Laolu Williams

Jeffery:
All right. So welcome everybody, today we are on our, I’m gonna say our 41st, I’m going to get the actual number, it’s probably our 51st interview — and we are part of OPN ask an angel. And today we’re with Laolu, I hope I said that correct…

Laolu:
Yeah. Perfect, perfect.

Jeffery:
Yes. All right and I’m excited to chat like we’ve kind of hit up different spectrums when we get into talking and and getting into interviews but I can say that everybody fits into a different bucket. But one of the places that is kind of, if you will, dear to my heart is gaming. I’m a big fan of it, I have been for I can’t even remember. I’ve been playing since I was probably 14, 13 somewhere in that ballpark and since the PS2 came out and gaming on computers and everything else so huge fan. But today I want to start off by — maybe you can start us off by giving us a little bit more background on yourself, where we’ve come from, what you’ve been up to, what you’re doing now, and uh we’ll dive into it from there and then give us one thing about you that no one else will know.

Laolu:
Okay. All right, all right. Okay so a little bit about my background… So I was born in Boston but I grew up in Nigeria. I went to high school there.i actually lived in Canada for a little bit as well. I did a little bit of college blackpool, some high sponsors from college in Canada before transferring to the United States where I finished my degree in accounting was a minor in business innovation. You know I also built my first application when I was in college, it was called star valley. It was a food application so that’s kind of like where you know I started you know with my entrepreneurship edge. Yeah during doing that as well you know I have some experience with my accounting background, I have some internships with KPMG, the big four. I also interned with Goldman Sachs, I worked with them for a little bit as well. So that kind of led me all the way up to this point you know just doing different stuff with like finance. i’ve been in the business world, I always knew that I had a passion for entrepreneurship, and also at the same time I had a passion for helping people but which kind of led me to venture capital. because being a venture capitalist. It actually gives me the opportunity to use my skills to actually help people out who are actually you know trying to build stuff, trying to describe you know to go somewhere to be someplace and one thing I’ll say that people don’t know about me is that my dad’s an active pastor so that’s actually where I got my philanthropic nature from because I actually stumbled from here but I’m more of a businessman so like my family also had like a business background but like my dad and out of the pastor like he kind of likes it that’s kind of like um so I kind of use that philanthropic nature. when I’m working um with my venture capital.

Jeffery:
Very cool. Well that sounds pretty exciting, so you’re actually an inaugural Canadian?

Laolu:
Yeah, yeah I lived in Canada for like five years. Yeah, yeah I still I still go back I go back quite often I was there last year before COVID started. My brother lives there and some of my other family as well.

Jeffery:
Very cool, so your brother actually decided that he wanted to stay being Canadian instead of going across over to the US.

Laolu:
Yeah, yeah, yeah he likes Canada. He likes Canada, he lives in Toronto

Jeffery:
Oh, that’s good. Well he’s in a good city and that’s awesome to hear. So you mentioned that you’ve built some applications, you’ve worked in finance and now you’re driving through the venture world, so maybe give us a little bit of an understanding on kind of the platform build and how you use that to now benefit where you’re looking on the VC venture capital side, how did your experience as being an entrepreneur help escalate into the world of what you’re doing on the vc side, what learnings did you bring forward to that and what things do you share with startups when you’re talking with them?

Laolu:
Yeah so my experience being an entrepreneur it helped me understand especially how entrepreneurs think and how much pressure entrepreneurs are under when they start a company but sometimes it doesn’t show on your face. But entrepreneurs are actually under a lot of pressure and they’re usually learning things really quickly, other entrepreneurs like to be right a lot of times, so when they’re communicating with the venture capital, I’m a really good venture capitalist to be able to understand how an entrepreneur thinks and you know how to actually help him or help him or her with on where they’re trying to go so that’s that’s one of one of the edges I’ll say on having been an entrepreneur rolling into venture capital

Jeffery:
So it kind of gives you a good perspective of what an entrepreneur goes through the time they put into their passion into their project, do you find that taking some of the — with your father being a pastor, do you take some of that experience as well on how to work with big networks work, with a lot of different people you take that type of experience and show kind of startups that what it takes to really get people behind your brand and get people interested in what they’re doing with you with their startup and with how they got to engage people to build their company?

