Luis [00:00:21]:
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the distant job podcast, your podcast about building and leading awesome remote teams.
I am your host, Luis, and I am here as usual with the guest. My guest today is Olo Adedeji, and he is the founder of Prelo.i0. His business is about helping you create awesome prospects awesome prospect lists for your sales efforts. Olu, welcome to the show. Thank you so much.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Appreciate it. And glad to be here. Yeah. So, obviously, you know, we we are so much more than our titles and our current work.
Luis [00:00:21]:
So I’d like to start by asking you to tell our our listeners a little bit more about about yourself, about your your career trajectory. And if you could also after you do after you do that, If you could also tell me a bit more about what was your first interaction with remote work, how did you start working remotely, and how did that affect your career?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Thanks so much. Yeah. Now let me give you a a quick quick overview. So I I was in banking for about 20 years. I kind of started off as a as a developer, so that technical developer back in the day. And I always worked in banking. except for a small stint we giant had at Microsoft. And this was, you know, probably about — Mhmm. — what I’d say about 15 years ago now and probably even longer. But but yeah. So, you know, my career has really been in technology, but then I moved on more into the to the project management and product management side of things in the later part of, you know, my my career in corporate.
In 2018, I kinda got fed up with with banking and wanted to try something different. And that difference was really brought out of the fact that I just felt I had so many other skills other than sort of managing budgets, managing finances, and and managing, you know, large, you know, numbers of people. You know, it seems like so long ago now. I went to university and studied mechanical Engineering. Yeah. Major in control dynamics, whatever that is, but anybody that’s interested, but it just means flow of fluid over, you know, solid surfaces. Mhmm. And that could be, you know, if you’re into NASCAR racing or if you’re into Formula 1. It’s just really what those really, really intelligent engineers are are due to make, you know, to make cars go go faster. So yeah. So that was, like, kind of my background. I finished that, and as I said, and then went into went straight into banking almost. It’s really interesting because a lot of people think, well, you know, you did a career in in engineering, and then you moved into banking.
What a lot of people don’t realize is banking is you know, I guess the skills are transferrable. There’s a lot of maths, a lot of sort of abstract thinking involved, and there’s just the same with that. I’m doing an engineering degree. As I mentioned, my sort of engineering thesis in my final year was more computer focused. So I guess in that perspective, it kind of led nicely into a banking technology career. As I, you know, sort of previously said, the whole process of, you know, sort of building myself as a as a as a technologist and then understanding the finance and the banking and the sort of really complex banking side of things, kinda came a little bit later and and interestingly, I wanted to actually become a a trader in the banking world. But as life would have it, I sort of moved more into products and people and and and program project management. As, you know, as I said, 2018, I finished that because I wanted to do something different, something more more interesting, something exciting. And I jumped into startup, and the startup we were building at the time was really to try and help, you know, I guess, job seekers identified jobs in other startups. So we were essentially selling a service and assisted to startups who were interested in looking for talent. Yeah. The issue we had, and I’m happy for you to jump in. But the the issue the issue we had is we couldn’t really identify those startups quickly enough to be able to put the right talent in front of them. The startup world is really hard to decipher. It’s not a monolithic ecosystem. There’s so many different types of startups. There’s different types of things that drive the the the the, you know, that that drive the ecosystem that is so difficult to identify those startups that at funding and decision makers in those startups. To cut a long story short, that we we ended up sort of pivoting
Luis [00:05:37]:
in 2021.
Olu Adedeji [00:07:29]:
Just at the point now, the brink of sort of posing down the comfort really and decided that, you know, Because we’re having such a hard time identifying these startups, we just we decided to find other people and speak to them and find out, do you if you sell to startups, do you have a problem finding them in and and and how do you spend your time in identifying those people that have budget? And that kind of led us to build, which is, you know — Yeah. — I’m the founder of today. And, yeah, as you’re right, he said, is a platform for solopreneurs, freelancers, small businesses that are frustrated with trying to identify startups that can pay for their services.
Olu Adedeji [00:06:25]:
Yeah. So you you you created Prelo. Right. And and it was I have many question many follow-up questions, but I guess let’s start about the remote work. piece of the equation. Right? As as far as I know, you know, just just based on on on my on my cursory research, everyone in Prelo works from a very different location.
Luis [00:05:37]:
So I assume that it’s a fully remote company. Correct?
