Episode 13 - Rewriting Narratives with Michelle Essomé
Michelle Essomé’s deep love for Africa was instilled in her as a child, and she has taken that passion into her career.
As the former CEO of Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Michelle played a fundamental role in promoting and enabling VC and PE investments on the continent.
She joins the show to discuss how investing has changed in Africa over the course of her decades-long career and to give listeners a sense of the opportunities on the continent today.
Episode Transcript
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
Jacktone: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Africa podcast. We are committed to spotlighting the voices of entrepreneurs and innovators shaping the marketplace across the continent. This week we are featuring Michelle Esserman. Michelle is an innovator, leader and trailblazer. In the 1990s, she graduated from Columbia Business School and was one of few African American females working in investment banking. Since then, she's lived and worked all over the world, but has always had a heart for Africa that was still in her by her parents. That passion led her to taking on the role of founding see all four Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. She played a fundamental role in restructuring and rebuilding that organization to get it to where it is today. With over $40 billion in assets, though, she stepped down from a role in 2020. She continues to promote African investing as an advisor and advocate. She joins us to talk about the investing landscape across the continent. Welcome back to another edition of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Africa podcast. I'm here, as always, with Ndidi and Eddie. Hello.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Good afternoon, everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Great to be here with you, Henry.
Henry Kaestner: And this is a special edition of FDE Africa. And now we're going to be co-releasing this with our friends at Faith Driven Investor. We have a really special guest on that is in leadership in the venture capital, private equity space in Africa. So that's something that we want to share with our Africa audience. And yet she also has some great experience on investments from her background and what she does right now and can make the case for how somebody might think about or why somebody might think about investing in Africa and how they might think about doing it. So we've got all of those wrapped up in one episode with one awesome woman. Michelle, welcome to the program.
Michelle Esomé: Thank you so much. I'm honored to participate.
Henry Kaestner: So we like to do an autobiographical flyover of every one of our guests. And I know a bit about your story and how some of it started. I fell in love with a woman from New York who grew up as a New Yorker. As we moved to North Carolina, she was known as the Yankee. And you're now in some other place. I don't know if you've ever been referred to that the same way, but you and I also share the fact that we worked at Merrill Lynch in New York City in the early nineties and that also God had a great plan for our life and his got us out there in the markets through entrepreneurship and investing. So we've got a bunch in common, but there's a lot more to your story than that, and I'm hoping you could give a fly over for our listeners.
Michelle Esomé: Yeah, with pleasure. So I was born in New York, but raised in Washington, DC, which is an amazing city. I attended Harvard University. I studied finance. I moved to Wall Street with Merrill, also had the pleasure of working at Goldman Sachs and what's now JP morgan. I went to business school at Columbia and after Columbia I was actually sent to London for what should have been six months but ended up staying two years. Then I went to Paris for three years where I worked in women's leadership. I taught English, I learned French. I came back to London in 2004 and joined Lehman and went through the bankruptcy and the acquisition by Nomura. And I look really young. So it's a quite a lot.
Henry Kaestner: Yes, you do. It sounds awesome. New York, London, Paris. I mean, everybody is like I'd like some of that.
Michelle Esomé: Yes, and then in 2010, I thought, I think my investment banking career is over. You know, it was a blessing because I got to do convertibles, muni finance, I did syndicated finance, I did DCM, I did securitization, I did investment management where I sold PE hedge funds. So I learned a lot.
Henry Kaestner: When you were back at Merrill on the Muni side, I don't know if you did some of this in fixed income, too, but I remember Merrill was about inventing all these products. There is the lions in the tigers and the cats and you know, the liquid gold option notes and things like that. Does that bring back good memories or not so good memories?
Michelle Esomé: You know, it's funny, I think looking back, I feel I'm a salesperson at heart. You know, right now I love selling Africa. Indeed, I'm sure that resonates with you. So I think that just that's a gift God has given me. So I think that I've been able to leverage off that, if I have an idea that feels passionate, but it connects with people. So I've been able to have this really broad perspective. So, you know, in each of those roles I took away something in my arsenal. So from my investment banking days, I'm probably in or about presentation, you know, content and style for being on a sales and trading, learning how to condense a messenger. You know, think about for the viewer, you know, what's in it for them? So yeah, I mean, those experiences were great. Sometimes I feel like I should have stayed on one thing, but I probably wouldn't have been as enthusiastic or challenged after a while. But I thought they were good experience. It gave me some good life skills and discipline. And things that I rely on. I mean, I guess the message and I'll stop here. I have a seven year old that I, what I try to tell my son is anything is possible. Just kind of work hard and pray and you can do it.
