With One Of Nigeria's Finest Brains: CHIDI NWAOGU

Daniel Kemka Blog Special Interview with one of Nigeria's finest brains, Chidi Nwaogu. The CEO and Co Founder of Publisheer. 

1. Who is Chidi Nwaogu and where is he originally from?

I'm a serial tech entrepreneur and software developer. I'm co-founder and CEO of Publiseer, a digital publisher for African Creatives, described by Konbini as "one of the largest digital publishers in Africa" and identified by IFC as one of the startups "that could speed up innovation in Africa". 

I'm Nigerian, and I've been described as one of the "Young innovators making Africa great in 2019" and "50 Top Personalities on LinkedIn". I'm the winner of the Migration Entrepreneurship Prize 2020, the Africa 35.35 Award 2019 for Entrepreneurship, the Young Leaders Award 2019 for Media and Entertainment, and the Bizz Business Excellence Award 2019. 

I'm an Acumen Fellow 2020 (West Africa), IDEX Global Fellow 2020 (India), Westerwelle Fellow 2019 (Germany), Halcyon Incubator Fellow 2019 (Washington, DC), AfricanPLP Fellow 2019 (Cairo), and Yunus&Youth Global Fellow 2019 (New York).

2. Let's have a little background on your academics, business and work experience.

I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Imo State University for a while but eventually left to study Physics at the University of Lagos. I went on to study Software Entrepreneurship at Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Accra, Ghana, on a full scholarship. I also studied Venture Scaling at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

At the age of 13, I started learning how to write codes and at 16 years old, I co-founded my first technology company called 9ja BOI Interactive. It was a video game development company that used ‘gamification’ and artificial intelligence to teach the concept of global warming to teenagers. At 19, I co-founded my second tech start-up, LAGbook, which started off initially as an exclusive social network for students of the University of Lagos (which I was attending at the time). LAGbook was a backronym for ‘Ladies and Gentlemen Book’, and it had over one million registered users within three months. It was later acquired by a Canadian tech company, Gulf Pearl Limited.

At 23, I co-founded my third tech company, PRAYHoUSe, a platform that used technology to help Christians pray properly, by finding the right words from the Bible to form a non-vain prayer. PRAYHoUSe attracted over 200,000 users within four months and was acquired by an American non-profit organization, Ten Doves Charity.

At 27, I co-founded my current tech company, Publiseer, which is a digital platform that has helped 5,000 African creatives earn a living as full-time professionals. Publiseer has been identified by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation as one of the start-ups ‘that could speed up innovation in Africa’.

3. How long have you been into your business and what has been your driving force?

I started my entrepreneurial journey when he was 16 with the creation of 9ja Boi Interactive, a video game development company. My driving force is to leave the world better than I found it.

4. Who are the people that have influenced your life greatly?

My twin brother, who happens to be my co-founder in all my successful startups and endeavors, has had the greatest impact on my career. He has been my support from day one; my inspiration, my motivation, my light, my pillar, and my compass.

5. Have you experienced any setback or several setbacks before? If yes, What did you do to experience a comeback?

When we started Publiseer, we distributed books, music, and videos, the same state the creatives uploaded them on our platform. During the first months from launch, we experienced low sales across the platforms we distributed to, and we almost decided to shut down. But then, we began to rethink Publiseer and this led us to fine-tune the content uploaded on our platform before distribution. When a book is uploaded on our platform, we create a professional book cover for it, format the interior to industry standard, and edit it for simple-to-complex spelling and grammatical errors. We craft marketing essentials like captivating book descriptions and metatags before we distributed them. Doing this multiplied our sales by over 10 times.

6. There are so many people who desire to be like you. What's your message to them?

Please, listen to advice. It’s great that you’re passionate about your idea—and sometimes, you need to ignore the naysayers to realize your dream. However, some zealous entrepreneurs fall trap to dismissing any constructive criticism or advice they receive, which can lead you to miss the opportunity to address possible issues before they happen. Figure out how to sort through truly negative comments and constructive criticism. If someone is offering you genuine advice, consider stopping and listening carefully.

7. Aside from other areas of interest, what are your primary areas focus and why?

My primary focus is on digital media, and how it can be used to change the African narrative. For many years, the rest of the world has read single stories about Africa, which are often incomplete. I'm using digital media as a tool to tell our story and change this narrative. Africa is made up of creative and hardworking people, and every day, we at Publiseer are promoting that creativity to the rest of the world, one content at a time. 

8. If you happen to find yourself in an environment without a dime in your pocket, what's the first thing you'll do to make money?

Teach others what I know. That way I'm impacting the environment and making money simultaneously.

9. For those who have been thriving hard to succeed in their field but with little result to show for it, what's your message to them?

Most entrepreneurs have failed more times than they have succeeded. The difference is that no one gets to hear of these failures. They only know about the successes. Even if it takes you a thousand times, do it without any loss of enthusiasm. Never say, ‘I can’t’ because success first happens in the head. The 'success' that people see is the second success because to succeed, one must have first succeeded in one’s thoughts. Failure is 'success' when you learn from it. The only time you fail is the moment you quit.

10. What's the most important thing in your life and why?

The most important thing in my life is the gift of life. Every day, I wake up, I'm grateful for it because it's another chance to make the world a better place.

• © Daniel Kemka Blog 2020