Sam Uduma, a.k.a. SuperGeek #1 is the Co-founder of SuperGeeks Services and Solutions, a leading provider of after sales technical support to customers within the Lagos Metropolis and suburbs. He runs this company along with the Chief Marketing Officer and previous Spark B.O.S.S. Edmund Olotu.
Samuel holds a B.Eng with Honours in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Nottingham and and MSc. in Communication Systems and Signal Processing (with a distinction) from University of Bristol, UK.
Prior to SuperGeeks, Samuel founded ChargeBox Nigeria; an innovative technology service company who partnered with the tier 1 telco, Etisalat in providing convenient charging solutions to over 30 million mobile device users within Lagos and Abuja Metropolis.
He worked at the Ericsson UK office for 4 years where he rose from being the face of the Ericsson Graduate Scheme to the engineer responsible for the operations systems management of service layer products within the organisation for some of the largest telcos in the world, Telefonica O2 and Vodafone UK.
An avid entrepreneur and tech enthusiast, Samuel jointly runs a technology incubator, TechAdvance which focuses on budding software technology startups.
In this interview with ‘Tobi Solarin from Vanguard Spark, this serial tech entrepreneur shares his perspective on innovation, entrepreneurship and technology.
TS: Tell us a bit about yourself and why you love technology so much.
SuperGeek #1: My name is Samuel Ikechukwuka Uduma aka SuperGeek (yes, that’s where the company name was derived). I hail from Ohafia LGA in Abia State- the 1st Son of two to God-fearing parents and husband to a God-given blessing of a wife. Having spent the better of my adult life in the United Kingdom, I achieved a BEng and MSc. degrees in Electronic & Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Nottingham and Bristol University respectively. I came back to Nigeria finally in the 2nd quarter of 2012 since when I have been part of a brilliant ICT incubator – TechAdvance alongside my partner Edmund Olotu through which we have launched and seek to launch tech-enabled innovative businesses.
Technology has been a consistent part of my life spanning almost 3 decades now even from a very young age. As a child, I was so sure I was going to become a doctor; you know that colloquial “doctor” title given to a kid that did very well in primary school [laughs]. “Doctor Sam” invariably faded very fast when I got into secondary school and decided I wasn’t a fan of biology. I really thank God for my Mom who saw sense in exposing us to ICT at a very early age and although we were mostly only interested in playing PC games, the curiosity at that age was born. My real love for ICT sprouted sometime in my early teens- it was around the same period the internet had just birthed in Nigeria – I remember a colleague of my mom’s then introducing me to the 52K dial-up connection after which he said “do you know you can play any game in the world on the internet” – that distinct moment, I knew I had to unravel all there was to this glorious new concept. Thanks Uncle Ikoku, you may well have changed my life!
TS: It seems you were born to be an entrepreneur. But help us clear up this fact- are entrepreneurs born?
SuperGeek #1: Firstly, I don’t think anyone is born to be anything and as cliche as it sounds, I honestly believe you can be anything you want to be with the right amount of effort and dedication. That being said, some people are either opportune to have a head start or require less effort to achieve success on a particular path but without a dedicated mind-set, the effort or advantage you have will eventually peter away.
TS: As a young man, what inspired you to get started on the entrepreneur’s journey?
SuperGeek #1: I must confess that being an entrepreneur hadn’t always been the plan from the onset. I actually began my professional life within the largest global telecommunications services company – Ericsson LLM in the UK, where I started as a graduate engineer and spent the better part of four years honing my skills. While away in the UK, the concept of entrepreneurship began to take practical shape with exposure to several initiatives like the Prince’s Trust and Dragon’s Den UK, which I absolutely loved. I always knew I would return to Nigeria some day so I constantly conceptualized ideas geared towards Nigeria. You know the saying about Success happening when Opportunity meets Preparation – ChargeBox Nigeria was a plain example of this; that was the first venture, where the journey began.
TS: Chargebox was a really innovative solution. How did you get the idea for this?
SuperGeek #1: Again, referring back to the last question – Opportunity + Preparedness = Success. The concept of ChargeBox isn’t really that novel or complex if you think about it, you’re merely charging your phone in a secured box. I can’t really claim ingenuity for this idea. However, the simplicity of the idea and its application in our edge of the woods required smart planning and a lot of hard work.
I discovered the technology during my UK years and took the initiative to contact the proprietors with the aim of acquiring the rights to re-adapt this for the Nigerian Market. I must say at this time I had just rounded up my Graduate training with Ericsson and had only been a full time employee for about a year so I really didn’t have the financial muscle to acquire anything let alone regional rights to a technology from an international company but I went ahead anyways.
Two of my close friends bought into the idea at business plan stage, we set up the company together, 6 months and several meetings later, and we signed documents to the exclusive partnership in Nigeria. We also went on to secure a partnership deal with one of the tier 1 telcos in Nigeria that has been going strong for a few years now.
TS: Founding several start-ups including Chargebox and SuperGeeks must have its challenges. How did you overcome them?