Laolu:
Well I wouldn’t say, but my father being a person might not really come to that edge of me you know. My father before come more about me being a speaker because I could see you know I got someyou know um being able to speak in front of people, you know being able to relate with people with a more positive edge. But in terms of you know being entrepreneurs, you know their strategy their build, and all that I think that came from like a different side of it on a different different area, so yeah that really came off from my entrepreneurship background. Really more from my experience working at you know different internships. I like having the various competitions i’ve gone through, i’ve worked in various groups, i’ve had many many different kinds of people… Also having an international background that’s helped me out a lot because you know I schooled in Nigeria, schooled in Canada, school the United States, and when I was you know school in all the different different places I also met a lot of internationals. How many different people actually was like international high school as well, so I understand people from different backgrounds. If you’re from India, if you’re from you know Pakistan, Canada, you know all the other various places so I’m really good with the social aspects of you know getting people together on the team. I kind of understand different viewpoints and making something happen.

Jeffery:
So you found a way to to integrate, make some friends but totally drive, find out what people are about and you push that into your business side which is learning more about somebody else and then figuring out how to solve their problems and yeah build from there.

Laolu:
Yeah, yeah

Jeffery:
It’s good. So you learned some valuable lessons on how to engage large groups through speaking, you build your products so you learned how to hustle from a startup perspective, and now you’re in the venture capital side, can you give us a little bit more more detail on the business you work for and how you work and facilitate investments. You mentioned that you do a lot of stuff in gaming? Can you explain a little bit more about what your process is, are you structured as an accelerator, you showcase companies, you know give us, I guess the meat, potatoes because we want to be able to learn more about how and what you do that that’s going to enable other people out there on what they’re looking to do in that space

Laolu:
Yeah so you know we have two hands. Hand inside you know we could start on with a startup right from scratch. It’s an excellent idea you know they’re trying to you know either take out an investment or you know get some technology help. This is a really good idea that we used to like we should work on and work with. That’s actually, we could actually start with them from the idea stage, and actually you know help them grow, grow with them, give them guidance help them not make the typical mistakes and you know make we are really good at you know making things go a lot quicker. Try to show them time you know because some developers I’m still learning how to code objective languages but people on our team we already know, after that really quickly so you know we even provide some educational process so we don’t do it for them they actually you know get to see the step-by-step stages. We also you know get them in front of investors but they could actually you know meet investors and actually speak with investors because it’s one thing for us to even meet the investors but entrepreneurs who are very passionate about what they do it’s also good for them to be in the room when it comes to that time. Another aspect is like you know we could also fund projects in terms of their startups or companies that have been around for a couple of years but they just need some financing so what we do is that we are connected with a few banks and we could actually you know finance them even after they’ve been invested into that for like more much mature state companies so that’s kind of like but the more mature state companies we don’t really do too much them. You really look more to okay we look at what you’re doing, how far you have come, how far your boss is, what the projection is, do we believe in this company and then you we take it to our investors or like our banks and like try to get them some financing from there.

Jeffery:
So you kind of work like an accelerator, also get them ready growth side and then you try to get them in front of investors to help them raise some funds. So do you guys come in from an equity standpoint? Do you guys come in through a funding standpoint or do you do both?

Laolu:
Both equity and debt. So it’s really dependent on the startup. It was really like equity under debt financing. Equity mostly when it’s a new startup actually because we’re more focused on equity and we’re not trying to get people in debt. They’re very excited, they believe their idea is going to be the best identity so we really push them away from debt and try and get them more (inaudible)

Jeffery:
Oh that’s awesome. And you do you work off — are you using unity? Like are you looking for platforms that are being built off on unity platform like is it larger platforms like what do you guys look for in a startup to enable you to say you know what I like what they’re doing let’s figure out how to help them.

