It’s a sunny Tuesday afternoon in Lagos, and over the din of our Gardeners getting their Customer Service Week photos taken, I get on the phone with Kelvin. I want to talk to him about his work, life, and Eden Life. And as the conversation progresses, I can sense a recurring theme. Kelvin believes in building, community, and all the positive ways you can combine both words. He’s also someone who has worn multiple hats in several companies. So, how did it all begin for Kelvin Umechukwu?
What was the most pivotal point in your life?
I read something when I was in secondary school, in 2011. Then, I was using a small feature phone that could browse, and 2go was very popular. What I read was the Wikipedia page of the company 2go. That article said that they had 20 million users. Three million were from South Africa, its original country, and 17 million users were from Nigeria. That shocked me, and I thought, ‘Why aren’t we building our own?’
I was curious about how they built it. So, I searched further and learnt that they built 2go using Python, and that became my introduction to programming. Every other thing that I’ve done since is because of that moment.
Mind you, I loved cars and wanted to go into manufacturing them. But even if I still wanted to study mechanical engineering, I knew then I wanted to explore tech.
That is such an exciting origin story.
Yeah. I got my first computer and started coding when I got into Uni, the next year. My 2go discovery fired me up. My mum ran a business at Computer Village, and my elder sister and I would help sell phones, and their accessories. So when my friend reached out to me about running a training program on web development, I felt ready. It was my first stint, but the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg inspired me. The thought, ‘how do we build ours?’ kept bouncing around in my mind.
In 2013, we started the journey of building. I recruited my friends, and we created a product that was relevant to us at that time. Not 2go o. We called the product Voissapp. It was not super successful; we did not raise money, but we had over 2000 users. It helped us build popularity. It was the genesis.
You had the training and the skills of a software developer. Why didn’t you pursue that path? Why become a founder?
It wasn’t a conscious thought of ‘dev or founder?’ Both are jobs that need you to build. But with being a founder, you have different people that are smarter than you, helping you build. I wasn’t coding as much because I had people who were better at that than me. So I could spend more time on other things like marketing and partnerships.
I started building communities while in school. I founded Consonance Club when I finished school in 2017. And I am still a part of GDG. At TechQuest, I did programs, then business development. Then programs again at CcHub, where I was the Program Manager for Incubations. So I’ve dabbled in partnerships, business development, and programs.
All that time, I did not know that I was preparing myself to become an all-round founder. Now, I don’t have issues recruiting or driving partnerships. I can lead the product or engineering teams or work on marketing and communications.
It’s great that you were prepared, but what have the challenges been like?
There’s always a lot to do. I get caught up in too many things.
Thankfully, I have Eden. That means I can automate the mundane tasks in my life and free up time. Today, I’ve already eaten something nice, and I didn’t even have to worry about it. I also have my food for later in the day. All I have to do is warm it and we’re good. My Eden plan is important to me because I never have enough time.
Also, I’ve been an operator in this tech ecosystem and supported a lot of startups as well, so I’ve learnt a lot. At one point, I was sitting across the room from startups looking to raise money. Now, I’m on the other side of the table. It isn’t always easy, but I know what they expect of me.
What made you realize you needed an Eden plan?
It became clear after a while. Usually, I have to figure out what to eat every day. I have to think about it in the morning and then think about it in the afternoon. It’s been a while since I stopped cooking so I could save time, but that means that I have to buy food often. It also means that I have to decide what to eat.
Eden is like a sweet spot for me. I can eat good food, there’s a lot of variety, and I don’t have to think about it. I’m on a weekly meal plan because I always had to call the estate gates and go downstairs to pick up deliveries. Doing that every single day was stressful for me. Now, on Fridays, I select all the things I want for the next week. And it comes twice a week; five meals on Monday and five meals on Wednesday.
Every other day is for bringing the meals out of the fridge and in one minute, it’s ready. That’s the best part about this plan for me. Food is not my problem anymore. Eden’s got me.
A big part of productivity is work-life balance. What does a typical day look like for you?
I try to manage my time. On a great day, I start the day with a run or end it at the gym. On a good day, I have a sizable number of meetings, internal and external. I check in with the team, ensure they have no blockers, provide resources, and get work done myself.
Between 11 AM and 1 PM, I eat the first meal of the day. On a good day, the second meal is somewhere around 5 or 6 PM. If it’s a bad day, that second meal is at night. Most days, I work into the night. So, I’m probably still working by 10 PM.
Still, I manage pretty well. Sometimes I decide to work from a restaurant or a chill place because I want to be in a new environment. But I think my work-life balance is typical.
Earlier you mentioned you worked with your mum in her shop at Computer village. How did that influence the creation of Bumpa?
Lmaooo. I was keeping this story for later. My mum worked in Computer Village, but my dad sold security items like stun guns, spyglasses, etc. I noticed that for both businesses, there were no records. My mum was a little better because she had a book where she’d record transactions. I had to record every sale manually. Soon, we had to have several books with sales records. Over time, they were all scattered.
I’ve seen companies fail because of that. The record book doesn’t give you any insights into the health of your business. The most you’ll get is how much you’ve sold. It doesn’t tell you which are your best months or products. You might make informed guesses from the number of goods you have to stock up on often, but what if your goods are getting stolen??
LMAOOO
Yeah. There’s a need for proper inventory management, bookkeeping, and CRM for small businesses. That’s what we’re providing for them, right there on their mobile phones. We’re building the infrastructure that’ll power digital commerce for small business owners in Africa. So, yes. I’d say those experiences with my mum and my dad are one reason I went into this.
The other reason is SalesCabal—it’s the company I worked at after school. My current co-founder and I were building websites for small businesses. We were like a software shop for these small businesses and we discovered we were building the same things over and over. So we thought, ‘why don’t we make this easier for people to do themselves?’ That’s how what’s now Bumpa started.
Bumpa is growing fast. How has your life gotten easier as you’ve gotten more successful?
Before, my co-founder and I could only give 3 hours to it every day. You know, when you can’t pay enough attention to a thing, growth is slow. If you have money, you can hire smart people who believe in your vision and can help get the job done. Now you can concentrate on the things that need your particular attention.
We got the Google Black Founders Fund today. One of the biggest companies in the world has our back and that’s pretty exciting.
Let’s think about the future for a minute. What does the next 5 or 10 years look like for you and Bumpa?
In the next 5 years, we should be supporting over 20 million businesses with the tech to grow their business. At that point, we would have put Africa on the map of global commerce.
It would now be easy for small business owners in Ibadan to sell to someone in Canada, without moving an inch. They would manage everything on their mobile phone. I see that future, and I know that’s where we’ll be in the next 2-5 years.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us, Kelvin. I’m excited to see your work scale exponentially. The future looks very promising, and Eden will be here, supporting you.