Building a Startup in Nigeria: What I Learned Co-founding Ajuwaya Travels

Between 2015 and 2016, I co-founded and ran a travel company in Nigeria called Ajuwaya Travels. We helped individuals and organisations plan and book travel — flights, hotels, visa assistance, group travel coordination.

It wasn't a startup in the Silicon Valley sense. We weren't building software or pursuing venture capital. We were building a service business in a complex operating environment, trying to solve a genuine problem for customers who had real alternatives.

I learned an enormous amount. Most of it the hard way.

The Problem We Were Solving

Business travel in Nigeria, particularly international travel, involves navigating a complex set of challenges: unreliable online booking platforms, currency restrictions that make foreign currency payments complicated, visa requirements that vary substantially by destination and nationality, and a general lack of trusted local expertise.

The market opportunity was clear. Execution was the hard part.

Lesson 1: Distribution Is the Business

We spent a lot of time thinking about our service offering — the range of destinations, the quality of our hotel partnerships, the turnaround time on visa applications. These things mattered. But they were ultimately secondary to the question of how we acquired customers.

Our most effective channel was referrals. When we got a corporate client right — when the travel went smoothly, when we proactively managed a disruption, when we saved them money — they told their peers. That word of mouth was far more valuable than any marketing spend.

The lesson: don't confuse the product with the business. Distribution and customer acquisition are at least as important as what you're selling.

Lesson 2: Cash Flow Is Different from Profit

Early in the business, we had months that looked profitable on paper but were genuinely stressful in practice. Customers would book travel that was months away. We'd pay for flights and accommodation upfront. The cash went out before it came in, and the mismatch created real pressure.

Building a business requires understanding not just whether you're making money, but when the money moves. Cash flow forecasting sounds like a finance concept. In practice, it's a survival skill.

Lesson 3: The Environment Is Part of the Product

Operating in Nigeria means dealing with an environment that Western startup advice largely ignores: power outages that interrupt operations, payment infrastructure that frequently fails, regulatory requirements that can shift unpredictably, and foreign currency access that can become genuinely difficult at short notice.

The most resilient businesses I observed during this period weren't the ones with the best product or the most aggressive growth strategy. They were the ones that had built operational resilience into their core — redundant systems, conservative cash management, strong supplier relationships.

In a high-volatility environment, resilience is a competitive advantage.

What I'd Tell My Earlier Self

Start smaller, move faster, and don't try to solve every problem before you launch. We spent too long trying to build a comprehensive service offering before we had paying customers. Get to revenue quickly, then iterate.

Invest heavily in the team. The quality of the people around you matters more than almost any other factor. A great team with a mediocre idea will outperform a mediocre team with a great idea.

And document everything. Systems and processes that exist only in your head are a liability. Build the institutional knowledge that allows someone else to do what you do.

Why This Experience Shaped How I Think

Running a business — even a small one, even one that ultimately didn't scale — gave me a fundamentally different perspective on organisations, incentives, and the nature of economic activity.

It's one of the reasons I find the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship so compelling. And it informs how I think about the energy startups I follow and occasionally advise — what the real challenges are, and what distinguishes teams that survive from those that don't.

I currently support early-stage founders through incubation programmes in Nigeria. If you're building in the African tech or energy space, I'm always interested in connecting.