I
owe my desire and will to be my own boss to my parents. Some of my earliest
memories are of sitting on my living room floor in Duluth, Minnesota for hours
on end, surrounded by piles of Legos at my feet. I would have an idea about
something to build: a car, or a boat, or a house, and I would construct a model,
then refine it, then refine it even further, until I built something I was truly
proud of, at which point I would start again from scratch. The idea that I
could create whatever I dreamed of with just the right amount of trying
enthralled me and I remember passing days simply lost in my own world of
creative discovery, tinkering away with my Legos.
It was in this environment that
I distinctly remember a conversation I had with my dad. I couldn’t have been
more than four years old, and again like the previous few days, I had spent
hours alone, not talking, tinkering away with my Legos. My father had come in
from the kitchen, smiled and me and remarked, “Who knows, maybe someday you can
build real houses as a civil engineer!”
The idea had never even crossed
my mind of being able to build houses for a living! But who could have blamed
me…I wasn’t even in Kindergarten yet. Nonetheless, the seed he planted in my
young mind that day stayed with me all throughout elementary school and up
until middle school when I decided I didn’t just want to build the houses but
design them as well. From 6th grade on anyone who asked me was sure
to get the answer that when I grew up, I wanted to be a Civil Engineering and
an Architect.
But that, however, was not where
the true entrepreneurial spirit was kindled in me. Instead, when I was in 3rd
grade, knowing at this point that I had aspirations to be a “civil engineer and
build houses”, my father had told me, “When you finish college and start
building houses, I’ll help you set up your own company so you can be your own boss.”
Having spent his late high school and early college years in Nigeria doing
contracting work, my father had already worked in the design & build
industry and was willing to help me get started. But what may have been an
honest remark on his behalf to a young me to look forward to help after I
graduated, instead instilled an idea in my head that would impact the
trajectory of my entire life from that point on. I decided then and there, at a
very young age, that no matter what it took or whatever I did, when I finished
college, I would be my own boss.
Growing up I began to flex my entrepreneurial
muscles early on, however I could. In elementary school it was packing extra
bags of animal crackers for snack which I would sell for $3 apiece to friends
who forget their own snacks during snack time. After my mom caught wind of my
side project and stopped that venture, I quickly started a new business:
trading cards. In the heyday of Yugioh! and Pokémon, I devised a new trading
card game with my siblings and friends at school. Naturally, I managed the
creation and integrity of the game…meaning the best cards could only be made
(and sold) by myself. Despite the tenacity with which I advanced this new project,
this scheme also saw a premature death as my teacher stopped the unregulated,
unruly, black market my friends and I started that began distracting all the
boys in our class.
Later on in my elementary career
I helped out in more “established” methods by working and helping manage the
school store, but as soon as I reached middle school, I was back to my anti-administration
vending ways.
Throughout high school, the
focus shifted to sports and academics as my plan for the future was set. Go to
school for architecture and engineering. The day I’m licensed, start my own
firm and never work for anyone else again. However, I did not see the luxury of
that reality as I worked at a pizza shop and prepared myself to go to college only
to acquire tremendous amounts of student loan debt. To me, the idea of being my
own boss was slipping away.
Luckily two amazing things
happened to me in 2013 that would rekindle and make my childhood dream a
reality. First of all, I decided to attend the University of Pittsburgh on a
full-tuition scholarship, meaning I would only have to worry about housing and
food costs, severely cutting the amount of student loan debt I would procure.
Second came during winter break 2013. As my high school track friends and I sat
in the basement of my parents’ home in Woodbury, Minnesota. That night we had
begun talking about how we all planned to end up paying off our college loan
debt in the future. This conversation quickly turned to how we could make money…and
make it fast…and make it now. However, after thinking for a little longer and a
little more logically, we came to the conclusion that we wanted to develop
something that would help people. Those we knew and those we might never meet.
This was the conversation that
birthed GLIMPSE and sitting here, two and a half years later, it is funny to
see how the seeds my father planted all those years ago have slowly come to
fruition in this venture with my team. 2014 saw us struggle, and fall, and
succeed, then fall again, all the while learning entrepreneurship through trial
and error. 2015 was a little better. We finally developed a basic application,
but also witnessed the struggles of delivering on time to partners we work with
and the expectations that come from taking investments from others outside the
founding team. We were able to film for The Startup Hour, attend the Forbes
Under 30 Summit, as well as participate in the Blast Furnace Accelerator at
Pitt and the Lorentz Hatchery Program in Des Moines. We raised amounts of
capital we didn’t dream about a year prior…but we were still not where we
wanted to be.
Now in 2016, as we look to
loftier goals, though they may seem daunting and intimidating at times, I only
need to look at the past to have reassurance that I have the right team and
work ethic to continue to succeed.
The idea that I could create
whatever I dreamed of with just the right amount of trying enthralled me as I
passed endless days toying with Legos as a toddler. Now, I know with the same
creativity and determination, GLIMPSE will be a reality by the end of 2016.
