Fahim Saleh: Nigerian tech industry mourns Gokada founder

07/17/2020 Business, Technology, World


Saleh, 33, was found in his New York apartment, a police source told CNN.

Gokada described the death of its CEO as “sudden and tragic.”

“Our hearts go out to his friends, family and all those who feel the pain and anguish that we are currently experiencing, here in Gokada,” read the statement posted on Twitter.

Saleh’s friends in Nigeria remember a passionate entrepreneur committed to making a difference in emerging markets and creating economic opportunities.

“He believed that the future of the world was lying in emerging markets and was 100% committed to making it happen. That is why he moved from the US to Bangladesh and recently to Nigeria to build logistics platform companies,” said Nadayar Enegesi. , co-founder. of the Eden technology platform, he told CNN.

“He was considerate and had an air of clarity of purpose in life. His passion was contagious. As far as the Nigerian technology ecosystem is concerned, Fahim was one of us and we love him,” added Enegesi.

Gossy Ukanwoke, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur and investor in education, says his enduring memory of Saleh is his cheekiness and “big smile.”

Fahim Saleh was known for his entrepreneurial spirit.

Ukanwoke says he met Saleh through a mutual friend from the industry and remembers that he was always making jokes.

“Fahim was a very smart and intelligent thinker, he knew exactly what he wanted. In a conversation, he could think standing up and he could see things differently from others,” he added.

‘Tragic and meaningless’

Saleh was the son of immigrants from Bangladesh, and created his first company PrankDial.com as a high school student, the website for pre-recorded prank phone calls that generated more than $ 10 million since its inception, he wrote in 2018.

He continued to find and sell sites throughout his teens and time at Bentley University in Massachusetts.

Most recently, he founded venture capital firm Adventure Capital, which invested in startups for ridesharing in countries like Bangladesh and Colombia.
Andrew Garza, co-founder of the Lifestores pharmacy in Lagos, had just signed a partnership agreement with Gokada before Saleh’s death.

Gokada provided delivery services for Lifestores during a blockade imposed on Lagos in March.

He described Saleh as a “funny guy who liked to tell jokes.”

Saleh and Garza met in 2018 at a farewell party hosted by Gokada for one of their employees.

“We met several times after that for coffee and we talked a lot about entrepreneurship and fundraising. Sometimes we discussed our company’s strategies together,” Garza told CNN.

Garza says he will continue to have funny memories of the young CEO, describing his death as “tragic and pointless.”

A 33-year-old technology CEO was found dismembered in a New York apartment, a law source says.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, an entrepreneur and co-founder of technology company Andela, expressed his shock by paying tribute to Saleh, whom he described as “his brother.”

“We will miss him and we trust the US authorities to ensure that his killers are brought to justice soon,” Aboyeji wrote on Twitter.
Saleh wrote on Medium, where he regularly blogged, that founding Gokada was “one of the weirdest things” he had ever done.
In 2017, it sold a portion of its shares in Pathao, a Bangladesh-based passenger transport company that it had co-founded, to generate funds to start the business in Nigeria.

He visited the West African nation the same year to explore the market and make the decision to start Gokada.

“Strolling through the streets of Lagos, I saw bands of apparently rebellious” okadas “in the side streets with customers approaching them to negotiate the rate. They were everywhere. I had my market,” Saleh wrote in the post.
In 2019, Gokada raised $ 5.3 million in startup funds and hired more than 800 drivers, but Gokada’s business had an unexpected drawback in February when the Lagos state banned commercial motorcycles in the city.
Saleh filmed a plea on behalf of his employees to lift the ban while the company was on its way to delivery and was working to launch a boat transportation service, he told CNN in February.

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