Why I Started The Trajectory Africa—and Why I’m Moving On

Where It All Began and Why
The Trajectory Africa was a solution to a basic problem—I didn’t understand venture capital in Africa. Sure, like everyone else, I read the annual reports and followed the headlines. But I couldn’t explain, for example, why fintech was capturing the lion’s share of capital, or why certain sectors were being overlooked entirely. The logic behind the numbers was a bit of a mystery to me.

But my attempts to solve this problem didn’t start with a podcast. In 2021, I teamed up with Tony Chen, General Partner of Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund and Osarumen Osamuyi, Founder of The Subtext, to produce Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters in VC Investing in Africa. Chasing Outliers explores whether core assumptions underpinning Silicon Valley VC models hold true in African markets. Spoiler alert: many don’t.

Although I learned A LOT writing that report, so many questions remained. And then something unexpected happened. After an interview with CGTN, a good friend (and an ex) who’d watched the interview reached out and suggested starting a podcast. At first, I completely rejected the idea. But relatively soon, I made an uncharacteristically spontaneous decision to launch it as an experiment. I knew very little about the process, but I was fortunate to have support and advice from an OG in the space—Andile Masuku, Co-Founder and Producer of African Tech Roundup. For more on that story, check out our conversation. So, yeah. I figured I’d give it a shot. But I described The Trajectory Africa as a “pop-up” podcast, signaling its status as an experiment with an expiration date.

My aim was pretty straightforward—to understand the first principles of venture capital investing in Africa. I wanted to be able to define the opportunity as a whole, and from a sector perspective. Over the last four years, this aspiration guided the episodes I produced. For example, the first series focused on foundational questions: Why is now the time for VC in Africa? What structural changes have made it possible? What harsh truths does one encounter when launching an early-stage fund? I also explored consumer market sizing in Nigeria (as a proxy for the continent), the topline rationale for investing in fintech and digital commerce, the math behind VC returns, alternative fund models, investor relations, and the role of LPs in the venture ecosystem. Based on these conversations, I derived a set of first principles for African VC investing. (You can listen to a breakdown of those here.)

Again, I was learning, but my lack of deeper sector-specific knowledge remained a sizable gap. To begin to close it, I decided to start with fintech and digital commerce. Fintech seemed like the hardest to unpack given its subsector abundance, but it also seemed the most likely to adhere to traditional VC logic. Additionally, tackling fintech was an opportunity to build on a principle from the first series: fintech is an important enabler for digitizing African economies because it serves as foundational infrastructure. Not surprisingly, the digital commerce deep dive was inspired by a principle as well: SMEs power tech startups by buying from them, and supplying and funding SMEs is a VC-scale opportunity. This is where I started and I’ve spent the last few years trying to break things down in a way that made sense to me—and, I hope, to others.

So, Why am I Stepping Away, and What’s Next?

Three reasons…

1. It’s the era of sharing opinions. The Trajectory Africa was an amazing way to gain access to really smart founders, investors and industry analysts who could help me fill my knowledge gaps. But arguably, the art of knowing is also the art of having and sharing an (informed) opinion. So, I’m making the shift. And for that, writing feels like a better mechanism. I’ll be processing what I’ve learned from the series and using that as a basis for crafting a better-defined point of view.

2. Podcasting is harder than it looks. Making The Trajectory Africa took up many early mornings, nights and weekends for the better part of four years—on top of a full-time job. As I navigate an impending professional transition, I need to reclaim that time to carve out what’s next. (More on that in September…I think.)

3. The winds of change are blowing. Perhaps obviously, the podcast landscape is shifting. When I started, audio was pretty prevalent. Now, the growing popularity of video pods and a marked increase in production quality have created a new standard. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time or resources right now to properly level up.

The good news is that making a switch to writing means that this long dormant substack should see more regular action—first to make sense of what I’ve uncovered through The Trajectory Africa, and then to shape those insights into something sharper.

If you’ve been on this journey with me—thank you. I hope you’ll stick around for what’s to come.