Nubi Kay — no longer a Newbie
Who doesn’t like the idea of being remembered long after death? We all like it whether we admit it or not. We all want to leave that mark on this earth. But how many of us work hard enough to leave that mark? And even if we work hard enough, do we get recognised? Yes some people do, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King jr… and that’s just naming a few who left huge marks. But, what about the others that have left smaller footprints?
Nubi Kay, a man who loves to create impact, he loves changing people’s lives and that’s what he focuses most of his efforts on.
Born and raised in Nigeria, he was exposed to the world of technology from a young age. His father, knowing its importance, sent his children to be exposed to technology every summer. Nubi grew up, moved to Turkey and did his Bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Thinking of what was unthinkable then, Nubi created his first start-up. Nigeria was booming in terms of technology however there were no online food services. People would have to wait hours to get their food because of heavy traffic. Realising the need for change,the idea that was EasyAppetite came to be. Since “everyone eats food”, food e-commerce was a very promising path. It was Nigeria’s very first online food service and unsurprisingly Nubi said he was scaling upwards in terms of revenue and development. However Nubi (along with his crew) were new to the world that is entrepreneurship and sadly the growth of the site stopped. No improvements. No new investors. They were met with a consistent amount of people visiting their site and a consistent amount of revenue (as good as that may sound, it’s bad for a business in the long run in terms of scalability). The sad consistency of the business led to the eventual selling of the business to a competitor.
However for Nubi and his fellow team, this experience was his a rite of passage into start-ups. Once their startup saw its end, each one involved moved onto do their own thing. Nubi came to Ireland. His inner entrepreneurial self hadn’t died with the business so when he came across a startup competition he joined it with his fellow student at the UCD Smurfit Business School. They came up with the idea of where you could link all your social chat apps into one and with this idea he won the competition.
Despite its promising technical possibilities, the practical side of the app was near to impossible. So both Nubi and his team-mate, shelved the idea and started working with Accenture (the company that held the competition.)
Nubi still shows his love for startups and entrepreneurship through his blogs and by organising events. He advises entrepreneurs from his own real life experience and organise events like the Startup Weekend in Dublin.
With the Umbala Project, Nubi wants to expose ethnic minorities to opportunities the Irish startup ecosystem has to offer. As an immigrant himself, he’s aware of the fear people may face when launching into a career that’s all about risks and bravery.
Nubi showed us a different aspect of entrepreneurship. He showed us a man working for a big company and still dreaming, still innovating. From what we saw, Nubi is an extremely driven person, and that in itself is so incredibly inspirational.
“I want to know, and I want to go”
