Oyindolapo Olusesi is a technology attorney and founder of Mustarred Crest – a firm providing legal solutions to complex technology problems.
Mustarred, an initiative of Olusesi, is a full-service technology startup consultancy in Africa, providing startups with best-in-class strategies for building and scaling successful businesses.
Olusesi was inspired to found Mustarred Crest due to his desire to tackle some of the many challenges faced by young companies.
“I’ve had a lot of non-programmers, like law graduates, finance and business students who wanted to get into relatively new fields like fintech and found it a bit difficult to decide what to do and how to go about it. Mustarred Crest decided to fill in those gaps,” he explains.
He also notes that his conversation with a friend, a branding expert who was unknowingly tinkering with the same idea at the time, inspired the company.
When asked how much capital was used to start the company, the young entrepreneur replies that he started the company with N20,000 – an amount spent on registration.
“We also tried to recruit staff based on available customers. This has helped us to ensure that we don’t overreach personal funds and guarantee employees their salaries when they are due,” notes Olusesi.
He notes that his company’s ability to help early start-ups launch their businesses and its flexible pricing system and reasonable understanding of the market have sustained his business.
“Also, we’re in business to make money, but we’re also very keen on our customers being successful first. What we do is we price each client on a case-by-case basis so we can take into account the specifics of each one,” he explains.
When asked why most startups will fail in the next five years despite the coverage, he attributes the high failure rates among startups to the unfriendly regulatory landscape in the country, explaining that it mostly stifles innovation as many early companies fail properly move forward requirements.
He adds that many startups have failed to map and understand the market in which their companies operate.
“There are many premature increases in the market, many of these startups have not been able to grasp and understand the market, some of them have not even been able to determine their suitability for the product market and have no defined market share,” he says.
Also Read: NASS Submits Startup Bill to Buhari for Approval
He also notes that the outdated education system, primitive judicial system, and lack of progressive politics are also major challenges responsible for the high failure rate in the landscape.
Among the major challenges constraining entrepreneurship, he notes that the country’s huge infrastructure deficit remains a major problem for the ecosystem.
Regarding the business expansion plan, he says Mustarred Crest intends to focus more on its training arm of the business in the short term.
After realizing that many companies need training, our company is considering supporting them, he explains.
“We will soon start rolling out training for companies interested in upskilling their employees,” he adds.
In the longer term, the company plans to build a venture capital network to help its clients secure early-stage financing.
