Afrigather “Other folks don’t know me as a footballer anymore. I’m no longer outlined by the game. This, along with the truth that I’m in a position to assemble products that right of us are the usage of, is an even impress of success.”
At 14, UK-born Ghanaian Julian Owusu chanced on a abilities that can acquire him money: taking half in soccer.
It’s a dream many younger boys personal, to assemble global recognition and wealth doing something they acquire pleasure from, a sport watched by over 1.1 billion of us internationally. While soccer may presumably perhaps also fair no longer be no doubt one of many cease 20 paying professions on this planet, it is the fifth-absolute top paid sports occupation, with pro players getting an practical of $3.6 million yearly.
Even supposing soccer held a promising future for Julian, it modified into as soon as ultimate no doubt one of his desires. “I grew up taking half in soccer,” he says, “But I’ve continually been attracted to tech, even lengthy sooner than I started taking half in professionally.”
On the starting of his soccer profession, Julian knew he wished to repeat a special memoir with his mosey. “Many of the different footballers I know personal the same memoir, whether or no longer they personal been prosperous or unhappy. They don’t know what else to opt out when they’re no longer practising or taking half in. They don’t know the build or if they belong out of doors the enviornment. I needed to be utterly different.”
He started his genuine mosey at 16 when he joined Eleven Wise—a Division One soccer league membership primarily based fully in Ghana—as a striker. Julian had joined the membership on the advice of his agent who idea he would personal the earnings of the membership’s rigorous coaching. “It modified into as soon as genuinely my first solo move to Ghana,” he says. “My of us had introduced me over yearly, but coming the general style down to affix Eleven Wise modified into as soon as the main time I’d be in Ghana on my indulge in. And I judge that move is steadily what helped me assemble my entrepreneurial spirit.”
He had to neglect his UK background and immerse himself in Ghana’s custom. “I had to take care of local cultures and transform love my teammates. I had to take care of what the followers wished, and what my coaches wished. So I realized a quantity of lessons very rapidly about becoming a genuine and valid having a genuine mindset.”
Upon completion of his one-year contract with Eleven Wise, Julian moved to Berekum Chelsea, a premier league membership out of Ghana, in 2010 the build he helped the team find several targets including the 2010–2011 Ghana Premier League cup—the youngest team ever to opt the cup—the MTN FA Cup, and the 2011 Ghana’s President’s Cup.
From Berekum Chelsea, he glided through other clubs, from Hayes and Yeading United, to Burnham, fair till 2014 when he made up our minds to retire.
When soccer players on defining paths, corresponding to Julian, retire, it’s continuously thanks to harm. Cherish in most contact sports, soccer players are uncovered to bigger than their stunning fraction of harm including muscle sprains and toe fractures.
Julian’s retirement, on the different hand, had nothing to opt out with harm, age, or scandal. He merely wished to be more.
“I modified into as soon as on vacation twelve months, writing and thinking through what I needed to transform,” he remembers. “I puzzled what I needed to be when I modified into as soon as in my 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s, and I realised that soccer wasn’t the correct thing I needed to opt out.”
He desired to assemble records in but every other that can presumably perhaps also role him up for success, and so he made up our minds to come relief to varsity, a transition he didn’t glean so powerful, he says. “It modified into as soon as powerful at the starting, but the general abilities I’d learnt taking half in soccer personal been transferrable. I knew work laborious. The actual reason it modified into as soon as powerful first and most foremost up wasn’t because I modified into as soon as discovering out. It modified into but again because I wasn’t coaching or going to play a match.”
In 2015, enrolled at the London College of Industrial and Management, Julian obtained launched to digital product management by executing the safe put for the Fresh Pupil Union. But he didn’t fall in bask in with the enviornment till 2 years later when he landed a product management feature at Landon and Fitch, a London-primarily based fully advertising agency. “In my first feature, I modified into as soon as ultimate managing the groups and scope, and I needed more. At Landon and Fitch, though, I obtained arms-on abilities with building and ideating, and that’s the build all the things clicked into put and I knew it modified into as soon as what I’d continue doing. There’s something lovely concerning the strategy of taking something from an idea, bringing it to existence and seeing right of us utilize it.”
From his product management feature at Landor & Fitch in 2018, Julian went on to manage other products at Culturetool and Spark44, fair till he made up our minds to assemble a made of his indulge in: Zuberi Pay.
The theorem that for Zuberi came to Julian as he drove during the streets of London. “I wasn’t even thinking of setting up a fintech. I valid wished to tackle an diagram back each day of us had. And when I believed-about what issues 90% of of us had, it modified into as soon as cash circulation, money!”
While the product modified into as soon as officially launched for beta-discovering out in January 2021, Zuberi started operation fair correct during the time COVID went mainstream in February 2020. Julian added 10 workers to a WhatsApp group and outlined his idea to them: Zuberi would provide them with salary advances, for a puny interest payment.
Within about a months, the quantity of those that’d joined the group doubled. He modified into as soon as offering 30 of us with advances, the usage of day to day tools love WhatsApp for verbal change, Excel for records collection, and Taptap Send to switch payment. “After I believed-about how mighty I modified into as soon as doing valid on WhatsApp and Excel, I realised that I could presumably perhaps also be taught more and set bigger better with an app. So I started pitching to investors.”
Months later, he’d raised about £22,000 ($28,700) from mates and family to assemble the main iteration of the Zuberi App. At that time, he also triggered as co-founder Nana Adomako—who worked as the Tell Supervisor for Taptap Send.
By December 2021, Julian quit his 9–5 as a product supervisor and moved to Ghana to specialise in and lead the vision of Zuberi. “Whenever you happen to’re going to be a founder of a startup,” he says, “I judge the correct feature is doubtlessly to be a product supervisor because you’re normally the CEO of the product and you acquire to know the vivid info of what you’re building.”
While Zuberi is aloof in its early phases and accessible to ultimate a take dangle of group of customers, it has hundreds of Ghanaians on its waitlist. “We are aloof discovering out legislation and but to fully launch. We’re working with the Bank of Ghana to acquire Zuberi up as rapidly as seemingly so of us can acquire entry to its benefits.”
When requested about his fears, Julian says he has none, even supposing he’s earning seriously less as a CEO, when in contrast to when he modified into as soon as a footballer or a product supervisor. “I judge I could presumably perhaps also doubtlessly play but again if I needed to, but I’m no longer . I’ve chanced on my calling. Here, I’m building payment, precise payment I’m in a position to search in of us’s lives. I could presumably perhaps also fair no longer be earning as mighty but I’m no longer high-upkeep. As lengthy as I’m in a position to present for my family, then that’s all that genuinely matters.”
Digital Nomads is a weekly column on TechCabal the build we stumble on the day to day lives of Africans who leave their house countries to search out or work in utterly different locations, and Africans who leave their primitive jobs for brand new professions in tech. A brand new episode drops every Wednesday. Whenever you happen to factor in your memoir fits the Digital Nomads invoice, attain out to us right here.
