# Exclusive with the Founder of Didi Jollof — The Struggles and Success of Ernest Coleman

An episode of [The Peswa Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1781537541), 16 Nov 2025, 1 h 06 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/110e1ce70/podcast/play/117753099/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-2-31%2F421135790-44100-1-a3f6069b134cbbc1.mp3

Send a text From a young hustler navigating tough beginnings to the founder behind Didi Jollof, one of Ghana’s most beloved fast-food brands — Ernest Coleman’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. In this episode of The Peswa Podcast, Ernest opens up about his childhood, the struggles that shaped him, and the bold decisions that led to building Didi Jollof from a simple campus food hustle into a fast-growing food brand. He shares the defining moments, the failures he had to survive, the leaps of faith he took, and the mindset that kept him moving even when everything seemed impossible. If you’re an entrepreneur, dreamer, or anyone fighting to build something from scratch, this conversation will hit home. Simplify cross-border payments with WeWire — the smarter way for businesses to send and receive payments in local and international currencies across 80+ countries. Empower your business with fast, secure, and seamless global transactions. 🔗 Start today at WeWire.com Click the link below to support the show—every bit of support goes straight into helping us create even better content, reach more people, and share more incredible conversations. Support the show (click here) -- https://www.buzzsprout.com/2423582/support 📩 Connect with us: • Follow Bill on Instagram: @billcobbinah • Follow us on all socials: @thepeswa 📢 Subscribe The Peswa on all Platforms: https://linktr.ee/thepeswa Get access to amazing royalty-free music for your projects — sign up for an Uppbeat account using the referral link: https://share.uppbeat.io/cy9fcqqxj4tg Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more conversations like this! The Fresh Patch Podcast - Where Good Pets Get It. Welcome to the Fresh Patch Podcast where we talk about everything, from dog... Listen on: Apple Podcasts Support the show

## Transcript

[0:00] My journey has been really long. OK, it goes way back.
[0:03] So you do the Sprint business on campus, you're selling to
[0:06] people? Yeah, it's going well.
[0:07] At some point, Hypercat comes in your journey, try to help and
[0:10] did effort on marketing. Did you get off?
[0:13] I understand. Wow.
[0:14] I started, Did you get off with two grains of rice?
[0:16] Do you want to go into that? The case is still in court as we
[0:18] speak. And also because of Twitter, we
[0:21] used to get lots of traction on our posts.
[0:23] There was a time I was in the kitchen and I blanked.
[0:25] When I was in Canyon, I woke up and I was in the hospital.
[0:28] People look at the visual of as a food brand.
[0:31] I see beyond just the food. It's coming to hurt my mind
[0:34] because once you mentioned that you want to live a life, leave a
[0:37] good name, leave other people something that's going to
[0:40] benefit people. Yeah, we mentioned that the
[0:42] reason why I didn't stop when Covered hate your business at
[0:44] its decent stages was that you realize that you'd become a
[0:47] source of livelihood for people. But I'm now wondering where that
[0:50] came from. So the conversation you're about
[0:58] to listen to is with Ennis Coleman.
[1:01] Ennis is the CEO for DD Foods, DD Fast Foods.
[1:04] They're popular for DD Jollof and his story is such a
[1:07] remarkable 1. I think he goes through the lens
[1:10] of step by step process to where he's got with the business and
[1:13] what the future looks like. And it was like an exciting
[1:16] conversation as usual. And I hope you enjoyed it as
[1:18] much as I did. How much?
[1:19] I mean, just build something and don't forget to subscribe.
[1:23] Keenly curious and it's cool, man.
[1:28] Thanks for coming. Thank you.
[1:30] It'd be very strange because how I I invited you, I I really felt
[1:35] was a little too harsh entered your DM when I come into the
[1:38] best of all cast and you're kind enough to say give me a date and
[1:42] a time That was interesting. And I've been meaning to talk to
[1:46] you for like a year, almost a year, because I remember when we
[1:49] were speaking to Desmond and Mukachi, who has been here.
[1:53] But like, you know, you guys have business associates of
[1:55] sorts, like, hey, I want to talk to Ernest.
[1:57] Anyway, the expenses for the NS was like so thanks for coming.
[2:04] You're welcome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[2:06] And so for me, my first interaction with you was on a,
[2:10] what was it called on a deck. A friend of mine was trying to
[2:15] raise money for a business hyper cut.
[2:18] Then on a team slide, you were there, marketing lead, I think.
[2:22] How did that go? I forgot, do you want to go into
[2:28] that? No, just just in touch on that.
[2:30] OK. So, so as has probably become
[2:32] obvious, we have an ongoing partnership with B Wire.
[2:35] We wire to B to B cross-border payment platform for businesses.
[2:38] And since we are on the mission to encourage people to build and
[2:42] build world class businesses, we I also on the quest to bring you
[2:46] resources and tools and we think we wire is that tool that will
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[2:55] basically B wire.com today. Thanks.
[2:59] The founder, Michael, very visionary, like he has so many
[3:03] plans and obviously I wanted to help.
[3:08] Genuinely, I wanted to help. I think we came up with a lot of
[3:12] marketing campaigns. We executed successfully.
[3:16] Which of them? At some point, I don't know what
[3:19] happened, but I think he just dried up.
[3:22] The projects dried up naturally, Yeah, but it was, it was a fun
[3:26] ride. I learnt so much from him.
[3:28] Michael, he's a great guy. Good.
[3:30] Guy good guy. I think it was a, it was a
[3:33] funding issue, yeah. You know, we went through messed
[3:37] and all of that. We ambitious, we wanted to do so
[3:39] much, but we didn't have enough so.
[3:41] Yeah, that's, I think that's the narrative for most like business
[3:45] people, younger entrepreneurs in that part of the world, access
[3:49] to capital, yeah. Kills, kills.
[3:51] Huge, huge challenge. Yeah.
[3:54] OK. So now I think you are known on
[3:57] like Twitter or across the country.
[4:00] Now for the record, deal with DD, DD food, fast food services.
[4:05] You guys owe me some jollof. Yes, it was the last year I
[4:11] think everybody on Twitter who was on my TL so that I was
[4:13] always almost, there was a particular week where every day
[4:16] I was just not about DD jollof. Where is my jollof?
[4:18] Because I was sitting somewhere and you're like anonymous has
[4:21] ordered jollof for me. OK, sure.
[4:24] I guess since my details I was excited about it.
[4:27] The jollof never came. I went back into the DMS.
[4:30] Please, where's my jollof? You made everybody on Twitter
[4:36] that I'm a hungry boy. I'm sorry about that.
[4:40] Honestly. There are people that just text
[4:43] you randomly say they are buying for this person or that person
[4:47] and they never show up. They don't pay when it's time to
[4:49] make payment, they don't. So I'm showing your keys.
[4:53] It might be something similar. Similar.
[4:54] I'm not too sure. I'll investigate.
[4:56] I'll find out why. Yeah, such a nice gentleman.
[5:00] Charlie, make me beg for food on Twitter.
[5:02] Forgive us, it will not happen again.
[5:04] OK, so how did that start? How did you move from hypercuts?
[5:09] I know you did reverse at some point.
[5:13] Was that before DD? Yes, way before.
[5:16] OK, my journey has been really long.
[5:18] OK, it goes way back. I don't know whether I should
[5:21] start from when I was very young, like 5-6 years, I used to
[5:27] go to my grandmother's shop at Kofodia, Kofodia Central Market.
[5:32] The shop number is LS10. After school, I'll go and wait
[5:36] for my mom over there. You know, at that time, my
[5:39] grandmother was selling fabric. So each time a customer walked
[5:43] in, I mean, I used to watch how she received it.
