About this episode
Shola Akinlade is CEO and cofounder of Paystack . Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid online and offline. They’re based in Lagos, Nigeria and were part of the Winter 2016 batch. Shola’s on Twitter @shollsman . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:26 - What is Paystack? 01:06 - Shola's background and previous company 4:26 - Paystack's YC application 6:01 - Meeting his cofounder 7:26 - Interviewing at YC 10:21 - Joining YC as a Nigerian company 10:56 - Differences between startups in Nigeria and the US 13:26 - Nigeria's payments market 15:56 - Paystack's growth 19:26 - Expanding to other countries and hiring 25:26 - The best part of doing YC 29:26 - Crypto developments in Africa 30:21 - Creative Joe asks - How difficult is it to get into YC? 30:56 - Educating US investors 32:06 - Paul Israel asks - What gaps do you think still exist in the Nigerian fintech space? 33:01 - Nelson asks - Are there any conventional startup advice that did not work for Paystack as their target market is Africa? 35:21 - Nelson asks - What are some important lessons he learnt while building Paystack? 37:46 - Nelson asks - What are some applications he would love to see been built on top of Paystack? 39:56 - Building for Africa 42:16 - Nestor Ezeagu asks - Do you think something like GoFundMe could work in Nigeria? 42:46 - Car Joyy asks - Can I receive payments as an MVP ecommerce site before registering as a company? 44:06 - Achyut Shrestha asks - What’s your tech stack? 44:41 - Jordan Jackson asks - What are the biggest cultural differences that you account for in UX and product design? 48:41 - Shola's outlook 50:36 - What he misses about life before Paystack 52:51 - Paystack in five years 54:16 - Music recommendations