Olu Adedeji [00:07:29]:
Yes. So Prelo is 100% remote. As I say, I’m in London, my CMOs in San Diego. My head of partnerships is in Mexico. and and our chief technical adviser is in Boston, and the tech team is based in Germany. So you know, extremely extremely remote, and that’s that’s kind of how I’ve decided to to build the team. And and that sort of came off the back of just my experience building remote teams in banking. I think 2000 a year 2000 was probably when I started building remote teams. Okay. So so let’s step back for a moment, and we’ll we’re going to talk about it later. But I I’m interested in that in that journey. because, you know, in in 2020, right, remote is a a normal thing. Right? A lot of people are still aren’t on board yet. we’re trying to make that happen to get more and more people on board. But the reality is that, you know, just after COVID, it become it it it became much more accessible. Now on the 2000. Right? And and in banking of all places, which is a bit of a conservative sector. Right? I think it’s fair to say that. Alright? 100%. How did it happen that you became involved in in creating remote teams there?
Olu Adedeji [00:07:29]:
So if you think about 2000 and where what the economic state looked like for banks, then There was a massive push to move a lot of services abroad overseas A lot of services were moved to places that were of lower cost, and and this is a common you know, this was a common trend in banking as a way to cut costs.
One of the key places that were were outsourcing happened was like in India. Mhmm. A lot of, you know, outsourced services with technology perspective came out of India and were able to help provide, you know, support operations and and a few other you know, tasks.
And this is kinda how it all started in in 2000. The challenges, and I’m sure you’re probably going to ask is There there just wasn’t the tools really at the time to be able to facilitate this effectively as you can appreciate. But but, yeah, I mean, we were we were building teams over in India to support, you know, the the the UK and the US Mhmm. And the whole idea there was to build out the you know, a a team of, like, developers or we team of operation staff, but then have a head person in the UK or in the US who was engaging with senior management in terms of strategy and the way to move forward. But, of course, with clear organizational and and engagement brief speaking to the, you know, the the outsource teams in places like India.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Got it. Got it. Okay. So that was so so that was a challenge, but despite the challenging nature and the lack of tools, you seem to have become a fan of it because then when you build your teams that was how you do it. So What did you see then? Be because, obviously, you know, banks didn’t go remote. Right? They they have some remote teams but they didn’t, you know, for the for the most part to go remote. So what did you see in that experience? Right? That that that made you decide that you wanted to bring this forward, right, when you built your business?
Olu Adedeji [00:12:26]:
Yeah. I mean, just to just to to give you an update. I mean, my wife works for Bank, Chris, as she works investment back now as well. And they are remote to a certain extent, actually, I mean, then, you know, they work from home sort of 3 days a week, and and someone sings COVID. I think one of the key things that I I saw in that process was I was a good communicator. I was a good conduit between various teams, and therefore, I felt that my skill has been able to communicate clearly and succinctly what needed to be done was something that I could take into my business. and and that, you know, worked quite well.
And one one of the other things that have really helped me, and and I definitely recommend this to a lot of people is to take a project management course because a part of a project management course is understanding communication strategy. And when you have a clear view of what your communication strategy looks like, then you’ll be able to put the the structure in place to help support that. And that can be anything as simple as, you know, we’re gonna have weekly meetings, and we’re gonna have monthly meetings, and we’re gonna have daily calls. And in Each one of these types of meetings, they have a specific types of conversations that you have They’re not necessarily updates. They’re more conversations. The daily calls tend to be more updates because it’s what’s happened today, what’s going on today, what happened overnight and so on — Yeah. — and so forth. But, generally, these types of meetings are designed to keep everybody aligned and make sure that you you’re working towards the same goal.
Olu Adedeji [00:12:26]:
Yeah. Yeah. It it it’s it’s it’s very much right, the the agile scrum, right, methodology, which I am, you know I I I am I’m I’m a fan of And I agree with you. Right? You know, having getting in education. Right? Even even very smart people, right, that can figure out fluid dynamics for offer formula 1 risers. Right? You know, management is a different thing altogether. So it doesn’t really matter how smart you are. You do you need to absorb a different kind of of information and prepare, right, for for a different kind of the different kind of dynamics. So absolutely. And and do you find that when you did that that course, right, was it focused on remote? Did it have anything on remote or was it general principles that you then found a way to apply to remote?
