April 3, 2025 • 48 mins
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In this season 7 Premiere episode of The Sound of Accra Podcast, Adrian sits down with Founder and CEO of Remoteli, Samuel Brooksworth, to explore the innovative growth and development of his company. Since our last conversation with Samuel in 2022, Remoteli has transformed from a people-focused business into a thriving SaaS-based platform aimed at creating a multitude of employment opportunities across Africa. He shares insights into the company's mission to alleviate brain drain by offering viable career paths for the continent's talented youth.
Get this episode's show notes: https://thesoundofaccra.com/samuelb
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🔗 CONNECT WITH ADRIAN
🔗 CONNECT WITH SAMUEL
🕙 TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Podcast Intro
05:04 Samuel of Remoteli's Family Inspiring Return to Ghana
08:45 Guiding Ghanaian Children's Future Paths
11:29 Celebrating Success Amidst Economic Challenges
13:41 Retaining African Talent Locally
17:06 Comprehensive Workforce Management Platform
19:58 Building for Long-Term...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Yeah. They'll just pretty much copy and paste what you're doing. Yeah. That's
like, guys, just do your own. That's
that's the if you if you focus on if you focus on your see what
your unfair advantage is, what you're good at, naturally, you'll be your
own competitive advantage. You don't have to copy anyone. That'd be
Okay. Cool. Let's, let's get going. Yeah. I can hear you.
(00:22):
Rolling. Yeah? Oh, perfect. Cool. I hope you were rolling.
Captured the first part. Are we? Not trying to get not
trying to get canceled out here. Okay. Cool, man. Cool.
I like I didn't I didn't know. I didn't realize they had that, man. That's
good, though, because I'm like, that's because yeah. It was like, I'm about to say,
are we good? I thought I'd have to go. I could Yeah.
(00:48):
Oh, yeah. The the feedback. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. But but you you let me
know that you're up on the road now. Yeah. Like, if you have an issue,
I just have a look over here and signal to me. Yeah. Okay. Cool. That's
fine. Thank you. Yeah. So is it rolling now? Yeah? Yes. It's rolling. So okay.
Cool. As soon as you get back in, I'll stop. Okay.
Cool. Alright. Great. Let's go. Let's get it.
(01:10):
Hey, everyone. My name is Adrian Daniels. Welcome to the Sound of the Crowd
podcast. You good? I'm good. No. It's all good. It's good.
Okay. Running running again. Alright.
Cool. Hey there, everyone. No.
This one. Yeah? This one. Okay. Cool. And is it these two? Yeah? This
one and this one. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Got you. Got you. Yeah. Because that that's
(01:33):
all. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool.
Alright. Hey there, everyone. Welcome to the Sound of
Accra Podcast. I go by the name of Adrian Daniels. If this is your first
time listening, this is the show where we speak of top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs,
and creators worldwide with the aim of leaving you behind the meaningful takeaways that
you can apply in your life, business, and career. Just some housekeeping, guys. For
(01:55):
today's show notes, I'd like you to head over to the
sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's the
sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's for all of
today's references, links, nuggets, and wisdom notes from today's
session. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit like, leave us a comment, and let
us know what you think of today's episode. Spotify, Apple Podcast listeners,
etcetera, five star views very much appreciated. Today,
(02:19):
is gonna be a special episode. Having a lovely catch up with
mister Samuel Brooksworth, remotely. You already know what
what you may have heard them with him already, especially from season three.
Samuel's gonna tell you more about them if you don't. But, yeah, we're
gonna continue our conversation with Samuel. It's been quite
a while. Samuel, thanks for coming on the show. It's it's thanks for coming back
(02:41):
on the show. A pleasure. A pleasure as always. A pleasure as always. Yeah. New
new year, new setting, new new city. We recorded in,
I think, almost three years ago in Accra. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty twenty one,
I think. Yeah. I think it was. Or was it early twenty twenty two? I
think it's one of those. What one or the other. Yeah. And now it's,
June 2024 as we speak. We're in London doing this recording.
(03:03):
Remotely is gone to leaps and bounds and is
doing amazing, amazing things. It's been beautiful to see the growth.
Talk to me, brother. How are you doing? I'm good, man. I'm good. New year,
new child. Congratulations.
Team's getting bigger. Team is getting bigger. We we have a whole five sats team
now, so Yeah. Including me and the missus. Five sats
(03:25):
are three kids now. So it's been a beautiful journey. A lot of
sleepless nights along with the business. Yeah. Of course. Life is life,
and so I cannot complain. Everything's been good. Yeah. Come to the territory
of being a CEO of a company like yours, isn't it? Allow me. Allow me.
We're trying. We're trying. Yeah. We're growing. It's been good. It's been
good. I appreciate it, man. We give glory to God. And, you know, I appreciate
(03:46):
you're really busy. So thank you for taking some time out to come back on
the show and just to give us an update in terms of what you guys
have been up to. Yeah. Speaking of five a side and your kids and your
family, I remember you posting a lovely photo of you on
LinkedIn. I think you and one I think one of your kids, you're looking out
the window. And, I think you're looking out towards the beach or something,
and you're talking about how you've brought your family over to Ghana just
(04:08):
to kind of spend some time with you out there. Yes. This is something
else we're gonna talk about later on, but I think it's been natural naturally organic
just to bring it here. Mhmm. How's it been, you know,
balancing life in UK and Africa and, you know, balance of work
and your family? How's that been for you? You know what? It's it's been beautiful.
It's been calm. It's been
(04:30):
structured. I think that moment you're speaking about with the kids and I were looking
out the window in my office was a whole full circle moment
where my parents came to The UK in the seventies, eighties,
and they came here to create more opportunities for themselves and for
us. They always planned to go out to Ghana. Like most
Ghanaian parents never quite seemed to go back and ended up
(04:52):
staying here. So, them creating such a beautiful
foundation for us here. I remember telling my mom, like I said, two times ago
of going back to Ghana, she was like, why? You you
built and set up everything in The UK. Why do you want to go back?
And, having spoken to about a vision, what we wanted to do,
obviously, very supportive and having a moment where I could take my kids
(05:14):
to Ghana and then see what we've built in Ghana. It
was just a beautiful moment and, yeah,
it's something that'll stay with them for the rest of their lives, having that moment
of stepping into the office for the first time and seeing what daddy's daddy's
constantly travelling, finally seeing where all the hard work is is going
towards. So, yeah, it was a beautiful moment and balancing it's been it's it's been
(05:35):
nice. It's good having a very supportive wife, having a very supportive
good support system. So everyone's understands
the the the level of time and effort that goes into doing what we're doing.
So it's been good. That's beautiful to see. And you have a beautiful family as
well. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Congrats on what you're doing and, you know, the
family's growing as well, which is beautiful. Thank you. A question I wanna ask on
(05:55):
the back of that, actually, this is something I asked one of my guests the
other day. Is this remotely, is this
something that you're looking to hand over to your kids in the future potentially or
maybe other maybe using it it could also be used as a wealth vehicle to
build up a form of wealth, then you can leave that behind for them. That
is a very very good question, Adrian Adrian.
(06:18):
It's something I have not thought about in too much depth. I think it's
important to see how they grow in their interest and their likes. I don't want
to force them in something. However, I have kind of
steered them in certain directions to ensure that they do have
that structured plan. And
in doing so, we've seen some of our kids already from a young age flourish
(06:40):
in certain areas. So, for example, our oldest daughter is a very very
creative mind and she loves writing and started writing her first book and
she's eight. And then our second daughter who's four is
a phenomenal footballer. We didn't actually know she was so good at football. It was
her nurse for teacher who was saying that she's running rings around the boys at
playtime. Well, I know she's not. Wow. So I remember taking her to a football
(07:00):
session on a Saturday. We're like, you just go run around and see what you
can do. Remember the moment the ball touched her left foot. My
goodness. My goodness. Not sure. What we I saw
money signs. I saw like Chelsea, come and get me. It
was Chelsea. Hey. Listen. Arsenal,
come and get us signed up. But I
(07:21):
she's like, honestly, Adrian, she's so good at football. And it's
beautiful just seeing her gifting, being cultivated and us taking her different
sessions. Her being at four, she's now playing with under eight girls. And then
our, obviously, last born boy, it's difficult to see what he's gonna do right now.
He's only 10 old. But, it would be nice if we had
kids who, after a while, stepped into the businesses we set up for them and
(07:43):
continued that. But even if they wanted to go down their own paths, they're gonna
be very well supported regardless. So, we'll see how time
how how how how that time goes. Yeah. Is it that's a that's a great
response. It's an interesting one because you see, like, families out there, for example, like
the Beckhams, like, you know, everyone probably for one of David Beckham's sons
are gonna, like, blow up in football. I think maybe Brooklyn or whatever or Romeo,
(08:04):
one of them. I think they played football, but not I think maybe Atletico Madrid's
b team or Inter Miami's b team or something like that. I think that's the
heights that they reached, but it never, you know, replicate
exactly what Beckham did or maybe Ronaldo Junior. I mean,
he seems to be going that direction. So you can't really
force, you know, a child to go in a certain direction or to follow in
(08:25):
your footsteps. You just have to see what they're naturally good at or what they're
naturally creative at doing. So I like what you're doing. You're just seeing what, you
know, what talents or skills they naturally have and just push them in that direction.
That's wonderful to see. Don't get me wrong. I do think that there is an
importance into ensuring that the family's stability is there
generationally. Mhmm. And it's very important that you do steer them in certain
(08:47):
directions. Leave them to be too free. I do feel
it is, can actually hinder them in the long term because as a young child
you never really know what you want to do and when you have that kind
of direction, I think growing up I was quite fortunate I just kept trying new
things and eventually something stuck. But when you do look at other households
where they've been able to continue generational wealth as we're speaking about their kids
(09:08):
are pushing certain directions and it is key that you do direct them from a
young age to help earn spots,
identify, and cultivate certain giftings. Yeah. And, someone like
Olivia, a creative as she is, I do see her as someone who can we
can trust at such a young age to to be able to be financially responsible,
to handle the wealth that will transfer over to her, to look after her siblings.
(09:30):
Charlotte as, boisterous and as crazy as she can
be, she's she's extremely tenacious and we know that
she's someone who will push boundaries and take things to other levels. And
Theodore, our last born, he's well, Samuel Theodore, obviously. I had to do I
had to do near him. But Samuel Theodore, he's a, even at
such a young age, is a very calm and composed child.
(09:52):
So, you know, he's the kind of individual who is able to handle pressures and
we're able to delegate and and negotiate and just
understand things. So us seeing these things, we just cultivate the giftings that we see
in them and push them to ensure that way if they do, whether it's for
them, it helps to push the family's name legacy and them to
new levels so that they can create that for their children Yeah. For their children,
their children, that there's a structure that just continues for generations. Wow. That's
(10:16):
beautiful. That's a really, really beautiful statement you just made.
Beautiful, names you've given to your kids, by the way, as well. Thank you. I
think you named one of them after yourself. Is that great? I I I I
I had to start to slip on it. So he
his name is actually Samuel, Theodore, Leonard, but I we in house
recording Theo, because it's difficult when you got two Samuels.
(10:36):
My dad will call Samuel as well. So, even let's come into the house. It's
a bit difficult at times. He'll be open my letters by accident.
Bro. Bro. You you asked me a letter. So hopefully that won't happen with him.
But, yeah, it's it's it's nice having another little Samu run around. It's wonderful.
