At over six feet, Chinedu Azodoh is towering adjacent a ‘TEDxYaba’ signage. He is the last speaker at the 2018 independently organised TED event in Lagos’ foremost technology cluster. A few seconds after he takes the stage, he has drawn out the audience’s lethargy after a full day of talks, some clearly unrehearsed and ironically uninspiring. But it is not just his ebullient personality that seemingly fills the large conference hall in the next half hour. His talk, Power of Human Connection – Struggle Pornography, curates personal stories of loss and family; the many phases of his journey as an entrepreneur; his genuineness when he describes picking interest in American football, a sport he once considered stupid and finally joining an actual team; and his 5-take home pointers for not falling prey to what he termed the ‘struggle pornography’, echoes across the hall and ends the conference on an aspirational high.

Azodoh leads growth efforts at Nigeria’s first motorbike hailing startup. In 2015, when Metro Africa Xpress was founded alongside co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Adetayo Bamiduro both of whom met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, no one was ordering bike rides via a phone app in Nigeria’s densely populated megacity. His job was an arduous one. 

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