Olu Adedeji [00:15:25]:
I think they were they were really general principles And also to mention as I mentioned at the start, I managed big teams, big remote teams in banks. So when I say big teams, I’m talking, I’m plus people — Yeah. — globally distributed across — Yes. A lot. You know? Yeah. I mean, across different time zones — Yeah. — and because we were managing big projects. So I you know, and I wasn’t just managing technology people. I was managing business analysts. I was managing, you know, quantitative analysts. I was managing people that we’re bringing that we’re coming together to deliver value to different parts of the bank or different parts of the business. Yeah. So the big thing that I took away from that was not necessarily about the about remote. And to be honest, I didn’t really see that work in remote was being anything special, to be honest. It it’s not until I started speaking to people that that they said, oh, wow. You’ve got a whole team that’s remote. That’s amazing that you’ve been able to build something like this with a completely remote team. And and I didn’t really see it as anything fantastic. I just thought, well, you know, if you’re a good communicator, you understand, you know, putting together good comms strategy and you have a vision and you’re able to articulate that vision to your team, and you’re able to create the right strategy in terms of engagement, frequency of engagement, and the type of engagement, then it should, you know, it should work because The core challenge with with remote teams is having independently driven individuals. Yeah. We do not have independently driven individuals. It’s very difficult to forge, you know, to to to create a good team, to create a team that would deliver because And and then I guess that’s that comes from me being able to interview people and being able to determine whether they they have the skills and the and the innate drive to want to do good.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. But but but still, you know, don’t sell yourself short because even when you have when you have driven individuals, you know, independently driven individuals, when you 300 individually independent individuals. That’s we we have a name for that, sir. The name for that is less. Right. Exactly. Exact exactly. But I I actually don’t because I I want to go I want to fast forward to the present. Right? So I won’t linger a lot here, but but the the it’s definitely I’m definitely super interested about about learning, especially how to manage the overwhelm, right, of dealing with with with with the team that that that size. Right? So so that that is an interesting thing. Maybe we’ll come back to it if if we have time. But I do want to move us forward to to the present where you have a a remote team that’s many, many, many times smaller than than than that. And I I just have to assume that you’re happy about that. Right?
Olu Adedeji [00:15:25]:
Yes. I mean, I think they’re they’re very happy about it. And and again, it goes back to having an independently driven individuals. who who are able to work on their own initiatives and work on a a short brief and who are able to who are not scared to to say that, you know, they have a problem and they need somebody to unblock that problem. Yeah.
Luis [00:05:37]:
So that that brings me to a an interesting more than an issue, a a really big curiosity about the way you you build, probably, you and your team. a built problem, which is that from I have some notes here. Right? Tell me if the notes are wrong. Right? But but I I have some I have some notes here. that tell me that PRELO was built in a month, beta tested in another month. And then at the end of 3rd month, you know, a month after launch, it was profitable. So this is basically you know, some people spend years, right, working I mean, I I mean, I I’ve had clients that took 2 months to build a web page. Right? So and you have a profitable revenue generating business. Right? And I actually, sorry. But my note, I I misspoke. My notes don’t say profitable. So they say revenue generating. So that there’s a difference there, but it’s nonetheless, whatever the case, it it’s really impressive. So And we there’s always this myth. I don’t necessarily agree, but I understand why people say it that in remote work, things are slower. Right? it it doesn’t seem the case. Right? Again, you you build this, right, and and got it to generating revenue in in, like, 3 months. So what’s the story behind that?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Yeah. So thank thanks for for that. I You’re right. It was it was to generate in revenue rather than to to profit. But, yeah, I mean, one one of the key things was you know, the the early background work that we did in terms of trying to understand what the pain point of the problem was. Mhmm. And and, again, one of the big things that we we focused on, war was pushing the MVP out as quickly as possible regardless of how good it was, and and really sort of focusing on trying to attract the right type of people who had the biggest pain. So we focus more on the pain than than we focused on the you know, on creating the prettiest product or or the most fun estate products. So, you know, in terms of that, from a remote perspective, what also helped us was I kept the same team that I’d building the previous startup. So there was a lot of things that we could pull together. But majority of what we did was built with I don’t know