Yeah. So wonderful to hear. All right. So we've talked about building family and
how you're doing with family. Let's talk about building the teams. I think it's a
(10:59):
great segue. So remotely, since we last spoke, of course,
it's growing leaps and bounds since our last conversation. Talk us
through, like, where it is now. I mean, you don't have to give the exact
numbers in terms of team size. But talk us through, like, maybe
the key highs that you feel like you've made or key or how you've restructured
the business since then to get for it to get to where it is now
(11:19):
and, you know, and the team? Yeah.
Obviously, as you've seen, the the the growth has been
exponential. The team's grown massively. Mhmm. And it's all it's
all it's number one. Obviously, I I always say this. I can I can go
to the glory? Amen. Because a lot a lot of what's happened has generally not
been by my strength for my intellect because the way things have gone up and
(11:40):
the way things have continued to expand, especially with how the economy is in
Ghana, across Africa, in The UK. To see continuous
growth in what we have, built is beautiful. When you
see other organizations of us of similar to us in some
industries haven't done as well and are crumbling to see us gaining
investors and see individual interested businesses still with us,
(12:03):
businesses expanding through us. It's been a beautiful journey. But that's
testament to the team we have, and we have a team who stuck with us
from the very beginning. No matter what's happened, if it's turmoil, adversity,
they stuck with the business and they've helped the business to grow. And then along
with the key hires, as you mentioned, we've brought on a CTO, called Liam,
who's helped to really build our technical technological platform. Yeah.
(12:24):
We first started the business. The whole aim was to create a SaaS product. But,
so that was, that was the goal from the jump from the jump was to
create a SaaS product. But then as you can imagine, I wanted to create SaaS
products. I went out looking for funding millions of pounds of people like
young brother-in-law. We have no trust
or confidence that you can build what you're saying. You can build no experience, which
(12:45):
is understandable. So rather than me just constantly going out and looking for more,
more money, I said, do you know what? Let me actually build a people focused
business first, hire the people, build up the structures.
And then once I've done that, prove the revenue generation,
prove the concept, prove the concept of working in Africa. Now I can
build my SaaS product on top. And now having done that, it's a lot easier
(13:08):
now we're going to speak to investors and looking to close deals in the coming
months. Yeah. Hopefully, by the time the podcast is out, we should hear someone else's
by then. Oh, wow. Okay. So you're raising a bit more? That's correct. Yeah. So
in in us doing, so we've proven the model now.
So it's a lot easier happening in discussions. It's a lot easier to show,
what we've built through the revenue we've generated. And
(13:33):
Liam's been a key part of that. We've just hired actually as we're as
we're yesterday. Our COO now who is a
woman in Africa. And it's amazing having her onboard. She got vast
experience on the continent, building international brands, bringing them to Ghana,
building them in Ghana and across different regions in Africa. Now she'll
be joining our team to help grow the brand and it was so key for
(13:55):
us that we got a woman and someone in Africa to do so because
one thing I've been very confident about is that we do have talent at home
and we're trying to avoid brain drain to stop the best talent from leaving the
continent. She was actually looking to go to America and then I spoke
to her and she's gonna see this and I'm grateful
listen. Do not go to America. The opportunities you want are on this continent. She
(14:18):
said, no. She wants to go. She's got two ks. She wants to go there.
And we had a conversation to be fair to her to be fair to her.
She saw the vision that she was more than eager to want to join and
wanna be a part of it. And it was testament to her was the fact
that she stayed, and she stayed, and she's now become our chief operating officer. And
she's now helping to grow the business across the new regions we've
recently expanded into, which are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya.
(14:43):
We talked about Rwanda in the last episode. Yes. Rwanda is already a part of
Rwanda and gunnery there. So South Africa, Kenya,
Senegal, Egypt. Wow. That's the one,
we've now expanded into. So now seeing that growth, finding someone on the
ground who has that experience to really help us grow operations across the
continent and globally. So, it's honestly just been a
(15:04):
beautiful journey because we have a team who have the experience and the passion to
help drive the business forward. That's brilliant. It's just amazing. I think
for me just to speak to guests and have, you know,
consecutive conversations with them and just to see where they've where they've gone to since
the previous conversation. You know, I think we're talking about where this podcast has grown
since we last spoke. Exactly. Yeah. Which is great. But to see what you're doing
(15:26):
is just amazing. Like, we talked about certain countries that you're going to go
into in in the last conversation. Just to hear you actually do that a lot
more is incredible. No. Don't don't don't don't jump off that so quickly. What
you've done is you bro, like, at the end of the day, what you have
to realize is that you've created platforms for organizations like ours. Yeah. So it's
beautiful that we've grown, but if not for the support of podcasts and platforms
(15:47):
like yours. My mom used to always say to me, you could be the greatest
preacher in the world. We've done have a platform. Nobody heard your
message. So platforms create and we've seen a lot of platforms
being created for organisations, business people in the Western
world based beautiful platforms like yours can create that stepping
stone for organizations based in Africa. But if not for that, how would
(16:08):
people hear of us? So True. Kudos to you and and what you're doing, man.
True. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate appreciate it. Wow.
So talk about talk talk to us about the talk to me about the,
the AI plat the AI powered platform that you built on top of it. What
does that look like? How does that look like? So the a well, what the
platform now does is, what we were aiming to do was to try and create
(16:29):
a platform that really helped us to create the biggest talent
pool in Africa. Now initially, when we're doing that, we're building the we're
building the platform, but it was very people centred like I've initially mentioned.
But speaking to thousands of people every month is difficult.
Managing thousands of people every month is difficult training thousands of
people every month. It's difficult managing and seeing where people are in regards to
(16:52):
their job opportunities, whether they are looking for jobs. Manually, it's
very difficult, and our people team were stretched to
maximum capacity. So now we've built a platform. It helps alleviate
all that stress where individuals can come onto the platform now. They can
sign themselves up. They can get trained through the tools. If there's any
competence or areas that they're lacking in, tool can upscale them, make sure that they're
(17:14):
ready for the clients to be able to hire them.
Once clients do come to our platform, they can promote job ads on the
platform, they can hire individuals directly, they can manage the individuals
directly on the platform, they can time track, they can
set tasks, they can approve holidays, and it's all on
a subscription basis. So once, let's say, for example, you're looking for a team of,
(17:36):
I don't know, graphic designers, for example, or a team of software developers,
Once you pay them off the subscription with a click of a button, everything sorted
out for you. The pay, the tier one, tier two, national insurance,
PAYE. There's nothing else for you to do, contractual obligations.
This is all sorted through our platform. You have access to that. You can see
all that, but individuals are fully looked after. All individuals in
(17:57):
Ghana still work from office spaces. So for individuals globally who are looking to
build their teams through office spaces, we have that model still operating in
Ghana. Through all the other countries, if most individuals don't really
mind where the individuals are based, like South Africa or Nigeria, That's the country I'm
in. I forgot. My Nigerians will kill me. Nigeria. We are in
Nigeria. Nigeria. All the other countries operating is all remote.
(18:18):
So if you want to hire your stuff in the through there, they will work
remote. But the beauty of our platform is that, we
geofence the tools that individuals use so you can see where they are, you can
see what they're doing. It's really, really beautiful and,
proprietary technology our CTO has built. So it allows a lot of organisation, a
lot more comfortability with using our platform, working with individuals in Africa
(18:40):
so they can showcase their skills and their talents. One of the things we always
used to get was how can we know or trust to work
with individuals on the continent and the whole idea of the platforms to alleviate
these concerns and that kind of worry so that they we could create
opportunities through the platforms, individuals who are comfortable working with
them. And we made it as simple and as easy as possible to ensure that
(19:02):
they were able to work with these individuals with ease.
Wow. That's incredible what you've done. Like, you've you've layered on
top the fantastic people structure and the fantastic team
that you've built. And now you've you've put in the
building blocks in place to allow remotely to scale to where
it needs to go to or where it's going to, which is amazing because you
(19:24):
can hire all these people, you can manage all these people, but
it is very, very difficult. But once you have the tech in place, well, the
tech stack in place, wow, it's going to give you the now now you're gonna
soar like an eagle. I can see it now. I can see it now. Wow.
This is beautiful. It's an end to end platform like the
staff, the, you know, the candidates, the talent,
(19:46):
and even the employers themselves, isn't it? That's correct. Yes. So there's
literally nothing else for us to do. It's all been set up. It's it's it's
it's it's running now, and it's it's been a
long process. Yeah. It's not been easy, but it's been well worth it because
we spent a lot to build it, but we know that's and it's through the
testing we've been doing for years, to be honest. A lot of the individuals kind
(20:08):
of always ask why haven't we kind of scaled quicker or done things quicker.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a very patient person. I like to do things,
at the right time, at God's timing, because it's not a case of me rushing
and seeing what others are doing by going around raising tens of millions and
creating unicorns in five years and so and so forth. That's I want to create
something that will outlive me. We've seen the
(20:30):
rays of you the the rise of unicorns on the continent and most of whom
have lost their unicorn status over the last couple of years if you've been
following their journeys. And it's been unfortunate, but
that's not what we're trying to do. We want to ensure that what we build
is sustainable and long lasting, not for the sake of me creating a name or
legacy for myself, but creating something that will enable people to
(20:51):
gain employment opportunities for their kids to come. We need to create something that will
enable people to get jobs, their kids to get jobs, their kids' kids to get
jobs. And if we set the foundations right now, when I'm long gone, it'll
still be going. So it's not a case of just borrowing money and doing,
raises from a to z. And then we value that, we have
valuation, we value that. It doesn't it doesn't it doesn't benefit me or anyone else.
(21:14):
We need to ensure that we're sustainable, we're revenue generating, that revenue
generation makes sense over time with a team of individuals who are able to continue
to pivot and understand the market, understand the conditions. We were
able to come through COVID. After COVID, people in the office spaces were still running,
still thriving, still growing. Now the world has come to an AI country,
so we transition the business again to ensure that we're still ahead of the curve.
(21:34):
I love that. So no matter what happens, we have a team who understand what's
happening and are continuously innovating. And hopefully, that will
continue for the case to come. That's fantastic. How
do you make sure that you're you're you're keeping at the forefront of
technology and what's happening on the globe? I mean, you even mentioned
economically as well. I mean, if you look at Ghana right now, I mean, as
(21:56):
we speak in June 2024, I think it's a pound to
19.1 cities. Crazy. How do you stay in the
forefront of all of these different, areas to make sure
that remotely you store positions to competitively, compete or to
competitively do business, you know, as a as a business? Two
things. Number one, prayer. Because without
(22:19):
without the buying strategy and understanding it'll be difficult to really grow in and to
build things to the level we need to get to. Mhmm. Number two, hires. I've
just come to realization, listen. There's only so much I can do, and there's only
so far I can drive things. But if I'm bringing on people who are better
than me in certain areas or bringing on people who are wiser than me in
certain areas, better than me yourselves, better than me operations, better than
(22:39):
me technically, it's so key key that we bring these individuals in. And I now
have a team where I'm confident these individuals can do things at a much higher
level than I could, and I can hand things over to them and not have
to worry about it, check-in on their micromanage, do anything, leave them to
their own devices as I do, able to travel, spend time with
my kids, family, but know the business is growing in the
(23:01):
right direction. And these individuals I now know
with the way our team is set up in a way in which we
the focus we have, the mindset we have, and the hearts we have as a
team is always to ensure we're bringing on people who are better than us to
help things to move forward. It's not a case of us sitting as the auger
at the top and no one else can pass us. That's not the mental health
(23:23):
we have at all. We understand the importance of the vision we
have. And if we want to ensure that we are at our forefront and we
are continuously pushing that change, we have to ensure we're bringing people
better than us to keep moving that forward. And when you look
at the landscape, like, we mentioned before we started filming how there have been
so many podcasts who have come in and looked at what you've done and tried
(23:45):
to replicate it. And it's been beautiful in the sense that, yes, there have been
a lot of other people who have had land that's put on them, but because
of the benchmarks and excellence you initially did, people have in the standards they need
to get to. And I relate that to remotely where there's been a lot of
outsourcing or staffing recruitment platforms who have been built since the
birth remotely. And for me, it's always a beautiful thing because we've shown that this
(24:06):
the level you have to at least minimum minimum you have to be here. But
in doing so, we then create a more employment opportunities for people.