Henry Kaestner: Yeah. So tell us about your Christian faith and how you grew up and the impact that had on you early on and then through your career. That's one of the things that you had in your career on Wall Street. And I didn't I didn't come to faith until I was 28, but. Tell us about your faith journey, please.
Michelle Esomé: So my maternal grandmother was the matriarch. Her name was Dr. Myra Taylor, and she was just amazing. So I think she was born and maybe 1913 when my dad was a teenager, she went back to college. She lived in Atlanta. So you can understand, you know, she lived under Jim Crow and segregation and also at that time to go to college when she had teenagers, that was pretty remarkable. And she even took a course on biology at Harvard. And, you know, at her death, she was a vice president for a Southern Baptist organization, and she traveled around the world proselytizing about God. And when I was eight, she took me literally around the world. We went to Hong Kong, in Hawaii, in the Philippines. And I remember sitting in church and watching her. I mean, she's in my head now, even though I lost her in the early nineties. So I grew up Southern Baptist where church is 3 hours. You're preparing for it on Saturday. We girls are getting our hair done and choosing what we're going to wear. And you're going to Bible School or Kid's Church in the morning, then there's regular service, then you eat lunch and then you come back to the evening and you're smiling, because this was your life too. So when I moved to London in the late nineties, I needed that because that's what I grew up with. And I remember just asking and I tried a lot of different churches here in London. And so, you know, I had someone who was at HTB and say you should come to HTB. And I was so resistant because I wanted a black American evangelical church, which is what I grew up with. That's what I felt comfortable. And then finally I just had to drop that notion and think about I was going through a difficult period in my life to seek God where he's available. You know, that idea just came to my mind and I don't know if you know about London, but HTB Bromption is in South Ken. And at that time I lived in south east London but I would cycle to church, which is good exercise. It'ss beautiful crossing the Thames, the Big Ben and this church was amazing in August, there what we call summer nights. So every Thursday there was a different message and I was hooked. I was really hooked. I loved it. And that was maybe 2010 / 11. And at that time I was going through a really difficult period in my personal life, but I felt so comfortable in HDB and it was a Church of England. It's evangelical, probably a lot, but not as much as was. I like that. I felt good in the church and I'll share something. I hope it's okay to be personal. I'm really an open person.
Henry Kaestner: Please.
Michelle Esomé: So I was going through a divorce. My marriage was ending and a few years after that I was embarking on single motherhood by myself because I had been a desire and I had some difficulty. And I remember sitting in church sort of trying to get some guidance from God on which direction I should go, but also just asking God to bless me with a child. I remember saying, God, just give me one. So eventually I got pregnant and I had a child. And you can say maybe this is the third phase of my relationship with God because, you know, HTB is a very family, church, family oriented. So once I became a mother, I met all these other mothers and my son and I called. We have a HTB family, so we have all these other mothers bringing my son to church and they are friends 17 years later. And I would volunteer with the kids. We have a church holiday. I'd volunteer because I felt like the church had given so much to me in this period where I was, you know, in some ways broken. And I think, like this phase that I've come through is really as a result of the pandemic.
Michelle Esomé: So I will just say one thing, so I was CEO of Africa which I know we're going to talk about in a bit. And I really helped to revive this UK SME that was focused on P.E and busy in Africa and I loved it. So prior to that, like you, I'd worked at big firms. If the copier is down, you call someone. But when I, you know, I was appointed CEO, there was 60,000 in the bank. There was no infrastructure. It was my dining room table. And I say, we Americans think we can do anything with enthusiasm and initiative. And that's the wonderful thing about being American. So I spent nine years. And it was amazing. And during that time, I had my son and yeah, my son at five months was in Addis Ababa. You know, he spent weeks in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. You know, he's traveled all over because I'm a single mom and I'd be gone for a week or two. So, you know, he's had the privilege of traveling all over. But it was exhausting to. But I love my job. I love what we were doing. And I still very much believe in Africa.