[5:46] Not that it was deliberate. I didn't calculate to do that.
[5:49] I think I just picked it naturally.
[5:51] And there are times that a customer working and my
[5:54] grandmother is not there, OK, and he has to receive the
[5:56] customer. You know, you're not let the
[5:58] customer leave, you receive the customer.
[6:00] So eventually I learnt how to deal with people at a very young
[6:05] age and I think when I went to presec.
[6:09] OK, so from Coferrid I went to presec.
[6:11] Yes, I went to presec. What?
[6:13] Did you stand up presec? Science.
[6:15] OK, so I joined the SRC and I also, I was also a dining hall
[6:20] supervisor, OK. Yeah.
[6:23] And the SRS, I was organizing secondary.
[6:26] Yeah, but it's like in my destiny.
[6:29] So I was part of the SRC. My job was to simply brand our
[6:34] products and then also sell the products.
[6:36] OK. Yeah, and I'll say we did a lot
[6:40] of good work. Myself and a friend of mine,
[6:44] Benjamin bathroom poem Bieber did lots of magic on campus in
[6:48] school at that time. Blue Magic.
[6:51] Yes, because at that time we're trying to raise money for our
[6:55] SRC, our ceremony, and we had to sell Shambhala writing parts and
[6:59] stuff. So that's why the selling began,
[7:03] the branding and the selling began.
[7:06] And also honestly, the as a Dino supervisor, I had a very good
[7:11] friend of mine, Emmanuel Esau. Forgive me if I he doesn't want
[7:16] his name to be mentioned. He was a visual art student,
[7:21] came from a very humble background.
[7:24] And so I just felt like I could do something to help you.
[7:27] But this time I went to his studio and I saw that he was
[7:31] printing a shit. He was printing that that screen
[7:33] printing and the inscription was reversed.
[7:37] And I was like, this is nice. Charlie EB United Dua we say,
[7:41] oh, of course me, Ali Duham, why not get ice?
[7:44] I'm like, OK, I want to be a part of this.
[7:48] I want to put money into this and then blow it up.
[7:52] Obviously that time I didn't have a lot of money.
[7:54] So my small, small coins are put in the business and within a few
[7:59] weeks people knew about it on campus.
[8:01] We were selling. I mean we are, we are obviously
[8:04] selling more. Then I started selling to girls
[8:07] schools since roses and breed girls, you know, group of girls,
[8:12] you know, you take a few sets there and then you sell within a
[8:15] short space. So I eventually moved it beyond
[8:21] just printing shirt. Not yeah, not actually.
[8:24] We're making the shirts. That's interesting.
[8:27] Yes. You know, I could have a segue
[8:28] in a crochet business before, oh, probably my first business
[8:32] or second wearing KNSD this shirt can't believe so you see
[8:35] people wearing like we know the fear Jesus saved on campus was
[8:41] it was an exciting business thinking COVID collapsed.
[8:46] Yeah. I I don't want to bore your
[8:48] audience because there, there are lots of things that I could
[8:50] see, but for the sake of time, I'll just.
[8:54] Yeah. Go brief.
[8:56] So eventually I came to KNSD and I was selling the shirts.
[9:01] But this time we're making the shirts, designing them from
[9:04] scratch and packaging it nicely. And I even got a team of tech
[9:10] people that came up with mobile apps directory.
[9:15] We are trying to build a drone system for delivery.
[9:17] And that time, yes, yeah, it was in the first year.
[9:23] It was a huge hit. Unfortunately for us, it was
[9:28] coming at a cost, a huge cost. All the new shirts.
[9:31] Making the shirts and so the price point was very high and we
[9:36] couldn't sell enough. So I had to re strategize.
[9:42] Then I came up with another thing.
[9:43] You know my I told you about the story of my grandmother selling
[9:46] fabrics. Yeah.
[9:47] And I also had a talented tailor who was helping us with the
[9:52] reverse. Now this business is going out
[9:54] of season, so obviously how to make use of the tailor because
[10:00] it's actually very talent, talented.
[10:03] And I'm like, OK, I know where I can get fabrics.
[10:06] I know the person that can put the fabrics together and
[10:10] obviously I know how I can sell them.
[10:12] So why don't I just come up with something along the line?
[10:15] So I sell another business, African fashion business, OK,
[10:20] called Khalid. And that one I'll just buy the
[10:25] fabrics for my grandma. Send it to Baba de Taylor.
[10:29] He makes the outfits, can you sell it?
[10:33] So I did it and I sold. We did a very short space.
[10:36] I sold all of them. So now we have reverse well
[10:41] this. Was still on campus.
[10:42] Yes, first year which? Which school can you see?
[10:44] Yes, always studying Kenyans at a time.
[10:47] Business administration marketing.
[10:50] Yeah, I was curious about the marketing bits.
[10:53] What, what, what influenced that decision 'cause I mean, you're
[10:55] going to bridge, we come back to the business trajectory, right.
[10:58] So you've gone to presec, studied science, you had a
[11:04] interaction with business at that front.
[11:07] What influence your decision to see I'm going to the university
[11:10] is really it's not so typical. So I'm going to key university,
[11:13] I'm going to study business administration.
[11:14] We do marketing what influence our decision.
[11:18] You know my mom, my mom would probably be watching now.
[11:21] OK, listen, there's some part of it I always have have hidden for
[11:26] long time, OK, so this she doesn't know how I got business
[11:30] administration because I to to the best of head knowledge I
[11:33] didn't select business administration.
[11:36] Yeah, she thought I selected pharmacy.
[11:39] No. So.
[11:41] You are in trouble. But yeah, I mean, right from the
[11:48] time that I was selling my my Shambhala, my writing part, I
[11:52] realized I had passion for selling.
[11:55] OK. So honestly, I said paying more
[11:58] attention to business, I wanted to like learn the marketing of
[12:02] it, the markets inside of it. Found out quite interesting.
[12:05] I wanted to study for, learn further, further about
[12:09] marketing. Yeah, yeah.
[12:11] So it was a very easy decision for me switching from science to
[12:15] business. Business.
[12:16] Yeah. Oh, 'cause I just wanted to
[12:18] learn the marketing. You regret making that move.
[12:21] No, I was your regret. OK, Yeah.
[12:25] Measure of the conversation we had with rich mentor all back
[12:30] here and you were saying that sometimes you just have to drown
[12:34] out the noise and pay attention to the things you like and if
[12:37] you drill down the things you like your life is way better,
[12:40] you know, and don't really pay attention to anybody.
[12:43] You see stuff like that. OK, so this is sticking out.
[12:47] You have a point. You didn't African print.
[12:49] What's the name of African colored, African colored prints
[12:52] and then you take the procure supply from your grandmother and
[12:56] then you give to Barbara Taylor and then you sell.
[12:59] OK. That's why use of that business.
[13:01] I have not stopped completely. Oh, OK.
[13:03] Yeah, I'm still running. It's just that people don't
[13:06] know. It's it's a different name, so
[13:08] people don't know. Oh OK yeah and very mysterious
[13:13] and the The thing is I don't want my businesses to be
[13:16] centered around me yeah yeah I don't I don't want that cause
[13:20] personally I'm not someone who really loves the attention I.
[13:24] Don't think Dee Dee is doing that because of you, especially
[13:26] on Twitter like most. Of I don't think so.
[13:29] I I feel like initially people didn't even know that was the
[13:33] one behind it until at some point I had to come out and see
[13:38] I'm running this business, right?
[13:41] And I'm sure people, of course there are, there's a fraction of
[13:45] people that know that I'm the one behind it.
[13:47] OK. But there's still a lot of
[13:49] people that don't know. Yeah.
[13:51] It's very interesting. You got to like a paradox
[13:54] because on Twitter you are very popular.
