* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    From shale to steam: Fossil fuel technology boosts clean geothermal energy – Washington Examiner

    From Shale to Steam: How Fossil Fuel Technology is Powering a Clean Geothermal Energy Revolution

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

    STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    From shale to steam: Fossil fuel technology boosts clean geothermal energy – Washington Examiner

    From Shale to Steam: How Fossil Fuel Technology is Powering a Clean Geothermal Energy Revolution

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

What Kippa’s Kennedy Ekezie has learnt about building a fast-growing startup at 25

October 14, 2023
in Technology
What Kippa’s Kennedy Ekezie has learnt about building a fast-growing startup at 25
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

After moving back to Nigeria from Beijing in 2020, 23-year-old Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph and his brother, Duke, knew that they wanted to start a company. For seven months, they worked on building a software recruiting startup, which was profitable but did not grow as fast as the brothers wanted. This pushed them to think of another idea that was more tailored to the local market in Nigeria, and after two months of interacting with small business owners across the country, Kippa was born.

Kippa is a fintech startup that’s revolutionising bookkeeping and digital payments for small businesses in Nigeria. In under two years, the startup has secured over $10 million from global fintech investors and has a workforce of 50. 

In an interview with TechCabal, Kippa’s co-founder and CEO, Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph shares what he’s learned building a startup in his early twenties as well as how he ensures the company grows fast to accommodate their over 500,000 small business owners.

What are some things you’ve learned about building a bookkeeping and finance app?

Kennedy Ekezie-Joseph: One thing I learned was that all solutions have to be tailored towards the pain points of the target audience. In our case, the small business owners. Psychographically, small businesses want to make more money, and they want to keep as much of that money in their pockets for as long as possible. This means that whatever solutions you’re building for them have to very directly address one of the pain points that affect their ability to do that.

We also learned that imported solutions do not work. You cannot convince businesses that they need a solution that they are not convinced that they need, which has been an incredible pain point for us because there’s always a risk when building software and replicating a playbook. There’s the tendency to over-index on your playbook to the point where you lose touch with your customers and what their needs are. That is something important that we’ve learned so far.

Are there other things that you’ve learned about building a startup and working with teams?

KE: A big lesson we learned while building Kippa was definitely to not scale your team too early. You need to have very few people who are very hard-working and can take on multiple roles and multiple hats. Another lesson we learned was avoiding the temptation to throw money at problems. If you’re in a position where you can afford to throw money at problems, you have a quality problem, because most people don’t have the money to solve their problems, but it’s still not always the best solution.

Kippa has seen rapid growth since its launch in 2021. What are certain things you think have contributed to this growth?

KE: I think it’s mainly because we are building in one of the very few segments on the continent where rapid growth is possible. For the longest time, small businesses have not had anyone deeply building for these particular problems that they have, and so there’s ample opportunity to scale.

Another reason is that as a startup, we move fast. It’s one of our ethos internally, and it’s always when I speak to people outside of my company that I realise how fast we move. It doesn’t always feel that way, but when I zoom out enough, I’m really able to understand how quickly we move from building products to shipping products which I think comes from how impatient leadership is. Why should we take 10 days to do what we can do in two days? We are very clear with deadlines and timelines internally, and there’s no task that is allocated without the person allocating the task issuing a hard deadline. That’s a muscle we spent time building, and we’ll continue to build. I think all of those micro things help us on the macro scale to move very quickly and experience the sort of growth that we’re seeing. 

Kennedy Ekezie

What’s the team at Kippa like?

KE: We’re a team that’s not afraid to have hard conversations. When we realise we’ve made bad decisions, which we’ve made in spades, we correct them very transparently. There is no one who is above correction, not me, not my co-founder, and definitely not any senior member of the team. 

I think that building and embedding that sort of culture in the team is also responsible for the growth that we’ve seen so far. Culture-wise, we’re not the sort of team where you come and find folks making TikToks at the office, or hugging each other and laughing with each other; not that anything is wrong with that. We run our business like it’s serious. We know that the work we’ve signed up for is a very hard task, and if we’re going to succeed, then we have to burn all cylinders. We can’t let anything slip through the cracks.

