This week’s conversation comes to you in two parts and is courtesy of a connection made by my guest from Episode 34, Stacey Enyame. Recognizing the intersection between tech and community/economic development and my background, Stacey suggested I join the Keta MakerSpace community on WhatsApp--a brainchild of #GlobalGhanaian, Paul Kwesi Damalie. We go into detail about the community and the vision for the platform and new city in the making in Part 2 of the conversation, both parts are not to be missed! Paul is founder of Damalie Innovation Holdings Group which invests in and builds companies in health tech, sports value chain, gaming and family entertainment, urban infrastructure & development and trade & embedded finance, climate resileince. Previously he was the co-founder of Inclusive Innovations Inc. which developed the Appruve API, product making it easy for financial services to verify individuals and businesses all over Africa. In 2023 Appruve was acquired by Smile ID.
As a Fintech industry influencer, he is among Untapt's Top 23 fintech influencers to follow on X; he is a Chapter Lead of Next Money, the global thought leader community for stakeholders within the financial services and technology ecosystem. He organizes events (meetups & conferences) that create opportunities for stakeholders to discuss current trends, explore opportunities through networking and influence policy in the financial services ecosystem. He also has experience consulting for fintech startups and new market entrants into West Africa, working closely with fintech innovation programmes, accelerators and investors as well as financial inclusion research institutions.

Where to find Paul?
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Paul reading?
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
Every.to

What’s Paul listening to?
Funaná
Kizomba

Other topics of interest:
Keta Coastal Analysis
Albert and Comfort Ocran
DSF Lab
Caribou Digital
Afropolitan Network State
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin talks Charter Cities an the Charter Cities Institute
New City Concepts - Zuzalu, Próspera, Fumba Town, Itana
On Digital Nomads
Playground.ai
Google for Startups
Y Combinator
Sand Hill Road
Tokeh Beach, Sierra Leone

Special Guest: Paul Damalie.

This week’s conversation comes to you in two parts and is courtesy of a connection made by my guest from Episode 34, Stacey Enyame. Recognizing the intersection between tech and community/economic development and my background, Stacey suggested I join the Keta MakerSpace community on WhatsApp--a brainchild of #GlobalGhanaian, Paul Kwesi Damalie. We go into detail about the community and the vision for the platform and new city in the making in Part 2 of the conversation, both parts are not to be missed! Paul is founder of Damalie Innovation Holdings Group which invests in and builds companies in health tech, sports value chain, gaming and family entertainment, urban infrastructure & development and trade & embedded finance, climate resileince. Previously he was the co-founder of Inclusive Innovations Inc. which developed the Appruve API, product making it easy for financial services to verify individuals and businesses all over Africa. In 2023 Appruve was acquired by Smile ID.
As a Fintech industry influencer, he is among Untapt's Top 23 fintech influencers to follow on X; he is a Chapter Lead of Next Money, the global thought leader community for stakeholders within the financial services and technology ecosystem. He organizes events (meetups & conferences) that create opportunities for stakeholders to discuss current trends, explore opportunities through networking and influence policy in the financial services ecosystem. He also has experience consulting for fintech startups and new market entrants into West Africa, working closely with fintech innovation programmes, accelerators and investors as well as financial inclusion research institutions.

Where to find Paul?
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram
On Facebook

What’s Paul reading?
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
Every.to

What’s Paul listening to?
Funaná
Kizomba

Other topics of interest:
Keta Coastal Analysis
Albert and Comfort Ocran
DSF Lab
Caribou Digital
Afropolitan Network State
Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin talks Charter Cities an the Charter Cities Institute
New City Concepts - Zuzalu, Próspera, Fumba Town, Itana
On Digital Nomads
Playground.ai
Google for Startups
Y Combinator
Sand Hill Road
Tokeh Beach, Sierra Leone

Special Guest: Paul Damalie.

This week on we’re moving into the new year with some wise words and insights in Part 2 of my conversation with Ghanaian investor and developer of new businesses, Eric Osiakwan. With 25 years of experience spanning 32 countries in Africa gained through a number of successful tech start-ups, Eric is a leading pioneer of internet in Africa. Having worked in multiple countries building internet service providers (“ISP”) and ICT businesses, some of his successful exits include iBurst in South Africa, One2Net in Uganda, and BusyInternet in Ghana, to name a few. Eric also founded and ran the Africa ISP Association for eight years, during which the ISP industry grew by almost 120 percent. He then moved on to leading efforts to build submarine cables on the continent. Eric was part of a public-private partnership in Kenya that built and launched the TEAMS submarine fibre cable, the first to connect East Africa to the rest of the world. He subsequently contributed to the building of terrestrial fibre networks in Ghana and Nigeria. As we learned in Part 1 of the conversation, he Co-Founded Angel Africa List, Angel Fair Africa and currently heads Chanzo Capital, a venture and growth capital firm, investing capital, capacity and community in high-tech startups and scaleups in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.

Where to find Eric?
ericosiakwan.com
On LinkedIn
On [Facebook](Eric Osiakwan)
On [Instagram](Instagram (@eosiakwan))
On X

What’s Eric reading?
Works by Cheikh Anta Diop

Other topics of interest:
How Greater Accra (Tema) is the geographical center of the Earth
About Panafest and Kojo Yankah
On Ghana’s Joseph Project
Year of Return
Full Circle Africa Economic Conference
Stripe Payments Platform
Safaricom and the roots of Mobile Money
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa: African Information Society Initiative(AISI)
UNDP Internet Initiative for Africa
What are Internet Exchange Points?
The African Internet Service Providers Association
ICANN and Esther Dyson
About TEAMS
Bongo Hive
About the BenBen App
On Eric’s book KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy

Special Guest: Eric Osiakwan.