Listen, remotely cannot employ Yeah. All the people in the continent. So
it's important that there are other platforms that rise up as well
to create opportunities as well, which is what we love. We
speak to mental help other organizations actually start up in the industry. Mhmm. But
(24:28):
they have to be at a certain level because if you come in, you're not
doing something at a certain level. You only mess up opportunities for all of us
who are trying to create things for people as well. Mhmm. So that's
where we're it's so key that we do always constantly bring in better
people to constantly keep things moving so people can see the benchmark and keep rising
their business up to that level as well. Yeah. That's deep. Yeah.
(24:49):
I like what you said about allowing these other outsourcing
companies to, you know, do what they're doing because
it's only helping to create jobs. But if they should dare enter that
market, enter that space, they should at least do it to a certain benchmark and
certain standard. Otherwise, you know, wipe off of getting into it.
(25:10):
You've you've come a long way and the businesses pivots not pivoted, but it's
grown quite a bit. Pivoted a little bit in terms of AI tech. Hunt for
you. How would you describe the organization now? I mean, I think when we
first had our in first conversation, it was more like tech outsourcing
Yeah. Business in Africa. How would you define remote
ears? Over time, we're slowly being more
(25:32):
because it more and more as a as a SaaS product now, which, again, I
had in mind. Yeah. How have people defined it? Some
people still call it an outsource business. Some people consider a staff for
recruiting business. Yeah. Some people consider us as a as a HR platform. Some people
consider us as a SaaS platform. Honestly, I'm multi vobes. We we we
cross all these different industries. Yeah. But the beautiful part is where
(25:54):
if we you could see us as competitors to platforms like Fiverr or
People Power Yeah. In the way in which we're set up, you can see us
competitors to further outsourcing organizations. However, you know, kind of
structure us how much you find. We have a very unique model, though. In a
sense, our model is subscription based, which no other plat platform or organization or
industry does. So it's literally like a subscription like Netflix or
(26:14):
Spotify. You pay monthly for your staffing, because it's a very unique concept,
but we've made it work. Yeah. And in doing so, we've just seen that a
lot of organizations just see it as a no brainer to work with us because
why wouldn't you? If you're looking to scale your businesses at speed with the right
individuals who've been vetted, the right individuals who are competently capable, the right individuals
who have the right platforms who can manage them effectively and efficiently, why wouldn't you
(26:36):
work for with with remotely to grow your business to the highest level?
And we're we're working with some of the biggest organizations in the world, right now,
and supporting them and their growth. So it only makes sense that we have
individuals in our business who are supporting organizations like PlayStation and Microsoft. That's Google
and L'Oreal. So we've shown we've been
ISO certificated. We've Yeah. Gone out and done so much with
(26:59):
within the organization to show our credibility in Africa. Yeah. Picked up some
awards too, man. Congrats with that. We train. We train.
So, we've shown our credibility. We've shown what we are all about.
So, yeah, hopefully, it has come to the ground. How does it make you feel,
like, what you've built, you know, over the years?
That the job's not done. There there's more to do. There there's more to do.
(27:22):
I think,
I'm learning to become more content. My wife, my
kids Yeah. Teach me to be more content on a day to day basis. Okay.
I think naturally as a person, I'm not a content person. I I I I
can see it. I never feel as though anything's ever good enough, and I'm always
constantly beating myself up in regards to what more I can do. Yeah.
(27:46):
But right now, I think I'm going for a a a time in my life
where I'm just learning that, you know what, just be a priest of of the
current moment and not to think to think too far ahead.
So I think right now, if you ask me, I'd say that, I'm
proud, but I'm so not sure I'm so proud of myself. I'm also proud of
the team, for my family for supporting me through this whole period,
(28:07):
for what we've built, opportunity to create, and the last we've changed.
That is proud when you think about it. So yeah. Wow.
Samuel, like, you're very selfless person. What I love about you
is you've you've given most of the credit to
your family, the team that you've built, to God, you
know, to all of these external factors outside of you
(28:29):
to help you to build remotely where it is today. And I think there's no
accident that, you know, your ultimate goal is to help
create million plus jobs in Africa across the continent as your
vision. Taught me more about that vision and where that came from a bit more
about where that came from. I think you touched upon it in our first conversation.
And, you know, how you see yourself achieving this vision. I'm sure
(28:51):
now now that you've got tech, you've put SaaS platform in place that can
help you to get there even further. Talk to us more about the vision.
Yeah. So, the vision is now very tangible. It's like
the next few years, we'll we'll we'll we'll have accomplished it.
For me, it's it's beautiful.
The vision has came by, as you know, when we were when I was in
(29:14):
London in 2020 during the pandemic. My wife and I, we we love
traveling. So, going to different countries. And
when we first got married, so just taking it back for the pandemic. Sorry.
She was always like, you need to go back to Ghana. You need to go
to Ghana. And I was like, I'm Ghanaian. She's Ghanaian. I was like, no. I'm
fine. Thank you. I want to travel to other countries, see what places. And she's
(29:34):
like, why? And the truth is, I had a not so great experience when I
was younger. When I went to Ghana with my mom, hopefully not listen to this,
I went to my grandma's house. Yeah. And obviously when you're younger and you go
to grandma's house, most people can attest this kind of experience. They've
got their big houses and it's sort of like, well, thinking
by now, obviously it was her place in Westlands and there was like a lot
(29:56):
of green then, but obviously now it's more built up now. Back then,
Greenland's, we've got chickens running around and, animals. The bungalow and all
the usual setup. Bro. And it's like,
I just didn't have the greatest summer. I was there for six weeks.
Gotcha. I was 12. You're on board? Yeah. I
was 12. I was 12. Couldn't you go to where? I was like, yeah, this
(30:17):
is not, this is not it. So I was like, I don't want to go
back. But obviously that was just from a young experience. And then when I went
back home with my wife and I saw Ghana from an adult perspective, I was
like, wow, this is amazing. So we made a point to go every single
year. And when I had to go back every single year, what I found beautiful
is the development I'd see each year. Yeah. What I found really frustrating is to
help opportunities for young people. Now, it's not me sending them
(30:40):
for anybody. Me, I don't want no trouble. No government's, no people, no nothing. He
get our man of peace. But it was really frustrating that there
should be more being done for these young people. We can't
expect Africa to grow. We can't expect Ghana to grow. But then our
best talents constantly leaving the continent. But at the same time, I didn't want to
be a case where young people in Ghana are looking at me saying, oh, you've
(31:01):
left or you've been able to go to The UK. Your mom gave birth to
you there. Why are you trying to stop us from going there as well? I'm
not. I just want you to gain the opportunities that you should have
on the continent, getting paid what you should be getting paid on the continent
so you don't have to leave home. So we avoid brain drain. Our best talent
stays on the continent so Africa could grow to wherever you want it to grow
(31:21):
to. We can't expect Ghana to grow if all the best
talent is constantly leaving. So for me, it was very, very frustrating.
And also when you speak to a lot of young people, there's nothing more frustrating
than being at home. You want opportunities, want people to see you, but no one's
given you a job. You're a young guy at home. Maybe you've got
a girlfriend. You want to propose. You want to buy a house. Have you seen
(31:44):
the house prices in Accra right now? And I'm like
So inflated, man. For many of us that will go to
and it's not to say Ghanaians. There are many Ghanaians that can afford it in
Ghana. But then it's a case where for the majority of
young people in Ghana right now, it must be so
frustrating because you can see the kind of lifestyle you want. You can see the
(32:05):
kind of opportunities you want, but a lot of it is just out of reach.
And that should not be the case because there are young people around the world
who have been granted these same opportunities. And the gap for me was the
educational piece for a lot of organizations actually in the Western world where they didn't
want to grant these opportunities because of different mindsets they had towards
Africa. So for the past few years has very much been a case of education
(32:27):
breaking down these weird ideologies and thought processes so that they can
understand that you can work with people in the continent, get the same level of
experience, get the same level of work being produced for you
without having to look at Asia. And as time's gone,
we've proven that to be the case, and so, but surely, more organizations are working
with young people. That's fantastic. So young young people is the heart,
(32:50):
the maroons, the vision. I think you did say that Africa is the
youngest population. That's correct. Average age wise.
Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. And, yeah, we definitely need to be looking
after them. And it's quite interesting because,
yeah, it's very, very interesting because with, Africa,
like, we need we need, like, more jobs,
(33:13):
and the government is is not doing enough to create these opportunities. But
I feel like with you, not only are Ukraine these opportunities, I
think in terms of what they could probably earn through remotely, they can
hopefully, something where they're able to maybe work towards the lifestyle that
they want and to be able to kind of, like, maybe help their families and,
you know, be happy and be able to, you know, afford afford things that
(33:35):
they should be able to afford. Have you had any kind of
interest in stories or the testimonials maybe from employees or
even customers in terms of how Ramonas changed their lives?
Yes. Just on that point in regards to the governments, the reason I don't
always like to point blame solely on governments is solely because when you look at
most biggest employers, the biggest employers in most countries on the world, they're
(33:58):
usually not governments. They're usually private limited organizations. That's why I
always like implore more organizations, owners,
diasporins, people in Ghana to
create more businesses, to create more employment opportunities for young people.
Truthfully, that's the answer. Private limited organizations is what the answer is,
what Ghana needs. That will be the future of Ghana. There's only so
(34:20):
much any government can do. But if there are more private limited
businesses, and I'm not saying the government are doing everything they can do, I'm really
not saying that. So for people people come and bash me that I'm I'm defending
the government. Mhmm. It's more so the case where what can we
do as Ghanaians? What can we do as Africans? Whether it's Kenya,
Kenya, as I'm talking about Ghana because I'm obviously Ghanaian,
(34:40):
but now we're in Kenya, Nigeria. I should look at these organized countries.
Talk talk so whether it's Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa. Mhmm.
My goodness. What a force. Yeah. Rwanda,
which run the random government is doing a fantastic job, actually.
And Egypt is another way to speak to young people in Egypt.
(35:01):
There's so much more that can be done by individuals in the countries and and
and to be fair, we're seeing that with the data points you're interviewing or
the people that you're seeing in different countries who are creating organizations
and creating change that needs to be seen. So it's being done. But
back to your question in regards to the change of lives of individuals in the
business and of organizations, I mean, yeah, because just
(35:24):
looking at it from a business perspective, you have business owners
who potentially couldn't afford to hire organizations in The UK and The US.
So a lot of their businesses just were just crumbling and they just were stressed
or struggling. They're working with individuals in Asia,
not that the work that's been conducted isn't great but they couldn't like
(35:44):
vibe with them culturally, culturally, they didn't really get what they were
building, they didn't really relate to them. So when some
of them started using remotely, it was just revolutionary for them
because they were like, I finally have a staff member or staff
members who get what I'm building. We can talk.