how much your your listeners understand no code to just get something out there and create something that was, you know, that was half useful. and and and putting out there. And one of the things that we did, really, was also to create data partners, people that could help us through the growth of the of the product — Yeah. — and it could give us feedback. And in return, we’d have their, you know, their logos on the on the web site and so on and so forth. But we were really aggressive. It was really a tough, you know, number of weeks. where we just built it, and we were you know, there were bugs everywhere. Right? You know, my my emails I mean, we what was interesting was we We didn’t, and we still don’t have a a chatbot on our home page because we’re a small team. There’s no point being distracted with a chatbot. if you’re you you know, if you know that there are certain things that aren’t really right about the product. But what we did have was support email address. And people just bombarding us with emails. Right? And say, well, this isn’t working. That’s not working. Yeah. Can you add this? Can you add that? And we just focused on what the customers wanted.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. Well, that’s that’s a very modern way of of building things. Right? But I look. I I mean, I don’t know how early. I I actually knew Prelo. Right? I came in into this knowing Trello because I I was one of your AppSumo adopters. Right? I don’t know how — — were we? I I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t know I don’t know how worthy it was. right, in in the process. But I remember that it felt pretty good. Maybe I didn’t run into any of the bugs. Right. but but but it it it it it had a nice UI. It had a nice UX. Right? It was sometimes you you get new products, and they are just sluggish to use. Right? Everything takes up forever to load, etcetera. Right? Obviously, could see that it was new software. Right? That that it was software that it was a work in progress, but everything seemed to to move very slowly. Right? This this doesn’t feel like something that was cobbled together right in the rush, you know, because you are like, oh, damn. You have to pivot. Let’s go. Go. Go. Go. It it it it it felt like your team knew what they were doing there. They they executed you know, for the for the small amount of time that they had to execute, they seem to have executed with the surprising, you know, level of quality. So just in terms of remote management, right, in terms of how you assign tasks and and how you set dialogue for tasks, and especially, you know, with your expertise, how you communicate it. Why those those why were that that 1st month of building like?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Great question. One of the things that I focused on was on benefit. What was the value, number one value that we wanted to communicate to our customers. And the number one value that we wanted to communicate to our customers was that this was a platform for you to find startups and their funding situation. So that was all that we focused on in the first instance. Got it. Once we knew what we wanted to to, you know, all of the the attributes of a of a startup that we wanted to have in the in in the dashboard. and we started creating that. And we rolled out in the first version just with this information. To be honest, the first version could easily have been an air table or next Google Sheet. if I’m going to be really really honest with you. But that would suck.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Right? Because that’s not a good UI. That that’s not a good UI. Right? That that’s the point. I I mean, a few people have this this thing with Airtable and and and ocean and everything. And Those are nice tools. If I want to make a a list, you know, a a a a supermarket list or if I want, you know, to gather some data together for myself, But when you use them as as tools, right, for a for a process that that that’s step 1, step 2, step 2, step 2, step 1. it’s such a bad experience. Right?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
True. Yeah. So, I mean, one other thing that I failed to to share at the beginning of this podcast is I’m actually a qualified business analyst. Okay. So part of my unqualified scrum master as well. So part of my my process is about requirements, gathering and requirements solicitation, and the translation of those requirements into a UX UI that was usable. No. And I I created the the journey in the UX and the the the way that I wanted it to feel for people because prospecting is such a painful arduous uninteresting task that the the motto that I had or we had in the vision was making prospect in fun again. How can we create a platform that is essentially for prospecting. But actually, people want to use it. People want to come in and check information and news and all of that sort of stuff. The other thing was this. When we were doing the first startup, we reached out to a lot of our lead generation companies and wanted to get information about startups. The issue that we had was they couldn’t. They could find us information on LinkedIn, but it wasn’t Good enough. They could find us information on Crunchbase and various, but it wasn’t good enough. And we thought, how can we create something that essentially would mean that you didn’t have to use 3, 4, 5 different tools to understand which decision maker had just raised $5,000,000, for example. Yes.
