This episode is the first installment of a new series called Operator’s Opinion where we examine what it’s like building startups from the operator’s perspective. I could not think of a better person to launch this series with than today’s guest, Gerald Okonkwo also known as Gerald Black.

Gerald’s experience cuts across various roles including as a founder, consultant, sales lead, and more.

During our conversation, we spoke about how Gerald thinks about building a sales operations team for a to B startup. We also spoke about intentionality in branding and life in general. We ended our conversation by speaking about Gerald’s experience as a founder and builder and the lessons he has learned from that journey.

Hope you enjoy this great conversation with Gerald!

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(1:37) – Who is Gerald Black?

(3:50) – Banking as a Service and Embedded Finance

(7:30) – Gerald’s Role as Head of Go to Market at Anchor

(20:15) – How Sales People Should Think About Selling and Choosing the Right StartUp

(24:05) – Branding

(36:08) – Marketing and Communications

(37:56) – Building Effective Structures and Processes

(42:16) – What It Means to Build

(50:35) – Building is Wild!

(1:17:30) – What It Means to Raise Capital

(1:20:05) – Gerald’s Important Lessons in Life and Being Intentional

(1:25:19) – Quick Fire Questions

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Gerald’s Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ijDN3vbhz4Xm6BeYqsKYI?si=3edcb6031de549bc

Companies discussed: Anchor, Fixit45, Parkit, iFixng
Please email paul.agbaje@whatittakesafrica.com for any comments or feedback.