Dryve Africa: Second-Hand Car Repair and Maintenance in Lagos, Nigeria

I worked with Yuko Ono and Dare Ladejobi, two colleagues from the Graduate School of Business, on this project as part of the Startup Garage course at the Stanford GSB. The project sought to alleviate the frustrations of car owners and drivers in Lagos, Nigeria (with the hopes of expanding to the rest of the African continent) around the repair and maintenance of second-hand vehicles. 

As a self-identified entrepreneur and aspiring Venture Capitalist serving African entrepreneurs, I joined this project as a way of getting my "feet wet". I was especially drawn to this project because of its potential to generate dignified and well paying employment for many in Nigeria by semi-professionalizing the second-hand car repair industry. I was invited to join as a Technical Co-Founder, although given where the start-up was, we all worked on everything together.

While I did not continue with the project, which was later rebranded as AutoCorp before being abandoned on feasibility concerns, I am grateful to my team for inviting me to take part in their journey. I have learned a lot about the iterative formulation, validation, and testing of hypotheses in a startup. These are lessons I will take forth to my next entrepreneurial adventure, formal employment opportunity, and especially, to the entrepreneurs I will support in my future work an enabler of African innovation.