Michelle Esomé: But, you know, connecting with what I was saying before, the sort of next phase of my relationship with God is, you know, I left in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. So, you know, all of my travels stopped and just really thinking about, you know, what would be my next phase in life and passing through all these emotions and just slowing down. When church was online and connecting with online, I got to really delve into what it means to be a Christian. I mean, you know, we had church on Sundays. There was kids church. There was word on Wednesday. I actually had the opportunity to read the Bible with friends every day. And, you know, I'm so glad I have that chance because I felt like, you know, I only had an opportunity to exercise my Christianity on Sunday or saying prayers with my son. Do you understand what I mean? But now I had I wasn't traveling. I could read the Bible with my son. We could read other books. You know, I was praying with my friends. And I feel like this sort of deeper level of the power I can call on, you know, when I'm troubled or when things are difficult that I never experienced before. So I know I've said a lot, so I will stop there. You look puzzled.
Ndidi Nwuneli: No, no, no. Thank you, Michelle, for sharing and for your vulnerability and honesty, because I know that there are many single mothers out there who can relate. I know there are people who have gone through divorces who can relate and finding God, you know, weakest moments and drawing closer to him is so powerful because many people actually walk away from God during that weakest moment. And I'm coming to realize the older I get, the complexity of faith and the faith journey. So thank you for your vulnerability and for sharing that with us. I wanted to transition because, you know, looking at your name, Michelle, and even your accent, I would not have placed you as an America. I think speaking all of those languages now has made you a citizen of the world. So just tell us, how did you start this love affair with Africa? If we want to say that and what drew you to the continent, because you've been able to sell the continent, obviously, and build the venture capital community in ways that no one else has.
Michelle Esomé: Yeah. My mother was in the Peace Corps, and she would have tours of duty in Francophone Africa. And I lived in Niger as a child. My mother was married to Nigeria, and so I lived in Miami for a year. And then also my father had traveled. I have this postcard that he sent me, you know, maybe I was eight or nine with Kilimanjaro. And he says, Look, Michelle, this is the tallest mountain in the world. He made a mistake with Everest, but I always felt fondly about the continent. And it was somewhere, you know, I traveled on my holiday. And when I was at Goldman Sachs in the nineties, I had a good friend who was working in Accra for a Ghanaian company, and I went to visit her. When I finished Columbia, I organized a study tour to South Africa in Zimbabwe. So I'm just curious and I think, you know, I'm sure you agree with this as well, that I think the more that I travel around the world and the more that I think about world history and I'm generalizing, you know, I see we're more similar than dissimilar and it's just helpful for perspective. But I think that yeah, to answer your question, you know, my love of the continent starts from a very young age.
Ndidi Nwuneli: But I also love the continents and clearly have some American ties, but stronger Nigerians ties because I grew up there. But I'm just curious, you know, you had this wealth of experience in investment banking, as Henry said, enviable career and with all the brand names and all the major cities and then transitioning to a start up nonprofit Africa Venture Capital Association. Just tell us about that. How you able to grow the association and then why those listening should be interested in investing in Africa?
Michelle Esomé: Oh, thank you so much for that question. I think it was kind of where my heart relied at the time and still lies. We hear a lot about. We should be focused on God and not things of the world. You know, we all know that, you know, material things don't give us happiness. So, yes, I think there are many attractive things about, you know, careers in financial services, careers on Wall Street. But I think that I wanted something else. I was looking for something else. I wanted a challenge. I think I was really blessed because it was good timing. 2010 / 11 many things were happening, you know, democratization. There was, I think around that time, The Economist had we publish the whole continent as opposed to the hopeless continent? And, you know, there was an awareness of an independent body really to sell the opportunities of the continent. And yeah, as I said earlier, I like marketing. I believe in Africa, I still do. And I wanted to sort of grow an industry body that exist for other markets and geographies, you know, with good governance that people can feel proud of, that institutional investors and entrepreneurs and fund managers can rely on. That would give a balanced story of what it's like.
Michelle Esomé: And again, I think it was a bit of naivete because it was really hard. There was a lot of restructure because there was an old entity, there was a name, and I had predecessors who've done amazing job, but things were sort of uneven for a couple of years. So it was really- I was blessed that the timing was right. And I think success has a lot to do with God saying, is your time being in the right place at the right time, being prepared, being enthusiastic and having a good team or board members around? So yeah, it was we put a good business plan. I had a good mentor and board members who were highly regarded, who supported us, and once we started to have some success, then that builds on it. But it was great. It was my first experience of, you know, I guess restructure in building out a company. And there are just so many things that I learned that one doesn't know how to become a manager or how to become a CEO. You know, naturally I'm human. There were mistakes that I've learned from connecting with institutional investors on the continent, but globally, thinking about the types of research that we needed to produce to answer some of the questions, you know, and also addressing common misconceptions.
