If you are seriously in search of a job in Nigeria, then you must have been to Jobberman.com. What you may not have known is that the site that has been ranked by Forbes as “West Africa’s most popular job search engine and aggregator” was created by a triad when they were students.
While many were dreading what was to come after school, Opeyemi Awoyemi, 27, Ayodeji Adewunmi, 31, and Olalekun Olude, 31, who were students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife at the same time, were finding a solution.
Opeyemi had met Ayodeji in his second year in the university. He was pleased to find a Medical student who was really fore-sighted and passionate about building, monetizing and engaging online content, users and platforms.
After having bought the domain jobberman.com and put up a first version online, Opeyemi shared the idea with Ayodeji and Olalekun, who was his course mate but not his friend till some time later. Opeyemi and Olalekun bought the concept. And so during the ASUU strike of August 2009, the site was officially launched.
Olalekan Olude
The trio agreed to work on the Jobs space for a number of reasons including: a low capital requirement (considering that they were students at the time), huge market opportunity (labor force of over 45m people) and superior product differentiation.
Interestingly, the fund for this project came from their stipends. Barely a year later, they were approached by Tiger Global Management who agreed to lead the ‘Series A’ financing and investment in the business.
Soon, like hot cake served to a hungry market, the demand and use of Jobberman grew so well they created and launched the mobile site in 2011.
Ayodeji Akinwunmi
In February 2012, Jobberman got named as No. 8 in Forbes Magazine Top 20 Tech Startups in Africa. Jobberman has also been featured in the McKinsey Internet Report on Aspiring Countries as one of the Innovative Companies in Nigeria. According to alexa.com, Jobberman is ranked the fifth most visited site in Nigeria and receives 5,000 job applications every day.
Opeyemi Awoyemi
Together as a team, they grew. These young men still have their regular disagreements that make them human but they have been able to manage them well with good understanding and compromise.
Few months ago, they became directors and shareholders in One Africa Media after the latter acquired Jobberman. This acquisition does not, however, alter their performance of their duties as CEO and vice presidents.
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