Founders Connect: My Accelerator.
When Peace told me to write a mini-introduction for the person who was to take over my job, I used the word accelerator to describe what I believed the role was going to be for them. This was because it had been my experience, and I felt it was likely to be theirs as well. From the day I joined the team on the 1st of February, 2022, to my final day, on the 31st of December 2023, my capacity had been stretched in ways I hadn’t envisioned. Working with Founders Connect set me on a new career path, and for that, I will always be grateful.
Before delving into my Founders Connect story, let’s dial back to the past, to the days when Treasure the Content Marketer, was Treasure the Personal Assistant, working in the Nigerian entertainment industry.
In 2020 I got a job as an assistant for a celebrity. It happened by chance — I had seen an application on the Instagram story of one of my mutuals and made inquiries. After sending a cold email and having a physical interview, I got the job. My role was to bring up creative ideas, help this celebrity bring them to life, and also assist him with anything else that required assistance. By December of that year, his manager would poach me and I would begin what to me (then) was the most exciting time of my life.
My months were filled with making presentation slides, sourcing for influencers, creating scripts for advertisements, and sending invoices. This part of the job was not very fun. The real fun happened when we had events and I had to be on set and see all the magic happen backstage. I really enjoyed doing this, and I learned so much on the job. Super grateful for that experience because it opened me up to so many things, and it also made me a lot more confident in my abilities. Then the economy got worse, I started thinking about earning more, so I shared this with my friends, and we all started looking for work.
One day, Peace Itimi shared a tweet about how she was looking for an assistant, and two of my friends tagged me (grateful for good friends!). I issued the reply below.
I would like to say that I knew nothing about the tech industry, then. I didn’t even know there was any such ecosystem. I didn’t know anything about the apps, or the founders, but I had seen Peace’s face on Salem King’s story and I thought she was so cool. The application process was interesting. Peace filmed a video explaining what she wanted in an assistant and put a code word in it. Applicants had to incorporate the code word in the article they wrote about themselves, and I did the best I could.
After two interview rounds, I got the job. I remember the day of my last interview, sitting in a small room with a friend at Chemist, my hands shaking as I answered the questions Peace and Joyce Imiegha threw at me. “Could you tell me a time when you felt you had done excellent work?” I spoke about the Lagos Model United Nations, my work at the Unilag Law Review, and my previous experience working as an assistant.
Some days later, I got the offer email.
I was overjoyed.
Failing Forward.
Working at Founders Connect felt like doing everything I knew how to do, but better, faster, and with more precision. It was easy to apply for the role, but being faced with the actual work was an entirely different ballgame. Working with Peace required me to think like her, to manage Founders Connect’s social media page (which at the time was shy of 3000 followers), in addition to every other task ancillary to my role. I hadn’t done some of these things before so I had to learn on the job. We would have meetings and I’d just be in awe as words and terms flew over my head. This was a good thing though — because it pushed me to take my learning into my own hands.
How Marketing Found Me.
I knew about marketing as a verb, but I didn’t know about it as a field that was super diverse and encompassed a lot of roles until I started working at Founders Connect. Peace’s channel became my school. I spent a lot of time trying to understand her, through her videos, and then trying to understand the tech ecosystem through the Founders Connect videos. As I watched these videos, I found myself falling in love with the stories of these people who wanted more out of life, who wanted to do something great for themselves, and who were able to accomplish wonderful things. It was a slow process, but I was learning.
I was getting better.
On the first of April, 2022, I had a mini panic attack. I had just finished taking a Product Management course, but I felt like I was forcing myself into a shoe that didn’t fit, and grew worried that I was running out of time. I knew that my course of study, Law, was not the right field for me, and I knew I had to find something else. Something that made sense. That day, I called Peace on the phone to get some clarity. This would be one of many personal conversations we would have during our time as boss/assistant and I would never take them for granted.
I left that call realizing that I had a place in marketing. It was a natural fit. I had been a writer/storyteller all my life, and I really enjoyed the work I was doing at Founders Connect. The next step was to learn. I found Google’s Foundation of Digital Marketing Course and started taking it. It was a discovery that changed my life for good.
Getting Good.
Growth has a compounding effect. You put in the work consistently over a stretch of time and one day you look up and realize that a lot has changed. At first, the changes are subtle. You apologize less for errors and get more great feedback and more trust. Then you recognize your growth in the big things, like getting poached by another company (which you join), growing the Founders Connect Instagram to 10K followers, then 20K. A reel that amasses 300K+ views. You see it in the first Founders Connect event and the euphoria of having people say amazing things about it on social media. Holding the booklet containing the content you had written in your palms. You see it in HOW I — The Series and the process of bringing it to life. The several job offers you have to turn down. You recognize that it’s all because you took the advice of exploring the ideas and the skills you had, and leveraged them for growth.
The time really flies. One day it’s February 2022 and you have gotten a job offer, and the next day it is December 2023 and you’re leaving that job, but this time, the company has grown bigger, with a documentary that has amassed over 100K views on Youtube, two successful live shows, one in Lagos and one in the UK, two shows under their belt, a team that loves and trusts you, and a feeling that maybe you can really make it, in this industry.
That has been my Founders Connect story. My first tech job. My accelerator.
There is a lot I would miss about working with the team: Joyce, watching Founders Connect episodes before everyone else and leaving comments on the group chat stating why This Is The Best Episode Yet. That time Peace came to Nigeria and we spent a lot of time talking and learning from her, especially the morning at the airport before she left. Tito and Treasure, a dynamic duo. Being allowed to cook up crazy content that offers value and makes people happy. So much to love, so much to miss.
Lessons.
I learned so much from working at Founders Connect. I have shared many lessons in the articles listed below, but I have a few extra that I would leave here:
- Growth Happens If You Want It To: You have to lean into growth. You have to try so many things until you find something that clicks. Nothing happens if you do nothing. Growth requires the awkward fumblings and the sorrys, before you actually get good.
- Execute > Talk: Spend more time working than talking about the work you want to do. Working with Peace made me realise what excellence looks like. That woman is a machine and does great work really fast. It is what sets her and her achievements apart, and comes with years of practice.
- Synergy Matters: Having a good team that you get along well with is the reason why we were able to pull off what we did in two years. While I am quite averse to the concept of work families, FC really felt like one.
- You’re Hired to think: My friend who is a lawyer once told me that people get hired in law firms for one of two reasons: to think, or to bring in briefs. If you are not going to bring in the briefs (the money), then you should be the thinker. In essence, let your value shine through wherever you find yourself.
- Life will always give back what you give it: Peace is a testament to the fact that life will always give back whatever you give it. Her work has stacked on itself to the point that great opportunities come to her as a result. Watching her, I learned that all I have to do good work, and the life I want will come to me.
— — —
I have written other articles about Founders Connect.
Check them out here:
- The Beauty of Excellence — lessons from Founders Connect: Live in Lagos.
- Lessons I Learned From the FC Documentary Filming.
- Stories Are Powerful.
Thank you for reading!