Michelle Esomé: For example, I think that if you're a US pension fund, for example, and you want to have a diversified portfolio of private equity fund managers, that it's impossible to ignore the continent. The opportunity is too huge and you do yourself a disservice not to. And then I would start off sort of at a macro level and then you get the questions about, you know, the usual themes corruption, disease, war, etc.. And I would always counter that the continent doesn't have a monopoly, I mean, no place in the world on any of those issues. So it's a function of investing alongside partners who have ties, local knowledge, who've been able to invest in companies at the right price, work with the founders on a value creation strategy and exit so you can partner and you learn the terrain. I mean, you can invest alongside funds, you can invest through fund a fund vehicle. So there are many vehicles and so many of Africa's talent has been educated at Columbia or Harvard Business School, as well as I call that a Nigerian genius, Ndidi. So there's so much talent and innovation.
Michelle Esomé: And, you know, people would ask about property rights. You know, many of the laws mirror lusophone francophone anglophone law. But it's a function of doing your due diligence and you're surrounding yourself with people that you can trust, but it cannot be ignored, you know, at least start and then continue. And I think there's so many ways you can play Africa now that you couldn't even ten years ago. Sectors, for example, agriculture or consumer pharmacy. Gee, there's real estate. You can do angel networks, you know, accelerators, you can do these, see, you can do growth equity. You can even do sort of larger than growth equity deals. You can do listed, you can invest directly if that fits your risk appetite. But the opportunities are huge. It's a young population. There's significant growth. You know, there are many investors and fund managers who have successes in many of them. We can point to, for example, the growth of fintechs in Nigeria, many of them who are unicorns that are attracting Silicon Valley. So I would say dip your toe in, you know, surround yourself earlier with people that you trust that are vetted, do your due diligence in the same that you would, you know, in Latin America and Asia. But Africa cannot be ignored.
Henry Kaestner: You make a really credible, very important point about partnering with local investors that have a track record. I think that that's really wise and something I'd really want our listeners that are investors to look at and you talk about fund of funds and we've had Richard Okello from Sango Capital on the podcast, Faith Driven Investor podcast before, and he's got such wisdom and to throw in the love of indeed his life, you know, I think about as well and I think about the funds that are coming in Nigeria right now. I mean, there's so much there. You're right. So it's not just let's get involved in Africa because we look at the demographics and get excited about actually there are a lot of fund managers that are have track records that you can come alongside. You can either just invest in their funds or you can co-invest. And I think that that's super important. Continue to make this case for Africa. The average investor knows that Africa is big. They probably heard some things about the demographics. They probably have heard some of the things you mentioned about corruption and land rights, etc., go deeper than that and talk about the opportunity. And as you get out there for ten years and really just talked about the opportunity, invest in Africa, what were some of the ahas that investors say, oh, I didn't know that. I didn't have that type of an appreciation. What are some of those other ones beyond just the demographics of the younger population entering in the marketplace, maybe just the ability to leapfrog over traditional infrastructure? Just give us some of your highlights on that, please.
Michelle Esomé: Yeah. I mean, there's an interesting example. I mean, there's so many, but Java House was a portfolio company. The ECP was a coffee shop. It was started by a development worker in Kenya. I think ECP has exited, but it started as a coffee place and they expanded into yogurt, into pizza. What I think is interesting is at the time every employee started on the shop floor. So I like the idea of training locally and I think they have expanded across Kenya and in East Africa. Another example is Paga in Nigeria, one of the very first fintechs. I mean, I don't know, they're probably 15 years old or older and it's run by a really great guy. Tayo - how do you pronounce his surname? - Oviousu.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Yeah. Oviousu.
