In this Interview, Entrepreneur, Opeyemi Obembe shared with Founder Africa how his passion for strategic communication drove him into creating Engage Messaging a seamless yet personalized customer messaging and marketing automation platform that helps every company build relationships with customers.
Please can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Opeyemi Obembe, the CEO of Engage. I studied Electrical Engineering at the Federal University of Technology Akure, FUTA, Akure, Nigeria, and graduated about 10 years ago. I discovered my passion for Technology when I entered the university. I found it fascinating that you can think up ideas and after spending some time with your computer, you could bring those ideas to life.
Through university, I was building websites, and applications and working for companies, and upon graduation, I grew into building solutions, helping businesses, and startups as regard technology, and now founding Engage. I have co-founded two startups in the past as a technical cofounder, but this is the first time I am founding a startup as a CEO.
How did you get into the world of entrepreneurship?
I developed an interest in entrepreneurship somewhere along my life’s journey as I naturally derive joy from building solutions to challenges. From my early days in university, I was passionate about building solutions, so it just made sense that I transition fully into what we call an entrepreneur.
However, prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I had experience as a full-time employee. My first experience was as an undergraduate when I worked with an organization in business with the Ondo state government at that time. Then, after I co-founded my second start-up in 2017, I took some time off and accepted an offer as the CTO for Reliance HMO where I led Technology for about two and half years before returning to build Engage Messaging.
What is the story behind Engage Messaging?
I have worked with businesses and startups related to technology, consulting, and helping them solve technical issues. One of the major things I realized was that for a lot of these businesses, personalized messaging is a major challenge. For example, if I want to send a broadcast message to over 1000 people, there are solutions I can easily use to do that but if I want to engage people based on their actions and data, it becomes more technical.
Imagine you run an e-commerce store and you want to engage people that are yet to buy from you in the last three to six months or people who have spent a particular amount on your platform. The question is how do you use data to pull this group of customers and engage them? This was a challenge I noticed. The way a lot of companies solve this is with the growth team reaching out to the engineers to help them pull the list of customers that fit that profile from the database.
The problem with this approach is, first, this method puts some strain on the engineers because the time taken to get that data can be used for something else. Secondly, the process needs to be done repeatedly. If for example, a random business wants to get a list of their customers that live in Lagos and they get the data from the engineers, tomorrow if they need that same data, they need to go back to the engineers to ask for the same data because the data might have changed. I recognized that this is a recurring problem among startups and that was what birthed Engage Messaging.
How did you come across the name Engage?
The process to come up with that name wasn’t an easy one. I spent days trying to get the best name to use, asking friends and family for ideas and recommendations. One thing I had in mind when thinking of the name was ‘’what do we want to achieve?’’, ‘’what do we do?’’, ‘’what is it going to be?’’
‘’Engage’’ just made perfect sense, because the kind of relationship we want businesses and startups to have with their customers is not just sending generic messages to customers but with a personal touch and a deeper level of customer engagement.
What is Engage Messaging all about?
Engage in customer messaging for customer retention and growth. We help businesses send the right message to customers at the right time using the right channel.
What is the motivation behind running a start-up?
Running a startup is one of the hardest things I have ever done but it’s been worth it. It is a decision that is borne out of the passion to solve a problem. The big mission is to help businesses send effective messages that lead to customer growth and retention.
How has the journey been so far?
It has been a tough one. To start with, the technical resources required to do what we do are a lot. Asides from that, putting ourselves out there and desensitizing people from what they are used to is also not an easy task because there is a way they are used to doing things. This means we need to invest ample time in our messaging, how we position ourselves, and how we put out content that would properly educate people out there. Putting all these together has been a lot of work but it makes it all worthwhile.
What are the challenges you faced in the earlier stages?
One of the biggest challenges we had was with scale. Earlier on, we had to quickly ensure storage of this data in a way that we can easily and quickly use them for what we need them for. These are some of the biggest challenges we had earlier on, but we have been able to solve them.