Laolu:
Yeah so when you say you need to give me the game building software? Oh my god, yeah so yeah we looked at unity, scoria construct, you know those. We got different gaming platforms, sometimes we even move it up from telecontrol to do once unity like what they’re trying to build and you know because we haven’t looked crazy because what I would say to my team that we are creative financial guys, so you know we still add that creative piece to it and then we don’t let the entrepreneur (inaudible) you know um reverse back on what they feel we keep keep communication flowing and um you know we um we come to you know the good

Jeffery:
So the games is it just games and when you do look at them, is there, because I know you can develop on Facebook, you can develop on any platform really to run a game. Some of them will use the backend being a unity platform or the other popular ones which aren’t coming to me yet…

Laolu:
There’s another one —

Jeffery:
Yeah —

Laolu:
Yeah, so yeah so it’s not it’s not just games. It’s one of like our aspects that we do, we also do films, we also do technology, like for example like we have really cool glass coming out pretty soon. We have another startup, it’s like a content field company. Basically what they do is that they buy movie scripts for people and they have the production houses and all that. What they do is that they were already hooked up with Netflix exactly called AFCS, Africa’s First Content Fund. And what they do, they get the funding, like we help them get the funding as well to get their film, their films, published and put out there so that’s another aspect we do.

Jeffery:
You’re pretty much more in the multimedia style…

Laolu:
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah… Looking at it we’re still looking for our next social media app I mean that is coming soon. I’m thinking another social media is coming like twitter instagram, snap channels all that but yeah you’ll find us in that kind of space as well. Fashion as well is something else that you find us doing. Like retail kind of companies here —

Jeffery:
It sounds pretty fascinating, you guys look like you’re doing a lot and that’s pretty amazing. So when you’re onboarding companies that are coming in, we get a lot of companies that come in all different verticals around the world and it’s great to know that there’s other businesses that can pick them up and help them move forward quicker, and one area is in particular that’s a very tough space is the film industry. I tend to have a very tough time finding investors that want to take the risk . In Canada we have different credits that get applied so a lot of filmmakers do come to Canada to work on film because of the credits that we offer, but again it’s still a pretty tough space. Is there any advice that you provide or anything that you think is a great way to get and help the film groups that are right now looking for funding.

Laolu:
apply to a Akwugu. Email info@akwugu.com, email us yeah I’ll say that’s that’s a great advice because the thing is that we are really into that space that media space. One thing about I understand about investors investors from one word ROI so whether you’re doing film whether you’re doing games what are you doing whatever they just want to understand what you’re doing and knowing when their return on their investment comes in.

Jeffery:
Correct.

Laolu:
Yeah so we as finance guys having a good finance financial background we understand that. So we’re able to take because most people in us don’t really look at the financial aspect of what they’re doing so we’re able to you know take that space, help them you know, organize their company, change their costs you know showing their revenues and then we’re able to use that because the film industry brings great return when the movie does really well. When it shows us really well not an animation doesn’t really work can’t do really well so we need to you know show that to investors so even goes without like our retail companies can do really well when you know it’s marketed properly so we use that to actually show investors how I could you know to be a potentially great opportunity for them to invest.

Jeffery:
Awesome and you guys look for government funding, credits anything like that to help the companies out as well?

Laolu:
Yeah, when I say government funding I would say you know like banks. I won’t say the banks aren’t literally government funding, but like you know we looked at banks. Government funding there’s also film length and actually from the government that they do that in New York actually but that’s also something that we could also look into.

Jeffery:
Awesome so you’ve got a good mix of verticals. You guys are always working and hunting for new companies and you’re looking at diversifying across different spaces, is there a way that you like to work with? The founders, is there a structure that you put together as a business or is it done individually and you find the companies you want to work with, you work with the ceo to help them through the next stages of their business or how do you guys work in that process for others that would be interested to work with you guys okay

Laolu:
So most times with companies we get a lot of emails. So what we do is that we sniff through the emails I would say advice is send us a one-pager what your company is about, the opportunity, how long you’ve existed for, what your revenues are, what your costs are you know if you don’t know you can let us know but basically what stage your company is at so when we just look at that, what industry… If you want to extend the conversation, you know we uh respond. If we don’t respond first time I really think it’s something we have to work on that’s why not at some point you know we would most likely reach out and then you know without like you know a little meeting and see if something we both want to move forward.