Michelle Esomé: So, you know, there's so much innovation and entrepreneurial energy on the continent because you have all of this talent that sees a problem and looks to address it. And I just find it really fascinating and energizing. So Paga, a fintech has been very successful in Nigeria that I think relatively recently expanded into South America. And, you know, Nigeria has a really deep ecosystem of supporting entrepreneurs. There are a number of accelerators, there's angel networks there, funds that have a gender lens. So I think it's really fantastic. I mean, just going back prior to even Paga is M-pesa, which was really an original solution for mobile money, you know, addressing an issue that became maybe a sort of base case for all this other innovation that you're seeing across the continent. So yeah, I think that there are many ways for an investor to think about, you know, even Blakeney is a well-known listed equity or maybe they are over-the-counter equity investor, started by Miles Moreland maybe 20 years ago. That's done really, really well.
Michelle Esomé: I think for entrepreneurs who are listening and maybe want to think about an Africa strategy or maybe partnering or acquiring an African startup. Yeah, two years ago I was talking to a UK fintech and I was saying to them, you know, what is going to be their Africa strategy? You know, again, I think there's a deep well of expertize and innovation. On the continent in particularly looking at how things can be adapted for local markets. You know, I'm generalizing here. You know, the continent is very much relational. We like to do things face to face and understand kind of who you are as a person. You know, there's a fundamental goodness that kind of what we're building now is for the future. For the long term, I think we all feel that way. And, you know, I'm calling myself an adopted African, so I don't think that was a sentiment I felt in my investment banking career, gave me other things. But just the idea that, you know, what we're building, what we're trying to do is sort of deeper than the commercial return that we're giving to our investors. When the next deal or the exit multiple, it's really for, you know, changing this perspective is for the economic development. It's so my family and generations of families can eat and we can, you know, sort of take our rightful place along with other burgeoning economies.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Thank you, Michelle. I love it. And, you know, as I was looking at the Africa membership right now, you know, at least up till two years ago, 150 members, 1.5 trillion under management. I'm sure it's even increased. Can you just paint a picture of some of the returns that some of these entities have been able to generate among some of the most successful exits? Just to give encouragement to some of our listeners about the profits and the exciting opportunities on the continent.
Michelle Esomé: Yes. I mean, I should say I'm an emeritus or ex-president of CEO. The CEO of Africa is now Abi Mustapha. And for that record, she's doing an amazing job-.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Yes, I know Abby quite well. Yeah.
Michelle Esomé: Yes. We worked together for three years. So she's an excellent leader and the right woman to take Africa into the future. So I often describe sort of the stage in the lifecycle of the industry because it's quite new. And Henry, just to give you a bit of perspective, really, the private equity industry was just started in the nineties when you and I were, you know, on Wall Street. It sort of came about at the end of apartheid. And the CFIs were thinking, you know, what is the best way to help spur economic development? So I think prior to PE, or PE funds, you know, there was lending directly, but you want a way to spread the risk and governance. And you probably know that many of the first funds came out of CDC Actis, for example.
Henry Kaestner: Or CDC is not the Center for Disease Control, we should mention.
Michelle Esomé: Yes, it's yes, it's a Commonwealth Development Corporation, the UK DFI, which I think has changed its name again, but I forget that. So please forgive me if any of my colleagues are there. The entire industry probably has about 40 billion under management. And to put that into perspective, I mean, Carlyle, for example, may have multiples of that. So the industry is still growing is what I mean to see. I think there are probably five managers that have done a full lifecycle. Meaning from investment to exit. And that's emerging capital partners. Helios Development Partners, African best. So in terms of returns and to be fair, I have not seen them in a while and I'm only going to know what are the benchmark returns. I won't be privy as I'm not an LP, I'm not really privy to each fund's. So I think that they are probably similar to other emerging market returns. The problem that becomes is there's a misperception of risk and it's going back to my point earlier. So some investors who perhaps will hear of Africa within the context will say, gosh, it's really far and I don't know where to start. And, you know, that's a risky part of the world. So there needs to be a tremendous risk premium when if you sort of take a step back. Reflecting on the tips that I was thinking about earlier, sort of do your due diligence, think about good investing partners. That's a way to mitigate that risk. So to be fair, I haven't looked at the returns in the while. There's a benchmark with Cambridge that investors can look at. The funds that contribute to that benchmark are pretty diversified. Some Pan-African managers, some who do growth deals and growth could be 20 plus in terms of ticket size. But what I mean to say it's not a deep market. So looking at the returns and also it's a younger market, won't necessarily give you an indication of what you could earn. So it's a long winded answer. I would like to say that I think for investors to look at Africa, of course you want to earn alpha and for that you're going to look at top quartile managers. And there are managers that are delivering alpha. Absolutely. But I think at the same time, one needs to have their patient capital hat on because it's still an emerging continent and the value creation process may be slightly longer than investing in a growth investor in the U.S. or in another developed market.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Just to follow on questions, one is I love that you have taken on this risk issue head on because we do here is so far, I don't understand the market. What's the entry point? And the message you've shared very clearly is there are ways to answer with wisdom and mitigate your risk, but bringing a Christian perspective to that as well. How have your Christian values kind of affected or influenced how you engage or how you have historically engaged with potential investors and potential partners?
