A doctor in Nigeria decides he could make more impact growing chickens. Not just growing them one by one or 1,000 by 1,000, but by launching a company where middle-class Nigerians can fund Nigerian farmers to raise chickens, sharing in the profits.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian nurse decides she could make more impact working with widowed and single women smallholder farmers, helping them automate cassava processing.
He quits his job and launches Birdpreneur.
She quits her job and launches Recy World.
In her transition, she gets invited to Brazil to take part in the DO School, and while there hears about Fledge and applies. While in Brazil she gets interviewed by the Fledge staff and they like her.
While she’s in Brazil, he too hears about Fledge and applies. His interview is the week after hers.
Unbeknownst to the Fledge staff, these two entrepreneurs know each other. They talk over the phone in between those two interviews, surprised to learn they applied to the same program. They know its next to impossible to get into, so they don’t expect to get to go, let alone together.
The first surprise goes to this doctor and nurse turned entrepreneurs, who both get invited to Fledge11 in Barcelona.
The second and bigger surprise comes to the Fledge team, when on Day 1 they discover these two Nigerian fledglings don’t just know each other, they are married to each other.
Work with enough startups and the most interesting and unexpected patterns emerge.
