AMA: Oyinkansola Adebayo, founder of Niyo

Oyinkansola Adebayo is an angel investor and serial tech entrepreneur.

With an MSc in Development Economics under her belt and a passion for social impact, Oyin is on a mission to economically empower countless women who have been sidelined for far too long.

Oyin tells us more about the Niyo Group's ambitions.

Hi Oyin! Could you share the story behind your startup, including the problem you set out to solve and the inspiration that led to its creation?

My entrepreneurial journey started at the age of seven, when my late dad, who ran his estate management firm, had lots of contracts with companies like MTN, one of Africa's foremost telecommunications corporations.

He used to get me to sit down and write a lot of proposals and bids with him. I would pick up skills from a young age about what it meant to write persuasively in business.

From a very early age, I used to say, “I just want to change the world!”

I always had that side of me that was very entrepreneurial, academic, corporate, and intelligent, and another side of me that was creative and flamboyant.

I remember working at many social enterprises, doing a lot of lobbying work and volunteering, and I thought, “Oh, there’s a lot of social enterprises talking about empowering people," but I never saw anything tangible with it. I couldn’t see the tangibility in the 'empowerment' work.

I observed a lot of confidence-building workshops or resilience workshops, but again, there was no tangibility.

So I thought, "Okay, Oyin, you’ve built up a community of about one hundred women at this point...” (I was about 18 at the time) “...in Birmingham, and you’ve built a relationship with them - why not merge that academic and social-mission-driven agenda with the hair and beauty?”

And that’s how the journey has evolved into upskilling black women in tech and building a beauty tech business using AR/AI technology.

I founded the Niyo Group with the blueprint of “people, purpose, profit, and planet."

As part of my agenda for change, I use innovative and technological tools to enable underrepresented women to build the world’s most meaningful tech product.

What were the initial challenges you faced when launching Niyo, and how did you overcome them?

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have faced many peaks and troughs.

But funnily enough, my biggest challenge in business led to my biggest breakthrough.

We had our biggest summit in the year 2020 before the pandemic, the Beyond Hair Summit, where we gathered black women intending to get them to do something with their ideas.

Many promised sponsorships fell through, so I had to fund the event by myself which amounted to £13k - I didn’t have that!

However, the summit that seemed to be a disaster had us do our first ‘black coder’ coding boot camp, which won us a six-figure contract, now building a tech conglomerate that empowers women in the process.

Another challenge was when our team grew from a six-person team to a 25-person team; the pressures of having to manage the culture and attract talent who do not just identify as black women.

We had to train all of our staff members to be able to deliver on national government and corporate contracts.

However, I need to ensure that diversity and inclusion practices are being met and have at least 60% of the workforce come from underrepresented backgrounds.

We achieved this by encouraging those individuals to apply for roles at Niyo Group. We also identified the need for senior members of staff who are allies. To do so, we brought on board like-minded experts, a CFO and advisors, with over 60 years of experience between them.

Could you tell me a bit more about your team, and how you've grown the business?

The team and I have upskilled more than 800 black women in the last five years, with 80% of them securing tech roles in companies like KPMG, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, UBS, the London Stock Exchange, and many more.

Our ambitions are to continue upskilling black women in various areas, making them producers in the tech ecosystem.

I’m proud to say that our beauty business has been primarily built by black women, defying the odds as statistics show that less than 2% of black women work in technology.

Our work focuses on empowering ambitious women to build the world’s most meaningful systems and products that change culture, disrupt the unequal status quo, and revolutionise society.

We have a community of over 7,000 women who are passionate about their growth and committed to partnering with us on their journey to greatness. Additionally, Niyo Group emphasises cost efficiency to maximise profit margins and market share.

Niyo has grown its revenue year over year by 40% and remained profitable despite challenging economic conditions.

Incredible! If you could only choose one metric to help guide your business success, what would it be and why?

If I had to choose one, it would be the number of people that we have impacted. For example:

In two years, we envision having upskilled 1,000,000 women globally via our edtech platform getting at least 70% of them into work and self-employment, and becoming the go-to brand for premium textured hair services powered by AR and AI, across the UK, USA and Africa servicing an average of 1,000 clients per week per country.

Can you share a unique tradition, celebration, or inside joke that's become a part of Niyo’s culture? 

At Niyo, we work hard to foster a sense of community, togetherness and unity underpinned by the culture of play and excellence. Our unique tradition is playing StopotS on a Friday morning to foster a culture of play!

Do you have a share scheme in place? If so, what does that do for your team?

Our cap table is made up of me as the majority shareholder together with some employee share options reserved for high performers and senior members of staff.

Our share options scheme enables early-stage employees to be rewarded for their effort in building and it also helps create a motivated, engaged, and cohesive workforce that is dedicated to driving the company forward. 

Love that! Could you share a challenging moment or setback in your journey, how you navigated through it, and the lessons you learned?

I had many challenging moments and setbacks! One of them was when I wanted to take it to the next level but struggled to scale our business model at the time.

I struggled to cover the costs (despite Niyo being very profitable), we had cash flow challenges and struggled to meet payroll. I was able to bounce back from this by engaging with impact investors who were finally able to invest in us, providing the funds we needed to grow.

What’s your dream dinner party line-up?

Serena Williams, Sarah Jakes Robert, Jensen Huang, Michelle Obama, Chimamanda Adichie and Elon Musk.

And finally, if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life it would be….

Sho Baraka - The Narrative Expanded.

Great choice. Thanks so much for your time, Oyin! We're excited to see Niyo go from strength to strength.