Are you bothered by the funding winter that’s affecting some startups currently?

KE: Yes, we are. We cannot afford to not be bothered about it, because that would be irresponsible. Our sector is also one that’s very capital-intensive, and so you actually do need capital to grow. Fortunately, we have a great team of investors behind us, and we are in a position where we can afford to put our heads down and focus on product building. However, we’re always paying attention and consistently monitoring how the market evolves. 

Beyond Kippa, what makes this path of helping SMEs scale important to you?

KE: Even before Kippa, everything I’ve done has been very Africa-centric. I’d describe my personal mission as one that involves creating economic prosperity for Africa, and when we look at the stats, small businesses contribute to 60% of Africa’s GDP. SMEs employ about 84% of the total labour force and 96% of all businesses in Africa are small businesses. So economic prosperity for Africa is impossible if small businesses cannot grow sustainably and profitably. For me, Kippa was just a logical next step and I believe that my life’s work is for Kippa to be able to live out and self-actualize.

How easy has it been to find people who share in this vision?

KE: Finding great people, especially those who are visually oriented, is probably one of the hardest things to do. At the same time, it’s important that we continue to keep the bar very high. There’s a random element of luck that comes into play with finding such people, because there’s no formula for finding them. You can’t rely on numbers of years of experience or background as it boils down to the individual and what their personal motivations are. 

How easy is it for business owners to adapt to your product?

KE: We’re very intentional about product design, so there’s no one who can use a smartphone and won’t be able to use the Kippa app. However, I would say that our ideal customers aren’t those who have never used a smartphone before or are digitally illiterate. Our ideal users are folks who have tried to do business on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, and have some sort of familiarity with using digital tools.

Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : TechCabal – https://techcabal.com/2023/10/13/what-kippas-kennedy-ekezie-has-learnt-about-building-a-fast-growing-startup-at-25/

Tags: KennedyKippa’stechnology
Previous Post

Northflix is taking the Hausa film industry global

Next Post

How MTN aims to revolutionise SA fintech with MoMo 2.0

PFAS in East Selah drinking water – Washington State Department of Ecology (.gov)

Alarming PFAS Contamination Discovered in East Selah Drinking Water

October 1, 2025
Science Expo – Northern Public Radio

Discover the Wonders of Science at the Exciting Expo!

October 1, 2025
Science and artificial intelligence could help personalize brain stimulation for smokers – News-Medical

How Science and AI Are Transforming Personalized Brain Stimulation to Help Smokers Quit

October 1, 2025
Review: What’s good at new prime-cuts steakhouse in Virginia Beach – Yahoo

Review: What’s good at new prime-cuts steakhouse in Virginia Beach – Yahoo

October 1, 2025
STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as Chief Technology Officer – Yahoo Finance

STELLA Automotive AI Appoints Fred Seidelman as New Chief Technology Officer

October 1, 2025
Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25 – Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated’s Men’s College Basketball Preseason Top 25 – Sports Illustrated

October 1, 2025
Milan Fashion Week Asks the Question: Is It the Best-Dressed City in The World? – The New York Times

Milan Fashion Week Asks the Question: Is It the Best-Dressed City in The World? – The New York Times

October 1, 2025
How a government shutdown would impact the economy – CBS News

How a Government Shutdown Could Impact the Economy

October 1, 2025
Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

Penn State-Themed Restaurant and Entertainment Spot Happy Valley Live Set to Open in State College – StateCollege.com

October 1, 2025

Teresa Nicholson Celebrated as Pardee Hospital’s Teammate of the Year

September 30, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (845)
  • Economy (865)
  • Entertainment (21,740)
  • General (17,342)
  • Health (9,909)
  • Lifestyle (879)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (868)
  • Politics (876)
  • Science (16,076)
  • Sports (21,366)
  • Technology (15,849)
  • World (848)

Recent News

PFAS in East Selah drinking water – Washington State Department of Ecology (.gov)

Alarming PFAS Contamination Discovered in East Selah Drinking Water

October 1, 2025
Science Expo – Northern Public Radio

Discover the Wonders of Science at the Exciting Expo!

October 1, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version