Time zones are the same. Culturally, we get it. Like
(36:07):
whether you're The UK is part of the Commonwealth. There's a huge
colonial past in Ghana. So a lot of young people in Ghana
if you're talking to people in UK, they get it. People in America, they
get it. So that Western culture is somewhat
there in Ghana. So when they're working with these organizations, they get it. They
can communicate with they can understand them. Lot
(36:29):
of business owners to grow their businesses in a sustainable way, cost
effective way, be again really top quality individuals to work
in our businesses. And then from a staffing perspective, there are many
testimonies with individuals who are unemployed for one, two, three years after
graduating, individuals who had huge
financial family burdens on them, whether expected to be the breadwinners, but
(36:51):
they just couldn't get a job. And then you see how remote is coming, not
just from a monetary perspective, but from a networking perspective,
and individuals who have gained more, better, or higher
employment opportunities off the back of it, individuals who huge doors have opened
to individuals who, again, though we're trying to avoid it, but I've
been able to gain opportunities to leave the country and hopefully
(37:15):
come back to the country to create more opportunities. And,
again, whether whether people's aims and dreams are, we always encourage it
and and and encourage and support them.
So we've seen so many testimonials and telling testimonies through individuals'
lives, businesses and individuals. And it's beautiful because then you're seeing the power of
an idea that's been transformed into reality that's having a direct
(37:37):
impact in people's lives. And for me, it's just it's been a beautiful journey.
Incredible. Wow. I mean, just to see everything that's that you've
created as a result of remotely is really, really incredible to see.
Absolutely incredible. Samuel, this has been a fantastic
conversation. Yeah. What does what does the future
look like in terms of remotely? I know you've talked about you're
(37:59):
gonna look look to raise again. You know, you've you've raised
you've raised some funding from Jeremy Frimpong, you know, buying the
Ferguson winner. Congratulations to him and to yourself. Massive congrats to
him. Yes. That was a master show. How did that come about, really quickly? So,
funnily enough, his team actually reached out to us. Oh. Yeah. So, we
did I think it was a Forbes interview we did or,
(38:21):
Cambridge interview that we did. And then soon after that, I think their team had
been following us for a while. Jeffrey Mhmm. His big
brother actually messaged me, and I hadn't seen a message. So
I'm terrible on LinkedIn. So I've actually now given I don't wanna say that,
but I'm I'm terrible on LinkedIn. That's okay to say. No. No. So so I've
actually given my assistant access to it. I just can try and respond to messages
(38:42):
and reach out to people because I miss a lot on LinkedIn. Yeah. I'm not
good at social media in general. That's okay. Yeah. I'm sorry,
ma'am. I'm sorry for for people to care. I don't air people. I'm sorry. I'm
I'm just not a social media person. No. That's okay. Because you're you're you're you're
okay to admit that because there's things that you are good at that you wanna
focus on. Yeah. That's true. I appreciate that,
(39:02):
man. I appreciate that. And I appreciate the good words making me feel very good,
man. But I'm a slow good social media person. So he messaged and I didn't
see it for time. So, yeah, I think he then reached out to Simon. Simon
was like, Simon, I have not seen this message from Jeffrey. I'm like, bro, I
see that. And so then he set up, began the conversations. Then we jumped on
to call. It was a very quick and simple process. More of, okay, so listen.
We love what we're doing. We wanna be a part of the journey. We wanna
(39:25):
be a pathway building. It was no, like, long negotiating Yeah. Back
and forth terms. This is what we're gonna do. This is what we invest.
Are you cool? And for me, it's beautiful because it's
encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs who are out there who are building their businesses
and they feel that no one's seen them, no one's recognized what they're building, what
they're doing, and they feel that it's long. And the
(39:46):
truth is faith about works is dead. If you
have that thing in your heart, in your spirit that I need to do this
thing, I need to build it, step out in faith and do it. And
in you stepping out and doing it, God will meet you where it is you
are. For those who aren't good for you, not good for you, but regardless of
you are where you are. When you step out and do something, people
(40:06):
will see what you're doing. And if they see what you're doing at the level
of which you want to do it at with excellence, they want to partner with
you on that because they're going to want to be a part of that journey.
So there have been many times remotely our journey has not been easy at all.
There have been highs, huge highs and huge lows,
but regardless of what's happened, we've carried on going And in us
(40:27):
just continuing, people have seen what we're doing. And I've just reached
out and been like, listen. Like, we love what you stand for. We love what
you're doing. We just wanna invest. We wanna partner with.
We wanna be a part of the journey. And that's how all our investors have
come, by the way, literally just through like reaching out to us not us
and all our investors so far that should have been angels as well who have
(40:47):
come back listen here's 50, here's 100, here's two
fifty, invest in the business, grow the business, we're like wow
Beautiful. None of them we've required a pitch deck for.
We've not any all our investors, not one pitch deck could be sent out to
any of them. It's just been literally two
conversations at max. Terms sent out, signed,
(41:09):
money transferred, and it's been so beautiful. Whereas
in the other conversations when we've reached out, when we've gone through long and laborious
conversations, back and forth, It's not quite
happened. So if anything, I hope that serves as encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs.
Just keep going. Yeah. And once the right individuals see what you're
doing, they'll reach out to you and ensure that your dreams just go to another
(41:31):
level. Fantastic. And this is such a beautiful way
of raising money because, you know, we all know
about pitch decks and demo day and, you know, pitching day and all these kind
of things. But why have to go through all those hoops when you
just document what you're doing, you know, build in public? That's
why that's why I hear. Build in public and then someone will come knocking, hey.
(41:53):
We wanna support you. I think it's much easier and simpler that way than than
you agree. For a lot of
black entrepreneurs listening to this, they will understand the
frustrations or reasons of black business owner. And it's sad
because I'm a very chilled person. I'm not too
fussed. If I was to have taken all the notes to heart and I've been
(42:14):
involved in sales. Some of the notes that I've received personally have
been awful. Awful. And luckily, I I
don't really take things to heart. So no matter how you try to crush my
spirit through the wickedness you try to do to me, I'm not I'm never too
fussed because at the end of the day, as my my sub my twin brother
always say, it is what it is.
(42:37):
I'm never too fast and individuals have literally gone out of their way. If I
tell you some of the things some some VCs have done to us, like some
VCs take us through the whole process, deliberately giving term sheets to us, knowing
they would never fully intend to invest, to pull away last minute. Some investors have
just, like, given the most awful responses to us by
emails and one day, one day, God willing, if I ever get to document the
(43:00):
journey, the emails don't disappear. It's like some people
have messaged me some of the most awful messages on LinkedIn. We've done, like,
email outreach campaigns throughout my through my platform and for my LinkedIn, sorry, and
they've said things like, but why? And I'm sure other
black entrepreneurs have been through the same things where they just had the most crushing
nose, but there's no need for that. So, you're right.
(43:21):
When you look at other entrepreneurs from other demographics or backgrounds,
they don't have to go through the same hoops that we need to raise. And
what's sad is that I wrote an article a few years ago in The Guardian
talking about how there needs to be more black VCs, small black businesses, but then
what's sad is that a black VCs are the ones you get some of the
harshest nose from. And it's like, we're
(43:43):
creating this ecosystem but then Black VCs are actually acting
like their counterparts and trying to use the same measuring sticks
as they would for other white owned organisations but you can't because we
all know the hoops and hurdles that black organisations are going through are so different
to them. So you need to use different metrics. You need to use different, measuring
tools. So, yeah, I I I
(44:06):
just hope and pray that a lot of the black founders who are
going through are going through the same journey that I've gone through and I'm going
through. Just keep pushing and keep that determination, that zeal knowing that
other people will see them where they are and what they're going through. And the
truth is like you mentioned, a lot of individuals who are looking to invest in
you will invest in you, which they do for our organisation. You're investing in a
(44:27):
person. You can't invest in a pitch deck. If you invest in an idea
things change. No one saw COVID happening. So all the people invested in
those pitch decks during that period, I'm sure many of them crumbled. But
if you invest in a person, ideas can change, the person can
pivot, the tenacity, the zeal, the will
to succeed. That's one thing you can never take away from me. So
(44:49):
irrespective of what happens in the environment, remote will always
succeed was myself, my team will never allow to fail and if you're investing in
that, your investment will grow. If you're investing in my
idea, an idea alone, I'm not too sure about that big man.
So, it's important that individuals understand that and they just,
start to invest more in people because there are some great people on the continent.
(45:11):
There are some great black entrepreneurs around the world who want to get overlooked
because of their skin color and an idea
Rather than them looking past and looking at their heart, their attention, the same
measurements that they use for a lot of white entrepreneurs. They look at
these individuals and they're like, oh, you're great. You're tenacious. You're you're amazing. We know
you can take this to another level. Why don't you use that same metric for
(45:32):
a lot of black entrepreneurs? And if you if we did and we saw more
investment into black black entrepreneurs, we'll see so many more black
entrepreneurs. Right? And they're doing amazing things. So, hopefully, over the next
few years, we see that. Hopefully, we see change, and we're not gonna get enemies
of our progress. Hopefully, that is the case. But right now, we definitely
are. So so yeah. I I hope so too. What a fantastic way to to
(45:54):
end the conversation. Sam, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you. Do you have any
announcements? Anything you would like to share to close out?
Keep an eye on us. Keep an eye on growth. If you're an individual looking
for employment opportunities now in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya,
Egypt, Rwanda, Ghana, apply
online now. I've gone on a website now. You'll see, you can join our
(46:16):
you can join our talent pool right now. If you're looking for staff in these
different regions, you can now hire from all these different regions on the platform. You
go online, you'll see different countries you can select from. Go with these selections. I'm
sure AJ will put a code somewhere so that every time you do now
Yeah. He now gets a kickback. So if you're gonna support Adrian's ministry.
Doing the Lord's work as they say. They say. How are you, sir?
(46:40):
If you're gonna support Adrian, it's an amazing way to do so. So, yeah, it's
important that platforms like this also get the support and and the kickback they require
as well. So, yeah, please, if if you're looking for
opportunities, please do apply. And as we create more opportunities, we create
more roles and jobs. Hopefully, more and more people can get employment, support their
families, and do amazing things across the continent. Appreciate, man. Are we gonna see
(47:01):
a Samuel Brooksworth beard line? Are we gonna see that? What? Be be be be
the only line. Are we gonna see?
Listen. Shut, man. I thank you very much for
appreciate that. Thank you. Alright. Fantastic. Fantastic, man.
So, yeah, guys. We'll have the, we'll have a code where, you know, you'll be
able to kind of, like, gain access to remote these services and, you know,
(47:24):
speak to someone in the team. Once again, guys, today's show notes, you can head
over to thesoundofaccra/samuelb. That's
samuelb, for all of today's
show notes, key references, links, nuggets from today's episode.
And, yeah. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment if you're watching on
YouTube. Let us know what you think of today's episodes. Leave a review of you
(47:45):
who've listened to the podcast platforms. And before we head out, Samuel, where can
everyone find Remoteli and yourself? Remotelicom. So that's
remoteli.com
Myself, just Samuel Broxworth on LinkedIn, Instagram.
Not that I use push media much, but if you wanna see anything fast,
(48:05):
then you can see myself there. Samuel Brooksworth on all social platform sand just remotelicom
for any opportunities and to look for stuff in.
Fantastic. Beautiful. And I think we saw, you sponsored your your
when your daughter's teens. Right? Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Not a problem. Yes. We're
supporting my daughter's, football team. Her football team, is not
sponsored by remotely. And every team she moves to moving forward, apart from when she
(48:28):
gets signed by Arsenal, I'm not too sure about it. Maybe Arsenal's sponsor we can
get to when she gets to the to to to the senior team, but, every
team she gets to, we would definitely sponsor and support so that her journey is
well documented and and followed as well. Wow. Definitely amazing. Definitely
amazing what you're doing with that. Wow. Alright, guys. There you have
it. See you in the next one. Thank you. Bye bye.
