Entrepreneurial Insights: Life of a Web3 Entrepreneur

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How does an entrepreneur begin their journey into the dynamic world of Web3? We recently sat down with Ikenna "Ike" Orizu, co-founder & CEO of Jamit, to hear his insights into what being a Web3 entrepreneur means and how the CV Labs Accelerator supported Ike & Jamit take the next steps. Discover how Ike began his entrepreneurial journey, as well as some tips & tricks on how to navigate the Web3 industry as an aspiring entrepreneur.

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Tell us about yourself and your company

Hi! I’m Ikenna “Ike” Orizu. I studied audio engineering and computer science and have since been passionate about empowering creators through technology. From there, I moved to work and led engineering at top media-tech companies including Roku and NewsCorp. Today, I'm building Jamit, the world's first Web3 social audio platform that's revolutionizing how podcasters and audio creators own, monetize, and engage with their communities. We've developed an innovative platform that rewards both creators and listeners in more ways than Web2, solving the long-standing challenge of platform dependency and limited monetization options in the podcast industry.

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When did you begin your entrepreneurial journey? And what did that process look like?

My entrepreneurial journey began at 17 with founding TruSpot, West Africa's first digital music platform that helped drive Afrobeats' global adoption. TruSpot gained millions of users, but scaled with lesser resources than our competitors in the west. Even though the start-up failed, I took away a lot of lessons from it as a young first-time founder. That experience showed me how technology can empower creators and transform cultural industries. This is the experience I am using to build Jamit to be better and fail-proof. So the process has been humbling, but also challenging. My roots in Africa and experience traveling around the world have given me more exposure, networks, and better advisors / mentors that have pushed me to continue solving for global problems.

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What characteristics do you believe are vital to becoming a successful entrepreneur?

3 characteristics stand out for me always: resilience in facing constant challenges, vision to see opportunities others miss, and empathy to truly understand your users' needs and not build for ourselves.

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Your professional background doesn’t entail much of a blockchain focus. How did you break into the Web3 space?

My experience with the media-tech companies I worked with and generally the eWb2 consumer space showed me the limitations of centralized platforms. When I discovered Web3's potential to give true ownership to creators, it was a natural evolution. I immersed myself in the technology, took bootcamp courses, joined communities, and started building with the blockchain to solve the creator economy's biggest challenges.

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As a founder, what was the most difficult challenge that you faced? And how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge has been finding the right team members and bridging the gap in how to translate Web3's possibilities to creators' current needs on Web2. We solved this by focusing on user experience first with account and chain abstraction and let users start earning without any crypto knowledge. And now we fire fast and hire slow, looking for high-performing team members.

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If you could share one piece of advice with other budding entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Focus on solving real user problems that they are willing to pay for from day one, not just building cool technology. Every feature we build at Jamit addresses a specific creator pain point.

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How did the CV Labs Accelerator best prepare you for the future of your startup?

CV Labs provided crucial connections and mentorship that helped us pivot and accelerated our development. The program helped us refine our roadmap and introduced us to key partners. The ecosystem access is invaluable.

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With Jamit being the world's first podcast 3.0 platform, how do you envision the future of blockchain technology across the creative industries?

Being the first has given us even more insights and learnings on what works,. We know blockchain technology will transform how creators monetize and engage with their audiences. We're already seeing this with true ownership of and censor-proof content for creators who use Jamit, as well as listen-to-earn model  for listeners. In five years, I believe most creative content will have some blockchain integrated, whether for payments, royalties, engagement, or community and content ownership.

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What is it like being an African tech founder? Does it have its advantages?

Being an African founder has given me a unique perspective on global markets. Africa's rapid blockchain adoption and young population has made it a perfect testing ground for innovative solutions and with that it has given us more ways to build, not only for Africa’s problems but also for global markets.

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Podcasting is a very Web2-dominated field. How do you convince traditional players, both listeners and advertisers, to venture into the world of blockchain and Web3?

We focus on benefits, not technology when talking to them. For creators, we demonstrate tools to increase revenue, community engagement and true ownership that do not exist in Web2. For listeners, we show how they can be rewarded for their attention which they do not get on Web2. The blockchain aspect is secondary to the value proposition and barely mentioned, as no one asks in Web2 if you are on AWS or Google Cloud.

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Where do you hope to see yourself and your startup in 5 years?

In five years, we aim to be the leading platform for stories and audio creator monetization globally, with millions of active users and thousands of professional creators. Beyond that, we want to have transformed how audio content is valued and consumed.

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You have a young family as well. What is it like combining entrepreneurship with being a parent? Which one is harder?

Both requires a lot of patience, empathy, adaptability, and long-term thinking. Parenting taught me better how to focus on what truly matters and to be more efficient with time. The harder one? Definitely parenting, at least startups sleep throughout the night!