SuperGeek #1: Challenges are part and parcel of the entrepreneur’s journey, they can take several shapes and sizes but as success grows, so do challenges. For me, being an entrepreneur in Lagos is akin to stepping into a boxing ring for the first time; yes you’re fit from all the training, yes you’ve been sparring with your punching bag, yes your supporters and trainers are in your corner egging you on but no one can prepare you for the opponent in front of you at that moment – a moving, breathing and responsive challenge. My ethos has been “roll with the punches and don’t forget how the last punch stung”. In other words, I overcome challenges by overcoming them and learning iteratively if that makes any sense.
TS: Most young entrepreneurs are overcome by the fear of failure. Did you ever have this fear and how have you made it work for you?
SuperGeek #1: The fear of failure is such a powerful feeling that can work either positively or negatively for an entrepreneur. For me, the positive is that I never give up – i.e. a deal that looks dead in the water is never a deterrent for me. On the flip side, it sometimes becomes near impossible to let go even when the opportunity cost becomes very high; so I have now learnt to remould that fear of failure into a determination to succeed, even if I fail a few times in the process.
I’d like to add here that fear itself is not a healthy/positive emotion – neither is failure a strictly negative situation. I have seen that the best form of success is bouncing back from a position of failure.
TS: What’s your take on Business partnerships versus Sole proprietorship? Which one is better?
I am a firm believer in partnerships in business not only for the sharing of risks but also for the dynamism of ideas. When you strike the right balance in a partnership, there’s no telling how far you can go. I can’t say for a fact that partnerships are better than sole proprietorships without an experiential basis to compare but partnerships have worked for me so far.
TS: What is your philosophy on entrepreneurship?
SuperGeek #1: Firstly, I try not to get very philosophical about entrepreneurship, as it’s a very practical experience. I usually compare launching a business to having kids, you can theorize all you want but you never know the ins/outs until you have one. One thing’s for sure though, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone neither is it the only route to ultimate career success – it shouldn’t be rushed into lightly.
TS: In the next 10 years, where do you see yourself and your businesses?
SuperGeek #1: Probably launched 10 more companies employing hundreds more and impacting thousands more.
TS: A big part of the SuperGeek CSR is youth empowerment. What plans are in place to achieve this purpose?
SuperGeek #1: We earnestly believe in the youth of this glorious nation as a shining glimmer of hope to cling onto for the future. We also believe to actualize this future, they need to be equipped with knowledge and business tools to empower their drive, with this in mind we set up The SuperGeeks Academy. The Academy initially began as an internal framework where we trained and equipped our technicians with best-in-class technical skills, well-rounded operational knowledge and quality customer service. Following this, they are deployed to our service centres for an internship period where they gain real life experience within a business environment.
Now this framework is slowly evolving into a structure we can extend even to external candidates; our aim for next year is to enrol 100 young males/females at no cost to them – pass them through the academy and where successful, offer them a position within the business. Eventually, the best candidates will be given further entrepreneurial training with an objective to setting up one of the SuperGeeks franchises that they will own and run – our mission is to spark a positive chain reaction further down the line.
culled from the spark
TS: Since the launch of the first customer experience centre, SuperGeeks has taken strides towards your goal of revolutionising the technology services industry in Nigeria. Please shed some light on some of your activities.
SuperGeek #1: We are playing in the toughest part of the ecosystem i.e. after-sales support and advisory which means we constantly have to keep ahead of the pack in competence and quality while maintaining best-in-class customer service at all times. A revolution in the after-sales support industry begins at the point of sale which is why at SuperGeeks, we are positioning ourselves through strategic retailer/distributor partnerships to guarantee our de-facto status should the customer require a service partner.
Recently, we signed our biggest partnership till date with GAME, the Walmart-owned retail supermart to become their first in-store after-sales support partner. We will soon announce the launch of Nigeria’s first OEM agnostic extended warranty product – SuperGeeks Gadget Protection (SGP) that we jointly developed with one of the leading insurance companies in Nigeria; it will be available in GAME and other retailers very soon. We are constantly in talks with some of the foremost players in the gadget electronics retail and services market, I can’t comment very much on the other deals we have in place but best believe our pipeline is full and all will be revealed in due course – stay tuned in 2015!
TS: What advice do you have for young people who want to follow in your steps?
SuperGeek #1: I respect young aspiring entrepreneurs however the market place is becoming such that being a business owner is more and more achievable with limited expertise/experience. With this comes a danger of mistaking an idea for a business, an increasingly common mistake a lot of budding IT entrepreneurs make – this leads to undesirable consequences e.g. overvaluation. It appears one of the major issues plaguing the start-up segment of the ICT industry is a lack of funding, over valuation takes a huge chunk of the blame for that. My advice- GET MENTORED!
TS: What will you give off “as The Spark- an incentive for our Rookie of the month
SuperGeek #1: Hmm… silver & gold have I none [laughs];
Ok, seriously I’d offer them a paid internship slot for 3 months in SuperGeeks where they will get the opportunity to shadow our extremely brilliant management staff in the hope that they pick up useful and transferrable skills for their journey.
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