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VA Victor Asemota On Getting2Alpha

“It's not about the ambition of the startups or the startup founders. It's about the systems available in the ecosystem. So if you don't have those support systems, you fall straight to the ground. So what I decided to do was focus more on building those systems to actually help more and more founders and startups have a greater chance.”

Getting2Alpha · User Experience · October 2026

“It's not about the ambition of the startups or the startup founders. It's about the systems available in the ecosystem. So if you don't have those support systems, you fall straight to the ground. So what I decided to do was focus more on building those systems to actually help more and more founders and startups have a greater chance.” — Victor Asemota, Getting2Alpha

Context

Asemota says he made the mistake early on of backing first-time founders with no domain knowledge, and explains what he changed in how he invests.

Transcript

Getting2Alpha Around 01:20 into the episode
Speaker 1

From Silicon Valley, the heart of startup land, it's getting to alpha, the show about creating innovative, compelling experiences that people love. And now, here's your host, game designer, entrepreneur, and startup coach, Amy Jo Kim.

Amy Jo Kim

…investor, and business strategist who's based in Ghana. This is someone who deeply understands the realities of building a business in Africa. Listen in as Victor shares what he looks for in a startup and stay to the end to hear his number one piece of advice for how to succeed in Africa.

Victor Asemota

…wants to play. I want to find out if there's something they know that other people do not. And more often than not, that's the case. I listen to people who look at things differently, who have a lot of domain knowledge. Because one of the mistakes I made earlier on in investing, back in a lot of early stage entrepreneurs who had no domain knowledge and had no business doing what they were doing, it's not about the ambition of the startups or the startup founders. It's about the systems available in the ecosystem. So if you don't have those support systems, you fall straight to the ground. So what I decided to do was focus more on building those systems to actually help more and more founders and startups have a greater chance. The media age of the population in Africa, I think, is about between 17 and 20 years old now. We have very, very young people and young people who keep changing every six months or, you know, even every month too as well. You know, what they want today is not what they want tomorrow. And we also have different markets. You know, within Nigeria alone, you have multiple markets. Look at that. They…

Amy Jo Kim

So there you have it. Victor Asemota insightful analysis of the African startup scene. Of course, Africa isn't homogeneous. It's an enormous continent. So what works in one country might not work in another. And if you want to keep up with the latest tips for startup founders, including more great…

Speaker 1

Thanks for listening to Getting to Alpha

Speaker 4

with Amy Jo Kim,

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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