BENEFICIARIES SPOTLIGHT
In this spotlight edition, we have Adebimpe Osanyintuyi, CEO and founder of Dios Delight, a Lagos-based company offering a range of healthy treats, including dairy products like Greek yogurt and dried fruit snacks. Adebimpe shares her journey as a woman entrepreneur in the health food industry and how the Growth4Her Accelerator program has helped her refine her funding strategy and improve conflict resolution within her team, she has gained valuable insights that have propelled her business forward.
Interviewer: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your business?
My name is Adebimpe Osanyintuyi, I’m the CEO and founder of Dios Delight. Dios Delight is a healthy treat, manufacturing company in Lagos, Nigeria. We offer a range of healthy products that range from dairy and dried fruits and snacks. So, under our dairy, we have Greek yogurt, which comes in sweetened and unsweetened in different sizes. Then under our dried fruits and snacks, we have coconut flakes, dried banana chips, dried cranberry, what else do we have? Trail mix. Trail mix is a mix of dried fruits and dried nuts. And then we have granolas. Our vision is to promote a healthier lifestyle through guilt-free treats, where people can enjoy good and healthy products made with healthy ingredients without having to worry that it probably has a negative on their health, waistline or their lives in general based on the increase in obesity or health issues around the world because people are using a lot of sugar to manufacture their products.
Interviewer: What motivated you to join the Growth4Her Accelerator program?
I think for me the objective fit perfectly with where we were as a business and what we were looking to achieve. So we were looking to position ourselves for readiness, there was a knowledge gap on what was required and what best options we should be pursuing and that is part of the core I was able to help us with in terms of positioning us for readiness being able to evaluate where we were and what we should be looking at in terms of funding or equity options so that clarity we were able to get by being in the program.
Interviewer: Were there specific challenges your business was faced with prior to joining the program? How did the Growth4Her Accelerator program help you overcome these challenges you faced in growing your business?
Like I said, for us as a business, it is about the scaling, on, there’s loan, there’s grants, there’s equity, all those options and not being sure which to take up. And then I think some of the courses, some of the classes helped in dealing even with ourselves internally in terms of our financials, what we were supposed to be looking at in terms of conflict resolution. The program was able to help us address even internal lapses that we were required to sort to be able to position ourselves better even to be attractive to investors.
Interviewer: Can you share a memorable moment or experience from the Growth4Her Accelerator program that stood out to you?
I think one of them is the psychosocial session, which included the personality test. I’ve done a couple of personality tests, but this particular one kind of mirrored myself, It was really mind-blowing and it was able to also help me see how my personality needs to be able to relate with other personalities in terms of managing either my employees, colleagues or managing upwards as the case may be and it was really interesting and the things that I needed to work on which somehow I wasn’t aware of, but with the way it was all broken down, it helped me manage myself even as the driver of this ship on how I probably need to do better in certain situations while running my business. Then, also the conflict resolution was very insightful.
Interviewer: Since completing the Growth4Her Accelerator program, how has your business grown or changed?
Also, for us, I think we’re pretty clear now on what we need to be doing. The quick Q &As for a lot of the sessions allowed for clarity on even over and above the classes. So, I think for us, we are clear on the next steps on how to position our business. We are clear on which funding approach to go with. Also, there was one of the classes where our task was to refine our funding strategy, that kind of brought to light with clear strategic approaches, our approach on how we needed to navigate this. So, I think there’s more clarity on the way forward in terms of what was one of our core objectives in terms of funding, clarity, etc.
Interviewer: What advice would you give to other women entrepreneurs who are considering joining the Growth4Her Accelerator program?
I think the number one piece of advice is to be open to learning and relearning. Even for me there were a couple of things that I knew but there were still a couple of mindset shifts that also needed to happen for me to do better to optimize our results. So, I think you should be open to your assigned mentors, be eager to gain knowledge, and also proactively implement them as at when the classes happen. I know that sometimes you can take notes, but not execute any yet, thinking that when the class is over after 12 weeks, that’s when I will start, but you lose sight of the access that you have to the mentors who can give you immediate feedback. You know, we always had sessions where we had Q&A and all that. So those sessions will help you to engage with the mentors on questions about maybe something you’ve implemented. When we were put into smaller groups, I remember I met Mr. Segun, before every session, he would ask us about what we learned that week and if we had further questions. So, if we had at least started to attempt to execute any of the things you had learned, that was an opportunity to get feedback and ask, taking advantage of the access that you have within the stipulated time also brings faster results when you execute on the go. So, I think I would just encourage them to execute and put to action what they are learning and not wait till the end of the session so they can take advantage of the access to mentors who can help them if they get stuck in any way or form. Taking advantage of the access that you have within the stipulated time also brings faster results.