(48:52):
Hey. That'd be fun. Yeah.
Yeah. They'll just pretty much copy and paste what you're doing. Yeah. That's
like, guys, just do your own. That's
that's the if you if you focus on if you focus on your see what
your unfair advantage is, what you're good at, naturally, you'll be your
own competitive advantage. You don't have to copy anyone. That'd be
Okay. Cool. Let's, let's get going. Yeah. I can hear you.
(00:22):
Rolling. Yeah? Oh, perfect. Cool. I hope you were rolling.
Captured the first part. Are we? Not trying to get not
trying to get canceled out here. Okay. Cool, man. Cool.
I like I didn't I didn't know. I didn't realize they had that, man. That's
good, though, because I'm like, that's because yeah. It was like, I'm about to say,
are we good? I thought I'd have to go. I could Yeah.
(00:48):
Oh, yeah. The the feedback. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. But but you you let me
know that you're up on the road now. Yeah. Like, if you have an issue,
I just have a look over here and signal to me. Yeah. Okay. Cool. That's
fine. Thank you. Yeah. So is it rolling now? Yeah? Yes. It's rolling. So okay.
Cool. As soon as you get back in, I'll stop. Okay.
Cool. Alright. Great. Let's go. Let's get it.
(01:10):
Hey, everyone. My name is Adrian Daniels. Welcome to the Sound of the Crowd
podcast. You good? I'm good. No. It's all good. It's good.
Okay. Running running again. Alright.
Cool. Hey there, everyone. No.
This one. Yeah? This one. Okay. Cool. And is it these two? Yeah? This
one and this one. Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Got you. Got you. Yeah. Because that that's
(01:33):
all. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool.
Alright. Hey there, everyone. Welcome to the Sound of
Accra Podcast. I go by the name of Adrian Daniels. If this is your first
time listening, this is the show where we speak of top Ghanaian founders, entrepreneurs,
and creators worldwide with the aim of leaving you behind the meaningful takeaways that
you can apply in your life, business, and career. Just some housekeeping, guys. For
(01:55):
today's show notes, I'd like you to head over to the
sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's the
sanmacabre.com/samuelb. That's for all of
today's references, links, nuggets, and wisdom notes from today's
session. If you're watching on YouTube, please hit like, leave us a comment, and let
us know what you think of today's episode. Spotify, Apple Podcast listeners,
etcetera, five star views very much appreciated. Today,
(02:19):
is gonna be a special episode. Having a lovely catch up with
mister Samuel Brooksworth, remotely. You already know what
what you may have heard them with him already, especially from season three.
Samuel's gonna tell you more about them if you don't. But, yeah, we're
gonna continue our conversation with Samuel. It's been quite
a while. Samuel, thanks for coming on the show. It's it's thanks for coming back
(02:41):
on the show. A pleasure. A pleasure as always. A pleasure as always. Yeah. New
new year, new setting, new new city. We recorded in,
I think, almost three years ago in Accra. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Twenty twenty one,
I think. Yeah. I think it was. Or was it early twenty twenty two? I
think it's one of those. What one or the other. Yeah. And now it's,
June 2024 as we speak. We're in London doing this recording.
(03:03):
Remotely is gone to leaps and bounds and is
doing amazing, amazing things. It's been beautiful to see the growth.
Talk to me, brother. How are you doing? I'm good, man. I'm good. New year,
new child. Congratulations.
Team's getting bigger. Team is getting bigger. We we have a whole five sats team
now, so Yeah. Including me and the missus. Five sats
(03:25):
are three kids now. So it's been a beautiful journey. A lot of
sleepless nights along with the business. Yeah. Of course. Life is life,
and so I cannot complain. Everything's been good. Yeah. Come to the territory
of being a CEO of a company like yours, isn't it? Allow me. Allow me.
We're trying. We're trying. Yeah. We're growing. It's been good. It's been
good. I appreciate it, man. We give glory to God. And, you know, I appreciate
(03:46):
you're really busy. So thank you for taking some time out to come back on
the show and just to give us an update in terms of what you guys
have been up to. Yeah. Speaking of five a side and your kids and your
family, I remember you posting a lovely photo of you on
LinkedIn. I think you and one I think one of your kids, you're looking out
the window. And, I think you're looking out towards the beach or something,
and you're talking about how you've brought your family over to Ghana just
(04:08):
to kind of spend some time with you out there. Yes. This is something
else we're gonna talk about later on, but I think it's been natural naturally organic
just to bring it here. Mhmm. How's it been, you know,
balancing life in UK and Africa and, you know, balance of work
and your family? How's that been for you? You know what? It's it's been beautiful.
It's been calm. It's been
(04:30):
structured. I think that moment you're speaking about with the kids and I were looking
out the window in my office was a whole full circle moment
where my parents came to The UK in the seventies, eighties,
and they came here to create more opportunities for themselves and for
us. They always planned to go out to Ghana. Like most
Ghanaian parents never quite seemed to go back and ended up
(04:52):
staying here. So, them creating such a beautiful
foundation for us here. I remember telling my mom, like I said, two times ago
of going back to Ghana, she was like, why? You you
built and set up everything in The UK. Why do you want to go back?
And, having spoken to about a vision, what we wanted to do,
obviously, very supportive and having a moment where I could take my kids
(05:14):
to Ghana and then see what we've built in Ghana. It
was just a beautiful moment and, yeah,
it's something that'll stay with them for the rest of their lives, having that moment
of stepping into the office for the first time and seeing what daddy's daddy's
constantly travelling, finally seeing where all the hard work is is going
towards. So, yeah, it was a beautiful moment and balancing it's been it's it's been
(05:35):
nice. It's good having a very supportive wife, having a very supportive
good support system. So everyone's understands
the the the level of time and effort that goes into doing what we're doing.
So it's been good. That's beautiful to see. And you have a beautiful family as
well. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Congrats on what you're doing and, you know, the
family's growing as well, which is beautiful. Thank you. A question I wanna ask on
(05:55):
the back of that, actually, this is something I asked one of my guests the
other day. Is this remotely, is this
something that you're looking to hand over to your kids in the future potentially or
maybe other maybe using it it could also be used as a wealth vehicle to
build up a form of wealth, then you can leave that behind for them. That
is a very very good question, Adrian Adrian.
(06:18):
It's something I have not thought about in too much depth. I think it's
important to see how they grow in their interest and their likes. I don't want
to force them in something. However, I have kind of
steered them in certain directions to ensure that they do have
that structured plan. And
in doing so, we've seen some of our kids already from a young age flourish
(06:40):
in certain areas. So, for example, our oldest daughter is a very very
creative mind and she loves writing and started writing her first book and
she's eight. And then our second daughter who's four is
a phenomenal footballer. We didn't actually know she was so good at football. It was
her nurse for teacher who was saying that she's running rings around the boys at
playtime. Well, I know she's not. Wow. So I remember taking her to a football
(07:00):
session on a Saturday. We're like, you just go run around and see what you
can do. Remember the moment the ball touched her left foot. My
goodness. My goodness. Not sure. What we I saw
money signs. I saw like Chelsea, come and get me. It
was Chelsea. Hey. Listen. Arsenal,
come and get us signed up. But I
(07:21):
she's like, honestly, Adrian, she's so good at football. And it's
beautiful just seeing her gifting, being cultivated and us taking her different
sessions. Her being at four, she's now playing with under eight girls. And then
our, obviously, last born boy, it's difficult to see what he's gonna do right now.
He's only 10 old. But, it would be nice if we had
kids who, after a while, stepped into the businesses we set up for them and
(07:43):
continued that. But even if they wanted to go down their own paths, they're gonna
be very well supported regardless. So, we'll see how time
how how how how that time goes. Yeah. Is it that's a that's a great
response. It's an interesting one because you see, like, families out there, for example, like
the Beckhams, like, you know, everyone probably for one of David Beckham's sons
are gonna, like, blow up in football. I think maybe Brooklyn or whatever or Romeo,
(08:04):
one of them. I think they played football, but not I think maybe Atletico Madrid's
b team or Inter Miami's b team or something like that. I think that's the
heights that they reached, but it never, you know, replicate
exactly what Beckham did or maybe Ronaldo Junior. I mean,
he seems to be going that direction. So you can't really
force, you know, a child to go in a certain direction or to follow in
(08:25):
your footsteps. You just have to see what they're naturally good at or what they're
naturally creative at doing. So I like what you're doing. You're just seeing what, you
know, what talents or skills they naturally have and just push them in that direction.
That's wonderful to see. Don't get me wrong. I do think that there is an
importance into ensuring that the family's stability is there
generationally. Mhmm. And it's very important that you do steer them in certain
(08:47):
directions. Leave them to be too free. I do feel
it is, can actually hinder them in the long term because as a young child
you never really know what you want to do and when you have that kind
of direction, I think growing up I was quite fortunate I just kept trying new
things and eventually something stuck. But when you do look at other households
where they've been able to continue generational wealth as we're speaking about their kids
(09:08):
are pushing certain directions and it is key that you do direct them from a
young age to help earn spots,
identify, and cultivate certain giftings. Yeah. And, someone like
Olivia, a creative as she is, I do see her as someone who can we
can trust at such a young age to to be able to be financially responsible,
to handle the wealth that will transfer over to her, to look after her siblings.
(09:30):
Charlotte as, boisterous and as crazy as she can
be, she's she's extremely tenacious and we know that
she's someone who will push boundaries and take things to other levels. And
Theodore, our last born, he's well, Samuel Theodore, obviously. I had to do I
had to do near him. But Samuel Theodore, he's a, even at
such a young age, is a very calm and composed child.
(09:52):
So, you know, he's the kind of individual who is able to handle pressures and
we're able to delegate and and negotiate and just
understand things. So us seeing these things, we just cultivate the giftings that we see
in them and push them to ensure that way if they do, whether it's for
them, it helps to push the family's name legacy and them to
new levels so that they can create that for their children Yeah. For their children,
their children, that there's a structure that just continues for generations. Wow. That's
(10:16):
beautiful. That's a really, really beautiful statement you just made.
Beautiful, names you've given to your kids, by the way, as well. Thank you. I
think you named one of them after yourself. Is that great? I I I I
I had to start to slip on it. So he
his name is actually Samuel, Theodore, Leonard, but I we in house
recording Theo, because it's difficult when you got two Samuels.
(10:36):
My dad will call Samuel as well. So, even let's come into the house. It's
a bit difficult at times. He'll be open my letters by accident.
Bro. Bro. You you asked me a letter. So hopefully that won't happen with him.
But, yeah, it's it's it's nice having another little Samu run around. It's wonderful.
Yeah. So wonderful to hear. All right. So we've talked about building family and
how you're doing with family. Let's talk about building the teams. I think it's a
(10:59):
great segue. So remotely, since we last spoke, of course,
it's growing leaps and bounds since our last conversation. Talk us
through, like, where it is now. I mean, you don't have to give the exact
numbers in terms of team size. But talk us through, like, maybe
the key highs that you feel like you've made or key or how you've restructured
the business since then to get for it to get to where it is now
(11:19):
and, you know, and the team? Yeah.