[14:00] You know, photo on Twitter circles, Yeah, banter circles.
[14:06] You seem very popular. You have a lot of following, but
[14:09] in real life, after talking to you today, it's like a
[14:12] completely different person. Well, like this is a very quiet
[14:16] person who is very camera shy. It took a lot of divine power to
[14:24] get you to come here. But on on on social, on the
[14:27] socials like you seem like a very easy going person.
[14:31] It's like you just understand the game in that regard.
[14:34] Or. Well, I will not say I've always
[14:38] been quiet and reserved, OK? Because I remember back in
[14:43] school I was, you know, very, very active.
[14:46] OK. Yeah, I just, I've just learnt a
[14:50] lot of lessons. Yeah, but I mean like come
[14:53] quite. Yeah, I see.
[14:55] I just feel to myself, I, I will not, I will not see naturally
[14:59] like I'm I'm very outspoken. No.
[15:01] OK, but I wasn't always like this quiet, quieting myself
[15:07] snow. So you do this print business on
[15:10] campus, you're selling to people?
[15:12] Yeah, it's going well. At some point, Hypercat comes in
[15:16] a journey. Try to help and did effort on
[15:18] marketing. Didi Jollof, how do I start?
[15:22] Wow. So Didi jollof.
[15:26] I mean, let me correct it, it's actually DDDDD, yes, as in it.
[15:31] Yeah. I'll say in all honesty, I'm not
[15:34] going to say, I'm not going to sit here and say that I started
[15:37] the digital off with two grains of rice.
[15:40] No, I know that. However.
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[16:39] put points on the board. I started because genuinely I
[16:49] wanted to solve a problem. OK, first I wanted to solve my
[16:53] problem and then the problems of other people.
[16:56] And the first problem that I wanted to solve was that, you
[17:00] know, I was in Brunei on the 5th floor.
[17:03] So each time I wanted food, I had to come all the way down to
[17:08] get my food even when I ordered. And obviously because I was in
[17:11] square, couldn't cook all the time.
[17:13] So I wanted something quite convenient for myself.
[17:17] So I thought by myself 1st and I'm like, my auntie is a very
[17:23] good cook, but she cannot just cook my food and bring it every
[17:27] day. It wouldn't make sense.
[17:29] Now why don't I do it for a lot more people that we it will make
[17:34] sense in every, every way. In the sense that a lot of
[17:38] people get to eat good food, deliver it to them.
[17:43] My auntie also makes money. Yeah.
[17:46] And also the second reason is I went to a restaurant on campus.
[17:50] I will not mention the name. The first time I entered, I
[17:54] bought a food was so good, the price made so much sense.
[17:58] The second time I went, I went there, the food was not that
[18:02] good. The price still made sense at
[18:05] that time. Now the price doesn't make
[18:07] sense. The food doesn't make sense.
[18:10] So I was curious. I'm like, ah, so they could do
[18:12] the first time, then why can't they continue doing it?
[18:16] Yeah, so I was curious. I'm like, OK, is this something
[18:19] that I could do is something I could try?
[18:22] So that question was always on my mind for a while.
[18:26] So on 31st night 2018 in church, I was, I, I mentioned to my
[18:34] cousin that Charlie, I want to start a business.
[18:37] I want to start another business, but this time I want
[18:40] it to be about food. So OK, that's a good idea.
[18:44] And I'm like, I want to come up with a name.
[18:47] So help me come up with a name because my my cousin is very
[18:49] good with words. The first name I proposed was
[18:52] Cool foods. And I'm like, Nah, if I say cool
[18:56] foods, everybody will know that I'm the one behind it.
[18:59] So give me another name. I was like, Diddy, OK, I'm like,
[19:04] OK, that's fine. So I just created a Twitter
[19:07] account there. OK.
[19:09] And then the name was the visual of no DDK and Westy at that
[19:13] time. Thank you.
[19:14] Then I went on to announce it with a business speech, and then
[19:19] people are sort of like retweeting and liking and
[19:23] commenting. I'm like OK.
[19:24] So now the plowers are your auntie.
[19:26] You cook the food. Yes.
[19:28] And then you're going to supply. Yes.
[19:31] Basically. That'll basically be your MO.
[19:33] Yeah. From presec.
[19:36] You you met this guy, Esel? Yes.
[19:41] He's making the shirts. You tap into it, you take the
[19:44] supply, you give it to the end user, everybody.
[19:48] You come to your African print business, you take supply from
[19:53] your grandma, give it to Baba and deliver.
[19:57] And interesting. Do you just like a connector?
[20:02] That's made of. Interesting, but how has it been
[20:05] with Didi if I've got an interesting journey?
[20:07] I think I ordered your food the first time.
[20:09] I ordered your food about 20/21/22 there about you had
[20:14] this package with Plantain? Yeah.
[20:17] Yeah, the plantain was really good.
[20:19] I remember it was spicy. But that was I think I didn't
[20:24] order again. I don't know why I even, I was
[20:26] trying to order again and it delays so much.
[20:28] And I think I cancelled the order.
[20:30] And then the next time my interface was spent and they
[20:33] told me that I know had ordered food for me.
[20:35] Yeah. And then wherever you are.
[20:38] Yeah. So what?
[20:40] Let's walk through the journey with DD food.
[20:41] So you're in KST, How, how was how did I go?
[20:47] Yes, So obviously that one, it cannot be a Mendo man or like
[20:51] just be distributing personal You have to get into the
[20:54] production too. So then of course I had to learn
[20:57] how to cook the food myself. Hey, yeah, so the jollof recipe,
[21:01] I had to take it from my mom. Not your auntie, no.
[21:06] How did you feel about that? I mean, they are, they are
[21:08] sisters, so OK. But the real cook is my mom as
[21:13] your office. Yeah.
[21:15] So I took her recipe and yeah, small.
[21:18] Small. Today, cooking the Jolof
[21:20] yourself, Yeah, and selling to this.
[21:22] Yeah. So let me tell you a story.
[21:23] So in Brunei we're not allowed to sell food over there.
[21:28] So obviously I had to move out. I had to move to Tech Junction.
[21:32] I don't know if you know there. Yeah, there was a code top high
[21:36] that side, so I got a container, very small container, said doing
[21:41] some small, small renovation. How did mother feel about that?
[21:44] She didn't know. Yeah.
[21:46] She didn't know. My mom didn't know that I was
[21:49] going to learn his recipe. Sorry, her recipe and sell it
[21:54] and sell it. She she had no idea.
[21:55] She was still in school studying very hard to become a somebody
[21:58] in future. So yeah.
[22:04] Yeah, I but why didn't you tell her?
[22:08] Obviously, you know, I had, I had a hard time convincing her
[22:11] that like I I didn't even want to passive engineering or
[22:15] pharmacy. So obviously that's thing was
[22:18] still there. OK.
[22:19] Yeah, so I was sort of hiding it.
[22:22] She's still hiding now. No, now she knows.
[22:26] She's back in the business now. Yes, 100%.
[22:29] OK, OK, let's go back. Can you see you got a container?
[22:34] Got a container. Renovated the container only to
[22:37] receive a call that the government wants to expand the
[22:39] road. So I should move my container
[22:42] then? I did.
[22:42] And what? What could you do?
[22:46] Yeah, so I did. I moved.
[22:47] Were you alone? Were you doing this alone?
[22:49] Yeah, I was alone doing it alone.
[22:52] Pocket money isn't it for taking a lot of risk.
[22:57] So I moved to another container, but this time I moved from
[23:01] Brunei to off campus. I just a new site.
