Techpreneur: Young Mike’s Smartphone crashing Apple in Africa
SIMON E. SUNDAY
& IBRAHIM K. SULE
When was Solo Phone established?
SOLO Phone, established in Nigeria in 2012, is an experience-driven mobile device manufacturer which aims to provide the best content and services to the African consumer at an affordable price. The company manufactures smartphones priced at $150 (about N29,962) bundled with free music of up to 20million songs licensed from Sony, Universal and Warner. SOLO also recently launched a VideoOn-Demand App available to all Android devices in Nigeria which offers the latest Nollywood and Hollywood movies from global movie studios.
What’s your personal and professional background?
I was born August 29, 1984 in Washington D.C., to Nigerian parents. I attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and got a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Computer Science and Information Technology. Two days after graduating, I began my career as a Technology Consultant with Accenture. I gained valuable professional experience from being a Technology Analyst with Accenture.
While at Accenture, I started working on a project, which quickly progressed and birthed The Apprentice: Africa. A business partner and myself successfully licensed an American reality game show from Mark Burnett Productions for the Sub-Saharan media market, which featured businessman, Donald Trump. I returned to Nigeria in 2007 and was part of a team that developed, produced and distributed the African edition of an 18 week reality show titled The Apprentice: Africa that had a strong following in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
What prompted you to set up SOLO Mobile, and how where you initially funded?
In 2010 I started a company called Fusion Mobile, which was short lived. We were unable to close funding needed to start a company singularly focused on driving Africa’s first mobile device manufacturing and content distribution company. However, in June 2013 I was approached by Adlevo Capital to partner with a group of experienced mobile telecommunications professional led by Tayo Ogundipe to start a company called SOLO.
Tayo Ogundipe is an experienced finance executive with extensive background in the technology and telecommunications sectors working for companies like Ubiquitel, Sony Ericson and HTC. Thus the dream of SOLO was born. November 22, 2013 we successfully launched a mobile device company that provides experience-driven, end-to-end digital content and services to young adults and adults who are young at heart requiring a mobile device that provides convenient, affordable gateway to the widest range of digital content that is delivered on the go, every at blazing speed to the African consumer.
There are so many Smartphones in the market already. What is Solo doing differently from the others?
Companies simply compete today in the Smartphone market on hardware specifications. Prior to 2005, no one saw Apple coming. Today Apple consumes over 90percent of the profit in the Smartphone market. However, to the average emerging market and African consumer an Apple device is out of reach due to its high cost. The emergence of an open OS driven by Google had brought commoditization to the mobile hardware market. SOLO is an emerging markets play.
Today, SOLO offers affordable smartphones bundled with free music up to 20 million songs licensed from Sony, Universal and Warner. This by far is the best offering in today’s market populated by streaming services where data costs are still extremely high. SOLO innovates by putting the consumer first and that is the premise SOLO was founded on.
How has the reception been since inception?
Consumers have received our offerings relatively well. In our first year, we established strong distribution network across Nigeria by partnering with key smartphone retailers. Furthermore, we’ve also partnered with primary eCommerce platforms to drive adoption and sales of our device and services.
How did you raise capital to finance the idea before you got partners?
The initial start costs for SOLO was funded by its founders who generously contributed to its vision. On December 24, 2013 we closed our Series A funding led by Adlevo Capital and Kuramo Capital.
What motivates you into a technologydriven enterprise?
My motivation is driven by the need to create value for all stakeholders involved. This includes investors, management, content owners, partners and all SOLO employees. Today SOLO employs over 160 people with expertise in various disciplines from engineering to sales.
What has been your biggest challenge in running your business in Nigeria?
The opportunities we’ve created have far outweighs the challenges. We’ve successfully secured some key assets that provide SOLO key value differentiation in today’s market. However, we face the same challenges all companies face such as the increase in Dollar to Naira exchange and strikes at the port. In summary, we’ve been able to weather these challenges with a belief that staying power in a fast growing industry positions SOLO for success.
Where is SOLO heading to shortly?
We recently launched a co-branded affordable Smartphone with Airtel in Nigeria bundled with our music and movies offering. We will continue to deepen our relationship with Operator partners building on the premise of delivering the best content and services to consumers in emerging markets. The future of delivering these value added services is tremendous in a market where low income earning consumers can benefit on the access to these affordable solutions that enriches their lives. That is the future of SOLO.
Culled from http://www.forbes.com/ sites/mfonobongnsehe/2015/03/02/the30-year-old-nigerian-mobile-phoneentrepreneur-who-is-challenging-applein-africa/4/ @MfonobongNsehe