Michelle Esomé: Yeah, that's a good point. I think I've learned patience. I think I've definitely learned patience. I mean, you know, being in New York where everything is bam, bam, bam, and you want it yesterday. So I think working in Africa this past 12 years has taught me to value the relationship over what the transaction is. You know, it's a long term game. We're going to see each other. It's a small network. So I feel like that's a core value being patience, you know, no judgment, a kind of compassion that I may not know what's going on in other people's lives and just embody some respect in all my interactions. So I think patience and, you know, sort of no judgment thinking very long term and less transaction oriented and, you know, just trying to make decisions that align with how I'd like to be the things I like to teach my sons. And yeah, one of the things I think about a lot that comes to mind is trying to live the values that we're taught as Christians. Yeah, I think about that a lot, you know, particularly when there may be understandings. You know, Nicky Gumbel, the vicar for HTB, says all the time there's never any need for disagreement. So just praying before difficult conversations, you know, just kind of trusting God when things don't go my way. And yeah, just really trying to embody what Christ would like for me to be, you know, and not just Sunday when I'm in church, which is through all of my interactions.
Ndidi Nwuneli: I love that. And given your background and your awareness of bias and investing, we're seeing that very relevance in the African continent, where of the ten startups that received funding in 2018, in Kenya, eight were non Kenyan and that a lot of foreigners in many of these countries can get funding a lot faster than locals. Racism bias. A lot more trust for Americans in Africa who have built businesses. How have you contended with that in your role and what tools and tips would you share with those who are looking to partner to have a very conscious investing strategy?
Michelle Esomé: Yeah, that's really a shame. It's true. We have a lot of isms. I think we can play into it. I think that, you know, for those commercial investors and hesitating because I don't want to say I think we just have to prove that whether I'm a Nigerian born Nigerian or a US born Nigerian, that, you know, I'm not any more risky if I were born on the continent. I don't want anyone to feel as if they need to prove anything because, you know, if you have a stellar idea, you've attracted Angel Capital and VC capital. And knowing that I think so much innovation and energy and hustle in the most beautiful sense to start these companies, you know, and as if people were so resilient that, you know, that should be the calling card for commitment. Given all the obstacles you've had to overcome that, it's kind of a shame, I think, that we try to speak into them. So when you hear things that come up is to counter them with so many examples that exist on the continent and hopefully people's biases will be challenged. I think it's the same way with issues of gender. And I think that, you know, for those who have sex, the right is for them to challenge themselves and to learn to be allies. Because at the end of the day, again, just going back to the beginning of our conversation, you know, there's some really amazing talent on the continent solving issues, homegrown issues that can be explosive, not just on the rest of the continent, but solutions that are adaptable for similar problems in Asia and Latin America. So just to challenge ourselves and we all have these biases, we all sort of meet people and do a quick assessment. So I would say to my African entrepreneurs to keep pushing and praying that you will find someone, if it's one out of a thousand rejections, you will find someone who believes in you. And at the time you're building the business. This is something I always kept in mind when I was CEO of Africa. I always felt on my shoulders that I was carrying the perception of Africa, even though obviously I wasn't. But I felt like everything I needed to do, needed to be transparent and democratic, because if someone found out, it needed to be defensible. And I very much felt that, you know, that were anything to happen. If we were to ever do anything an ethical realm, that it's not going to be just un. Michel but it would cast a pall. And, you know, there are examples of that. So I would say for entrepreneurs anywhere, no shortcuts. You know, take governance very seriously. Take financial reporting, management reporting, you know, be professional, is with your staff. Be transparent and honest with your investors, and don't take any actions that you would not want to become public. Because if your dream is to be the unicorn, you don't want anything to detract from that. So I think that can be applicable to any entrepreneur is just to build something as professional, good governance, as thorough, even if it takes longer, because those are the fundamental building blocks that can't be broken.