[23:05] I lived with some woman, you know, and the container was
[23:09] right in front of it. The business was doing very well
[23:13] because at that time, I'd gone to the production myself and I
[23:16] could cook some fresh food. Not my auntie bringing it for me
[23:20] to distribute. This one.
[23:21] Fresh. Hot.
[23:21] Hot. Yeah, I was in it.
[23:24] It was picking up small, small. Then all of a sudden the
[23:29] landlady says she's taking a shop, she's taking the the room.
[23:35] Have to quit like. They continue to.
[23:38] Yes, but before that I had seen the change in behavior so
[23:44] quickly I went to negotiate and get another.
[23:47] I, I and I go into that container around I just knew
[23:51] sightseeing and and it was also a home still.
[23:54] I don't know if I'm canvas, you know what home still is.
[23:56] Yes, yes. So I moved quickly to that place
[24:00] and that one too was going very well.
[24:02] I mean, I had that was the first time I actually had someone who
[24:06] believed in my business and wanted to invest a lot of money.
[24:09] Oh, but I'll tell you, we have, we have very limited time.
[24:12] We have all the. Time we have all the time.
[24:14] Oh, so I had encounters with people that wanted to invest in
[24:17] the business. Yeah, but this one, he actually
[24:22] was quite serious about it. So unfortunately he couldn't get
[24:27] all the money that he wanted. Yeah.
[24:30] So just give me some how much $1000, OK.
[24:34] At the time. Yeah, it was it was good.
[24:37] And he gave it to me like a loan as a loan.
[24:39] OK. But he didn't give me a definite
[24:42] time to pay back was like because I wanted to be a part of
[24:45] your business and I couldn't get the money use this work.
[24:49] And I had supports from friends OK my seniors in PERSEC.
[24:55] A senior from PERSEC probably doesn't want his name mentioned,
[24:59] but. You know this, senior.
[25:01] I don't think so. OK, so I mean, they were they
[25:06] were, you know, trying to help me build something good.
[25:11] And so the money that I got from that friend, I quickly invested
[25:16] the money into like the tools that are used for cooking and
[25:21] storing. You're still doing this alone.
[25:23] Yeah, I was doing it alone. So people becoming aware of you
[25:28] on campus. Yeah, people had become aware.
[25:31] Twitter, yes, OK. Yeah.
[25:36] Like, did you piece, like, banners on rooms and doors and
[25:40] things like that? They want to understand how the
[25:42] student body became aware of DDKNSE.
[25:45] And then you had to. Yeah, like.
[25:47] So let me tell you one marketing trick that we did with reverse.
[25:52] One day everybody woke up and on the floor we had written reverse
[25:57] is coming. If chalk is those agenda boys
[26:02] when they are aspiring for positions.
[26:05] So that's how we're moving like reverse was written.
[26:09] All of our campus. We sent out teasers so people
[26:13] were curious. I wanted to know what reverse
[26:14] was. This same similar thing with DD
[26:16] drop off. Oh, OK, yeah.
[26:18] So I I don't believe I didn't believe in printing flies and
[26:22] sharing them. Why I believed in was I will
[26:25] just put our number there like our print our numbers small,
[26:29] small, small. Stickers in New York.
[26:32] My number I printed small, small, small.
[26:37] I pissed it everywhere like I could.
[26:41] So that's how people got to know it.
[26:43] So did you love and the number? That's all.
[26:45] That's all I wanted people to know.
[26:46] Not that I'm selling your love. I'm selling Fern drives.
[26:49] No. Why does he have my number?
[26:52] And why does it know the the brand, the name of the brand?
[26:54] That's enough. Oh.
[26:56] Yeah, so that's how come, and also because of Twitter it it
[27:01] got like we got like 2000 followers at that time, which
[27:05] was quite good. We used to get a lot of traction
[27:07] on our post. So yeah, blew up from there.
[27:12] OK, And then you're the one handling your social media, of
[27:14] course. Yeah, so.
[27:15] And you your your own social media manager, you're your own
[27:18] cook. Yeah.
[27:20] Yeah. And your own distributor I
[27:21] guess? Yes.
[27:23] OK. So this somebody gives you the
[27:24] the $1000 when you part of the business said he invested in.
[27:30] Above fridge bouquet I bought stoves or microwave.
[27:34] I got a bike for delivery which was stolen by the way telly.
[27:41] Tail. I stress.
[27:42] Well, you know The funny thing. After I bought the the fridge, I
[27:49] bought some rice. I got some stock.
[27:54] Did I bought the stock? That was when COVID came and the
[27:58] government shut down schools. To be.
[28:02] No idea that was. When COVID came in that time, I
[28:08] had also spent money renovating the space, painting the place,
[28:13] you know, getting new chairs and come and said go home.
[28:17] New chairs. I mean, people were eating, you
[28:18] know, like. Oh yeah.
[28:20] Oh, the container. The same container.
[28:22] There was a container and there was this tent, yes, this kind of
[28:27] pure chairs around. The home still.
[28:29] Yes, including the home still around Panama.
[28:31] No, still come and said go home, my friend, what can you do?
[28:36] You go home. And all of them went home.
[28:38] So I was done between shutting the business or keeping it
[28:43] running. OK.
[28:45] And at that time I was people were getting to know us.
[28:48] So I didn't want the name to die out and I'm like, OK, I mean,
[28:53] and the people that were working for me to, they didn't have any
[28:56] source at the. Time you're start hiring people.
[28:59] Yes, yes and I was the only source of livelihood so so one
[29:05] came to me was like was we know the the situation, but I be we
[29:11] we still won't work so we could just continue OK so that time I
[29:17] will be selling 4 packs I. Did. 5 packs, but I still in it.
[29:22] You have to top up with your money every single time 'cause
[29:25] you're not making enough skills, you're not going to be able to
[29:28] pay your workers. But we're still running
[29:31] believing in that all covered away in 2 days.
[29:36] Oh, they found their a vastly covered will run government to
[29:41] open. So I was paying attention to
[29:43] what is it called, fellow ganes, every single time, 'cause I'm,
[29:47] I'm hoping that governments will say, oh, go back to school.
[29:50] Were you still a student at the time?
[29:51] I had finished complete completed KMS.
[29:54] So you did natural service for yourself?
[29:56] No hypercuts, that's why I went to.
[29:58] Hypercuts makes a lot of sense. So you're running DD?
[30:02] Yes. And you did a service?
[30:04] Hypercuts because he's also also on campus.
[30:05] So yes, OK, so it just made sense that way.
[30:10] That time I wasn't selling enough.
[30:13] Yeah, there was this Valentine's Day.
[30:16] It was just me, 2020. The work isn't good.
[30:20] They didn't come to work. All of them are taking orders
[30:25] about. It was a lot.
[30:27] It was like 60 orders. That time was a lot of orders.
[30:33] And Can you believe I cooked from 4:00 AM to like 11:11 PM?
[30:42] Yeah, it was one of the most difficult times.
[30:47] In all of this, 'cause there've been so many instances and
[30:49] handles where you just shut down the business, whether it's
[30:53] family pressure or getting a place or even crossing the head
[30:59] of deciding to cook yourself and all these other headders you
[31:04] mentioned, what kept you going? What are the alternatives?
[31:08] Well back to school. I mean study very well bro.
[31:14] Genuinely, I just felt it's more fulfilling for me to see that
[31:18] because of you, someone is able to pay his bills, someone is
[31:23] able to take care of his children.
[31:24] One is, yes, is source of livelihood.
[31:27] That is very fulfilling. Yeah.
[31:29] And giving up means that all these people are probably just
[31:32] going to go home in with empty hands, like, Nah, I can't, I
[31:39] can't let them down. That's one.
[31:41] The second part of it is see the sacrifices that you've made at
[31:45] this point, yes, you've gone off track.
