#77, Anu Adedoyin-Adasolum - On differentiation in B2B ecommerce and complexities of the offline market

Building The Future Podcast

My guest today is Anu Adedoyin-Adasolum, the co-founder and CEO of Sabi.

Sabi is a B2B e-commerce startup that provides digital infrastructure to Africa's informal economy. In October 2023, they announced reaching $1B annual GMV.

I've always been fascinated by Sabi, especially their ability to bring seemingly disjointed and complex pieces together in a connected business model. In this episode, we discussed:

• The unique challenges and differentiation strategies of operating a B2B e-commerce platform in Africa. Anu emphasizes the importance of understanding market needs and tailoring solutions to address customer needs. We also covered Sabi's approach to building trust, providing logistics, quality services, access to credit, and other resources to businesses.
• The surprising sophistication of the informal market, including lessons learned from Anu’s past experiences at Jumia and Rensource
• The decision to adopt an asset-light model, and the critical role of detailed data analysis and segmentation for achieving scale.

We also touched on identifying the right expansion strategies, the complexities of fundraising, and Anu’s approach to cohort analysis.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

Quote: “No one cares about your app. Literally no one cares about that application. [Merchants are] just trying to make money. Help them make money, or don't.”

Book Recommendation: Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike. By Greg Hoffman

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

CREDITS

This season of Building the Future was made possible by Moniepoint

Host: Dr. Dotun Olowoporoku
Produced by: The Subtext
Editing: Osarumen Osamuyi, Chinedu Anatune
Show Notes: Grace Obaloluwa
Design: Jonathan Nwachukwu
Voice Overs & Project Coordination: Damilola Teidi
Season Intro Video: Chukwuka Ezeiruaku

Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0d6e5d28/transcript.txt