Henry Kaestner: So there's some great counsel in there, and I think that's really applicable for investors. And I'm going to throw something out there that I'd love for you to react to. I surely don't want to put words in your mouth, but I want to make this actionable for some of our investors. So before I do that, I want to make sure that I can't back on what you just said, that for investors that are getting involved right now, you've got one of two different ways to go to and maybe this is an artificial distinction, but you can go through and say what has got placed on my heart that I might put capital in, that I might have more of a patient view on, and so many of the different causes that we might care about education, economic development, all those things are best accomplished, not through a grant, but through an investment. In some cases, they're better accomplished in a grant. We need to be open in how God might have us use capital. But traditionally an investor might think, okay, that's Grant, I can't make an investment. And yet investments are something I think we should all be looking at, I guess number one. Number two is if you're making an investment for a financial return because you're listening to podcasts and say, wow, the demographic opportunities there, I know that venture returns have been great over the last ten years, but there's a lot of projections in there. You can see them all over if you just do some. Internet research about why returns will pick back up in Africa. And I want to get involved. It would seem to me, and this is the thing I want you to react to is that investing earlier seems to be the place that somebody might invest in, because traditionally the knock on Africa has been that there haven't been exit opportunities further up the ecosystem. You make an investment in a round or be around and then there's not somebody there to take them for this year round or the de around as they continue to the growth capital. I think with more money coming in, you've got that toward the end. But I'm wondering if in the beginning, if you indeed, if you'd counsel investors to look earlier on, because they can make that investment and they can find that they can get access further on the ecosystem. And if indeed that's the case and there's a lot there that the focus on governance is so important because you could have a company that is bringing on board customers, but if their books aren't great, the acquirers can look at it and say, that's going to be a liability and that's going to prohibit my ability to get the growth capital I need as the ecosystem develops further upstream. So governance, huge. But would you advise people to look earlier in the stack? Do you want to talk about exit challenges?
Michelle Esomé: Yeah, I would say it really depends on your risk tolerance. So my comment about the age of the industry was really for the growth equity part of the curve. So what we see is even newer, you know, I don't know, even ten years ago, there is many diseases there are. So that is actually a misnomer that there aren't a lot of exits. I think Africa will have published exit speeds every year. That's one of the things I started, because a lot of investors were worried about exits because the stock markets, they're not necessarily very liquid. So in the US, of course, that's a preferred exit route is IPOs. And you have some of that. I mean, Johannesburg Stock Exchange. And in Egypt, the majority of the exits for growth equity are trade sales. And there's some attractive ones. I'm sorry, I don't have that in front of me. So you absolutely can exit. So when I would hear you can exit, how will I get my money back? And I'd say, you know, a good company always finds a buyer. And that's true. I mean, Paystack was bought by Stripe, you know, as one example. And again, a lot of Silicon Valley money is pouring into fintech in Nigeria. I hope it doesn't foretell a bubble. But I think for the we see I've seen successive rounds. So I hope those companies will continue to grow and require growth equity. But you absolutely can do exits and there are many exits that are being done on the continent.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Thank you so much, Michel. And you know, you've shared so much wisdom with us today, and we're truly, truly blessed. We always close out our sessions by asking our guests what God is telling them at this time, what we're hearing from God that they'd like to share with the rest of us. So any insights, any words, any Bible verses that God is speaking through you?
Michelle Esomé: Yes. My favorite one used to be Philippians 4:6. Because I'm a worrier, I wouldn't be anxious for nothing. But lately what's been on my mind is be still and know God. Because, yeah, I mean, God has been so good to me. And when I worry, you know, I try to think about Joseph or Sarah in the Bible who've gone through really difficult things and God's timing is perfect and he's bless them. So be still and know that I am. God is. He has a plan for me and it's always going to be all right.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Thank you, Michelle, for your pioneering work in Africa, venture capital and private equity. Thank you for bringing all of your great wealth of experiences to channel funding and support for the African Finance Community. And thank you for being vulnerable today on the show and sharing with us both your personal and professional insights, leaving us with that powerful message we need to shift from anxiety to waiting on God and acknowledging His power, his presence, and his ability to see us through even the lowest points of our lives. And through that, we can grow stronger individually and collectively in our work. So thank you for blessing us. Thank you for your time today. It's been wonderful.
