Afrigather After a profitable $1.2 billion exit deal in 2021, Shegun Otulana, a profitable entrepreneur and founder, has dedicated to remodeling the tech business in Birmingham, Alabama by constructing firms, investing in others, and creating job alternatives throughout the state.
He introduced his plan to determine 40 new startups in Birmingham over the following 10 years with combination valuation in billions of {dollars}.
From Lagos to Birmingham
Otulana was born in 1979 and raised within the vibrant metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria the place he lived till his teenage years. In 1998, at 18 years of age, Otulana moved to Birmingham, AL to flee the political turmoil and violence surrounding him in his native Nigeria.
Making the 6,000-mile journey with just a few luggage, huge goals and the amassed expectations of his household that had sacrificed to present him an opportunity at overseas schooling, Otulana started his undergraduate examine on the College of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Otulana was one in every of 10 kids born to his mother and father who have been each enterprise house owners. His older brother studied medication on the UAB and he adopted go well with in 1998, hoping to review pc engineering.
Nonetheless, because the program was restricted to graduate college students, he accomplished his bachelor of science in engineering and administration data whereas studying software program growth on the facet.
A product of entrepreneurial mother and father, Otulana believes they served as motivations for his work.
“My mother and father weren’t very educated, they simply hustled — renting property out, proudly owning gasoline stations. They did what they might. I had little interest in my mother and father’ enterprise, however you do see this correlation between entrepreneurial mother and father and entrepreneurial kids,” he stated.
Highway to $1.2 billion exit
“I knew I used to be at all times going to be an entrepreneur, had varied concepts that didn’t work and that journey was in the end what led to the primary firm that turned out to be very profitable which was TheraNest and morphed into TherapyBrands.”
In 2004, a yr after leaving faculty, Otulana based his first firm, Zertis, a startup that targeted on evaluating the possibilities for long-term success of varied technological merchandise. He ran Zertis full-time till TheraNest was birthed.
Otulana began TheraNest in 2013, which might emerge very profitable. It was a software program product that allowed behavioural well being suppliers to handle all phases of their remedy enterprise.
In August of 2013, Otulana stepped down from his publish as CEO of Zertis to give attention to TheraNest.
Later in 2017, he created Remedy Manufacturers, an organization which might home TheraNest and different software-as-a-service (SaaS) merchandise for therapists.
Remedy Manufacturers was ideated after a pal at Catholic Household Providers contacted him to analysis administration software program platforms and he acknowledged the untapped market. The ensuing product, “TheraNest” was initially named by Otulana’s spouse, Mary.
However Otulana wished one thing greater and higher that might influence extra individuals in his group.
“Whereas I used to be nonetheless at Remedy Manufacturers, I actually started to consider the following part. I knew that no matter I did subsequent needed to nonetheless be about constructing issues, that’s actually what drives me. I imagine that constructing firms and producing the financial empowerment that comes from constructing issues might be very life-changing for the builder and for the individuals that you just contact.
I considered how do I take the teachings I had realized and the alternatives I now had and scale them with three issues in thoughts: constructing nice firms, serving to the group I discovered myself in and creating financial alternatives.”
Otulana grew his firm to an progressive enterprise valued for its service to greater than 200,000 therapists and serving to them enhance the lives of thousands and thousands of sufferers, and in Might of 2021, Otulana bought Remedy Manufacturers, TheraNest’s father or mother firm, for $1.2 billion to the funding agency KKR of New York Metropolis.
He then based Concord Enterprise Labs (HVL) to assist startup founders by equipping them with capital, offering steerage, sources, progress teaching and advisory companies.
The ten-in-10 undertaking
Otulana created Concord Enterprise Labs to create different firms.
“We take the monetary sources we have now and put them into constructing firms, and we let these firms develop and thrive and all of our power goes into offering progress, job alternatives with these firms,” he stated.
2 years into its journey, HVL had impressed everybody. Its profitability grew astronomically, attracting loyal buyers and establishing its presence in its market. HVL launched six firms producing a number of thousands and thousands in annual income.
All this, Otulana, owes to success.
“We grew to become very worthwhile very quick. We didn’t elevate some huge cash. My firm was very capital environment friendly and constructed an organization that grew to become worthwhile inside its second yr. That is actually not the norm, however being capital environment friendly has turn into a finest follow.
Our objective is to launch 40 new startups in Birmingham– with an combination worth within the billions of {dollars},” based on him.
He stated “It took us about seven and half years to take our prior startup to an organization value north of a billion {dollars}. However I undertaking we are able to construct 10 firms over the following 10 years with the insights we’ve realized and with the assist of lots of people in our group.”
Otulana hopes to make use of his experience within the tech scene to realize his huge targets. Leveraging many years of expertise and experience within the business, he claims to have mastered avoiding industrial landmines that sabotage success.
“I’ve witnessed entrepreneurs making the identical errors over and over all through the ideation, buyer validation, and product growth levels of rising an organization,” he stated.
“I’ve discovered a solution to keep away from many frequent startup pitfalls by doing market validation first.” He says “You possibly can considerably improve possibilities of success by guaranteeing there’s a sufficiently big drawback out there that folks truly care about.”
A future for Birmingham’ tech ecosystem
The institution of HVL is a part of Otulana’s bigger objective of reworking the town of Birmingham and in the end the state of Alabama into a sexy technological hub.
“It will likely be a robust car to do all of the issues I care about…constructing groups, constructing firms, worth creation, and Birmingham,” he stated referring to his innovation and progress firm.
“It alleviates struggling. It raises lives, no less than on this current world that we see. It solves quite a lot of the human issues, and I do know of no higher car to resolve this drawback than to present individuals financial empowerment, and the primary method I do know of giving individuals financial empowerment is thru entrepreneurship,” he stated.
Otulana hopes that HVL will empower younger startup founders in Alabama, encouraging extra individuals to create startups, which in flip might result in exponential partnerships with loyal buyers and a longtime viewers.
“Birmingham has challenges to constructing high-growth firms–lack of capital and expertise staying in Alabama, however I really feel me and my staff can overcome these obstacles and switch these issues into a bonus…It’s the right platform to do all this stuff and to create momentum within the tech ecosystem,” he stated in an interview.
His explicit affinity to the town he claims, stems from his relationships and community.
“We’ve got quite a lot of ties to Birmingham. We don’t run from the place we have now ties, we construct on them. We construct extra TheraNests. We put a stake within the floor and say, for nonetheless lengthy I’m right here, I’ve an obligation to this place and its individuals,” Otulana advised his alma mater.
He hopes that in a decade, there shall be multi-billion greenback HVL-affiliated firms distributed throughout the state.
“I’m excited ’trigger I do know what that might imply for Birmingham.”