Luis [00:05:37]:
So what was the what was the workflow of the team? What did the workflow of team look like during those early days up up until the the beta?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Yeah. So it was very fluid. Everything was done through Slack. We had all of our conversations through Slack. Mhmm. There was a clear understanding at the beginning of every week what the goals were in terms of where we wanted to get to. And one of those things that we really did or that I focused on was articulating that goal. We didn’t really do, like, user stories or or, you know, measure user points or any story points or anything like that. But what we were focused on because there was just no time for it to be super specific, super perfect. Right? We just said, well, we need to get a dashboard on that had all of this information so that customers can search by by funds. or customers can search by, you know, industry. And those were the core requirements that we we needed to make sure that we we got in the first first instance. So from a from a workflow perspective, it was me giving out information or giving out, you know, work and direction on on a Monday, the team going away and building. And then, constantly, I mean, I was on Slack 247 almost. Right? and constantly going backwards and forwards on, like, Wednesday, Thursday once it was built, where to place a place of out and why we why we decided to use emojis and not, you know, create specific icons because it was just quicker It was just quicker. And and and, actually — And everyone understands emojis. Bingo. And and and I’m a big fan of emojis. So — Yeah. — it it just meant that people could just, you know, understood exactly what we were doing as you rightly said, and that was a key. And then on on, you know, on Thursday, whatever we release it, we’ll roll it out. And then I would go on to AppSumo or something if it’s already live and say, hey. By the way, we just added this new feature. Do you wanna check it out? What do you think? If when we were still building the 3, 4 weeks, it was right. Okay. Now we’ve got this in there. Let’s put it to the community. We also had a Slack community, and we put it to the community to say, what do you think of this? Is this can you give it at you know, that was one of the key things that we did. And you put Amy, I’m sure. I’m I’m surprised you’re not in our Slack community, actually. If you registered, you were sent an email that allowed register in a Slack community. And then part of that processing, that Slack community in the early days was we will give a feature and say, hey. What do you think about this? Can you vote? And people would click tick or thumbs down or whatever, and that helped us understand, okay, they don’t like this. Let’s let’s, you know, do other things. Yeah.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, that that’s a that that’s a very I am that’s a very agile process. It’s it’s it’s very very very interesting. And So you had a a global team. Right? How many locations was the team dispersed about in that in that time?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
In that time, it was about four locations. Right? So the team was it’s slightly different to the team that that I have today. And in fact, none of the the the The guys that built the previous startup and built the the early early start early Prelo are there today. And it’s a game. This is another skill that I picked up on how to transition teams even though it’s all remote. But the the the locations whilst they were all in the the technical team or the Ukraine. Some were in Kyiv, somewhere in Odessa, and and, you know, and and different parts of other parts of of the Ukraine. So Nobody, even though they were in the same country, could actually sit were sat next to each other. But but yeah. But it worked well.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Okay, so that’s actually very interesting because despite the team changing, right? The product didn’t seem to change. I mean, it changed in the sense that it had upgrades, and it became better. But but it it from a user perspective, right, I didn’t feel that that change.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Right. Right. Exactly. And and then that’s because I I I essentially was driving the vision of the UI UX and into in in the way that it spoke to the to the, you know, to the customers because why I realized very quickly, and this is from reading some of the stories about Uber and various other, even Facebook in the early days is you don’t want to surprise customers with new buttons here just, you know, moving things around unnecessarily. Yeah. So once we established that it was going to be simple, And once we started actually getting feedback from customers that this is a great UI, we figured there’s no point changing it. And interestingly, a few developers are that I’d interviewed in the past that came in that I didn’t really do well, wanted to change the UI and wanted to change because people just naturally want add their own stamp, right, to say, hey. I added that. And I said, no. I said, you can’t do that. I said, because our customers say they like the UI, so I don’t want to change it. I want us to go with what we already have. Otherwise, it just becomes painful.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Got it. Got it. Okay. So so tell me a bit about operating the company today. What does your average day look like? What are the what are the the the milestones that you set for yourself in your day and what are the tools that that help you get it done?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
So the average day for me is is really simple. You know, I, you know, wake up and I check my over our emails, I check if there’s any any support issues. And then from a engagement perspective, because there’s a time lag between my myself and, you know, my CMO or between myself and my head of partnerships, Yeah. It’s it’s, you know, it’s a bit challenging. So I look through Slack to see if there’s anything that’s been any new update. So we have a central Slack group that we you know, we all jumping to — Uh-huh. — born from a management perspective, and it’s a separate Slack group from a development perspective. So, typically, the developers are fractional. They’re coming the Thursday or Friday, and they do, like, a short amount of work. And this is, again, one of the the challenges. I know my Fridays My Thursday is is for creating key priorities for the developers to develop on Friday. And Friday, we release And because the developers are fractional, they’re available over the weekend to do the work. But for me personally, I’m reading through with LinkedIn. I’m looking at, you know, marketing outputs and trying to see whether, you know, there are things that we can do differently. And also, actually, speaking to marketers who may be interested in partnership and various other things. Yeah. So what what would you — — cost. The guy that that’s an important part of it. Yes.
