[Startup Interview] Richard Juwah, CEO, Richee Media, Nigeria

Richard Juwah is the CEO of Richee Media, a full service Social Media agency based in Nigeria with both local and international clientele.

Introduce your company

Richee Media is a full service Social Media agency in Nigeria servicing clients locally and abroad with a wide range of social media services like social media marketing, social media management, Influencer Marketing, social media Audits, social media content creation and social media training.

Who are the founders of Richee Media and what are their professional backgrounds?

The founding members of Richee Media are Richard Juwah (CEO) that is myself and Daniel-wise Ojaide (Head of Growth/COO).

Daniel and I went to University together. He was in 300 level and I came in as a fresher. He read Computer science and I read Mass Comm. Back in school, we formed a Rock Band with 4 other guys and Daniel was our Band leader.

Prior to founding Richee Media, we'd tried to found an event booking startup in 2017 with 2 more co-founders but it never took off.

Where is your company located?

Our company is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. We've been working out of a co-working space and remotely for a few months but plans are underway to move into our own office space before the end of the year.

How is your company financed?

We're bootstrapping for the time being but we have thoughts towards getting seed funding from and Angel Investor or VC. Personally I would love Richee Media to be accepted into Y combinator.

What industry does your company operete in?

Richee Media operates in the Digital Marketing industry but more precisely, in the Social Media Marketing sub niche of the digital marketing industry.

What are, in your opinion, the dynamics of the industry you work in?

The digital marketing industry is quite fast paced. It's ever changing. Newer better technologies come up year after year that tip the scales and marketers must adapt to stay competitive.

For instance, as at 10 years ago, social networks like Facebook and Twitter were less than 5 years old. Today, we have new contenders like Snapchat, TikTok, Likee and a bunch of other new school social media apps that are by design mobile first and pose serious threat to social incumbents like Facebook. It's as serious as Facebook having to copy features like Stories and AR filters from guys like Snapchat to stay competitive.

In this industry, one has to keep abreast with the current trends. The motto is simple out here in these woods: Innovate or Die.

Why did you start your company? What opportunities did you see?

I started Richee Media first of all out of sheer love for the internet. We were first and foremost a full service digital marketing agency in theory, but reality set in when we realized the magnitude of operations required to cater for a full service digital marketing Agency effectively.

We had big competitors in the space, one whom I'd even worked for and I knew that coming out as one of the top in this field was going to be an uphill battle.

After undertaking some market research, we discovered that Agencies in Nigeria by default always claimed to be full service (even when most knew in reality, they didn't have the staff strength nor financial muscle to bring this claim to fruition).

An agency could start today and state that they provide everything from web design to SEO, social media, PPC, Media buying etc and you'd be surprised, it's just one founder and no one else working in the company.

Our research showed us that while almost everyone was claiming to be full service, there presented a unique opportunity to niche down and be the leader in the social media marketing space as there were hardly any social-only agencies. This was the reason why we pivoted to a social first agency.

What problem or problems does your company solve?

Brands and businesses need a constant inflow of new clients. We solve that challenge for them using result oriented social media marketing services.

What can your company do that no other company can (what are the USPS of your company?)

Richee Media's USP lies in the very nature of our company in that we are a Social Media only agency. This has helped us to better focus and horn our skill in just this field to the extent that we're not a jack of all trades and master of none, but to a jack of one trade (social media) and master of one.

This coupled with our ambition to always render excellent services no matter what. It's excellence or nothing. Brands can always be sure that they'll get our 110% every time.

Who are your key customers? (You maydescribe them in general terms of target groups of customers / industries or mention companies specifically by names)

Our key customers are Brands and Businesses ranging from Startups to SMEs and Big Businesses. Basically if your brand or business can be promoted via social media effectively, you're our Target audience.

What does your company need inorder to grow?

We need more brands and businesses to know that although we may be smaller than full service agencies, we can deliver better and more affordable social media services for them because of our niche focus.

It's kind of like how you know an Optician can better treat your eye defect than a General Doctor.

What is your growth strategy?

We plan to first of all leverage referrals from clients by offering them the best service possible. When we do this, they'll have no choice but to tell their friends about us.

Social media advertising, PPC and SEO are also top on the list to propel our growth onwards as well.

What are the ambitions of your company? (Geographically, in which countries / markets are you looking to establish your presence?)

Richee Media is a full service social media marketing agency. By virtue of this we want to spread our tentacles into all aspects of social media. Over the coming years, we plan to add a products division (for creating social media apps), an events division (for organizing social media conferences and awards) in addition to the social media services and social media training divisions.

Then we plan to duplicate this model in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

The ultimate goal is that when anybody thinks about social media in Nigeria and Africa, our name should be mentioned as one of the forerunners in this space.

What are your plans for the coming 12 months?

We want to fully be immersed in the social media niche, considering that we only just pivoted to social 3 months ago. This immersion will include setting up a full running social training program for businesses and individuals and undertaking as many high value social media marketing campaigns as we can.

What was your turnover in 2019? How did it grow within 2019?

Our turnover in 2019 was N3.6 million, about $10,000. In 2018 we actually got less than half of this. I'd say our growth was fueled mostly by recurring SEO Retainers and social media marketing.

richeemedia.com.ng

www.linkedin.com/in/richard-juwah

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