Tope Awotona, the founder of Calendly, aptly embodies the truism that impossibility is nothing for a determined mind.
Awotona, who came from a middle-class family in Lagos, spent his early years growing up and attending school in the vibrant metropolis. His father was a microbiologist and entrepreneur; his mother worked at the central bank. Sadly, the trauma of witnessing his father’s life being taken from him during a robbery attack eventually poisoned his early years.
Instead of being weighed down by this, he used this regrettable event as a turning point in his life and a challenge to uphold his father’s heritage.
In 1996, when he was fifteen, he moved with his family to Atlanta, USA. He studied computer science at the University of Georgia, then switched to business and management information because even though he loved coding, he found it too monotonous and considered himself too extroverted for it.
He spent the next seven years working in sales, but deep down he always wanted to become a successful entrepreneur. So, he spent his evenings and weekends trying to build a business.
First, he decided to build a dating site after reading an article about PlentyofFish.com. But he quickly realized he did not have the resources or skills, so he never launched the business.
His second startup was an e-commerce site selling projectors. But he did not sell many and the margins were terrible. He also had no interest in projectors.
His third startup was another e-commerce site selling grills. But he found himself dealing with the same problems. And he just had no passion for that business either.
Awotona realized that he was just focused on ways to make money. He told himself that he was not going to succeed unless he focused on a problem that he was passionate about solving.
It took another year before he found that problem. He had spent a day wasting a lot of time going back and forth over email to schedule meetings. So, he started searching for a scheduling tool.
But all the products he found were slow and clunky. After months of research, he decided to go all in with this idea. He put every single dollar he had made into this new business.
This time, his bet paid off. Today, Tope’s company does around $30 million in annual revenue and has been named by Forbes as the richest immigrant and Nigerian American residing in the United States. According to Forbes, Awotona is one of only three Black founders of a “unicorn” (startups valued at $1 billion or more) in the U.S.