Luis [00:05:37]:
You can’t forget those podcasts. So why did you opt to go with with with fractional developer developers, especially, you know, considering your your background, you know, in managing in managing a tech team, Right. What made you decide that this this was the good fit for PROBO?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Two things. I think the first time having a full full time developer created a situation where your ideas were not fully formed whilst you were developing, you just end up burning through money very quickly. making the necessary iterations, having a fractional person not only manages budget, but it also allows you time between releases of of of features to get feedback from customers and to digest what it is that should come next, what’s priority, what’s not, But having you know? And and that’s going to change. I think just right now in the stage that we’re at is super important to take stock, I think is what we say. Yeah. Step back. Each time you you do a release each time you add value, to understand whether the value is actually being consumed because there’s but here’s the thing, developers love developing. They don’t really care whether the the what they’re developing is adding value as long as they’re happy developing. What you need to understand because I used to be a developer is that you have to equate the value and the return on investment for each hour that they spend into how does that translate to sales for you. If it’s not translating to sales, then you’ve got a question. 1, is your marketing strategy. Right? 2, are your existing customers excited about what you’re building and so on.
Luis [00:05:37]:
So let’s talk a bit about sales, right? Because as you rightly said, and I’m sure that a lot of salespeople love you because one of the hardest and and most annoying parts of sales is is prospecting. Right? So you probably talked with with a decent amount of salespeople, right, over the years since you since you started. since you started the problem. Right? I have spoken also with a a large amount of salespeople, especially since COVID hit. And there was a greater thirst for knowing how to do remote work properly. And I feel that everyone adopted in their own way, right, different businesses, areas, different industries. but it’s always the salespeople who I felt came to me having the hardest time. That that’s not to say that there aren’t some amazing, you know, salespeople that figured it out Right? But it’s still an area where I still feel that remote is really, really hard for sales, much harder than than sales used to be where I had some some people come to me that their their whole thing, right, was hitting, you know, a every month or a conference every couple of months, you know, getting their their contact connections there and then, you know, doing the follow-up game right either. home or or at the office, you know, whatever that may be. And then, you know, in dispersing that with with calls, etcetera, to potential clients, stuff like that. But by and large, I felt that the the thing that again, I’m not the salesperson, but the thing that the salespeople communicate to me was that we the remote era is a much harder sale. Right? So how how has it been, you know, to to do sales and to sell your software, your solution in the remote sales era.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Yeah. So one of the things that we we we focused on. I think this is one of the the the strategies that we adopted is to go with the product led growth. to really sort of focus on, you know, the product, and and I do a lot of the marketing myself and really sort of you know, engage in terms of inbound, you know, people that are coming inbound to to use the product. What to appreciate as well is this, a lot of salespeople that find this a challenge are usually enterprise salespeople or people selling, you know, big to medium to big ticket items. Yeah. And that’s that’s the challenge. When you’re selling sort of bigger ticket items, you need to have that face to face that human to human touch and and engage. So that that for me is key. Having said that, you know, I I think the, you know, the the pandemic COVID has has really helped to remove any kind of demand from customers to have to have you in their office People I mean, most most customers are probably working from home now anyway. So, you know, a lot of what we’re trying to do with with the product is to help people hyper target the individuals that they want to reach out to, build engagement and relationships over social media like LinkedIn so that when they actually go to engage, it doesn’t necessarily have to be face to face. It could be on Zoom that how we’re having a conversation now, and more people are comfortable with that. But I understand what you’re saying It is tough. Salespeople who are serving enterprise SaaS or enterprise services enterprise products. need to be shaking hands, need to be I wouldn’t say wine in and dining, but need need to be in the presence of the decision makers. And I think that’s that’s still going to be tough. It’s still going to be tough especially even now when people are hardly ever in well, I say hardly ever in the office. They’re definitely not in the office on Fridays and Mondays. I can see that.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Fair enough. Alright. So so this this has been this has been very cool, but I do want to be respectful of your time. I I want to finish up with a couple of of rapid fire questions, though you don’t need to answer them rapidly right. So — What time did we start? I believe we start about it’s going to be 40 minutes now.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Okay. Oh, I think I’ve gotten we started at 1:30, didn’t we?
