After failing at 4 startups, Obasegun Ayodele is making hardware accessible to Africans with Vilsquare

The entrepreneurship journey varies for every entrepreneur, but there are often a few similarities. For the vast majority, it is a long-standing interest in a field and a resilient attitude in the face of setbacks.While Obasegun Ayodele, Co-founder and CTO of Vilsquare, has taken various routes to  where he is today, his interest in building hardware solutions has been constant throughout his journey His introduction to the hardware space came while he was in secondary school at LAUTECH International College in Ogbomosho, a town in the South-Western part of Nigeria.Studying at a school that enjoyed a relationship with the Electrical and Electronics Engineering department of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) meant that he was exposed to the practical aspects of the discipline

And in 2010, he was admitted to study Electronics and Electrical Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).

OAU is one of Nigeria’s oldest universities, having been established in 1962 shortly after the country’s independence. It has produced several successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria’s startup space, some of whom started as students.

As data from Techpoint Africa’s West Africa Startup Decade Report reveals, OAU produced the highest number of founders who raised $1m cumulatively in the last decade. Thus, Ayodele had no shortage of examples to follow as a student.

Testing the waters of entrepreneurship

As a student, he got involved in many communities where he honed his technical and leadership skills. He also built and failed at a few startups in the hardware space. 

His first startup, Alcacia Systems, was a hardware consulting firm that helped companies build hardware solutions such as billboards and screen displays. After that failed, he started Pragmatic Embedded, a machine-to-machine solution for home automation. 

His next venture was PubCulture – a platform similar to, but a few years ahead of Canva. On the platform, users could choose a template to create a design before downloading it. That, too, failed.

Three failures would discourage even the most resilient of people, but Ayodele was not done. His next startup, AirMoney, tried to solve the challenge of trust in online payments. 

With most Nigerians sceptical about using their cards online, AirMoney allowed users to convert airtime to cash which they could then use to make payments online.

Like the others, AirMoney did not take off, and he soon switched his focus to Humane, a device that made smartphones accessible to the blind. It won the Microsoft Imagine Cup in 2016. 

Without sufficient support, the team dropped the idea of Humane and moved on to other things. He moved to Lagos after his studies and joined iQube, a tech company building solutions for businesses.

Building Vilsquare

While building these startups, he realised that his lack of business skills was a major reason they failed, so in 2017, he joined iQube as a business developer. 

At iQube, I was not doing anything hardware. I was in sales and marketing because one of the biggest lessons from Humane was that we knew nothing about sales, marketing, or business development. They’re not taught in any engineering school, even though there are entrepreneurship courses. Everybody is just focused on building without thinking of how to sell these skills.”

 He was there until 2018, when Vilsquare launched. While at iQube, he had led a project with another company where his Co-founder and CEO, Obialunanma Nnaobi, worked. 

When he had the idea for Vilsquare, he flew to Abuja to discuss it with her. At first, she was reluctant about leaving her job to join Vilsquare full-time, but Ayodele was sure that the business needed someone with her expertise.

“She had come from banking to public policy and governance, and I felt it was necessary to bring someone with her skillset. I had the technical skills and some experience with sales and business development, but none in policy or corporate governance, and I believed these were important skills to have.” 

She ultimately joined a year later — a move that Ayodele credits with turbocharging their efforts.

To get started, he dipped into his savings to register the company and get a few other things set up. With little financial support, they started as an IT consulting company providing various services, including digital marketing. He was there until 2018, when Vilsquare launched. While at iQube, he had led a project with another company where his Co-founder and CEO, Obialunanma Nnaobi, worked. 

When he had the idea for Vilsquare, he flew to Abuja to discuss it with her. At first, she was reluctant about leaving her job to join Vilsquare full-time, but Ayodele was sure that the business needed someone with her expertise.

“She had come from banking to public policy and governance, and I felt it was necessary to bring someone with her skillset. I had the technical skills and some experience with sales and business development, but none in policy or corporate governance, and I believed these were important skills to have.” She ultimately joined a year later — a move that Ayodele credits with turbocharging their efforts.

To get started, he dipped into his savings to register the company and get a few other things set up. With little financial support, they started as an IT consulting company providing various services, including digital marketing. THe was there until 2018, when Vilsquare launched. While at iQube, he had led a project with another company where his Co-founder and CEO, Obialunanma Nnaobi, worked. 

When he had the idea for Vilsquare, he flew to Abuja to discuss it with her. At first, she was reluctant about leaving her job to join Vilsquare full-time, but Ayodele was sure that the business needed someone with her expertise.

“She had come from banking to public policy and governance, and I felt it was necessary to bring someone with her skillset. I had the technical skills and some experience with sales and business development, but none in policy or corporate governance, and I believed these were important skills to have.” She ultimately joined a year later — a move that Ayodele credits with turbocharging their efforts.

To get started, he dipped into his savings to register the company and get a few other things set up. With little financial support, they started as an IT consulting company providing various services, including digital marketing.