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Many of the top successful founders all share something in common: sacrifice. Whether it’s sacrificing time, energy, or something else. For Calendly Founder and CEO Tope Awotona, he put his earnings on the line. As previously shared by AFROTECH ™, Awotona drained his bank account and 401(k) to build his scheduling company from the ground up. What’s more, he faced countless rejections along the way when seeking venture capital but kept pushing ahead. “Being a foreigner really helped,” the Lagos, Nigeria, native said, according to Inc . “I grew up in a country where 99 percent of the people looked like me, so race wasn’t something I consciously thought about. It’s good to have that mentality. You can dwell on all the reasons you shouldn’t do something or why it’s harder for you. Or you can just go out and do it.” The hustle and grind led to multi-million-dollar investments, which transformed Calendly into a billion-dollar company. For founders seeking to reach success like Awotona’s...
Since launching nearly a decade ago, Tope Awotona’s Calendly has stood as one of the leading scheduling platforms. Following years of bootstrapping and tireless dedication, Awotona led the company to become one of the few Black-owned unicorns across the globe — sitting at a valuation of $3 billion — as previously shared by AFROTECH.
Sometimes, all it takes is one dream to change a person’s life forever. Somalian refugee-turned-banker to the wealthy elite, Dega Nalayeh, created the blueprint for her success early on in life. After migrating to Canada with her family at the age of 11, Nalayeh had to overcome a few feats including adapting to the country’s cold weather and learning English. As the daughter of a former Somali politician, she knew the power of decision-making and would soon develop a love for math and science, mainly because of her school’s lack of ESL courses. While she managed to find a balance between staying on top of her school work and working a newspaper route to help support the family, Nalayeh had no idea what she wanted to be once she grew up, but she did have hard-working supportive parents. “My parents made it exciting, that I was a girl with this freedom in a country where i was safe and had choices,” said the 49-year-old in an interview with Insider. It wasn’t long before she used her...
At just 40 years old, Nigerian-American entrepreneur Tope Awotona has gone from overseeing a small startup to turning his company into a tech unicorn. The founder and CEO of Calendly — a scheduling app designed to streamline calendars — has been called “one of America’s wealthiest immigrants” by Forbes, and it’s a title he doesn’t take lightly. With a $200,000 investment — his life savings — Calendly made more than $100 million in revenue, driven in part by its spike in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And Forbes estimates that his revenue will double in 2022 and beyond — and that he’s potentially tapping into a $20 billion market. What’s more, he shows absolutely no signs of slowing down — and we love to see it, indeed. “In my life, I’ve benefited from not taking the conventional wisdom,” Tope Awotona said to the outlet. “It’s benefited me personally, and I think it has benefited the business.” Calendly has long been considered a Black-owned startup that is “killing the...