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. Exactly. Okay. Perfect. Good. Time went fast. Time went fast. Time went fast. Yeah. So anyway, talk about your virtual office. Right? When when you sit down to do to do some work, we when you open your well, I didn’t even know if it a laptop or a desktop. But when you start your day at your computer, right, or tablet or whatever, why is why is your what does your virtual office? look like? What are the apps, tools, the tabs, you know, that pop up immediately in your in your browser?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Yeah. So the tabs that pop up for me are are things like Slack.
Luis [00:05:37]:
things like Trello. Oh, you’re a Slack tab user.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Yeah. Slack Trello Of course, I use I use Prelo as well be for for outreach and engaging the right people. Yeah. And Yeah. I mean, that that’s pretty much what what I you know, of course, Gmail. I use Zapier. I’m on on on Google Sheets. And and, yeah, there’s a there’s a there’s a few other other tools that I use. There’s a tool called super demo, which I find is a really good tool for for doing demos. enter. superdemo.com. super is supadem0. I I’m not an affiliate. I’m just just so that you know. What’s that? But, yeah, it’s a really cool cool tool that we use to to do a lot of the stuff that we’ve done on on Prelo. So, yeah, a lot of my time is either on LinkedIn or Canva as well because I do I do designs as well for my in my spare time. Yeah. It’s fun. Yeah. Well, yeah, time consuming. Yeah. And and again, you know, these are all things that I I spend, you know, a little bit of time with to to help me and and and help the team. No. But but I totally understand I I mean,
Luis [00:05:37]:
look, working as, you know, director of market, it’s at some at times, it it’s such a a heavy number crunch. Right? Mhmm. That that that that it it it’s relaxing and almost therapeutic to open up Canva. Right? And there’s something because I’m like, oh, this is nice. This this is a nice this is a nice LinkedIn ad. This is a nice place to look at. Right. It’s it’s it’s cool. I mean, I I’m I’m no designer. Right? But but I do know my ads. Right? The they’re they’re not pretty, but they convert. Right?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
That’s all that matters. That’s it.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Exactly. But I I learned that the hard way. Right? Because I used to try to do the the most beautiful or funniest thing I could. And it wouldn’t convert. Right? It’s it’s it’s you know? People don’t engage with ads like they engage with paintings in a museum. Right? It’s all about the copy as you know as you tell me. It’s all about the copy. It’s the yeah. But you you need to have that that scroll start you need to have that visual that stops the scroll so they get the copy. 100%.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
100%. Yeah. 100%.
Luis [00:05:37]:
So, yeah, I’m I’m a a a camera inspector here. Right? Big camera. Alright. So what purchase in the last 6 months, let’s say, has improved your your valuable work metrics the most. I mean, whatever you value the most, your productivity, work life balance, etcetera, what is the thing that you bought in the past 6 months that in that that had the biggest impact in your working life?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
I wouldn’t say I bought it. I think my wife bought it for me. It was a a standing a standing desk. So like a desk where you can — Yes. — just stand. rather than sit down. So yeah. So that’s been really good because it just meant, you know, I’m not sat down all day.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. That — Yeah. That’s a that that’s a really good one. I tried, actually. I need to try again. Every now and then I try, but I can actually do it I can actually it’s actually nice to do some stuff like this. Right? Like yes. But it it really breaks down from you when I start trying to Right. When I start trying to type — Oh. Right? Yes. There’s just something that that my brain doesn’t work without them if I’m not sitting But but but but, yeah, but that is a that that is a really a really nice thing. Tell me let’s talk about books for a minute. Right? What what book have you given out the most, you know, in this federal, you know, business slash entrepreneurial, etcetera, area?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Ringbooks, I I always recommend to to people anybody that asks me in terms of marketing because I come from a tech call background, and I come from banking. So I’m not a natural marketer. I’m more of a scientific analyst of of of words. But one of the books that’s really helped me to understand for the the whole thing about branding is building a story brand. And that’s by Donald Miller. Yeah. It’s really just understanding how brands build build stories around their product. and that product can be you as a person. If you look at my Twitter, a lot of what my right about is really about me much challenges and that and build building a brand around that. Mhmm. The other one is positioning is by Arias and Jack Trout. And that is a a book that really talks about how to position your product in a crowded market that’s, you know, really, really useful. useful book. It talks about, you know, things like, you know, understanding who the number one is in the market. It talks about how, you know, depending on how big the number one is, you know, you need to be contrarian in order to be, you know, to be regarded and and so on. And the other one that probably people don’t really know is zero to sold. And this is by a chap called Avid Karl. 0 to sold is really learning how to be a better bootstrapper. how to prioritize and optimize your, you know, everything you do for revenue. And and and yeah. So these are these are all all three books I I typically recommend. Those are those are great great recommendations.