Obviously, as you've seen, the the the growth has been
exponential. The team's grown massively. Mhmm. And it's all it's
all it's number one. Obviously, I I always say this. I can I can go
to the glory? Amen. Because a lot a lot of what's happened has generally not
been by my strength for my intellect because the way things have gone up and
(11:40):
the way things have continued to expand, especially with how the economy is in
Ghana, across Africa, in The UK. To see continuous
growth in what we have, built is beautiful. When you
see other organizations of us of similar to us in some
industries haven't done as well and are crumbling to see us gaining
investors and see individual interested businesses still with us,
(12:03):
businesses expanding through us. It's been a beautiful journey. But that's
testament to the team we have, and we have a team who stuck with us
from the very beginning. No matter what's happened, if it's turmoil, adversity,
they stuck with the business and they've helped the business to grow. And then along
with the key hires, as you mentioned, we've brought on a CTO, called Liam,
who's helped to really build our technical technological platform. Yeah.
(12:24):
We first started the business. The whole aim was to create a SaaS product. But,
so that was, that was the goal from the jump from the jump was to
create a SaaS product. But then as you can imagine, I wanted to create SaaS
products. I went out looking for funding millions of pounds of people like
young brother-in-law. We have no trust
or confidence that you can build what you're saying. You can build no experience, which
(12:45):
is understandable. So rather than me just constantly going out and looking for more,
more money, I said, do you know what? Let me actually build a people focused
business first, hire the people, build up the structures.
And then once I've done that, prove the revenue generation,
prove the concept, prove the concept of working in Africa. Now I can
build my SaaS product on top. And now having done that, it's a lot easier
(13:08):
now we're going to speak to investors and looking to close deals in the coming
months. Yeah. Hopefully, by the time the podcast is out, we should hear someone else's
by then. Oh, wow. Okay. So you're raising a bit more? That's correct. Yeah. So
in in us doing, so we've proven the model now.
So it's a lot easier happening in discussions. It's a lot easier to show,
what we've built through the revenue we've generated. And
(13:33):
Liam's been a key part of that. We've just hired actually as we're as
we're yesterday. Our COO now who is a
woman in Africa. And it's amazing having her onboard. She got vast
experience on the continent, building international brands, bringing them to Ghana,
building them in Ghana and across different regions in Africa. Now she'll
be joining our team to help grow the brand and it was so key for
(13:55):
us that we got a woman and someone in Africa to do so because
one thing I've been very confident about is that we do have talent at home
and we're trying to avoid brain drain to stop the best talent from leaving the
continent. She was actually looking to go to America and then I spoke
to her and she's gonna see this and I'm grateful
listen. Do not go to America. The opportunities you want are on this continent. She
(14:18):
said, no. She wants to go. She's got two ks. She wants to go there.
And we had a conversation to be fair to her to be fair to her.
She saw the vision that she was more than eager to want to join and
wanna be a part of it. And it was testament to her was the fact
that she stayed, and she stayed, and she's now become our chief operating officer. And
she's now helping to grow the business across the new regions we've
recently expanded into, which are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya.
(14:43):
We talked about Rwanda in the last episode. Yes. Rwanda is already a part of
Rwanda and gunnery there. So South Africa, Kenya,
Senegal, Egypt. Wow. That's the one,
we've now expanded into. So now seeing that growth, finding someone on the
ground who has that experience to really help us grow operations across the
continent and globally. So, it's honestly just been a
(15:04):
beautiful journey because we have a team who have the experience and the passion to
help drive the business forward. That's brilliant. It's just amazing. I think
for me just to speak to guests and have, you know,
consecutive conversations with them and just to see where they've where they've gone to since
the previous conversation. You know, I think we're talking about where this podcast has grown
since we last spoke. Exactly. Yeah. Which is great. But to see what you're doing
(15:26):
is just amazing. Like, we talked about certain countries that you're going to go
into in in the last conversation. Just to hear you actually do that a lot
more is incredible. No. Don't don't don't don't jump off that so quickly. What
you've done is you bro, like, at the end of the day, what you have
to realize is that you've created platforms for organizations like ours. Yeah. So it's
beautiful that we've grown, but if not for the support of podcasts and platforms
(15:47):
like yours. My mom used to always say to me, you could be the greatest
preacher in the world. We've done have a platform. Nobody heard your
message. So platforms create and we've seen a lot of platforms
being created for organisations, business people in the Western
world based beautiful platforms like yours can create that stepping
stone for organizations based in Africa. But if not for that, how would
(16:08):
people hear of us? So True. Kudos to you and and what you're doing, man.
True. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate appreciate it. Wow.
So talk about talk talk to us about the talk to me about the,
the AI plat the AI powered platform that you built on top of it. What
does that look like? How does that look like? So the a well, what the
platform now does is, what we were aiming to do was to try and create
(16:29):
a platform that really helped us to create the biggest talent
pool in Africa. Now initially, when we're doing that, we're building the we're
building the platform, but it was very people centred like I've initially mentioned.
But speaking to thousands of people every month is difficult.
Managing thousands of people every month is difficult training thousands of
people every month. It's difficult managing and seeing where people are in regards to
(16:52):
their job opportunities, whether they are looking for jobs. Manually, it's
very difficult, and our people team were stretched to
maximum capacity. So now we've built a platform. It helps alleviate
all that stress where individuals can come onto the platform now. They can
sign themselves up. They can get trained through the tools. If there's any
competence or areas that they're lacking in, tool can upscale them, make sure that they're
(17:14):
ready for the clients to be able to hire them.
Once clients do come to our platform, they can promote job ads on the
platform, they can hire individuals directly, they can manage the individuals
directly on the platform, they can time track, they can
set tasks, they can approve holidays, and it's all on
a subscription basis. So once, let's say, for example, you're looking for a team of,
(17:36):
I don't know, graphic designers, for example, or a team of software developers,
Once you pay them off the subscription with a click of a button, everything sorted
out for you. The pay, the tier one, tier two, national insurance,
PAYE. There's nothing else for you to do, contractual obligations.
This is all sorted through our platform. You have access to that. You can see
all that, but individuals are fully looked after. All individuals in
(17:57):
Ghana still work from office spaces. So for individuals globally who are looking to
build their teams through office spaces, we have that model still operating in
Ghana. Through all the other countries, if most individuals don't really
mind where the individuals are based, like South Africa or Nigeria, That's the country I'm
in. I forgot. My Nigerians will kill me. Nigeria. We are in
Nigeria. Nigeria. All the other countries operating is all remote.
(18:18):
So if you want to hire your stuff in the through there, they will work
remote. But the beauty of our platform is that, we
geofence the tools that individuals use so you can see where they are, you can
see what they're doing. It's really, really beautiful and,
proprietary technology our CTO has built. So it allows a lot of organisation, a
lot more comfortability with using our platform, working with individuals in Africa
(18:40):
so they can showcase their skills and their talents. One of the things we always
used to get was how can we know or trust to work
with individuals on the continent and the whole idea of the platforms to alleviate
these concerns and that kind of worry so that they we could create
opportunities through the platforms, individuals who are comfortable working with
them. And we made it as simple and as easy as possible to ensure that
(19:02):
they were able to work with these individuals with ease.
Wow. That's incredible what you've done. Like, you've you've layered on
top the fantastic people structure and the fantastic team
that you've built. And now you've you've put in the
building blocks in place to allow remotely to scale to where
it needs to go to or where it's going to, which is amazing because you
(19:24):
can hire all these people, you can manage all these people, but
it is very, very difficult. But once you have the tech in place, well, the
tech stack in place, wow, it's going to give you the now now you're gonna
soar like an eagle. I can see it now. I can see it now. Wow.
This is beautiful. It's an end to end platform like the
staff, the, you know, the candidates, the talent,
(19:46):
and even the employers themselves, isn't it? That's correct. Yes. So there's
literally nothing else for us to do. It's all been set up. It's it's it's
it's it's running now, and it's it's been a
long process. Yeah. It's not been easy, but it's been well worth it because
we spent a lot to build it, but we know that's and it's through the
testing we've been doing for years, to be honest. A lot of the individuals kind
(20:08):
of always ask why haven't we kind of scaled quicker or done things quicker.
Anyone who knows me knows I'm a very patient person. I like to do things,
at the right time, at God's timing, because it's not a case of me rushing
and seeing what others are doing by going around raising tens of millions and
creating unicorns in five years and so and so forth. That's I want to create
something that will outlive me. We've seen the
(20:30):
rays of you the the rise of unicorns on the continent and most of whom
have lost their unicorn status over the last couple of years if you've been
following their journeys. And it's been unfortunate, but
that's not what we're trying to do. We want to ensure that what we build
is sustainable and long lasting, not for the sake of me creating a name or
legacy for myself, but creating something that will enable people to
(20:51):
gain employment opportunities for their kids to come. We need to create something that will
enable people to get jobs, their kids to get jobs, their kids' kids to get
jobs. And if we set the foundations right now, when I'm long gone, it'll
still be going. So it's not a case of just borrowing money and doing,
raises from a to z. And then we value that, we have
valuation, we value that. It doesn't it doesn't it doesn't benefit me or anyone else.
(21:14):
We need to ensure that we're sustainable, we're revenue generating, that revenue
generation makes sense over time with a team of individuals who are able to continue
to pivot and understand the market, understand the conditions. We were
able to come through COVID. After COVID, people in the office spaces were still running,
still thriving, still growing. Now the world has come to an AI country,
so we transition the business again to ensure that we're still ahead of the curve.
(21:34):
I love that. So no matter what happens, we have a team who understand what's
happening and are continuously innovating. And hopefully, that will
continue for the case to come. That's fantastic. How
do you make sure that you're you're you're keeping at the forefront of
technology and what's happening on the globe? I mean, you even mentioned
economically as well. I mean, if you look at Ghana right now, I mean, as
(21:56):
we speak in June 2024, I think it's a pound to
19.1 cities. Crazy. How do you stay in the
forefront of all of these different, areas to make sure
that remotely you store positions to competitively, compete or to
competitively do business, you know, as a as a business? Two
things. Number one, prayer. Because without
(22:19):
without the buying strategy and understanding it'll be difficult to really grow in and to
build things to the level we need to get to. Mhmm. Number two, hires. I've
just come to realization, listen. There's only so much I can do, and there's only
so far I can drive things. But if I'm bringing on people who are better
than me in certain areas or bringing on people who are wiser than me in
certain areas, better than me yourselves, better than me operations, better than
(22:39):
me technically, it's so key key that we bring these individuals in. And I now
have a team where I'm confident these individuals can do things at a much higher
level than I could, and I can hand things over to them and not have
to worry about it, check-in on their micromanage, do anything, leave them to
their own devices as I do, able to travel, spend time with
my kids, family, but know the business is growing in the
(23:01):
right direction. And these individuals I now know
with the way our team is set up in a way in which we
the focus we have, the mindset we have, and the hearts we have as a
team is always to ensure we're bringing on people who are better than us to
help things to move forward. It's not a case of us sitting as the auger
at the top and no one else can pass us. That's not the mental health
(23:23):
we have at all. We understand the importance of the vision we
have. And if we want to ensure that we are at our forefront and we
are continuously pushing that change, we have to ensure we're bringing people
better than us to keep moving that forward. And when you look
at the landscape, like, we mentioned before we started filming how there have been
so many podcasts who have come in and looked at what you've done and tried
(23:45):
to replicate it. And it's been beautiful in the sense that, yes, there have been
a lot of other people who have had land that's put on them, but because
of the benchmarks and excellence you initially did, people have in the standards they need
to get to. And I relate that to remotely where there's been a lot of
outsourcing or staffing recruitment platforms who have been built since the
birth remotely. And for me, it's always a beautiful thing because we've shown that this
(24:06):
the level you have to at least minimum minimum you have to be here. But
in doing so, we then create a more employment opportunities for people.
