In conversation with Ndubuisi Kejeh

“At Mustard we are an entrepreneurial team of engineers, designers and storytellers, building ventures and brands to shape Africa’s future, with founders and investors who believe.”

- Ndubuisi Kejeh

Image: Ndubuisi Kejeh. © Laurie Castelli-Gair.

Ndubuisi has been building technology ventures for almost  fifteen years, in which time his work has been awarded by entities including MIT, GE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and Time Magazine; which in 2016 included one of his client’s venture products in its list of the year’s 25 best inventions.

He founded Mustard - an Africa-focused venture agency - in 2013, which is on a mission to build better products, better brands and better perceptions for Africa, with founders and investors who believe. As part of its mission, Mustard launched an ‘idea-stage’ investment vehicle in 2022, to work with influential founders to build the first global consumer brands to stem from Africa.

Tell us about your business and how you came up with the idea/concept?

I founded Mustard in 2013 initially with some uni friends, approximately three years after we graduated as electrical and electronic engineers. My goal at the outset was to directly support the tech growth that had been exploding in Africa since a decade earlier, by working with early founders to build their proof of concept hardware/software products. However, after working as product developers for a few years, and seeing the ventures we worked on come to little success, we cynically decided to work with two clients that were very much out of our usual scope; these were the design-led toothbrush makers Quip and Ozwald Boateng’s (then) Made in Africa Foundation. Doing very different work with these founders, and analysing how they think, what they did, and what transpired, led me to believe in the power of storytelling and brand narratives.

I came to believe that Africa’s future success will be shaped by the brands it is able to produce, and their ability to move, and frame the perceptions of, global audiences. Therefore, from about 2016 onwards, we began working as an agency to build not just products, but also (brand) narratives with the founders of existing Africa-focused tech companies. We describe narratives as the ongoing story of a company, which - understandably at the start - is tightly knit to the founder’s own story. The narratives we build are eventually expressed through a founder-led company’s core messages, visual identity, product/service philosophy, brand campaigns and team culture.

What is your overarching mission and aim today?

My reflections on the power of stories caused me to take Mustard in a different direction. I saw on one hand how Quip and Made in Africa’s Foundation’s consistent designs and messages were able to attract loyal followers - including celebrities - early on without a product; and on the other, how African countries like Cote d’Ivoire and Ethiopia could become massive suppliers of raw cocoa and arabica coffee, but have no global chocolate and coffee brands, respectively, of which to speak. Recognitions like these, and my work experiences, led me to believe that African countries needed to produce brands to reach their global potential, and that the current absence of these brands meant the continent was not good at making them.

These reflections changed my personal mission and that of Mustard to better products, better brands and better perceptions for Africa. We at Mustard believe that having consumer brands from African countries being followed, loved and consumed by people across the world, will change how these countries are, and the continent is, perceived by both Africans and others in the global community. At Mustard, we are an entrepreneurial team of engineers, designers and storytellers, building ventures and brands to shape Africa’s future, with founders and investors who believe.

Image: One of Mustard's earliest clients, the toothbrush Mustard helped Quip create went on to be named of the top 25 inventions in 2016 by Time Magazine. © Quip.

What is unique about your investment approach?

There are two things that make our approach distinct. The first relates to when we get involved, which is right from the very start; from the point at which the (future) founder conceives the idea. This is why we say we do idea-stage investments. We get involved so early because we want to heavily influence and help to build the story, philosophy and eventual brand of the company.

Secondly, we think we run the only investment vehicle that is focused on building global consumer brands that stem from countries in Africa. Many other Africa-focused investment/VC funds invest in existing founder-led startups, which are addressing socioeconomic challenges such as financial inclusion (fintech), food security (agritech), healthcare access (health-tech) and climate change (energy). I consider all of these important to Africa’s development, but I also believe the continent will not become a globally competitive force without building strong brands. There are many working on the problems Africa is facing today, but we have opted to focus on its future. Time will tell if we are doing so prematurely.

What is unique about the ventures you are building?

We aim to build 3 - 4 ventures per year over the next five years. But unlike most tech companies that start life on the continent, we intend for each of our ventures to resonate with, and go after, consumers both inside and outside of Africa within their first year. We think they must do this to stand the chance of becoming global brands.

Additionally, we are aiming for at least one co-founder of each of our ventures to be an influential figure of African origin, with an already established international audience/following. We are nicknaming this our ‘Beats-by-Dre model’. We think this will help us to fast-track the venture’s awareness and consumption within the global community.