[31:47] You've gone according to your family, you've gone off track.
[31:50] Can you really go back? The third part is there's no
[31:56] single business person or successful person that has not
[31:59] that has not had these challenges.
[32:02] Everybody goes through some level of challenges.
[32:05] The alternative isn't prone to, isn't immune to the challenges.
[32:10] Yeah, everywhere you go, there'll be challenges.
[32:13] So where you are just faced, you feel the challenges, tested and
[32:17] move, Yeah. That's very profound.
[32:22] That's very profound. The fact that, you know, there's
[32:25] this, the common thing. They see that the grass is not
[32:27] greener on the other side. Exactly.
[32:29] There we go. So even if it's greener, it
[32:32] might probably be artificial. Astro thief so like so after
[32:39] COVID, now show COVID has died. Now how did the business pick up
[32:43] again? What do you do?
[32:46] Because we kept we kept marketing, we kept advertising.
[32:50] We didn't shut down. Now after during cover the
[32:54] height of it, you know, you have to sell to a level before you'll
[32:57] be able to keep your business running.
[33:00] We had a daily target. So these are feel like we are
[33:03] falling short of it. I'll I'll pick the bag, pack
[33:07] food, go all the way to a Dome, go to phone shops.
[33:10] We're selling. Yes, you sell it.
[33:12] You don't have any other option. You have to sell it.
[33:15] That's the only way you can remain in business.
[33:18] So we're doing all these things. People are taking note of it.
[33:22] So when school resumed, boom, boom, we got a lot of sales.
[33:28] The in the face, we got a lot of sales.
[33:31] And sometimes getting a lot of sales is a, is a, is a case.
[33:35] Yeah, because you'll not be able to fulfill your orders and the
[33:39] backlash will be seen. I relate with you on this
[33:43] particular problem. As you're aware, I ran a startup
[33:47] quarter diarrhea, right And we essentially just help turn on
[33:52] experience monthly and even probably still in that phase
[33:57] where we have like a a demand, I was called a short supply
[34:01] problem. So we essentially help people
[34:02] give you preference, your rent and you pay monthly.
[34:05] And as we speak now, we have about 6000 people locked up in
[34:08] our waits list and every day on TikTok and we keep having these
[34:11] tick tock influencers talking about our product and people
[34:14] come in the comment section and be bashing you and we call them
[34:17] and they don't answer and they can't help us.
[34:20] It has a way of eating you up. Yep.
[34:24] You know, like you know some Oh, but it's a good problem to have,
[34:27] but it will eat you up if you don't take time.
[34:30] It will probably shut you down. Yes.
[34:32] And what really hurts the most is that you, you actually mean
[34:35] well, yes, that sometimes you really guess overwhelming.
[34:39] I'm doing a similar thing. I'm doing something very quite
[34:43] similar. So I kind of understand where
[34:45] you're coming from. I don't really blame customers
[34:48] when they are frustrated, you know, because you you promise to
[34:53] provide a service. So if there's a delay, obviously
[34:56] they have to come to you. They were just sitting there.
[35:00] You said you are going to give them this.
[35:02] They don't care about whatever goes through.
[35:04] That's honestly not their business.
[35:06] And genuinely, like, once you promise, you have to deliver.
[35:10] Sure. So honestly, when I see
[35:13] feedbacks, I am not going to be defensive about it.
[35:18] Yeah, I have to learn to navigate to yes and fix the
[35:22] issues, fix the problems. So now I, I tell you here that
[35:28] we could trigger a lot of sales, a lot of demand, but I have to
[35:35] look at what will not go on to hurt the customer to because if
[35:40] you take more than you can fulfill, it's a problem.
[35:43] There are times that we have to shut down our website to be able
[35:47] to fulfill the orders. And someone will simply say, why
[35:51] don't you just scale up? Why don't you just pump more
[35:54] capital? Yes.
[35:55] Comes at a cost. They don't really know their.
[35:59] Yeah, the details of that, yeah. So now post COVID is blown up,
[36:07] blown up on campus. What influences did you raise
[36:11] extra capital after I said the 1000?
[36:13] Dollars. No, I mean the business I I just
[36:16] kept surrounding the business money.
[36:18] Yeah. And you decided to come to
[36:20] Accra, Yes. What influence our decision?
[36:23] Coming to Accra, I mean, I always had my eyes on Accra as a
[36:27] capital. So I always had it in either OK,
[36:31] at some point I have to come I did a projection and then in the
[36:35] next three years after 28 and I had I had to move to Accra.
[36:41] So one very I'm sure you know his name.
[36:45] He prefers to be Loki came to Kumasi tried out food.
[36:50] He loved the food like he eats me up like Charlie the true
[36:54] debut. You don't make a camera OK Mindy
[37:00] the conversation was true at Twitter DM said OK, how much it
[37:06] would take to make a brain gum like make you move the business
[37:09] from Kumasi Kamakra how much you will need.
[37:12] I mentioned a figure. He was like OK cool.
[37:16] He goofy Doo like OK then that was it send the I they come
[37:21] draft agreement come Initially I was like OK, I want a loan.
[37:25] He was actually I did do business too and not see if I
[37:29] give you the money you might struggle to pay and I'm not a
[37:33] greedy person. I'm not also desperate to make
[37:35] it. I want to be with this business
[37:38] for a while a long time. I want to be a part of it.
[37:41] I'm like, OK, cool. This is the right partner.
[37:44] Partner, like, OK. And usually when you have
[37:47] someone like this coming in, someone might try to take
[37:51] advantage of him. The fact that he's calm, he's
[37:55] patient, Like, this is someone who doesn't know you from
[37:59] anywhere. Probably knew me, you know, but
[38:03] not on a personal level. Yeah.
[38:06] Was giving you so much trust. Like he has so much trust in
[38:09] you, you can't let him down so quickly.
[38:12] I just drafted it, sent it over to him and that was it.
[38:16] And it wasn't smooth. Honestly, after he gave me the
[38:19] money, the money wasn't like he didn't give me a bulk sum or a
[38:23] lump sum. I was coming in bits.
[38:26] Tranches. Tranches.
[38:28] And each time I got the money because I didn't also want to
[38:32] spend it, I didn't want to enter into my personal expenses.
[38:35] Each time I got the money, I made a terrible mistake of it.
[38:41] I went to a landlord Medina this time I got the money.
[38:46] I went to give it to a landlord because I was, I was told that
[38:50] that particular property was a hot kick.
[38:53] And so if I don't pay a deposit, probably give it to someone
[38:58] else. So each time I got the money
[38:59] physical, sometimes it's physical cash, go and give it to
[39:03] the landlord. So I did it after some, after
[39:07] like four months, I realize that now this man has actually given
[39:10] the poverty out to someone else. Now I give my money on his
[39:14] issue. The case is still in court as we
[39:16] speak. And that money was like a huge
[39:21] percentage of our entire money was a huge percentage of its
[39:25] own. The money that I want to raise,
[39:29] they locked up with some old man somewhere.
[39:30] Yeah. So how did you navigate that?
[39:35] You know, what do you do? What do you do?
[39:40] Crazy. Yeah, it was one of the most
[39:44] difficult moments of my life. I was trying to see if I could
[39:47] get a loan, you know, and fast track the process.
[39:51] But I was, I wasn't getting a loan from anybody.
[39:57] And my partner was very, very understanding.
[39:59] I mean, he, he, I was very transparent with him, you know,
[40:03] so he understood the, the whole thing, the situation.
[40:07] I'm like, OK, we still have to start regardless, right?
[40:10] Even if it's very, very small. And then we start with we start.
[40:15] So I'm like, OK, I got a shop through the help of my brother.