This week, we interrupt our scheduled Part 2 conversation with Suki Fuller to give some shine to a milestone event taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. Co-founded by my guest, Ghanaian, Eric Osiakwan, Angel Fair Africa, happening November 28th - December 1st, brings selected and curated entrepreneurs to pitch to a room of angel investors with the intent of doing deals. Eric is an entrepreneur and investor with 25 years of ICT industry leadership across Africa and the world, He has worked in 32 African countries setting up ISPs, ISPAs, IXPs and high-tech startups. He Co-Founded Angel Africa List, in addition to Angel Fair Africa and Chanzo Capital, he also currently serves on the board of Farmerline – some of which are his investments. While we made the connection in Cape Town, a funny thing happened on the streets of Brooklyn with another Glocal Citizen, Chinedu Echeruo (EP79) last summer that put an Aha! smile on our faces. #BorderlessMindset in action!
This week our conversation is centered on all things Angel-Investing-Meets-Entrpreneurship as Eric and his team kick off Angel Fair Africa @10. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our conversation where we’ll get t o know more about Eric’s Glocal Citizenship journey.

Where to find Eric?
www.angelfairafrica.com
On LinkedIn
On Facebook
On Instagram
On X

Special Guest: Eric Osiakwan.

For this week’s episode I found myself in a hidden gem of a community in East London with a not so hidden gem in the European investment space, Eric Collins. Eric, born an raised in the southern United States, has called London home for the nearly 10 years. He is a serial entrepreneur, investor, technology executive and host of Channel 4 business show, The Money Maker, which is based on the highly successful US show The Profit on CNBC.

Eric has spent much of his career building the value of digital companies through innovative strategies at public and private companies including AOL, TimeWarner, Tegic/Nuance Communications, MobilePosse, SwiftKey/Microsoft and most recently, Touch Surgery, where he was COO. He sits on the boards of companies in San Francisco and London, including Tech Nation.

In 2011, President Obama, a fellow Harvard Law School classmate, appointed him to the Small Business Administration’s Council on Underserved Communities.

Eric is also a brand ambassador for luxury car manufacturer, Audi, and the youth charity The Prince’s Trust.

In 2018, The Financial Times named him among the UK’s top 100 BAME leaders in technology. Since 2019, he has been voted one of the most influential Black people in Britain on The Powerlist.

In his award-winning book, We Don’t Need Permission: How Black Business Can Change Our World (Penguin), Eric argues investing in Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs is the surest, fastest socio-economic game changer there is. And with his work as a Founder and CEO of Impact X Capital we believe him!

Where to find Eric?
www.impactxcapital.com
On LinkedIn
On X
On Instagram

What’s Eric reading?
J. Califoria Cooper

What’s Eric watching?
Purlie Victorious
The Lehman Trilogy

Other topics of interest:
Revisit fellow Glocal Citizen Natasha Moore
Greensboro, North Carolina
Tuskegee University
Bennett College
North Carolina A&T State University
On Charles Blow’s The Devil You Know
Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving
On the Black Power Movement
About the inaugural SBA Council on Underserved Communities and Chair, Cathy Hughes
Audra McDonald & Brian Stokes Mitchell Perform 'Wheels of a Dream' From RAGTIME
First Black Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt
Former Governor of Virgina Douglas Wilder
GiveBLACK
About Ric Lewis
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
About Marshmallow

Special Guest: Eric Collins.

This week on the podcast I have the pleasure of hosting the gentleman who opened the invitation to what is now Glocal Citizens. As you listen to the episode, you’ll understand more about how my guest’s investment ethic and a particular investment in a start-up podcasting network four years ago are at the intersection of our collective coming to being on this page.

Born into multiracial family in Trinidad & Tobago, now based in Southern California, my guest is investor, influencer and friend, Garnet Heraman. With over 25 years experience at the intersection of innovation, diversity and technology, Garnet is a frequent speaker at events around the world; his portfolio has been featured in Time Magazine, BuzzFeed, Forbes, Bloomberg, HuffPost, Thrillist, WSJ, Institutional Investor, Inc., Entrepreneur, GMA, Travel+ Leisure + O, Oprah Magazine.

He is co-founder and managing partner of Aperture VC, the US’s largest fintech fund backed by multiple Fortune 500 companies. He is also co-founder of FUEL OZ.Capital, an opportunity zone sponsor of innovation hubs to drive inclusive development. Previously, he was co-founder of Aegis Investment Partners, a private equity boutique specializing in growth capital for corpvc backed companies.

He is an investor or board member at numerous ventures and is co-owner of the sustainable apparel brand, Karina Dresses.

Garnet’s non-profit work includes the Brookings Institute (advisor); the Columbia Venture Community; TiE New York, where he was a founding board member; The CORO Foundation, which named him to their prestigious Leadership New York Program in the 2000-1 cohort and; Rhizome.org, the world's first digital art space on the web.

Where to find Garnet?
ApertureVC.com
On LinkedIn

What’s Garnet reading?
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Other topics of interest:
About the Woolworth Building
About Aperture’s William Crowder
Carla Harris
Fred Wilson
Joanne Solomon Wilson
Union Square Ventures
Digitial NYC: Wired to the World Program
Philip McKenzie
Comcast Catalyst Fund

Special Guest: Garnet Heraman.