Jeffery:
And is there any parameters that you don’t want to work with a company if they’re larger than 5 million revenue or that they are worth more than 10 million like do you have anything on that side?

Laolu:
Oh no no no (inaudible). Really you know, we another thing about Akwugo is that we are also hooked up with a couple of other VC’s, so actually one thing i’d like to mention sweet right now is a great opportunity if you are doing medical, something in the medical field, or if you’re doing like something like technology wise in the medical field you know if you apply to us we have a few funders who are actually looking for that and if you’re female based as well, if you’re a female founder that’s actually a really really big opportunity we could be going off to a 250k USD up. And so we don’t really narrow down to that such an industry just because of the connections that we have with other ventures to actually point those kind of deals and just forward you over to them.

Jeffery:
Wicked that’s awesome. So what piece really gets you passionate about startups? What do you like the most about them? What got you to actually move and start to work with startups? Was there something out there that just triggered and you said you know what I need to work with startups?

Laolu:
With startups I just think if you’re innovative, if your industry movers, fun, the processes, fun to work with. Also I like to work with great people, it’s a great great great entrepreneur enthusiastic but I don’t like to all the work for you as well. So you know it’s somebody that you know because you just want to smash go into it. I love to make things happen it’s fun. You know it’s fun and especially I can return when it’s like (inaudible) it’s just coming out so it’s just like that whole process is what I really enjoy. And with my dad’s side being a pastor I’m helping someone.

Jeffery:
So passing on the good vibe. Hey you gotta help I love it, now you gotta give back pretty cool, very cool and where are you guys located? Like where do you work?

Laolu:
We are on what’s our called a virtual remote office space. I mean apparently I’m located in New York but um you know we work with startups worldwide you could be you know where wherever. We have people in Illinois as well and we also have people in Canada but look us and we have people in Lagos, Nigeria so look at us more like a remote more workplace. We have some connections in South Africa too we haven’t afforded a great startup, a great startup to one of our people in South Africa which you know we’re hoping to see that egg grow as well.

Jeffery:
No brilliant. I like it, very cool. And if if you take a step back and you start to look at how these. startups are working, is there anything that you find, with the help that you’ve done but just in general, is there a piece in the areas that you focus on that you could say help drive success and things that other startups should look at? Is it being able to speak to governments? Is it being able to build your own personal network, is it being able to solve a problem and just focus strictly on that and nothing else. Like what advice can you give from what you’ve taken and learned over the years than working with startups that can really benefit the startups coming in before they speak to you

Laolu:
Yeah one thing I’ll say about the startup is if you start a company you build a product what not you have to think of how is that product helping somebody and that should always be what your focus is helping somebody, some group of people, in whatever way then that product is valuable. And then we can look for it even though it might not be generating revenue (inaudible) all these years but it was a great texting service now facebook has found a way to you know get it to um actually like have monetary payments and all that through it because at one of our startups um a boost market located in uh nigeria a lot of customers were ordering on whatsapp instead of the website and we couldn’t get why. But hey now look at this whatsapp is now actually innovating whenever you do communications that way. So as long as your product or whatever you’re doing is just helping people in some sort of way it’s gonna it’s gonna use something.

Jeffery:
Agreed. And how much do you take, I know we touched on this at the beginning of the conversation on that first initial product and the entrepreneurship side of what you were doing how much of that experience that you try to push out to the startups so that when you’re working with them do you have a set process on? You know here’s the best way to get through the funnel and get companies to buy your product did you guys build your own methodologies for that did you take from your past experience, what are those extra things that you’re doing to help grow the companies that are part of this accelerator style business that you have?

Laolu:
Yeah so one thing that we have a lot of experience when it comes to this marketing you know getting your product out there in front of people, making your product more unique, we use our expertise in terms of that to actually you know get people’s products out there and also enhancing the product is another thing that you know and also making the product more revenue-based. I mean we have have a product that um you know this kid brought is great but you know he never really thought about the revenue generation side so that’s something that you know we do in terms of it’s not like your product is you know helping somebody out you know it’s cool we you know we help you to put that into it and get in getting out there I’m getting in front of um you know an invested potential invest.