Listen, remotely cannot employ Yeah. All the people in the continent. So
it's important that there are other platforms that rise up as well
to create opportunities as well, which is what we love. We
speak to mental help other organizations actually start up in the industry. Mhmm. But
(24:28):
they have to be at a certain level because if you come in, you're not
doing something at a certain level. You only mess up opportunities for all of us
who are trying to create things for people as well. Mhmm. So that's
where we're it's so key that we do always constantly bring in better
people to constantly keep things moving so people can see the benchmark and keep rising
their business up to that level as well. Yeah. That's deep. Yeah.
(24:49):
I like what you said about allowing these other outsourcing
companies to, you know, do what they're doing because
it's only helping to create jobs. But if they should dare enter that
market, enter that space, they should at least do it to a certain benchmark and
certain standard. Otherwise, you know, wipe off of getting into it.
(25:10):
You've you've come a long way and the businesses pivots not pivoted, but it's
grown quite a bit. Pivoted a little bit in terms of AI tech. Hunt for
you. How would you describe the organization now? I mean, I think when we
first had our in first conversation, it was more like tech outsourcing
Yeah. Business in Africa. How would you define remote
ears? Over time, we're slowly being more
(25:32):
because it more and more as a as a SaaS product now, which, again, I
had in mind. Yeah. How have people defined it? Some
people still call it an outsource business. Some people consider a staff for
recruiting business. Yeah. Some people consider us as a as a HR platform. Some people
consider us as a SaaS platform. Honestly, I'm multi vobes. We we we
cross all these different industries. Yeah. But the beautiful part is where
(25:54):
if we you could see us as competitors to platforms like Fiverr or
People Power Yeah. In the way in which we're set up, you can see us
competitors to further outsourcing organizations. However, you know, kind of
structure us how much you find. We have a very unique model, though. In a
sense, our model is subscription based, which no other plat platform or organization or
industry does. So it's literally like a subscription like Netflix or
(26:14):
Spotify. You pay monthly for your staffing, because it's a very unique concept,
but we've made it work. Yeah. And in doing so, we've just seen that a
lot of organizations just see it as a no brainer to work with us because
why wouldn't you? If you're looking to scale your businesses at speed with the right
individuals who've been vetted, the right individuals who are competently capable, the right individuals
who have the right platforms who can manage them effectively and efficiently, why wouldn't you
(26:36):
work for with with remotely to grow your business to the highest level?
And we're we're working with some of the biggest organizations in the world, right now,
and supporting them and their growth. So it only makes sense that we have
individuals in our business who are supporting organizations like PlayStation and Microsoft. That's Google
and L'Oreal. So we've shown we've been
ISO certificated. We've Yeah. Gone out and done so much with
(26:59):
within the organization to show our credibility in Africa. Yeah. Picked up some
awards too, man. Congrats with that. We train. We train.
So, we've shown our credibility. We've shown what we are all about.
So, yeah, hopefully, it has come to the ground. How does it make you feel,
like, what you've built, you know, over the years?
That the job's not done. There there's more to do. There there's more to do.
(27:22):
I think,
I'm learning to become more content. My wife, my
kids Yeah. Teach me to be more content on a day to day basis. Okay.
I think naturally as a person, I'm not a content person. I I I I
can see it. I never feel as though anything's ever good enough, and I'm always
constantly beating myself up in regards to what more I can do. Yeah.
(27:46):
But right now, I think I'm going for a a a time in my life
where I'm just learning that, you know what, just be a priest of of the
current moment and not to think to think too far ahead.
So I think right now, if you ask me, I'd say that, I'm
proud, but I'm so not sure I'm so proud of myself. I'm also proud of
the team, for my family for supporting me through this whole period,
(28:07):
for what we've built, opportunity to create, and the last we've changed.
That is proud when you think about it. So yeah. Wow.
Samuel, like, you're very selfless person. What I love about you
is you've you've given most of the credit to
your family, the team that you've built, to God, you
know, to all of these external factors outside of you
(28:29):
to help you to build remotely where it is today. And I think there's no
accident that, you know, your ultimate goal is to help
create million plus jobs in Africa across the continent as your
vision. Taught me more about that vision and where that came from a bit more
about where that came from. I think you touched upon it in our first conversation.
And, you know, how you see yourself achieving this vision. I'm sure
(28:51):
now now that you've got tech, you've put SaaS platform in place that can
help you to get there even further. Talk to us more about the vision.
Yeah. So, the vision is now very tangible. It's like
the next few years, we'll we'll we'll we'll have accomplished it.
For me, it's it's beautiful.
The vision has came by, as you know, when we were when I was in
(29:14):
London in 2020 during the pandemic. My wife and I, we we love
traveling. So, going to different countries. And
when we first got married, so just taking it back for the pandemic. Sorry.
She was always like, you need to go back to Ghana. You need to go
to Ghana. And I was like, I'm Ghanaian. She's Ghanaian. I was like, no. I'm
fine. Thank you. I want to travel to other countries, see what places. And she's
(29:34):
like, why? And the truth is, I had a not so great experience when I
was younger. When I went to Ghana with my mom, hopefully not listen to this,
I went to my grandma's house. Yeah. And obviously when you're younger and you go
to grandma's house, most people can attest this kind of experience. They've
got their big houses and it's sort of like, well, thinking
by now, obviously it was her place in Westlands and there was like a lot
(29:56):
of green then, but obviously now it's more built up now. Back then,
Greenland's, we've got chickens running around and, animals. The bungalow and all
the usual setup. Bro. And it's like,
I just didn't have the greatest summer. I was there for six weeks.
Gotcha. I was 12. You're on board? Yeah. I
was 12. I was 12. Couldn't you go to where? I was like, yeah, this
(30:17):
is not, this is not it. So I was like, I don't want to go
back. But obviously that was just from a young experience. And then when I went
back home with my wife and I saw Ghana from an adult perspective, I was
like, wow, this is amazing. So we made a point to go every single
year. And when I had to go back every single year, what I found beautiful
is the development I'd see each year. Yeah. What I found really frustrating is to
help opportunities for young people. Now, it's not me sending them
(30:40):
for anybody. Me, I don't want no trouble. No government's, no people, no nothing. He
get our man of peace. But it was really frustrating that there
should be more being done for these young people. We can't
expect Africa to grow. We can't expect Ghana to grow. But then our
best talents constantly leaving the continent. But at the same time, I didn't want to
be a case where young people in Ghana are looking at me saying, oh, you've
(31:01):
left or you've been able to go to The UK. Your mom gave birth to
you there. Why are you trying to stop us from going there as well? I'm
not. I just want you to gain the opportunities that you should have
on the continent, getting paid what you should be getting paid on the continent
so you don't have to leave home. So we avoid brain drain. Our best talent
stays on the continent so Africa could grow to wherever you want it to grow
(31:21):
to. We can't expect Ghana to grow if all the best
talent is constantly leaving. So for me, it was very, very frustrating.
And also when you speak to a lot of young people, there's nothing more frustrating
than being at home. You want opportunities, want people to see you, but no one's
given you a job. You're a young guy at home. Maybe you've got
a girlfriend. You want to propose. You want to buy a house. Have you seen
(31:44):
the house prices in Accra right now? And I'm like
So inflated, man. For many of us that will go to
and it's not to say Ghanaians. There are many Ghanaians that can afford it in
Ghana. But then it's a case where for the majority of
young people in Ghana right now, it must be so
frustrating because you can see the kind of lifestyle you want. You can see the
(32:05):
kind of opportunities you want, but a lot of it is just out of reach.
And that should not be the case because there are young people around the world
who have been granted these same opportunities. And the gap for me was the
educational piece for a lot of organizations actually in the Western world where they didn't
want to grant these opportunities because of different mindsets they had towards
Africa. So for the past few years has very much been a case of education
(32:27):
breaking down these weird ideologies and thought processes so that they can
understand that you can work with people in the continent, get the same level of
experience, get the same level of work being produced for you
without having to look at Asia. And as time's gone,
we've proven that to be the case, and so, but surely, more organizations are working
with young people. That's fantastic. So young young people is the heart,
(32:50):
the maroons, the vision. I think you did say that Africa is the
youngest population. That's correct. Average age wise.
Yeah. It's fantastic. Yeah. And, yeah, we definitely need to be looking
after them. And it's quite interesting because,
yeah, it's very, very interesting because with, Africa,
like, we need we need, like, more jobs,
(33:13):
and the government is is not doing enough to create these opportunities. But
I feel like with you, not only are Ukraine these opportunities, I
think in terms of what they could probably earn through remotely, they can
hopefully, something where they're able to maybe work towards the lifestyle that
they want and to be able to kind of, like, maybe help their families and,
you know, be happy and be able to, you know, afford afford things that
(33:35):
they should be able to afford. Have you had any kind of
interest in stories or the testimonials maybe from employees or
even customers in terms of how Ramonas changed their lives?
Yes. Just on that point in regards to the governments, the reason I don't
always like to point blame solely on governments is solely because when you look at
most biggest employers, the biggest employers in most countries on the world, they're
(33:58):
usually not governments. They're usually private limited organizations. That's why I
always like implore more organizations, owners,
diasporins, people in Ghana to
create more businesses, to create more employment opportunities for young people.
Truthfully, that's the answer. Private limited organizations is what the answer is,
what Ghana needs. That will be the future of Ghana. There's only so
(34:20):
much any government can do. But if there are more private limited
businesses, and I'm not saying the government are doing everything they can do, I'm really
not saying that. So for people people come and bash me that I'm I'm defending
the government. Mhmm. It's more so the case where what can we
do as Ghanaians? What can we do as Africans? Whether it's Kenya,
Kenya, as I'm talking about Ghana because I'm obviously Ghanaian,
(34:40):
but now we're in Kenya, Nigeria. I should look at these organized countries.
Talk talk so whether it's Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa. Mhmm.
My goodness. What a force. Yeah. Rwanda,
which run the random government is doing a fantastic job, actually.
And Egypt is another way to speak to young people in Egypt.
(35:01):
There's so much more that can be done by individuals in the countries and and
and to be fair, we're seeing that with the data points you're interviewing or
the people that you're seeing in different countries who are creating organizations
and creating change that needs to be seen. So it's being done. But
back to your question in regards to the change of lives of individuals in the
business and of organizations, I mean, yeah, because just
(35:24):
looking at it from a business perspective, you have business owners
who potentially couldn't afford to hire organizations in The UK and The US.
So a lot of their businesses just were just crumbling and they just were stressed
or struggling. They're working with individuals in Asia,
not that the work that's been conducted isn't great but they couldn't like
(35:44):
vibe with them culturally, culturally, they didn't really get what they were
building, they didn't really relate to them. So when some
of them started using remotely, it was just revolutionary for them
because they were like, I finally have a staff member or staff
members who get what I'm building. We can talk.
