• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Damilola Olokesusi, Co-Founder/CEO, Shuttlers

Damilola

Damilola is a Co-Founder and CEO of a transport and tech company called Shuttlers, a start-up currently revolutionising the way professionals commute in metropolitan cities like Lagos.

Through constant frustrating experiences using the public transport in Lagos, birthed her desire to create an efficient system of transportation for professionals in Lagos using a shared scheduled model enabled by technology, and this led to the establishment of the company.

One of her sisters got into a one-chance bus (a commercial bus used for robbing passengers), and it was a traumatic experience for Damilola. Her sister was taken to another destination where they were abducted and robbed. Having had their different bus experiences, they realised it was a collective pain point for them. So, they came together to solve it with their complementary skills.

Olokesusi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos. As an entrepreneur, Damilola uses innovation and technology to solve economic and social problems. She possesses the ability to recognise opportunities in everyday problems as well as the tenacity and diligence required to break barriers whilst solving these problems.

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Shuttlers is a scheduled ride-sharing platform that offers an economical way to work for professionals and organisations in the Lagos metropolis. They help transform the stressful time commuting to and fro work into a productive, refreshing and relaxing experience.

Through Shuttlers App, professionals can book a seat a route, pay a subscription, and track arrival and departure times of their shuttles.

Passengers shuttle in comfortable air-conditioned buses and cars providing them with extra time to catch up on sleep, work or personal development time. Sharing with other professionals also give room for networking opportunities.

Their goal is to help professionals reduce the stress related to commuting to and from work, reduce the number of privately-driven cars on the road during peak hours and reduce carbon footprint in the environment.

Before their pilot in 2015, Olokesusi had a long meeting with one of her sisters who gave her 1,001 reasons why Shuttlers wasn’t going to work. From the fact they are ladies to the fact that this is Nigeria and not Silicon Valley. Well, she didn’t listen to any of that because she had a clear conviction that Shuttlers was going to work and like they say, the rest is history.

Damilola has won competitions and awards such as Demo Africa in Nigeria, Unreasonable Institute, Women in Africa Contest and Aso Villa Demo Day, where she had the opportunity to meet the President, Vice president of Nigeria and Mark Zuckerberg. She is fully committed to positively affecting Africa by building efficient systems.