Jeffery:
All right, brilliant. And I certainly agree that you’ve got to find ways to help generate revenue without revenue you’re not a business right. And yeah it’s tough to have to grow if you don’t have extra dollars coming in and out of the business

Laolu:
yeah yeah yeah you need business revenue and I won’t say just think about that but you know that’s one of the places where we come in

Jeffery:
And taking your accounting background, is there specific things that you look for when you’re working with a startup, do you want to make sure —

Laolu:
That’s the most popular one but yeahvnot just that I mean like you know we you know help you out with you know the evaluation corporate evaluation of your company. You know being like a numbers guy you know I look at you know this through your company’s numbers you know you know that also helps me know okay how will this company do in terms of numbers like my accounting background really you know when it comes to also understanding the tax laws in you know different regions where you when you (inaudible) what you need to be registered under things like that etcetera.

Jeffery:
You know making a big difference and i’d say that in the companies that we work with 99% of people don’t understand the way they should

Laolu:
yeah they don’t.

Jeffery:
Partners like yourselves they kind of jump in and help out with that yeah yeah and so when you guys are working with the startup and you’re lining up how this is going to benefit them and why they should work with you, do you guys do your time for equity do you do the investment at the same time? How do you structure that process to get that startup in the portfolio companies that you’re working with them and helping them grow?

Laolu:
So you know we really use our time for equity and to start starting out with because you know before we get you when in front of an investor we’ve already really believe in your company on what you’re doing so we’re already working with you in some way. So in case you don’t even get the investor at that time you know we’re ready with you and that company basically becomes part of our you know like our egg and um you know we’re there like you know helping you grow so we don’t have like a good mutual agreement with that but you know once we come me being an (inaudible) opinion if you know be coming with you and say I say okay I’m doing this with you we’re in, we’re looking for that company you know to grow as fast or well maybe I’ll say as quickly as possible

Jeffery:
And you guys do this in co-works like every quarter you bring on 10 companies or is it just as you find companies that you like you bring them on and start working with them?

Laolu:
Fnd companies as we as we like so it’s not necessarily you know

Jeffery:
Now on the part on the marketing side on the skills side you guys mentioned that you have a great way of helping funnel and build funnels for the startups and get them engaged and get them doing more sales on the on that marketing team do you offset their marketing teams until they get to a certain size so you guys take on the worka lot of like dragons den and thosetypes of companies yeah a lot of that marketing work for the equity side so that they can build their company is that a similar model to what you guys look at?

Laolu:
So we don’t necessarily look at offsetting the team. What we look at is you know how efficiently is your team doing what they do so you can work with your team well. It’s really up to the entrepreneur right because if if it’s a team that we can work with, I can share procedures with back and forth we do that. If not you know we need to do some restructuring because sometimes the marketing team isn’t necessarily a part of the company. They don’t necessarily need them to either on there or sometimes your technology team that they pay but if you have us we’re giving you equity right we’re giving you our time so you don’t necessarily need that need that side so that’s um you know it varies on a company’s company basis.

Jeffery:
I like that. So you can offset your cost if need be have you guys help focus work with the with the entrepreneur and their business help them grow it then they can start to bring resources in your offsetting and marketing and maybe some financial resources at the beginning and then get them to move forward.

Laolu:
Yeah yeah yeah

Jeffery:
I like it. Is there a specific area that in the marketing or the finance side that you guys really focus on or really like to drive home like subject matter experts. You guys are all about social you understand it in and out or is it um more in retail like is there something that you guys really get behind and really support

Laolu:
Sometimes we get behind and support like me in terms of industry yeah in terms of industry I’ll see like tech be like, we like social, or we like retail you know it’s really difficult to choose one but I’ll say more like technology and media (inaudible)

Jeffery:
Okay what are you looking for in the next year, in the next two years with COVID and everything that’s going on how have you guys changed your business model or your structure to adhere to the pandemic are you guys looking to only invest in companies that can sustain a pandemic are you open-minded to anything like what has kind of changed with you guys during the last seven months?

