Empowering Nigerians To Learn Tech With Our $1K/Month Education Business

Atoyebi Olawale

•

Published: August 25th, 2023

save

Atoyebi Olawale

Founder, Olidrel Hub

$1K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Olidrel Hub

olidrel.com

from Osogbo, Nigeria

started July 2023

$1,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

platform

WooCommerce

social media

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Medium

Tiktok

stock images tool-icon

Freepix

Discover what books Atoyebi recommends to grow your business!

Want more updates on Olidrel Hub? Check out these stories:

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I am Atoyebi Olawale Oluwaseyi by name and I co-founded Olidrel Hub with my friend, Bamidele Raphael Ponmile. Our mission is to provide accessible and affordable tech training and resources to empower Nigerians to achieve their career goals like: Learning a new tech skill, getting certified as a tech professional, belong to a tech community.

We do this by offering a range of courses taught by experienced professionals, as well as a variety of resources to help our students build their portfolios and land good-paying jobs.

We're committed to making our training and resources accessible to all Nigerians, regardless of their background or financial circumstances, and to ensuring that our students receive the highest quality education possible.

During our waitlist process, we want to take just 50 intakes for the first cohorts in which each trainee will pay $500 after the 6 months of training for the space of 1 year after training, but we have over 80 people interested in the solution we offer as it meets the needs of our environment. All this is done 90% with word of mouth.

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I am a young boy that grew from a very poor background where I can't even guarantee meeting my daily needs. Despite handling menial jobs, I still couldn't pay my bills and meet my necessary needs.

I met my co-founder in 2019 and we lived together under the same roof with almost 6 other people while we work as freelancers, but it has always been a desire to help people that are going through the same challenges we faced early in life.

Due to the rate of unemployment and underemployment in my environment, we teamed up together to use our skills to better the life of others so that they can be of help to their families and the people around them too. We calculated the resources needed to start and get the idea funded because it solves a crucial need in our jurisdiction, it’s very demanding and time-consuming but the idea solves the consistent problem many youths between the ages 0f 18 to 30 have been praying for. We were like and answered many youths' prayers with the idea.

Working with foreign firms helps sharpen our minds to help other youths transition into tech and work remotely without thinking of payment first.

Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.

To actualize our vision, we need a platform that people can interact with to show their interest so that we proceed with what is next. We brainstormed the brand name Olidrel Hub and registered the business under the Nigerian government to use and get both the hosting and domain needed for the project then set up the website for registration.

My Partner is a Senior DevOps in which, which makes the development process much easier for us, the stack used is React and NextJS which took us the process of a month due to features like the waitlist form, registration pages, payment gateway, database, and student area we were creating for smooth access for our students.

We also rented a physical apartment that people can easily work from. We had to rent the apartment, furnish the apartment and make it conducive for learning, working, researching, and maximizing skills. And get a licensed lawyer to file our documents.

Whatever vision you have in mind, just take action, launch, and things will fall into shape gradually.

The process cost us initial expenses of $4100 to make things look good to the present state we have now. From the company registration renting an apartment to building tables and buying furniture and needed gadgets for the 3 bedroom apartment office set up.

The courses we offer at the moment are Programming (Web Design and Development) and Content Management System (CMS) (Wordpress, Wix, Shopify) with bonus courses on digital marketing for our trainee which is meant to last for 6 months duration.

Describe the process of launching the business.

We tried our idea out with a waitlist on our website to see how many people would be interested. At first, we had only 2 people join for a whole week, and we had only 10 people join the waitlist but within a month we had our first 50 interested people join the waitlist which encouraged us to do more.

These people joined through us sharing content about the solution we stand to provide across our social media accounts, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and also to all the communities we belong to in our community and also to our Pastor Rev Victor Aiyedun and among our friends too.

We contributed $2200 to put things in place and give the vision an edge before a friend loved what we were doing and invested $2000 based on agreed terms.

Our major lesson so far is, whatever vision you have in mind, just take action, launch and things will fall into shape gradually.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

So far, breaking down the problem Olidrel Hub is here to solve and how we will need it is one major solution we project to the youths that are interested in transitioning into tech. We made sure our word of mouth worked, to build trust.

We use our church, Kanon Life Ministry (a.k.a. Standard Life International Church), majority of our intake that registered are from our church while others are from online communities we belong to

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We look forward to empowering 2,000 youths in the next 5 years minimum. Currently, we are starting on a good note but we look forward to making learning easier for youths across Nigeria and we look forward to expanding to other environments and states across Nigeria.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I learn to always take action towards any idea I have, time waits for no man. Execution is very important, enough of talking without doing.

Helping others achieve their goals in life and creating solutions that solve real-life problems we help one fulfill.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

We use social media platforms to create awareness which includes; Twitter, Facebook, Tiktok, Whatsapp, and Medium.

We integrated Paystack API on our website such that our participants can make payments by bank transfer or using their credit or debit cards. We communicate with our students through email, Telegram group, and Whatsapp groups created by us for our students.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

The podcast includes: The Midshift Theater by David Dokun, Business Masterclass by Vusi Thembekwayo, and Night School by John Obidi.

Books include; Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill, Think Big by Ben Carson, Mafia Manager by V, Gifted Hands, and becoming Facebook. Rich dad poor dad.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Having one or two people you are accountable to as an entrepreneur, will help you stay on track. Let your WHY be strong before you start. Get a mentor and always be truthful to yourself.