A decade of failed ventures, a university expulsion, and countless setbacks could have ended Ayo Akinola’s entrepreneurial journey before it truly began. Instead, those experiences became the foundation of one of Africa’s most successful fintech stories. Today, as the co-founder of PiggyVest, Nigeria’s leading digital savings and investment platform, Akinola has become one of the country’s most respected voices on entrepreneurship, business growth, and consumer psychology.
His latest insights reveal that the difference between thriving businesses and struggling ones often lies not in brilliant ideas, but in understanding people, solving real problems, and making decisions based on data rather than emotion.
For many entrepreneurs, success is often viewed as the result of a breakthrough idea. Akinola’s story tells a different tale. Before PiggyVest transformed how millions of Nigerians save and invest, he had already launched and watched more than ten businesses fail. Yet, rather than seeing those failures as wasted years, he considers them the practical education that prepared him for lasting success.
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Speaking on the Living Boldly podcast, the entrepreneur and author of Credit Alert reflected on his remarkable journey, explaining that entrepreneurship has never been about chasing trends or passion alone. For him, the real objective has always been creating value.
“Being able to create value is really the centre of it. If you create value, you make money from it,” he said.
That philosophy shaped his entrepreneurial instincts from his university days. While studying at Covenant University, Akinola spotted opportunities where others saw ordinary routines. He started a photography business, not because of an artistic passion, but because he recognised an unmet demand. Armed with Photoshop skills, he enhanced students’ photographs and sold them at the same price competitors charged for unedited images, quickly building a thriving business.
His entrepreneurial drive, however, frequently clashed with university regulations. Suspensions eventually led to his expulsion, an experience that could have discouraged many young people. Instead, it became one of the defining moments of his life.
Rather than condemnation, he found unexpected support from his father, whose calm response transformed what could have been a crushing setback into a lesson about resilience and family.
That experience reinforced a mindset that continues to define his approach to business today: setbacks are temporary, but the willingness to keep building is what separates entrepreneurs from everyone else.
Before PiggyVest, Akinola and his co-founders experimented with multiple ventures across different industries. Some gained early traction before fading, while others failed almost immediately. Instead of becoming emotionally attached to every idea, they constantly evaluated whether each venture was delivering real value.
According to him, one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is confusing market demand with customer willingness to pay.
“Just because somebody needs something does not mean that they will pay for it or they are able to pay for it,” he explained.
This distinction became one of the core lessons behind PiggyVest’s eventual success. The platform did not emerge from a single flash of inspiration. It evolved through continuous experimentation, customer feedback, and the willingness to pivot whenever necessary.
The fintech company has since grown into one of Nigeria’s largest savings and investment platforms, helping millions of users build disciplined financial habits while earning their trust in an industry where confidence is everything.
For Akinola, trust remains the most valuable currency any business can earn.
“Our product has to do what it says it’s going to do. That’s the first thing. It has to work,” he said, adding that genuine relationships with customers and consistently delivering on promises have been central to PiggyVest’s growth.
One of the company’s defining strategies has been maintaining close contact with its users through community engagements and open conversations. Many of PiggyVest’s most successful features, he noted, were born from simply listening to customers instead of assuming what they wanted.
Beyond fintech, Akinola has become an influential teacher of business growth through his book, Credit Alert, where he explores one of Nigeria’s most misunderstood business skills: selling.
Contrary to the belief that Nigerians are easy consumers, he argues that succeeding in the country’s market requires a deep understanding of local behaviour, culture, and psychology.
“It’s not the easiest thing to sell to Nigerians,” he observed. “You need to understand the way Nigerians think.”
From why customers willingly pay premium prices for seemingly identical products to why emotional storytelling often outperforms technical features, Akinola believes successful entrepreneurs study people as much as they study products.
He also challenges founders to rethink how they measure progress. Rather than endlessly pursuing struggling ideas out of emotional attachment, he encourages business owners to evaluate ventures based on objective metrics.
Entrepreneurs, he says, should constantly ask three critical questions: Are customers willing to pay? Are they able to pay? Can the business scale?
If the answer to those questions is consistently negative, he argues, entrepreneurs should have the courage to pivot instead of forcing an idea that the market has already rejected.
His advice extends to financial discipline, an area where he believes many founders sabotage their own growth. Too often, entrepreneurs treat business income as personal income, spend profits instead of reinvesting, and fail to separate themselves from the businesses they own.
“Your business is not you. Your business is a separate entity,” he said.
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Equally important is building the right team. Rather than choosing business partners based on friendship or personal chemistry, Akinola advises founders to prioritise complementary skills and shared long-term goals.
“You have to choose your partner based on skill and goal,” he stressed.
Looking back, he credits PiggyVest’s remarkable journey not only to shared resilience but also to assembling people whose different strengths complemented one another. While one excelled in operations, another focused on design, marketing, finance, or technology, allowing the team to solve problems collectively rather than individually.
As more young Africans pursue entrepreneurship in an increasingly uncertain economy, Akinola’s journey offers a powerful reminder that failure is rarely the end of the story. It is often the testing ground where better entrepreneurs are forged.
His message is refreshingly practical. Build value before chasing profit. Listen to customers before assuming you know the answers. Study the numbers instead of your emotions. Surround yourself with people who make you better. And most importantly, understand the market before expecting it to understand you.
For aspiring founders hoping to build the next African success story, Akinola’s experience suggests that the road to breakthrough success is rarely straight. It is often paved with failed experiments, difficult lessons, and the courage to keep building until value finally meets opportunity.