Laolu:
Oh no, the pandemic is not really affecting how we’re thinking about investment because the pandemic is going to be over in a couple of months I believe. So what we’re looking more towards is companies are going to actually you know skyrocket once the pandemic is overcome people are going to be out the economy is going to be start people are going to start spending a lot more again. So we are not really thinking up pandemic wise, we’re thinking outside the pandemic wise actually right now that’s what we’re doing yeah

Jeffery:
So you guys are just looking to open the floodgates up and —

Laolu:
yeah yeah yeah I mean I know there’s fellas on and all this home company stuff but I don’t really I feel like you know they already you know trying to get you out of vaccine but uh I feel like if months the pandemics will be over so the floodgates are going to open back up and yeah we need to look at we got it outside again

Jeffery:
Okay all right that’s all right there’s nothing wrong with that. I think everybody wants the pandemic to end sooner. So I guess that creates a lot of opportunities for investment over the next three months or six months if you will and that gives a lot more room for you guys to kind of shake and bake if you will in that time for you.

Laolu:
(Inaudible) right now we’re just cooking up stuff getting getting those eggs ready. You know once pandemic is over think things are going on like the stock market you know

Jeffery:
I like it. All right well why don’t we jump right in. We got a few more questions, I’m going to ask but why don’t we jump into the rapid fire questions and then we’ll jump into the last few questions. So far it’s been great to kind of learn more about what you’re doing and your business is focusing on and how you guys are going after startups, I’m gonna just kind of round it all up on some numbers and more details to get everybody a little bit more excited to kind of want to reach out right. Okay so what’s your favorite part of investing?

Laolu:
My favorite part of investing, ROI

Jeffery:
All right. ROIi is good. Everybody likes good ROI. How many companies do you invest in per year?

Laolu:
I’m seeing as the first year I would say about 10 to 15.

Jeffery:
Okay well that’s a good number i’d say on average angels do about five companies a year two to two to five. So you guys are way above the average huge. All right. Any verticals that you like to focus on and you can repeat the ones we’ve already talked about but any uh any any focused verticals?

Laolu:
Any focused vertical, so what do you mean

Jeffery:
Like you mentioned, gaming, social, what are the areas that you guys really focus on?

Laolu:
Media, media companies. Gaming companies, film companies that’s like our technology company that’s like our main verticals right now

Jeffery:
Okay. Do you have any due diligence requirements that you look into before you make an investment? Like it could be anything from they need full financials, full legal documents, is there something that you guys look for to make sure that any company invested must have in order for you guys to have a discussion with them

Laolu:
Okay that depends on the stage of the company, if your company’s a three-year-old company we look for financials, we look for legal documents, you may or may not have projections but we prefer that. If your company is an idea we don’t look for all that what we don’t look for is the idea the company is a product you know we like to see the product as a product so those are like you know depends on the stage of your company.

Jeffery:
Okay. Do you guys lead rounds?

Laolu:
Yeah yeah yeah, we lead rounds, yeah

Jeffery:
Do you have any preferred terms that you like to invest on? Prep shares, common shares, safes?

Laolu:
Oh I mean we’re not where we just do strictly equities on this. It’s not like we’re getting like professionals, we’re just getting mistaken the company so yeah yeah it’s not like you know stock market kind of like this okay so you —

Jeffery:
So it sounds like you look at preferred shares then as being your the best way to go on any companies that you’re doing?

Laolu:
Yeah, yeah you can call it that.

Jeffery:
Yeah okay. All right do you take board seats?

Laolu:
Not yet but I mean maybe potentially in the future.

Jeffery:
Opportunities are there. I like it. Outside of money what other ways and you mention this you do it through helping them with marketing and maybe accounting what other ways do you help startups with their companies outside —

Laolu:
Technology as well… Okay yeah I’m also getting them in front of the right people, getting them to the right the right shoes, the right meeting the right networking opportunity

Jeffery:
Perfect. I like it. And I guess, the last question is based on the state of the markets have you pulled back on the investments or you’re investing more?