Would you say the technical resource is still a challenge?
Not really. In the earlier days, we had to do a lot of experimenting to get the best solution and at the scale that we want it. We have been able to settle for a good stack and a good collection of tools, but the thing is as we get more customers, we must be sure we can accommodate them. So far, we are in a good place, but we continuously check our stack and solutions to ensure that what we have is continuously serving our customers. And if not, what can be done to make it better?
Are there any challenges you had at the beginning that are still playing out now?
In terms of technology no, but in terms of messaging and marketing, I would say yes. In terms of messaging, we still update the site, review documentation, and ensure that we are engaged in a way that we think people would get. Sometimes, I randomly ask for reviews from people to ensure that the messaging is being communicated rightly. For us, messaging is still an ongoing process of and I don’t think we are there yet. However, we are planning a redesign of the full website to address some of the issues we are facing presently and try to explain Engage in a better way including the use of more pictures and videos.
The other part that we struggled with was the means to reach businesses that require this service. Though it is still a challenge, we are gradually seeing businesses reach out to us based on reviews and recommendations. One of the ways we are also solving that challenge is through partnerships. Right now, we are working on a partnership with Paystack to ensure direct reach to merchants and businesses that need what we do.
Looking back at the journey, what mistakes could you have avoided?
We made a couple of mistakes in the earlier days. One is our tech stack which wasn’t good enough. Also, I made mistakes with hiring personnel for the job. In some instances, we hired too fast and didn’t properly take the time to ensure the employee was a good fit for the company. There were also instances where we hired too slowly. Though we have been able to find a balance, it is still an ongoing process as we do not have it 100%. We try to ensure that the process is transparent, and fast and make sure that the person is a good fit for the company.
How many people do you have on your team?
At the moment, it’s a team of 8 across engineering, product design, and growth. Under the growth unit, we have direct sales, social media manager, and a growth lead.
Who are the people who have been instrumental to your growth?
There are a lot of them of which I may not be able to fully mention names. However, all the people I have worked with have been very helpful. From my co-founders in the past to my friends and investors as well.
What is the goal for Engage?
The vision for Engage is to help businesses build better relationships with their customers through proper messaging. What this means is that it goes beyond helping people just send messages, but you would have to be the platform that provides 360 communications. Your live chat, shared inbox, and help desk, should all sit on Engage.
The big goal is we want Engage to be the platform that powers all your customer communication in a way that brings about growth and customer retention.
What are the milestones you are looking to achieve in 2022?
We want to start looking at shared inboxes and live chats. We want businesses to be able to use Engage for their shared inboxes and live chat messaging.
If your customer reaches out to you on social media, you can connect that to Engage so that Engage is that central messaging platform.
The second big goal is that we want to start the Engage enterprise platform for businesses like banks and insurance that send a high volume of messages.
Aside from these two, there are other goals we are working on, like integration and partnerships.
How would you rate the start-up ecosystem in Africa?
It’s becoming very interesting because there are African startups that are now Unicorns compared to the early days. Now you can see a lot of interest, from people outside the country, you can see a lot of partnerships across the board. Personally, I would rate it at 80% and I am quite certain that it would only get better.
What would people be surprised to know about you?
I am passionate about arts, so I draw, paint, and make music on an amateur level.
When you are not running Engage messaging, what else are you involved in anything creatively inclined? I am probably making art, being a movie critic, or playing an instrument.
What piece of advice would you give your younger self?
The advice I would give myself is to trust the process and be confident to do the hard things.
What three tips would you give to other start-ups?
Don’t be afraid to go global. When I wanted to start to Engage, there was this need to do the local play. The truth is that Engage can be used by anyone, so why not open it to the world?
Secondly, do not hold back on putting yourself out there. Sometimes, you would question the process, but the truth is that someone somewhere wants what you are doing if you are doing it right. Just put yourself out there and let the market decide.
Finally, trust in the process. Especially in the earlier days when there might be some uncertainty. If you have identified it as a need, keep at it and it’ll get better.
