Why Many African Solutions Struggle When Entering New Markets

Описание: In this session, Omolara Sanni (Co-founder, Middleman) joins Hamid Barry (CEO, Skaletek) to break down what it really takes to scale across African markets without losing sales, trust, or momentum.

They share practical insights on product-market fit, why many African-wide solutions fail, and how Middleman grew rapidly by focusing on real customer problems in cross-border trade.

If you're building across Africa or thinking about expansion, this conversation will help you avoid costly mistakes.

Timestamps

00:00 – Why many African products fail when scaling
02:08 – Introduction to Middleman and Omolara Sanni
03:27 – The first idea: solving escrow and trust issues
05:42 – Pivoting to cross-border payments
07:58 – Identifying real demand (and validating it properly)
09:11 – Building a product people were already waiting for
11:49 – What drove Middleman’s early growth
13:19 – Using community and content to grow organically
17:19 – What product-market fit really looks like
19:30 – Biggest mistakes founders make when scaling across Africa
21:10 – Why “copy and paste” products fail in local markets
24:06 – Simplicity, trust, and user behavior
26:21 – How Middleman is thinking about expansion
27:22 – Adapting to different markets (payments, behavior, trade)
29:18 – Moving from small businesses to larger traders
32:53 – Final advice for founders
33:54 – Key takeaway: scaling in Africa is a design problem

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