Laolu:
The stock market?

Jeffery:
It’s not a stock market. no no just on the early companies.

Laolu:
No we’re not pulling back. We’re still open to ideas. I just really feel like this is just you know covering the phase everybody’s staying indoors you know I like it’s a period because all the ideas are coming in is flowing no distractions. So we’re not pulling back. Still full force.

Jeffery:
Okay perfect yeah all right well those are the those are our rapid fire questions which I think were great. Nice and quick. Great job. So we always say — I like to ask one question which is more geared around the experience you’ve had with a startup and I’m looking for that it doesn’t have to be names but just that startup that you maybe thought these guys weren’t going to make it anywhere they had no chance in hell and they were falling apart and then boom all of a sudden hockey stick growth or they were able to make it happen. Do you have any heartfelt, warm stories that you want to share of an experience you had with a company you’re working with or one that you want to share?

Laolu:
So like me like a company that we’re working with that we knew was gonna be good and like they ended up doing really well?

Jeffery:
Yeah just something like that or they started off very slow and then maybe COVID causes them to take off anything like that

Laolu:
I wouldn’t say, I necessarily we don’t have that experience just yet but maybe something that we haven’t experienced with financing. The trucking company during COVID because it was you know very difficult to try to get like the FDA and know that you know this kind of thing but that company was actually able to generate about 500 a week after we got them some financing. Which the banks initially expect so I think that was something that it was a great it’s a great story to tell you know with some great communication with the founder and we’re going to be financing again potentially sometime next year.

Jeffery:
Very cool and only because it cut out right at that second that you were saying 35 and they didn’t get cut out? What was the outtake that it did you were able to help the company withfinancing and what was the amount?

Laolu:
Well I always help the other friends with the operations. Finance them about just three grand actually. And the companies actually 3500 weekly in revenue.

Jeffery:
Wow very good yeah good little bump and it helped them move forward

Laolu:
You know was a pretty pretty good surprise I mean we should likely find them way more than that you know they beat whatever it is

Jeffery:
All right good they blew the numbers out of the water

Laolu:
Yeah yeah

Jeffery:
Very cool I like it. Okay so my next question crystal ball, what is the next 12 months look like for you guys? And 36 months? Where do you see yourselves now and in 36 months?

Laolu:
Okay so where we see ourselves in 12 months we see ourselves you know a few of our startups we expect it to have launched you know a few (inaudible) the fashion company that we have I’m actually looking at this right now expecting that to have you know of launch time you know be doing a lot better. The next 36 months we expect i’ve gained some more LPs in our in our company. Expect you know the film company AFCF the next 36 months should be really doing really really well because you know the company had actually already secured uh two million funding but which is not being used yet so once this covid error is over we expect that company to really skyrocket and do really well.

Jeffery:
Awesome! I like that all right we have three more questions

Laolu:
All right, all right, all right. I’m ready, I’m ready. Okay.

Jeffery:
First one this is my one of the companies we’ve been working with, a big fan they i’ve been listening to their podcast and they’ve turned me over on this being more personable side so I want to learn a bit more about personally on your side so three questions first one is what’s your favorite sports team?

Laolu:
My favorite sports team? Ah so you’re not gonna even categorize like basketball soccer football?

Jeffery:
Whatever you think. Whatever is your favorite sports team of all time. I know you’re an Arsenal fan so I’m going to say liverpool

Laolu:
Liverpool no no no no no. Yeah my favorite sports team is liverpool I’m gonna say liverpool. Reason why I play liverpool is because when it comes to basketball I’m more of a player fan but when it comes to soccer I’m more of um you know in fact

Jeffery:
Yeah and they’re in first place so they’re doing okay I’m gonna I’ll give liverpool some uh that’s some pumps they’re doing okay, they’re all right

Laolu:
(Inaudible)

Jeffery:
Yeah you guys did beat us not too bad the other day or was a couple weeks ago so

Laolu:
Yeah yeah

Jeffery:
It’s okay. I’m okay with it right now. Next, I think we had you guys on the line too I think it was if I remember it was a 3-2 victory but we were ahead, we were we almost had you but anyhow all right

Laolu:
That team has some more spirit you see that’s one thing I like about it you guys can never count them out like always come back you know it’s just the great thing to watch

Jeffery:
Oh I totally agree with that. Totally agreed yeah all right second question what’s your favorite movie?