Luis [00:05:37]:
A good companion piece to those 3, which I’ve read. Right? It is also the the 22 immutable laws of marketing. I don’t know if you’ve — Yes. I’ve read that as well. Really good. Really short read as well, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s great. I actually I I have a I I usually have a copy around. Right? Just just to reference. Right? I I like — I love it. — Yeah. And all of that because it’s really one. And and again, it it’s a it complements the the trio you mentioned very well, very nice marketing groups. I was expecting to add some some fluid dynamic recommendations.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Maybe it’s time. Nobody’s got time for that.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Alright. Okay. So So the final question, right, you know, again about remote work, let’s say that you are hosting a dinner with you know, you you work in startups. So so so let’s say with with the founders of many, like, the founders of 50, you know, North American startups, hosting a dinner and you happen to be hosting the dinner in a Chinese restaurant. So you, as the host get to choose the team of the night, which is future of work, Right? And the for the future of work, you also get to choose the message that goes inside the fortune cookie. So what message are these startup founders going to read once they open their fortune cookie? Oh,
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
I think the future of work is going to be driven by AI —
Luis [00:05:37]:
Really? — from
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
yeah. Yeah. from engagement to interviewing to securing a job. I think the me, that is the biggest transformation that’s going to happen in work. in in in our generation. Interesting. It’s quite scary, really, because there is a Sorry. I’m going off a a little bit. Oh, problem.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Ben, just talk nice.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
But but yeah. I mean, you know, you you know, the the the introduction of things like BART and things like ChatGPT — Mhmm. — on platforms that are essentially for finding work is hugely, hugely disruptive into the to the talent acquisition and disrupt and and the recruitment business. It will be. it will be because it would mean that me as a founder will not have to do any route too much research about a a, you know, a candidate other than just write a single sentence to say, tell me about this person. Yeah. And and all of a sudden, that means that the recruiter is redundant. unless they can bring something different — Mhmm. — you know, into the hiring end to end. Not many people are talking about that at the moment. But that that is where where and that’s where I see one of the biggest disruptions.
Luis [00:05:37]:
No. No. I I agree. Absolute I agree absolutely with you. That’s why we’ve always even before AI, but we’ve doubled down on it. That’s why we always try to say that we are a boutique recruitment agency because we try to have a very crafted, you know, a craftsman approach. Right? to to to recruitment. Right? We used to we we we like to say that what we do is we build it a two way street where we don’t we don’t just find your company somewhat who who will fit what you need but we’ll we’ll actually find someone that will love working for you. Right? Because that that because if we’re just talking about talents, right, I need a person with these talents. Right? Then, yeah, USDI. Right? They’ll they’ll they’ll they’ll go over a 1000 candidates much faster than a team of recruiters can. That it’s no contest.
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
100%. And I think that’s it. And I think you understand you get that and I think the the way that you actually position AI to help you optimize your talent outreach and customer outreach is going to be a game changer.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, thank you so much for for the conversation. Now Although, I I do want to invite you to tell our listeners more. I mean, you you’ve told a lot, but tell that our listeners, more especially the entrepreneurs hearing and the founder’s hearing, write more about PRELO and how can PRELO help them?
Speaker C [00:49:58]:
Oh, thank you, Lude. Appreciate the the opportunity too. So very simply, Parello is a client discovery platform. Mhmm. That helps, solopreneurs, startup advisers, recruitment agencies, and growing businesses. Target. He decision makers. in high growth companies. The problem that we’re solving is essentially the frustration that comes with trying to identify startups that have the money to pay for the services that you offer. That is what we’re doing with the product. Yeah.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Alright. So thank you for that. And now where can people find you to continue the conversation?
Olu Adedeji [00:00:29]:
Hit me up on Twitter. My Twitter handle is atoluededej. or hit me up on LinkedIn. Just type in Oulu space edit AG, and you’ll find me on on LinkedIn. Nice. We’ll we’ll have the oh, please continue. I was just gonna say, if you wanna check out Prelo, it’s on www.Prelo.i0.
Luis [00:05:37]:
Okay. And we’ll have all those links in the in the show notes as well so we can check that so we can check that out and continue the conversation with all Thank you so much for for doing this. It was an absolute pleasure. This was a great conversation.