How does your current business model work?

Our business model is a tad different, which has its issues and benefits. Because we have such strong opinions on how ventures should be built, i.e. focusing on the narrative (or ‘why’) before the product (or 'what'), we play the role of both investor and builder (agency), which are usually kept separate.

Therefore, unlike a typical investment/VC fund, we are not raising money to invest in existing founder-led companies with growth potential. Instead, through our investment vehicle, we are raising capital to put behind proven influential and entrepreneurial individuals, with ventures, ideas and stories we believe could resonate with global consumers. Our investment vehicle’s capital then goes towards paying Mustard - the agency - to build these ideas with their founders from scratch.

What is your background, and did it help you get where you are today?

I can only really point to my degree and the entrepreneurial initiatives I did at school and university, since I went straight into the world of startups once I graduated. I studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and chose to focus more on the broader mathematical subjects, which have helped me to understand the fundamentals of product concepts, which unlike technologies rarely change. Additionally, alongside initiatives like selling sweets, Yo-Yos and repurposed computer consoles at school, and co-founding a student society that turned into a kind of ‘engineers without borders’ at uni, I’d say the debate and political philosophy societies I was involved in at school and uni respectively stand out, and really helped me to reason and communicate. Communication is at the heart of everything I do today, which includes selling to investors, building the Mustard team, and crafting venture concepts.

Image: The unorthodox storytelling work Mustard did for the 'Our Future Made in Africa' gala with Ozwald Boateng's Made in Africa Foundation, helped them shape their philosophy on narratives. © Mustard.

Can you briefly describe the three biggest challenges you have faced during the life of your company?

I’d say three broad things in order of increasing difficulty have been building a team of passionate, growth-oriented entrepreneurs; finding a sustainable business model to allow us to be creative, strategic and purposeful, exclusively in the Africa space; and, working not just to figure out our narrative concept and service/offering, but also - and more importantly - to communicate it clearly to a wide range of people. Note that I am still working on each of these challenges, and have been doing so for well over a decade!

What’s the best advice you have ever received?

Repeated calls from my dad and more recently my wife to ‘get to the point’. I have a proclivity to be verbose, but being reminded by them that most people want - at least initially - to get to the ‘Amen’, has helped me to communicate more effectively over the years.

What’s been the most rewarding moment of your journey?

For me the whole journey is rewarding, present continuous. I am quite bad at reflecting on what has been done, and am usually more focused on, and excited by, the future possibilities. If I had to be held to something, then perhaps launching our investment vehicle last year, as it made possible our current way of working with passionate investors and founders. I am excited about the future ventures, brands, products and campaigns we will build.

What’s been the biggest lesson – about yourself, your abilities or just general life lessons – you’ve learnt since starting your business?

I’d say there are two things. Firstly, that no one is an expert. Everyone, no matter how long they’ve been doing something, is figuring stuff out in their space. The only people who are not are those that are not growing. This doesn’t render experience meaningless, but rather means that there’s always another angle and room for difference and growth.If you stop actively exploring you stop growing, and this eventually leads to your obsolescence.

Secondly, that business is not about you! I think the only way it is about you, is that it’s about your growth. I think business, when done well, is about you finding ways to delight audiences/customers, for you to find, grow and provide for team members. As you aim to do these things and build your network, I think you find that to do them sustainably you have to put the interests of others first. When you start overwhelmingly putting yourself first, you basically signal the beginning of the end, or stagnation in the best case. Entrepreneurship is about servant leadership.

What will be the next phase of your business?

Over the next five to seven years, we need to prove to global audiences and Africans themselves, that brands stemming from the continent can resonate globally. We also need to illustrate that our narrative-first venture building approach/thesis makes commercial sense. We will do this if we delight consumers around the world with, and make a healthy return for, our founders and investors who believe.

Who is Ndubuisi Kejeh outside of the office?

Outside of the office, I am a Christian, husband, father, brother and son, etc. On the weekends I can usually be found trying out a new coffee shop with my wife, sweating at soft play with my almost two-year-old son, volunteering with my church family, or getting into a deep and meaningful conversation with a close friend.

Website: bymustard.com

IG/twitter/facebook (Mustard): @onlybymustard

Twitter (Ndubuisi): @ndkejeh

LinkedIn: by Mustard