Founders Unfound
Abbey Wemimo - Esusu
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Episode notes
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In this episode Abbey and Dan discussed:
- Growing up in the slums of Lagos Nigeria
- Key philosophies: fall forward + you are enough
- The transition from balmy Nigeria to frigid Minnesota
- his first startup which gave access to water for quarter-million people
- Pitching 300+ investors
Episode Shout Outs:
Samir Goel (Co-founder)
Abbey Wemimo is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, a revolutionary fintech platform transforming the connection between data, tenants, and property. Esusu empowers renters around an important financial identity: the credit score.
Abbey was born in Nigeria, and as he puts it, "raised in the slums" of Lagos. His mother sacrificed over half her salary to make sure Abbey was able to reach beyond and attend the best schools. He studied alongside the children of the country's elites, taking him to the US, with stops and degrees from the University of Minnesota and NYU. His early career covered politics, finance, and international development. And his first entrepreneurial endeavor led him to providing clean water for over a quarter of a million people in developing regions.
Abbey and his co-founder Samir started Esusu with a major innovation at its core: using rent payments to enhance credit score. By tracking and using data, Esusu can transform the credit prospects for the 70 million Americans who have little or no credit history. Meanwhile, Esusu provides property managers with insights, analytics, and tenants who are motivated towards timely payments.
The company is now in half a million rental units, across 40 US states. Abbey and Samir have raised over $4 Million in funding from investors like Impact America Fund, Zeal Capital, and Global Good Fund.
Esusu is a word with origins in Nigeria. It essentially means a form of societal cooperation where groups of individuals together contribute for their mutual benefit. But if ask Abbey he will tell you a much simpler version:
"If you want to go fast, you go alone. But if you want to go far, you fundamentally go together"
Make sure to listen to his wonderful story.
MORE on ABBEY and ESUSU
Abbey:
linkedin.com/in/wemimo-abbey-62382a2a/
Esusu:
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