Laolu:
Wow I actually love movies being into the film so my favorite movie I would is Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jeffery:
All right and what would be your who would be the character that you would be playing?

Laolu:
Jack Sparrow. Jack. Jack Sparrow.

Jeffery:
Yeah. All right, all right. I like that that’s good. I’m uh I haven’t seen any of those movies in a while. I’m gonna have to think back on it but uh jack sparrow was a pretty funny guy he knew what he was doing.

Laolu:
So yeah he knew what I was gonna do with that yeah captain jack sparrow.

Jeffery:
I like it good choice. All right, cool. Well that kind of ends those questions and the personal side makes it a little bit more fun. Really enjoyed the conversation got to learn a lot more about what you guys are up to and what you’re doing. I love the fact that you’re in the film and gaming space all those other spaces are great too but I’m focused on those two because those two have the least amount of love in the market they don’t get a lot of attention. They’re long-term builds so it’s exciting to know that those are the things that you guys are focused on. And I think that you guys are doing good things and helping these companies so and being that you guys invest and work with a lot of companies each year that’s huge so do you have any companies like that you want notable you want to share you’re more than welcome to now but I think that the way we we love to to end the show if you will, is we want to give you the last word. So if there’s anything that you want to share to a startup or to investors on advice on moving forward or how to go after the market or dominate and win the game whatever it is I leave you the floor to share that but again I appreciate your time, your (inaudible) and sharing the information i’ve got some actually when we have movie guys come in and looking for for funding I’m gonna send them over to you because straight yeah gaming we did a couple years ago not so much lately but film is a big one. I actually have a script I want to send you from something we built a long time ago

Laolu:
Okay.

Jeffery:
Get your feedback on it

Laolu:
(Inaudible)

Jeffery:
Well it’s kind of a partial script but something to dig your teeth in I guess. All right outside that man I want to give you the last word so anything you want to share to the community the floor is yours.

Laolu:
So great interview. So just you know have the opportunity to speak with you thanks for taking the time out. What I’ll say is download our latest game it’s called Afro Fighters. Its’s a great games on a play store, apple store, it’s like down without the dentist came out, I’ll say download that. I want to share um… You know if you’re looking to secure investments in whatever industry you’re working on, just email us info@akwugu.com. You can also check us out on akwugu.com. We’re already always willing and willing to speak with you. And also for investors who are looking to invest into the stock market, our team, we also work with investing in stocks in different industries. We have great returns, we’ll talk about that you know a little bit more but yeah.

Jeffery:
Awesome all right man, well that’s good props. Again I thank you very much for your time. I learned a lot, big fan, and you guys keep doing the the great work you are. And then outside that I’m going to send a couple emails your way, they think they’re awesome I can share there.

Laolu:
Yeah yeah

Jeffery:
Awesome. Great. I’m looking forward to work on them work with you.

Laolu:
Yeah

Jeffery:
Awesome, well thanks everybody for joining us.

Laolu:
Let’s make things happen yeah

Jeffery:
Thank you Laolu for being part of our show today.

Laolu:
Awesome. Great thanks for your time. Have a good one! great day ahead.

Jeffery:
Awesome well that was the first day with the new camera. I think that we had a great conversation with Laolu. I love what they’re doing. I think there’s a huge gap and a miss in the market in the well globally for movies and for gaming they focus on a few other areas but really a big fan of that sector for sure. A lot of need and space in there he’s taken from his accounting background and a few other areas that he’s done on and I think that that really exemplifies what they’re doing on helping early stage companies make their way through the funnel so lots of great learning and looking forward to chatting and working with him in the future have a great day thanks for joining us