The technology CEO found beheaded in his New York City department issued a passionate defense of his fledgling company a few months before his grisly murder.
Fahim Saleh posted a YouTube clip in early February pledging to support his motorcycle hauling app, Gokada, as he faced an offensive by officials at his Nigerian base.
“I will never give up, because that is the true attribute of an entrepreneur, never give up,” Saleh said in the five-minute monologue, which Gokada later shared on his Twitter account. “Entrepreneurs are the ones who really change countries, who really change cities. They are the ones who bring the vision, they are the ones who bring the passion. “
The video was Saleh’s last YouTube account posted before police discovered his dismembered body at his Lower East Side home on Tuesday afternoon. Police identified him as the victim of the horrific murder on Wednesday morning.
Saleh, co-founder of Gokada in December 2017, posted the video on February 2, a day after the Nigerian city of Lagos banned motorcycle taxis on which the company’s business was based. Authorities at the time noted that “frightening” numbers of fatal accidents are one reason for the ban, according to Reuters.
But Gokada drivers had a strong safety record with only 250 “mostly minor” accidents out of 350,000 trips they had provided since September 2019, Saleh said in the video. He said he hoped to promote some of those drivers to higher positions within Gokada, which had received funding from Saleh’s venture capital firm Adventure Capital.
“Gokada is not just a business for me. It is a mission, ”Saleh said. “And every part of that mission was always to be safe, providing jobs. We do things that no one else on the market did at the time. “
Gokada continued despite the ban: It launched a package delivery service in Lagos less than three weeks after the policy went into effect and has kept it in the coronavirus pandemic.
“Lagos, if you want incredible things to happen, support your entrepreneurs,” Saleh said in the video. “Support these great innovative companies looking to change Lagos, if it weren’t for Gokada, for the next Gokada, and for the next.”
The company announced Saleh’s death on his Twitter account early Wednesday, calling him “a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us.”
“Fahim’s vision and belief in us will be with us forever, and we will greatly miss him,” said Gokada.
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