Juliet Odumosu didn’t suddenly become the co-founder of Nguvu Health, one of the largest healthcare startups in Africa. It took years of sheer grit, determination, and perseverance to be able to reach her heights.
She was fortunate to begin in a very small but fast-growing company. She tried on many hats from front desk/executive assistant (the role she was originally hired for) to customer success executive, HR/Admin, quality control manager, and corporate sales. Etc.
This helped transform Juliet from the fresh-out-of-school graduate who was just excited about the office WIFI in downloading movies/series to a professional who is confident she’s found her career passion in Media and Marketing.
During Covid-19, her friend and now co-founder, Joshua Koya, reached out to share his idea about building a teletherapy platform for Africans and asked Juliet to come on onboard with content marketing. He presented her with the opportunity because he was aware that was a field she had begun exploring.
It is what birthed her journey in Nguvu Health. The startup is a teletherapy platform providing easy and affordable access to licensed therapists for Africans both at home and in the diaspora. Charged with changing the narrative around mental health in Africa, they provide video and text sessions with qualified clinical psychologists.
The challenges Juliet had faced aren’t really peculiar to her being a woman, but as a young founder. She moved from just two years of working as an employee under a supervisor to being a supervisor/founder. That huge responsibility came with a pang of imposter syndrome and it made her triple her efforts.
She shares the steps she took to become a successful co-founder. In her words,
“Investing in a power team who also shares the same vision you have for the company. You can’t get it wrong with the right team. Promoting top-to-bottom transparency within the company. You want the trust of your team members.
During tough as well as rosy times, you’ll be grateful for it. Focus on generating sustainable revenue as opposed to relying solely on raised funds. The investment market is known to be unpredictable and susceptible to rapid changes. Don’t peg the growth of your company with those fluctuations.”
Juliet Odumosu