By Miles Gilroy, Senior Print Editor
What does it take to start a business? What skills do I need and how can I develop them? Founding a business is a daunting prospect. With so many open questions and seemingly infinite things to do, where should you start and what should you be doing now to set yourself up to become the next Jeff Bezos?
I sat down with Gabriele Battistella, co-founder and COO of Okomfo, and University of Bristol alum, to discuss his path to entrepreneurship and to discover what advice he had for making the most out of university and successfully navigating the start-up space.
But first, some context. Gabriele studied modern languages at Bristol, graduating in 2023. While at the university, he spent a large proportion of his time playing American football for the university’s team, the Bristol Barracuda. It was at a Barracuda Give it a Go that Gabriele met his good friend, and now business partner, Emile Agbeko who he went on to play further with for the Aztecs, Bristol's national league team. Gabriele now plays American football in a professional capacity in Germany alongside running his start-up, Okomfo, and working for multiple sports management firms.
Okomfo is an AI-native operating system improving efficiency in the transport industry. Emile discovered the necessity for such a system whilst working for a bus operator in Aylesbury:
‘He realized that his colleagues had this big problem, which was fragmented systems and a lot of Excel spreadsheets, a lot of laborious and manual processes that were slow, ineffective, prone to error.’
Emile designed a system to help improve the efficiency of his employer’s operations and asked Gabriele to perform market research in an attempt to gain an understanding of the demand for his creation. Gabriele found that, in the transport industry, ‘the entirety of the UK has this issue in their back office,’ so they decided to turn it into a start-up. Okomfo was born.
Okomfo Anokye was the first priest of the Ashanti Empire (now modern day Ghana) who played an important role in expanding the empire. ‘He's this mystical figure who's able to solve a whole bunch of problems [...] which is what our system does. [Emile] gave the name Okomfo just spontaneously before it was even a start-up, just because, to him, this is what Okomfo would do – he would just solve everything.’
Given his success, I was curious to hear Gabriele’s tips on starting a business and how to run a successful start-up. During our chat, we discussed Gabriele’s top three pieces of advice that he had picked up along the way.
‘Speed defies gravity’
Gabriele’s ‘number one’ piece of advice is to be fast. Don’t overthink, don’t wait – learn as you go.
‘If you want to do something and you know you need to talk to someone or you know you need to build something, whatever it is, just do it. Don't think too much – thinking kills.’
‘Make something that works. Put it out there and then fix it.’
‘Closed mouths don’t eat’
A phrase that Emile and Gabriele recite to each other often, the second piece of advice is to ask questions.
‘If you don't ask, you'll never know.’
Asking questions is the only way to understand the world, and people - generally - love answering them (it’s a great excuse for them to show off and an easy way to be a good person). So, don’t be afraid to ask. Closed mouths don’t eat.
‘Do things that don’t scale’
Gabriele, through this quote from Paul Graham, emphasises the importance of tailoring your approach to everything.
‘Don't just spray and pray.’
Sending emails to potential clients? Do a deep dive – find out who they are, what they’re like, what they're after. ‘It's a longer process, but the success rate is much higher.’
His experience playing American football, especially with Emile, is another thing Gabriele has found invaluable in the world of business.
‘It's changed who I am, the way I work. So much discipline and mostly just self-confidence because American football is a violent sport and you need to have a certain mentality to be able to go on the field and get involved with that sort of game.’
But it’s not just his personal development that Gabriele attributes to the sport – he thanks American football for enabling him to form such a deep and rich relationship with Emile.
‘I think American football is as close as you can get to going to war without actually going to war. [...] There's a sort of respect and trust you have with these people that you've gone into battle with. [...] We've developed a strong bond because of the nature of the sport.’
‘I consider [Emile] basically my brother.’
Crucially, much like American football, Gabriele compares working on his start-up to going into war.
‘We rely on each other. We have to fight because building a startup isn't like going for coffee. It's something that takes a lot of planning, a lot of doing.’
‘Every day is a big game and we do it together.’
Sport aside, Gabriele looks back on his time at the University of Bristol with a great fondness in his tone.
‘Bristol is just a cool place. [...] Having that as a part of my roots, it's amazing and it's useful.’
He directs his gratitude towards the people he met at university and the resources he had available to him:
‘One thing I am grateful for, which might be slightly overlooked, is just being an alum of UOB. It's the people I met along the way, professors as well, but mostly other students. [...] These are people that I'm still in touch with on a day-to-day basis.’
‘It's a top university in the UK, but I really felt that because of the resources that I had, and there's just a high quality of teaching.’
Despite having a rather successful university experience, Gabriele still feels he could have made better use of the opportunities the university has to offer. He wishes he had done ‘more societies [...] because there's so much that the university offers.’ With such a vast array of societies and activities available at the university, this is not surprising. So, take it from Gabriele, get out there and try something new.
Miles Gilroy
Gabriele and Emile have filled a distinct and gaping hole in the market with Okomfo. With talks of going international already on the table, Gabriele Battistella, Emile Agbeko, and Okomfo are all names to look out for. And, who knows, if you’re heading up to Coombe Dingle to watch a Barracuda game any time soon, you may even spot him there, cheering from the sidelines for the team that ‘changed [his] life.’
Featured image: Okomfo LTD, Tom Gross (background)
