Founder’s Portfolio
I started my first company at 17. In the decade since, I’ve founded 6 companies across 4 industries, managed millions in valuation, experienced catastrophic failure, and turned every scar into a framework. This is that story — told with full transparency.
Most founders hide their failures. I study mine. Every company below taught me something that now lives inside the frameworks I use to help other founders survive.
A clothing brand with unique designs. My first venture — started while being the top student in university with a 4.95 CGPA studying Economics.
At 17, I was the top student at university. I started Varf Clothing not from a place of strategic clarity, but from survival and social pressure. My friends were doing it. I never conducted my own feasibility study. I had an idea, created it, and tried to sell it.
I led a team of 46 people with sub-teams at 18. The ambition was massive; the foundation was hollow. I sold on credit. I started the business as a means to survive, not as a means to build. The business taught me my first hard lesson about the difference between activity and strategy.
An asset management company co-founded with university friends. Managed $5M in valuation. The biggest blow — and the origin story of everything I do now.
At 20, I led an audience of 3,000 and ran multiple projects. VGC was the crown jewel — an asset management company with massive revenue within a short period. But I was 20 years old trying to manage a financial services business without understanding what that truly meant.
The model was great. Revenue was massive. But revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash is king. I learned that lesson the hardest way possible. The failure was public, painful, and permanent. But it became the most important thing that ever happened to me.
This failure is the direct motivation for building the Dapo Abiola brand. Every framework, every diagnostic tool, every piece of counsel I now offer exists because VGC taught me that failure doesn’t have to be destiny — but only if you can see it coming.
A fintech startup born under pressure — started with the aim of solving the errors of VGC, but built on the same broken foundation.
After VGC collapsed, I started Heraldus at 23 under enormous pressure. The intent was to solve the errors of the previous company. But I made a critical mistake: I put new wine into an old wineskin — building the business on the foundational structure of VGC.
I was managing too many things simultaneously. I gave out control too easily. I trusted too quickly, with no logical arrangements. Again, emotion and religion led where logic should have.
A financial management platform for payments, budgeting, and lifestyle services. The one that survived — $1.2M in revenue, 25% PAT.
More was started alongside Heraldus and Modeski as part of a desperate bid to keep things afloat. Of the three, it was the one that found product-market fit. The platform enables users to manage payments, budgeting, data purchases, and travel bookings through one app.
It achieved $1.2M in revenue with a 25% profit after tax. A genuine win. But the lessons from the failure taught me as much as the success. I no longer manage the company — I sold my stake. Sometimes knowing when to step back is the most important decision.
An online learning platform providing skill-based courses in business, technology, and digital fields. Sold the business.
Modeski Business Academy (MB Hub) was an online learning platform offering self-paced courses in digital marketing, graphic design, business optimization, UI/UX design, front-end development, mobile app development, data analysis, and more.
The platform offered affordable, globally-recognized certifications with flexible learning. Courses ranged from free to minimal cost, lowering the barrier for aspiring professionals in underserved markets.
I sold the edutech business and moved on. The exit was clean, but the lessons about capital allocation and team management stayed with me.
A data intelligence platform providing real-time, high-quality data and bespoke analytics for businesses across underdeveloped markets. Conceptualised during my Master’s programme in Ireland.
After moving to Ireland at 25 for a change in environment and a broader perspective, I pursued a Master’s in Entrepreneurship. Finished top of the class at 26 with First Class Honours.
During the programme, I conceptualised and created Schemata — a data lab that gathers real-time data across underdeveloped markets. I built a model to analyse product-market need and a model for financial management. Schemata represents the synthesis of everything I’ve learned: data-driven decision making, market validation before commitment, and structured financial intelligence.
The Full Timeline
Not just the companies — the complete journey that turned a 17-year-old builder into a diagnostic authority.
Most advisors hide their failures. I lead with mine. Because the credibility of what I teach comes not from theory or textbooks — it comes from having lived every failure signal, every structural weakness, every controllable collapse that I now help other founders prevent.
I trusted when I should have verified. I grew when I should have consolidated. I believed when I should have measured. And every one of those mistakes became a diagnostic framework that now protects someone else’s business.
If you see your story in mine — let’s talk before the ending writes itself.