As you know the first ever She Leads Africa Accelerator Program is currently ongoing. Out of the 120 startups from across Nigeria who applied for the program, we identified 10 as the next generation of Nigeria’s brightest female entrepreneurs.
These 10 selected businesses are now benefitting from our intense accelerator training. One of them is Shuttlers, a company that enables professionals access comfortable and efficient transportation to and from work using seat matching technology.
Meet the three women behind Shuttlers —Damilola Olokesusi, Busola Majekodunmi, and Damilola Quadry. Frustrated by the stress commuting in Lagos as professionals, the three women decided to do something about it.
What idea lead to the creation of Shuttlers?
After a long week of stress commuting to and from work, Busola and I shared our commuting experience over a phone call and decided to solve the problem instead of complaining.
Not too long after, Damilola Quadry moved back to Nigeria and shared the same commuting challenges. She joined the team to make commuting to and from work less stressful for professionals who share this same plight daily.
We shared a common passion, drive, determination and combination of different skills from Engineering, Economics, Management & IT. Also we had been exposed to efficient transport system from Dubai, London and USA.
Adding in personal experiences with commuting in Lagos, we developed a business model to solve this problem in the most efficient and cost effective manner. After several months of research, we partnered with a leasing company and had our first pilot in November 2015. – Damilola Olokesusi
How has the service Shuttlers provides been received in Nigeria?
Shuttlers makes use of a different model from what many are used to, the service idea has been welcomed by many individuals and companies.
Due to the structure of our business model and current low capacity we are unable to cater to all the daily demands.
Currently, we are working to increase capacity by partnering with more bus leasing companies/ fleet management companies to enable us penetrate areas that are pain points in the city and to meet the demand for the service. – Busola Majekodunmi
What do you need to take Shuttlers to the next level? How do you plan to get there?
We need financial resources in form of investment, Human Resources and commercial partnerships such as bus leasing companies, fleet management companies, bus owners and companies with staff buses and access to companies to reach professionals who need our service.
We plan to perfect our product/market fit and strategically position our product/service to attract these resources. I believe we are currently on that path. – Busola Majekodunmi