Edgetechies Blog

Social enterprises often begin with passion. Someone wants to improve healthcare access. Another wants to transform education. Someone else wants to empower women or unlock opportunities for young people. But passion alone rarely builds an organization that survives. Over the years at Edgetechies, we've had the privilege of working alongside founders and organizations tackling challenges across different sectors. While every venture had a different mission, we found that the same principles consistently separated initiatives that remained projects from those that evolved into sustainable institutions. Here are some of those lessons. 1. Start with a problem worth solving—not a solution Many founders begin by building products. The strongest social enterprises begin by deeply understanding a problem. When we supported HelpMum , from ideation to launch, technology was never the destination. It became a vehicle for improving maternal and child healthcare outcomes. Likewise, in...

At Edgetechies, we believe every enterprise carries two types of value: the visible kind—revenues, customers, partnerships—and the coded kind, which sits beneath the surface. For social enterprises, that coded value lies in their ability to deliver impact while also building paths to profitability and sustainability . For years, many viewed social enterprises as charity-adjacent, destined to rely on grants or goodwill. But the truth is different. When structured right, social enterprises can be among the most resilient and scalable business models of our time. Their coded value is in how they turn human problems into market opportunities —balancing purpose with business sense. Purpose as a Growth Engine The most successful social enterprises don’t chase impact at the expense of profit. They harness purpose as a growth engine. Take SkillHer , for example. What began as a safe space for women to learn and upskill has grown into a thriving community unlocking new opportunities across N...

Helpmum Africa ; one of the startups that our business development team led by 'Damola Anjorin helped lay the foundation and continues to support, recently got selected as one of the startups to be funded in partnership by META(whatsapp) on rolling out Turn.io. This is also coming after being recently selected as the first-ever African winner of a $250,000 grant from the   Patrick McGovern Foundation  to support the deployment of the company's AI-Driven Vaccine Intervention Optimiser (ADVISER) Plus  a $50,000 grant from  Waislitz Global Citizens ; for remarkable work in tackling maternal and infant mortality alongside covid response. The team continues to make strides, with series of wins including about 12 million USD grant recently with a few other organizations. More info  here  We're proud of the team's back-to-back wins and the strategic support we've been providing over the years from the company's founding moments. Learn more about the company'...

Years ago circa 2015, I found myself standing among hundreds of brilliant young innovators in Philadelphia at the  Forbes Under 30 Summit . It was surreal, not just because I was one of only two Africans selected for sponsored participation, but because the path that got me there had been anything but predictable. It began with a problem I saw every day in Nigeria:  the gap between students who needed help and those who could offer it . The Birth of NearTutors After graduation and constantly inundated with requests for special tutoring, I cofounded  Neartutors , an online platform that connected students with verified tutors for personalized learning and exam preparation. We built it from scratch; with no funding, no high-profile mentors, just an audacious belief that  education access could be more efficient, more personal, and more empowering . Over time, we grew the platform to serve  over 6,000 users and maintained  a  4.8/5 star average review rat...

Getting the fundamentals right is always guaranteed to produce remarkable growth outcomes in any business, regardless of the industry. We’ve managed to prove this repeatedly with multiple businesses of various sizes we've worked with over time across different locations, operating domains & industries. This has also proven to be the case with one of our recent clients- Cakesdeporche ; a pastry services business based in Ibadan, Nigeria. The CEO engaged us to help take the business beyond a revenue plateau and attain the next level of growth. Lead Project Consultant & Engagement Manager - Mr Ajibola Kasope worked alongside other consultants, to revisit the business fundamentals and craft a new business plan, coupled with the provision of strategic business development support over the course of the engagement.  These include - helping to finetune the business objectives and support each with the right strategy, executing new product launches, strengthening multi-channel mark...

  We are pleased to announce our partnership with another team of ambitious entrepreneurs that are taking on the challenge of eliminating waste in farm produce. The Agriteer team enlisted our support at Edgetechies to take their product development journey to the next level with a goal of leveraging technology to facilitate reduction in agricultural post harvest losses, one community at a time. We are collaborating with the team to help build the technology support framework for an agricultural services ecosystem which aims to help farmers add value to their crops and drastically reduce post-harvest losses So far the partnership has been highly productive with feedback such as below coming from the highly delighted client.

  Congrats to Biodun & his team at Helpmum.org on being selected for the Facebook community accelerator program. Proud to have seeded the development of the first company website and helped in mobilizing the very first outreach. *Cover of the brief Biodun(the founder) sent me below Initially declined to back him on a couple of other lower-potential concepts he pitched to me... ** (PS: **Chats are shared with necessary alignment for context) Including a coffee business & laboratory rats business Then he eventually came up with Helpmum after some back-and-forth ideation We scheduled a meeting which became a defining moment for Helpmum and the rest is history The startup has gone on to do amazing work in maternal health, getting a series of grants & recognitions along the way, including a recent $250k win from the Google Impact challenge The team continues to enjoy strategic business development support from us and we continue to cheer them on for more wins. *Biodun & ...