commerce. I learnt about importing goods from China and selling them in Nigeria. I did that for about five years, and now I’m solving some of the problems I experienced during that time with technology at Midddleman.
Is that what Midddleman is about?
Yes. Midddleman makes it easy, safe and fast for African e-commerce businesses to pay suppliers in China.
What sparked your pitch idea and motivated you to participate in Wetech Pitch?
I attended Wetech last year, and watching other women pitch really inspired me. I literally said to myself that I wanted to be on the stage the following year. I applied and got selected this year. Wetech was very supportive; they helped us refine our pitch, and we had multiple mock pitch sessions before D-day.
What were the biggest challenges you faced during the process of developing the pitch, and what lessons did it teach you?
The biggest challenge was communicating the important part of the pitch within a limited time. I had so much to say, but it was crucial to be conscious of the time and also focus on the important stuff.
Lessons learned would be to always focus on the metrics that matter and be able to describe what my company does in a simple way that doesn’t require mental gymnastics for anyone to understand.
What is the big plan for your company now?
The plan is to expand our team, reach more users, support more businesses, and basically generate more revenue.
Congratulations once again.
What advice do you have for other aspiring women who want to pitch next year?
Thank you.
My advice is for them to focus on building aggressively for the next couple of months before the next pitch. That way, they will have good numbers to show that they’re qualified to be on that stage.