This Harvard Grad' Says Her MBA Didn't Prepare Her for Entrepreneurship When She Took Over the Family Business with Naa-Sakle Akuete S1 Ep.14
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**Pardon the audio issues!
CEO of Naasakle International Naa-Sakle Akuete has an MBA from Harvard, but the best business professor she has ever had is her mother, Eugenia, Founder of Mother Shea and Chairwoman of Naa-Sakle International. Episode 13 of the WTF podcast featured the inspiring and resilient Eugenia Akuete, Naa-Sakles mother who started with a family business with $30 dollars and a lot of determination and conviction to help improve the lives of women in Northern Ghanas shea belt. Naa-Sakle joined the family business in 2014 when she established Naa-Sakle International to help her mother who had just defeated breast cancer and was then struck by meningitis and was in a coma for a number of weeks.
While her mother was in recovery, Naa-Sakle took reign of the business as it was, which focus mainly on the production of bulk shea with a business to a business approach started two finished product lines, Mothers Shea, a mass-market line available in over 900 Target stores and Eugenia Shea available in more up-scale clean beauty stores such as Detox Market, Credo Beauty, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. Naa-Sakle brought a new vision to the business and embarked on fundraising to support that vision. One of the most important things that Naa-Sakle learned when she joined the family business was that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in school. You learn it on the job! There was a lot she had to learn that her Harvard MBA did not prepare her for. Social Impact Funders: Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF Social Finance) MCE Social Capital (MCE Socap) The Palladium Group (Impact Investing) Vested World (Vested World Venture Capital Fund) IMP Key
Take-Aways:
Funding isnt everything sometimes businesses need investors who can help open doors and provide thought-leadership and business development growth.
You have to get comfortable asking for help when you are trying to grow a business. Your networks can help to introduce you to opportunities in their networks.
Networking is about relationship building and not just coming in cold for an ask without relationship building.
Tertiary relationships or the power of weak ties can be very valuable. More opportunities might come from your tertiary network than from your primary network, i.e. people who you network know who can introduce you to other people who can help you.
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