Time zones are the same. Culturally, we get it. Like
(36:07):
whether you're The UK is part of the Commonwealth. There's a huge
colonial past in Ghana. So a lot of young people in Ghana
if you're talking to people in UK, they get it. People in America, they
get it. So that Western culture is somewhat
there in Ghana. So when they're working with these organizations, they get it. They
can communicate with they can understand them. Lot
(36:29):
of business owners to grow their businesses in a sustainable way, cost
effective way, be again really top quality individuals to work
in our businesses. And then from a staffing perspective, there are many
testimonies with individuals who are unemployed for one, two, three years after
graduating, individuals who had huge
financial family burdens on them, whether expected to be the breadwinners, but
(36:51):
they just couldn't get a job. And then you see how remote is coming, not
just from a monetary perspective, but from a networking perspective,
and individuals who have gained more, better, or higher
employment opportunities off the back of it, individuals who huge doors have opened
to individuals who, again, though we're trying to avoid it, but I've
been able to gain opportunities to leave the country and hopefully
(37:15):
come back to the country to create more opportunities. And,
again, whether whether people's aims and dreams are, we always encourage it
and and and encourage and support them.
So we've seen so many testimonials and telling testimonies through individuals'
lives, businesses and individuals. And it's beautiful because then you're seeing the power of
an idea that's been transformed into reality that's having a direct
(37:37):
impact in people's lives. And for me, it's just it's been a beautiful journey.
Incredible. Wow. I mean, just to see everything that's that you've
created as a result of remotely is really, really incredible to see.
Absolutely incredible. Samuel, this has been a fantastic
conversation. Yeah. What does what does the future
look like in terms of remotely? I know you've talked about you're
(37:59):
gonna look look to raise again. You know, you've you've raised
you've raised some funding from Jeremy Frimpong, you know, buying the
Ferguson winner. Congratulations to him and to yourself. Massive congrats to
him. Yes. That was a master show. How did that come about, really quickly? So,
funnily enough, his team actually reached out to us. Oh. Yeah. So, we
did I think it was a Forbes interview we did or,
(38:21):
Cambridge interview that we did. And then soon after that, I think their team had
been following us for a while. Jeffrey Mhmm. His big
brother actually messaged me, and I hadn't seen a message. So
I'm terrible on LinkedIn. So I've actually now given I don't wanna say that,
but I'm I'm terrible on LinkedIn. That's okay to say. No. No. So so I've
actually given my assistant access to it. I just can try and respond to messages
(38:42):
and reach out to people because I miss a lot on LinkedIn. Yeah. I'm not
good at social media in general. That's okay. Yeah. I'm sorry,
ma'am. I'm sorry for for people to care. I don't air people. I'm sorry. I'm
I'm just not a social media person. No. That's okay. Because you're you're you're you're
okay to admit that because there's things that you are good at that you wanna
focus on. Yeah. That's true. I appreciate that,
(39:02):
man. I appreciate that. And I appreciate the good words making me feel very good,
man. But I'm a slow good social media person. So he messaged and I didn't
see it for time. So, yeah, I think he then reached out to Simon. Simon
was like, Simon, I have not seen this message from Jeffrey. I'm like, bro, I
see that. And so then he set up, began the conversations. Then we jumped on
to call. It was a very quick and simple process. More of, okay, so listen.
We love what we're doing. We wanna be a part of the journey. We wanna
(39:25):
be a pathway building. It was no, like, long negotiating Yeah. Back
and forth terms. This is what we're gonna do. This is what we invest.
Are you cool? And for me, it's beautiful because it's
encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs who are out there who are building their businesses
and they feel that no one's seen them, no one's recognized what they're building, what
they're doing, and they feel that it's long. And the
(39:46):
truth is faith about works is dead. If you
have that thing in your heart, in your spirit that I need to do this
thing, I need to build it, step out in faith and do it. And
in you stepping out and doing it, God will meet you where it is you
are. For those who aren't good for you, not good for you, but regardless of
you are where you are. When you step out and do something, people
(40:06):
will see what you're doing. And if they see what you're doing at the level
of which you want to do it at with excellence, they want to partner with
you on that because they're going to want to be a part of that journey.
So there have been many times remotely our journey has not been easy at all.
There have been highs, huge highs and huge lows,
but regardless of what's happened, we've carried on going And in us
(40:27):
just continuing, people have seen what we're doing. And I've just reached
out and been like, listen. Like, we love what you stand for. We love what
you're doing. We just wanna invest. We wanna partner with.
We wanna be a part of the journey. And that's how all our investors have
come, by the way, literally just through like reaching out to us not us
and all our investors so far that should have been angels as well who have
(40:47):
come back listen here's 50, here's 100, here's two
fifty, invest in the business, grow the business, we're like wow
Beautiful. None of them we've required a pitch deck for.
We've not any all our investors, not one pitch deck could be sent out to
any of them. It's just been literally two
conversations at max. Terms sent out, signed,
(41:09):
money transferred, and it's been so beautiful. Whereas
in the other conversations when we've reached out, when we've gone through long and laborious
conversations, back and forth, It's not quite
happened. So if anything, I hope that serves as encouragement to a lot of entrepreneurs.
Just keep going. Yeah. And once the right individuals see what you're
doing, they'll reach out to you and ensure that your dreams just go to another
(41:31):
level. Fantastic. And this is such a beautiful way
of raising money because, you know, we all know
about pitch decks and demo day and, you know, pitching day and all these kind
of things. But why have to go through all those hoops when you
just document what you're doing, you know, build in public? That's
why that's why I hear. Build in public and then someone will come knocking, hey.
(41:53):
We wanna support you. I think it's much easier and simpler that way than than
you agree. For a lot of
black entrepreneurs listening to this, they will understand the
frustrations or reasons of black business owner. And it's sad
because I'm a very chilled person. I'm not too
fussed. If I was to have taken all the notes to heart and I've been
(42:14):
involved in sales. Some of the notes that I've received personally have
been awful. Awful. And luckily, I I
don't really take things to heart. So no matter how you try to crush my
spirit through the wickedness you try to do to me, I'm not I'm never too
fussed because at the end of the day, as my my sub my twin brother
always say, it is what it is.
(42:37):
I'm never too fast and individuals have literally gone out of their way. If I
tell you some of the things some some VCs have done to us, like some
VCs take us through the whole process, deliberately giving term sheets to us, knowing
they would never fully intend to invest, to pull away last minute. Some investors have
just, like, given the most awful responses to us by
emails and one day, one day, God willing, if I ever get to document the
(43:00):
journey, the emails don't disappear. It's like some people
have messaged me some of the most awful messages on LinkedIn. We've done, like,
email outreach campaigns throughout my through my platform and for my LinkedIn, sorry, and
they've said things like, but why? And I'm sure other
black entrepreneurs have been through the same things where they just had the most crushing
nose, but there's no need for that. So, you're right.
(43:21):
When you look at other entrepreneurs from other demographics or backgrounds,
they don't have to go through the same hoops that we need to raise. And
what's sad is that I wrote an article a few years ago in The Guardian
talking about how there needs to be more black VCs, small black businesses, but then
what's sad is that a black VCs are the ones you get some of the
harshest nose from. And it's like, we're
(43:43):
creating this ecosystem but then Black VCs are actually acting
like their counterparts and trying to use the same measuring sticks
as they would for other white owned organisations but you can't because we
all know the hoops and hurdles that black organisations are going through are so different
to them. So you need to use different metrics. You need to use different, measuring
tools. So, yeah, I I I
(44:06):
just hope and pray that a lot of the black founders who are
going through are going through the same journey that I've gone through and I'm going
through. Just keep pushing and keep that determination, that zeal knowing that
other people will see them where they are and what they're going through. And the
truth is like you mentioned, a lot of individuals who are looking to invest in
you will invest in you, which they do for our organisation. You're investing in a
(44:27):
person. You can't invest in a pitch deck. If you invest in an idea
things change. No one saw COVID happening. So all the people invested in
those pitch decks during that period, I'm sure many of them crumbled. But
if you invest in a person, ideas can change, the person can
pivot, the tenacity, the zeal, the will
to succeed. That's one thing you can never take away from me. So
(44:49):
irrespective of what happens in the environment, remote will always
succeed was myself, my team will never allow to fail and if you're investing in
that, your investment will grow. If you're investing in my
idea, an idea alone, I'm not too sure about that big man.
So, it's important that individuals understand that and they just,
start to invest more in people because there are some great people on the continent.
(45:11):
There are some great black entrepreneurs around the world who want to get overlooked
because of their skin color and an idea
Rather than them looking past and looking at their heart, their attention, the same
measurements that they use for a lot of white entrepreneurs. They look at
these individuals and they're like, oh, you're great. You're tenacious. You're you're amazing. We know
you can take this to another level. Why don't you use that same metric for
(45:32):
a lot of black entrepreneurs? And if you if we did and we saw more
investment into black black entrepreneurs, we'll see so many more black
entrepreneurs. Right? And they're doing amazing things. So, hopefully, over the next
few years, we see that. Hopefully, we see change, and we're not gonna get enemies
of our progress. Hopefully, that is the case. But right now, we definitely
are. So so yeah. I I hope so too. What a fantastic way to to
(45:54):
end the conversation. Sam, you've been a fantastic guest. Thank you. Do you have any
announcements? Anything you would like to share to close out?
Keep an eye on us. Keep an eye on growth. If you're an individual looking
for employment opportunities now in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya,
Egypt, Rwanda, Ghana, apply
online now. I've gone on a website now. You'll see, you can join our
(46:16):
you can join our talent pool right now. If you're looking for staff in these
different regions, you can now hire from all these different regions on the platform. You
go online, you'll see different countries you can select from. Go with these selections. I'm
sure AJ will put a code somewhere so that every time you do now
Yeah. He now gets a kickback. So if you're gonna support Adrian's ministry.
Doing the Lord's work as they say. They say. How are you, sir?
(46:40):
If you're gonna support Adrian, it's an amazing way to do so. So, yeah, it's
important that platforms like this also get the support and and the kickback they require
as well. So, yeah, please, if if you're looking for
opportunities, please do apply. And as we create more opportunities, we create
more roles and jobs. Hopefully, more and more people can get employment, support their
families, and do amazing things across the continent. Appreciate, man. Are we gonna see
(47:01):
a Samuel Brooksworth beard line? Are we gonna see that? What? Be be be be
the only line. Are we gonna see?
Listen. Shut, man. I thank you very much for
appreciate that. Thank you. Alright. Fantastic. Fantastic, man.
So, yeah, guys. We'll have the, we'll have a code where, you know, you'll be
able to kind of, like, gain access to remote these services and, you know,
(47:24):
speak to someone in the team. Once again, guys, today's show notes, you can head
over to thesoundofaccra/samuelb. That's
samuelb, for all of today's
show notes, key references, links, nuggets from today's episode.
And, yeah. Make sure you like, subscribe, leave a comment if you're watching on
YouTube. Let us know what you think of today's episodes. Leave a review of you
(47:45):
who've listened to the podcast platforms. And before we head out, Samuel, where can
everyone find Remoteli and yourself? Remotelicom. So that's
remoteli.com
Myself, just Samuel Broxworth on LinkedIn, Instagram.
Not that I use push media much, but if you wanna see anything fast,
(48:05):
then you can see myself there. Samuel Brooksworth on all social platform sand just remotelicom
for any opportunities and to look for stuff in.
Fantastic. Beautiful. And I think we saw, you sponsored your your
when your daughter's teens. Right? Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Not a problem. Yes. We're
supporting my daughter's, football team. Her football team, is not
sponsored by remotely. And every team she moves to moving forward, apart from when she
(48:28):
gets signed by Arsenal, I'm not too sure about it. Maybe Arsenal's sponsor we can
get to when she gets to the to to to the senior team, but, every
team she gets to, we would definitely sponsor and support so that her journey is
well documented and and followed as well. Wow. Definitely amazing. Definitely
amazing what you're doing with that. Wow. Alright, guys. There you have
it. See you in the next one. Thank you. Bye bye.
(48:52):
Hey. That'd be fun. Yeah.
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