Today, Briter turns four years old.
A company becomes such a pervasive element of a founder’s life it is hard to eloquently express the emotions one experiences during the countless good and bad days of the business. Building Briter has been a challenging, hectic, unpredictable, and risky journey, but certainly, one that has kept on giving every day. I am thankful for the team, partners, and friends who’ve put their faith and efforts into our vision and execution.
People tend to fantasise about the intentionality behind entrepreneurship, the want-to-be-an-entrepreneur frenzy, not realising it can often be the result of a snowballing effect that starts from more or less fortuitous or unplanned causes. In the summer of 2018, the day I released the first innovation map , I didn’t do so knowing it would unleash the series of events that led to what Briter is , and who I am today. At the time, I was living in East Africa, running a solo scarcely-viewed magazine aimed at exploring the bri(gh)ter side of underserved markets to wealthier economies, investors, and anyone capable of taking action on the information I was sharing. Since registering the business on Halloween that year, and getting our first four clients by Spring 2019, we never stopped pushing the pedal and growing.
When asked what makes me proud I respond: being surrounded by talented individuals trusting the vision through all these years and seeing how consistency and discipline have led a young team to become one of the most trusted brands globally for research and business intelligence in emerging markets in less than forty-eight months.
Thank you , Lisa With , Joshua , Clara Sarangé , Fortune Chuku , Edoardo , Sam , Mariam Adeoti , David Saunders , Aziza Inoubli , and Rodgers .
Our mission builds on a simple, but purposeful equation : more and better data inform more and better decisions. In our context: underserved markets that vastly lack an adequate supply of knowledge about what they offer are precluded from business and investment opportunities. Well-harnessed opportunities lead to socio-economic development.
Briter is committed to bridging this gap.
Over the past 10 months, Briter saw faster growth than we ever expected:
We doubled in size, growing from five to ten extraordinary, young, and enthusiastic people, and consolidated our Growth, Product, and Research teams.
- We 2x-ed our annual revenues, for our third year in a row, adding dozens of new blue-chip clients from Tokyo to London and Cape Town, without ever needing any external investment.
- We doubled our client base and thousands of professionals downloaded our reports and research.
- We expanded our footprint across the African continent with a presence in Lagos 🇳🇬, Tunis 🇹🇳, Cape Town 🇿🇦, and Nairobi 🇰🇪.
- We increased our involvement in, and sponsorship of Africa-focused networking events and initiatives globally.
- We completely rebuilt Briter Intelligence to include more data capabilities, functions, and interactiveness, and are about to launch it publicly.
- My very role as a founder shifted from execution to team, client, and growth management, forcing me to reconsider the way I do everything within the business, how information is reported from each team to me, and how to decentralise the decision-making process to keep growing capacity and capabilities. It’s a critical step, one where the well-functioning depends on the ability to lift myself from control and largely rely on trust and protocols.