[40:19] I got a shop around USU. OK.
[40:22] Very, very modest and very, very humble beginning.
[40:26] It was like a step down from Kumasi.
[40:29] Mind you had such the Kumasi branch down.
[40:32] To come and do this one. To come and do it.
[40:33] Why? No.
[40:35] It's a business. You have to give it maximum love
[40:38] until it's able to stand on its stools.
[40:41] Before your system can kick in, your system can run it.
[40:46] So as a new business, you have some new child, and Accra is
[40:49] Accra. It's a lot of pressure.
[40:52] You can't simply just leave it in the hands of anyone.
[40:57] He has to be there. He has to be present every day.
[41:00] Yeah, so that's how come. So you so you don't you don't
[41:03] you don't think you had a trusted lieutenants let's in
[41:07] Kumasi who could handle the Kumasi.
[41:08] Business, No, Honestly, no. OK, 'cause it was still a very
[41:11] young business and there's a lot of attention.
[41:14] So, but then you had a, a ready market, you had a supply line or
[41:21] what? Because if I'm running a
[41:23] business agency, Bolly Bomboy, right?
[41:29] I've done business in volleyball before, by the way, so I'm good.
[41:32] That's a different story. And you have products people are
[41:39] buying. Like why would I leave that and
[41:42] come just in being a choir? OK.
[41:45] So you have to obviously do your analysis, OK, to see what is the
[41:51] best move at a particular time in our projection.
[41:56] We're going to move to Kumar. Sorry, Akra.
[41:59] And I'll say, wow, we expand to Kumarasi.
[42:03] OK. We will all the pros and cons
[42:05] realize that it was a better decision to come, to move and
[42:09] come rather than to try and scale beyond your capabilities.
[42:14] Because doing from our research realized doing Kumarasi Akra was
[42:19] going to be suicidal. So it was a it was a better
[42:24] decision to come to Accra. Yeah.
[42:26] And a lot of research went into it before you had a made a move.
[42:32] OK, so you got a place to sue and then?
[42:35] Yeah. And we were, you know, getting a
[42:38] lot of sales the first day. You know, Sue, the demand was
[42:45] crazy. I wasn't expecting that level of
[42:48] demand because it was a new business in Accra, but the
[42:51] demand was was wild. So quickly we had to re expand,
[42:56] then we had to expand, Yeah. And it's been going.
[43:02] To look what the market you tapped into, because I mean in
[43:04] Kenosha, in commerce, it was easier because it was a student
[43:06] community, right, We moved to acquire all the initial revenue
[43:11] GTM targets. You see you have already been
[43:16] with people that like you started a business with and they
[43:21] have most of them the people that were buying from Mazing
[43:23] Kumasi with Macra, OK, OK. Yeah.
[43:26] So was very easy was just like taking their business, bringing
[43:31] back their business to them, OK. Yeah.
[43:33] So when we got to Accra was just a similar market, an even bigger
[43:37] market in Accra. OK.
[43:40] Makes a lot of sense. OK.
[43:41] So now have we had to go to other other other funding rounds
[43:45] to scale? How many branches are there now?
[43:48] It's still the one. That's so why you know.
[43:50] No, we now we have Temar, we have leg one, but the Temar
[43:54] branches currently the operational Yeah and we are
[43:59] obviously targeting other areas as well.
[44:01] OK. Yeah, we don't, we don't open
[44:04] branches for the sake of it. We do it when we, we do our
[44:08] research usually. So it's supposed to take like 3
[44:11] months until it's done. OK.
[44:13] And from the the results, we don't take it make a move did.
[44:17] You say Tema anywhere else? Tema Lagon.
[44:20] Lagon, if you want to eat it, can come to the Lagon branch.
[44:23] Yes, yes, you. Can do I guess.
[44:26] I'm working in dining. Oh OK nice.
[44:29] So but how does the future look like?
[44:31] It's exciting because currently we are doing just 1% of what we
[44:35] intend to do. So you could imagine.
[44:39] And how are you blending this with, So now I mentioned that
[44:42] you have, you and I are competing on certain fronts, 2
[44:45] fronts actually. They're doing something similar
[44:48] to a diary. And you have other businesses
[44:52] going. Yeah.
[44:53] How are you money navigating that?
[44:55] I know now there's a 'cause I hit someone up on the products
[45:01] I'm evolving and oh, I'm doing something with DDD foods and so
[45:09] I can't be involved in this project.
[45:12] That's interesting, you know, so in my thinking and I think it's
[45:16] a food product. So either go to Make Diddy, a
[45:21] hub for food, various food products, a lot of thinking or.
[45:27] Well, the plan is is a huge plan.
[45:32] Yeah. There are a lot of moving parts,
[45:36] some of them I may not be able to disclose.
[45:38] OK this way. I wonder what to see this time.
[45:42] But yes, of course I'm doing a lot of other businesses.
[45:47] I think they are very young, so I prefer not to even mention
[45:50] them. I'm sure with time when when
[45:53] they become big, people know that I'm behind them.
[45:59] And then there are there is something that like I'm very
[46:01] passionate about. It's a problem that must be
[46:04] solved. I think you are doing amazing
[46:06] and in future we may partner. Yeah, with respect.
[46:11] Because I I love partnerships. Yeah, we have to get the right
[46:14] as long as you have the right systems in play.
[46:16] Yeah. The only way you can really do
[46:19] something meaningful is to do with other people.
[46:22] People So quite a story you has man Interesting.
[46:29] Do you do you think you're going to go back to school?
[46:33] Yeah, I'm currently still in school.
[46:34] Oh, where? Ligon.
[46:37] Master scene marketing. No business intelligence and
[46:41] analytics. OK, what influence that?
[46:44] I just wanted to be more intelligent.
[46:46] I have to learn. I have to learn.
[46:48] Bro yeah. Yeah.
[46:50] In, in, in our parts of the world and even the line of
[46:53] business, you have to learn. Yeah.
[46:55] You cannot choose not to. Yeah.
[46:57] Yeah. So I want to learn as much as I
[47:02] can while I live. I see spirituality.
[47:11] I did play a role in what you do, you know?
[47:15] Yeah. You said, yeah, it's
[47:17] Presbyterian. Yeah.
[47:19] Is it plain even what you do? Yeah, You know, sometimes I'm
[47:26] like, this is just ghost plan. I'm just a part of it.
[47:31] I'm just the, the character in it, I'm playing my part, but God
[47:36] has set a plan. I'm just following it.
[47:40] The reason why I'm saying this is when I, when I look back at
[47:44] some of the decisions that I made, I, I get this feeling that
[47:51] they were meant to be, I was meant to take these decisions.
[47:55] I don't, I don't think it's a coincidence.
[47:57] I'm not calling luck to. I feel like it's someone behind
[48:00] it pulling the strings. So I cannot do without God.
[48:05] I cannot do without love my country.
[48:08] I don't do it without love, Manchester United.
[48:11] I was about to mention love for your country.
[48:14] So what I think that really touched me.
[48:17] I really got my attention. What did he's doing is I think
[48:20] he provided food and young people went out to demonstrate.
[48:24] Was it was it the Jalam Singh or someone occupied Jalabi, Aqua
[48:29] jalabi? And I think you were the energy
[48:33] energy hub, you know, providing food for like demonstrators.
[48:36] Like what influenced that? Well, so some of my friends were
[48:39] arrested. Oh.
[48:41] And the initial plan was to just go and send them food.
[48:45] So I sent them, I went there myself to send them the food.
[48:49] And when I got there, I realized there were lots more people.
[48:52] I think that time too was raining.
[48:54] So I'm like, then why don't I just help?
[48:58] Because I cannot just save my my friends and leave at the end of
[49:03] the day. These are all potential
[49:04] customers people have who have bought from me too are probably
[49:08] even in it in also in trouble because some of them had been
[49:11] arrested. So I said OK, then I'm going
[49:13] back. I'm going to bring more food.
[49:15] Then I had people doubt like because I posted this one and I
[49:19] had people that wanted to also be a part of it.
[49:23] Yeah. So they were calling oh,
[49:24] Charlie, I want to help. I want to buy food for this.
[49:27] I want to buy food for that. So we allowed people to also do
[49:31] that. So that's how come we did it.
[49:33] But originally he was trying. We're just trying to help a
[49:35] friend. I see.
[49:38] But what did that do for you? You're not going to you're not
[49:41] going to break your what's it called, give you more demand
[49:46] problems. Yes, it came with his own
[49:48] problems. 'Cause we sent his own problems.
[49:50] I saw, I saw a tweet from this lady and she was talking about
[49:54] how she interferes with your food through the whole
[49:58] demonstration he had about you guys and she's been ordering
[50:01] your food. But then decided that one thing
[50:03] one day she decided she's going to order digital off take that
[50:07] orders of all her office people convinced them to order digital
[50:09] of and then the order was become at 1 ended up coming at 5:00 PM
[50:13] or something and. That's very much regrettable.
[50:16] You know, usually what happens is there are lots of reasons,
[50:20] there could be a lot of reasons and you've corrected, you are
[50:23] correcting them, you've corrected most of them.
[50:26] But you know, there's there are times that an order that has
[50:29] been placed, we don't even get the order.
[50:31] Could be a system issue. OK, Yeah.
[50:34] Like you don't even see that there's an order like that.
[50:37] So by the time you realized the person would like, I ordered
[50:40] food almost five hours ago. I've not got like, it's not
[50:45] reasonable that you order food. That's a lot.
[50:48] No, it's it's not reasonable. So very much regrettable.
[50:53] We are we are looking at alternatives.
[50:55] Yeah. Typically food is ready within 5
[50:58] minutes. Oh, yeah.
[51:00] If I want to be, if I want to be even more modest, I would say
[51:03] like 15 minutes. But between the time that the
[51:08] food leaves our end and the time that it gets to the customer,
[51:13] sometimes it depends greatly on the riders, the dispatch riders.
[51:20] I won't sit here and say that all deliveries are as a result
[51:24] of dispatch riders. Of course, we've had our issues
[51:27] too. There are times that orders will
[51:30] delay because there's there's a huge demand in the kitchen.
[51:33] Yeah, Yeah. But I think over the years
[51:35] you've solved that problem by opening more outlets.
[51:38] OK. Yeah.
[51:39] So now the issues could be one from the rider to the system,
[51:47] which we are currently working on.
[51:49] Now the new thing is that when someone place an order, we let
[51:52] them know quickly that they are supposed to get it like it
[51:56] should. It should be ready in 15
[51:57] minutes. Yeah.
[51:59] And they have the chance to pick it up with their own riders or
[52:03] be delivered for them. You can see.
[52:06] And also we have at the end of it, when you're placing your
[52:10] order, we let you know that you're supposed to typically
[52:13] receive an alert after like 20 minutes.
[52:17] You should get an alert that the order has been dispatched.
[52:19] If you did not get the alert, simply just call us and then we
[52:23] look into it the course. There could be an instance where
[52:26] your order probably didn't get to us, you get to.
[52:32] OK, honest like it's your story has been very interesting is
[52:39] like you never you don't know a man until you know a story.
[52:42] You know, I can tell how these experiences have made it more to
[52:47] sense person like is you mentioned, man, I hope that
[52:51] they've only deepened your resolve 'cause you build like an
[52:54] amazing brand. We that that reminds me your
[52:57] plans will accept another marketing agency because you've
[52:59] done exceptionally well with like the DD brand and even you
[53:05] as a person as a brand on Twitter.
[53:07] I think you're a brand on Twitter, you know, and even
[53:11] though think of the period that you went, you just went quiet on
[53:14] Twitter. People were asking where is
[53:15] endless then you know, do you have plans to set up your
[53:18] marketing agency or you already if if it's not already existent?
[53:23] I've started something like that, OK?
[53:25] And I differently, I mean, the idea is it's not like I'm.
[53:31] I just want to be mysterious. Yeah.
[53:33] But the idea is to build something that will outlast you,
[53:36] OK? Because I understand I'm not
[53:38] going to be in this world forever, OK.
[53:40] And when I'm not there, the businesses should be able to
[53:43] run. So I build stuff beyond myself.
[53:47] I don't want to become the center of it because how was
[53:52] your lifespan? That was mine.
[53:55] I want a business that will outlive.
[53:57] US, yeah. That's the ultimate school,
[54:00] things that will pay other people when you're not alive.
[54:05] Yeah, that's the whole idea behind.
[54:06] Do you know do things? We do it.
[54:08] Yes. And someone said, I mean, he
[54:13] keeps saying it. I think it's quite profound.
[54:16] People might not really understand, but he keeps saying
[54:19] that's a good, a good name is better than riches.
[54:23] I understand it on so many levels because how much money do
[54:29] we really need to be happy? How much as a man, how much
[54:33] money will be enough money for you?
[54:35] You don't really need that much, to be honest.
[54:38] If it depends, you don't really need that much.
[54:41] Things that really make us happy are just a few things.
[54:44] Yeah. So the excess of it, what do you
[54:47] use it for? So I'm not really chasing after.
[54:51] I'm not saying if I get money I don't like, but I'm not really
[54:55] chasing money for the sake of it.
[54:59] And I'm not even looking at shortcuts to make money.
[55:02] I just want to pursue something meaningful, purposeful,
[55:06] something that will influence other people, something that
[55:09] will take care of other people. So if I make my my name or
[55:14] myself the centre of it, I think it takes away from Nova Roku
[55:20] because what that brings is a lot of spotlight to you, which
[55:25] I'm not ready for. And also it kind of feeds your
[55:30] ego because these things, these praises, no matter how humble,
[55:35] modest you are, I guess the point that they they get into
[55:39] your head. Yeah.
[55:40] And you begin to see yourself as a demigod.
[55:44] I don't want that. I don't want any of that.
[55:46] I just want to be able to live a quiet life.
[55:51] I'm not the most perfect human being on it, but I want to.
[55:55] I believe I want to live a life that someone will look back and
[55:59] say, oh, this guy actually show that it's possible to, you know,
[56:04] do things without any other shortcuts.
[56:07] Yeah, I'm going to touch up on that.
[56:12] It might be probably sensitive to you to a certain degree, but
[56:16] your permission to do so just a little is no worries.
[56:21] It's only already speaking about.
[56:24] It's coming to hit my mind because what you mentioned that
[56:27] you want to live a life, leave a good name, leave for other
[56:31] people, something that's going to benefit people.
[56:34] Yeah, you mentioned that the reason why you didn't stop when
[56:37] Covered hits your business at it's nascent stages was that you
[56:40] realized that you had become a source of livelihood for people.
[56:46] But I'm now wondering where that came from.
[56:51] So. Family.
[56:53] I have my, my, I really like to talk about mine immediate family
[56:59] because I saw pain at a very young age.
[57:04] Like I'm not new to pain, OK. I've experienced the highest
[57:08] form of it with my mom and dad. I've had so much pain,
[57:15] experienced it. And that kind of shaped me, that
[57:19] kind of, you know, gave me that, you know, feeling of
[57:25] independence because it's like you were alone.
[57:30] Even though you have people that love you around, you still feel
[57:33] alone. Sometimes you feel like there's
[57:36] a, there's a huge piece of you that has been taken away from
[57:39] you, cruelly so, and always makes you want to be
[57:44] independent. And because of that, I see other
[57:48] people as such. I feel like I, I, I don't know,
[57:51] maybe I'm not supposed to be seen in that that way, but I
[57:54] feel like I owe it to others. I have to help.
[57:58] Be there for them. Yeah, be there for them.
[58:00] It's no, it's not like I'm an Angel.
[58:03] I get it. But I I ask you because and I
[58:07] understand this dynamic very well and I think it's something
[58:11] that place I will most I can interpret as people who like to
[58:13] do are driven and build things. There's a thin line between meet
[58:22] a certain messianic complex metform yes right and if you
[58:25] don't watch it in your bit to be nice everybody and help
[58:29] everybody, you actually end up hurting a lot more people along
[58:32] the way yes. And because you can't see no to
[58:34] you feel like if you see no to them, you are taking them.
[58:38] You are making them go through the same experience you went
[58:40] through when you were like a child or something, you know,
[58:44] but I really hope God gives you solace and guidance and also
[58:50] give you all the resources you need to cause clearly you are
[58:53] well-intentioned. You have good intentions and
[58:56] build a legacy. You want to build, you know, and
[58:58] build instruments and vehicles that will economically empower
[59:03] the people and. When I say I mean well, I'm sure
[59:10] a lot of people also mean well. Yeah.
[59:13] But it doesn't mean that I'm overly sentimental.
[59:17] No. When it comes to business
[59:18] decisions, I always look out for which one is more rational.
[59:22] Yeah, because you're making decisions for a lot of people,
[59:25] not just yourself. Yes.
[59:26] So at all times you have to be rational and you have to make a
[59:30] lot of sacrifice. Take a lot of you suck workers
[59:34] all the time. You leave people off without
[59:36] thinking about what they will eat.
[59:39] Yes. Everything must make sense.
[59:41] Yeah. Without.
[59:42] Without it, you're out of business.
[59:45] And business ward is a very tough ground.
[59:47] You have to be willing to do a lot of crazy things to be able
[59:51] to get things done. Yeah, yeah.
[59:53] So sometimes, even beyond what you feel inside of you, some
[59:58] decisions are made purely based on the business Zeta.
[1:00:03] Numbers, Yes, Thank you very much, Ernest.
[1:00:08] I hope that our community will be getting digital off soon.
[1:00:14] We are thinking about a couple of live events only.
[1:00:17] Do subscribe to our channel I. Want to shine lights?
[1:00:20] Yeah, more lights on their vision.
[1:00:22] OK, so people look at the visual of as a food brand, OK.
[1:00:29] I don't see like that. I see a lot of things.
[1:00:35] I see beyond just the food. There are lots of moving parts.
[1:00:39] There are lots of things that can benefit a lot more people.
[1:00:43] You know, food is like an Ave. for a lot of a lot of stuff.
[1:00:49] I don't know if I get in the yeah, I understand business
[1:00:53] logistics and businesses thrive on, on the success of of yeah,
[1:00:58] we could set up markets in agencies.
[1:01:01] Like it's a whole Ave. ecosystem.
[1:01:04] It's a whole ecosystem. And you can, you know, I used to
[1:01:09] sell yam. What I mean to that young man,
[1:01:15] yeah. So if it gets big, when it gets
[1:01:19] big, it's going to save a lot of people directly and indirectly.
[1:01:23] OK, So now the aim is to, you know, make meaningful
[1:01:28] partnerships. So be able to scale where we can
[1:01:32] see we are employing about 5000 people.
[1:01:35] That's our level of aspiration. Yeah.
[1:01:37] Want to be able to employ a lot of people because we believe
[1:01:40] that that's the assurance way of building a country.
[1:01:44] OK, Yeah. So if you have a lot of
[1:01:47] entrepreneurs having successful businesses, it's for the good of
[1:01:51] the country. So when I see a fellow business
[1:01:53] person doing well, I'm always happy for them.
[1:01:55] I'm never envious of any restaurants or it is one of the
[1:01:59] most difficult businesses you ever do restaurant.
[1:02:02] So if I see a restaurant do, I'm very happy for them.
[1:02:04] I don't envy them because I don't even want to be in their
[1:02:07] shoes. I don't want sometime like this
[1:02:11] is not the life I choose. There was a time I was in the
[1:02:15] kitchen and I blanked when I was in Cantonese.
[1:02:18] I blanked completely. I woke up and I was in the
[1:02:22] hospital. It was just me alone in the
[1:02:24] kitchen. Can you imagine?
[1:02:28] I just crazy. Yeah, that's how crazy it is.
[1:02:32] Intense. It's the most difficult work you
[1:02:35] would do, the most difficult business that you run.
[1:02:38] You're dealing with people, dealing with human beings, and
[1:02:42] it's very urgent. Every other is urgent.
[1:02:46] So you need that sense of urgency.
[1:02:48] You can't have, you can't choose to have a slow D yourself, No.
[1:02:53] So anybody that's running a restaurant, I look at them like
[1:02:57] Charlie. So you go for therapy room.
[1:02:59] Oh, I have my own way. Just what I do.
[1:03:03] You know, you just do a lot of work.
[1:03:05] More work, more work. Distract yourself.
[1:03:08] That's how we we go like oh, and there are times that I take some
[1:03:13] vacations, I take some days off. But now the good thing is that
[1:03:17] I'm not really involved in a day-to-day running other
[1:03:20] business. I have systems so I don't need
[1:03:23] to be there. Yeah.
[1:03:25] If you see me there means that I've seen a bad review and I'm
[1:03:27] going to blast people and I barely even blast people.
[1:03:31] I feel like it hasn't really solved any problem.
[1:03:34] You have to look at the system when there's an issue.
[1:03:36] Look at the system to find out whether it's a system issue or
[1:03:39] it's a personal issue. If it's a personal issue, mostly
[1:03:43] I don't believe people change. I don't think so because you've
[1:03:47] built your life like 26 years of your life.
[1:03:50] That's what has made you like this.
[1:03:52] I can't use one day to change your life, you know, So you have
[1:03:55] to go. This is a system.
[1:03:57] I suit the system. There are no.
[1:04:00] When it comes to changing people so the business can run, I don't
[1:04:04] joke with that. So, yeah.
[1:04:07] So that's where we've got into. OK.
[1:04:09] What I really want us to, where we want to get to is to use
[1:04:15] technology to solve a lot of problems because there are lots
[1:04:17] of gaps in the system, lots of gaps in the delivery system that
[1:04:22] we are not proud of. We are not the cause of them,
[1:04:23] but we are once we have said that we are going to solve them,
[1:04:27] then obviously we have to do yes.
[1:04:30] So I'm I'm hoping to collaborations, meaningful
[1:04:33] partnership that will help us solve these problems actually.
[1:04:37] We have a lot to talk about off camera because I see like a sort
[1:04:42] of synergy. But yeah, we will talk.
[1:04:45] OK. I'll be looking forward to that.
[1:04:47] Thank you for coming in list. Thank you for hosting me.
[1:04:51] You've been a very, very interesting guest, and I think
[1:04:57] everybody understood, can attest to that.
[1:04:59] Like this is a very different conversation.
[1:05:03] Yeah. And I'm really grateful for the
[1:05:06] fact that you're under this invitation and you came by and
[1:05:09] more excited about what you're doing when you're building and
[1:05:13] just carving a sense of who you are and in the mindset you
[1:05:16] carry. It's very encouraging for me.
[1:05:18] It's been a very didactic conversation to say the least.
[1:05:22] And thank you you're. Welcome.
[1:05:24] Anyway, so friends and community that was Ennis Coleman of DD
[1:05:29] Foods as how much I remains just build something.

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