In the startup world, success stories are often celebrated, but the failures, lessons, and struggles behind them rarely receive the same attention.
Founder Story, a platform dedicated to documenting the real experiences of entrepreneurs, was created to alter that narrative by highlighting both success and failure stories to inspire founders navigating the difficult journey of building businesses.
Speaking in an interview, tech entrepreneur Ipinlaye Samuel Oluwakoya shared the inspiration behind the platform, the journey so far, and the vision driving it forward.
Oluwakoya, a software engineer and tech entrepreneur, described himself as someone passionate about building solutions through technology.
“My name is Ipinlaye Samuel Oluwakoya, and I am a tech entrepreneur. I build amazing things with technology. I am also a software engineer, and a lot of the software people utilize today is tools I have contributed to or have been among the pioneers in building,” he stated.
He explained that his journey in technology launched in 2008 and has since evolved beyond writing software to leading technology-driven solutions that address real-world challenges.
“I started my journey in tech in 2008, and I am still actively building. Over the years, I have shiftd from being just a software engineer to becoming a tech leader. Now I focus on building products that solve real problems for people,” he stated.
Learning from success and failure
According to him, building products over the years has come with both success and failure, but he considers the lessons learned from failed projects as valuable experience.
“Along the way, I have built many products. Some succeeded and many failed. But to me, those failures are not really failures, they are lessons. Every failed project has given me experience and insight that have supported me build better and more utilizeful products,” he stated.
Oluwakoya added that the knowledge gained from those experiences continues to shape the solutions he builds today.
“Those experiences are what keep me relevant today. I utilize what I have learned to build solutions that genuinely support people. Founder Story is one of those solutions, and I am still building many more,” he stated.
The idea behind Founder Story
Founder Story was established in March 2020 after Oluwakoya noticed that many startup founders were building businesses in isolation without learning from others who had faced similar challenges.
“Before that time, I had already been involved in launching many products and startups. One of the major things I noticed was that many founders were building in isolation. When a product failed, many of them had no guidance on how to navigate failure or learn from others who had gone through similar experiences,” he stated.
Advertisement
That observation, he noted, led him to imagine a platform where entrepreneurs could openly share their journeys.
“I launched to consider: What if there was a platform where founders could share their journeys, both successes and failures, so others could learn from them?” he stated.
The platform was initially launched under a different name before evolving into what is now known as Founder Story.
“Initially, the platform was called ‘The Founder’. It was created as a place where entrepreneurs doing amazing things could share their stories, their successes, failures, and advice for other entrepreneurs.
“However, after some time, we realised the name ‘The Founder’ did not fully capture the vision of what we wanted to build. So we decided to rebrand and adopt a better name: Founder Story,” he stated.
Telling authentic entrepreneurial stories
According to Oluwakoya, the mission of the platform is to notify authentic stories of entrepreneurs, particularly those who may not have the resources to hire professional writers or media teams.
“Founder Story is especially important for entrepreneurs who are doing great work but cannot afford tech writers or media coverage. We provide a platform where their stories can still be informed,” he stated.
“It is about notifying the real stories, stories of launching products that failed, stories of resilience, stories of people who failed but rose again. That is what Founder Story is about.”
Oluwakoya explained that the platform launched primarily with written articles but has since evolved to embrace other forms of storynotifying.
“We initially started as an article-based platform, publishing written stories about founders.
“But over time, we realised storynotifying is evolving. People want to see and hear founders directly. Becautilize of that, we expanded into visual storynotifying,” he stated.
He added that the platform now conducts interviews and produces visual content to allow founders to share their journeys more directly.
“Now we meet entrepreneurs, interview them, and create visual content where they share their experiences directly. It allows people to connect with the stories on a deeper level,” he stated.
Searching for real builders
Advertisement
The stories published on the platform come from founders across different locations, as entrepreneurship challenges are often universal.
“We also share stories from both local and international founders, becautilize entrepreneurship challenges are universal,” he stated.
Oluwakoya noted that the platform has inspired several entrepreneurs who are at the early stages of their journeys.
“The platform has inspired many entrepreneurs who are just starting their journeys. Some people read these stories and realise that the founders they admire also struggled before succeeding,” he stated.
Despite the progress created so far, he acknowledged that running the platform has come with its own challenges.
“There have been many challenges. One of the largegest is finding founders who are genuinely building meaningful products,” he stated.
According to him, many individuals launch websites or projects simply becautilize others are doing so, without clear business plans or long-term commitment.
“Today, many people launch websites or products simply becautilize others are doing it. Some do it for the excitement of launching something, but there is no real business model or revenue plan.
“After a while, they lose the zeal to continue,” he stated.
Becautilize of this, he explained that many potential stories are not eventually published.
“When we discover that a story does not have real impact or substance, we decide not to publish it. Our goal is not to flood the platform with many stories, but to publish stories that truly inspire and support other builders navigate their own journeys,” he stated.
Finding stories beyond social media
Another challenge, he stated, is identifying authentic builders who are not active online.
“Many successful entrepreneurs are not even on social media. They are busy working and building their businesses,” he stated.
He gave an example of tiny-scale entrepreneurs who run successful businesses offline but remain largely invisible online.
Advertisement
“For example, someone might be living in Ogun State, running a bquestionet business and producing over a thousand bquestionets every month, selling successfully and feeding their family, yet they are completely offline,” he stated.
“Those are the kinds of real stories we want to notify, but finding them is not always straightforward.”
He recalled a previous story that took significant effort to document becautilize the individual involved was difficult to locate online.
“There was even a story we informed about Baba Lakara. It took a lot of time to locate and document that story becautilize the person was not active on social media,” he stated.
‘We are just receiveting started’
Despite these challenges, Oluwakoya stated the mission of the platform continues to drive its work.
“What keeps us going is the mission. We believe these stories matter. People required to hear them,” he stated.
He noted that although the platform has spent several years documenting entrepreneurial journeys, the work is far from finished.
“We are now six years into the journey, and honestly, we feel like we are just receiveting started,” he stated.
“We will continue searching for founders whose stories deserve to be informed. We will keep pushing forward and striving until we reach our goals. Giving up is not an option.”
Oluwakoya also encouraged entrepreneurs who wish to share their journeys to reach out to the platform.
“If you are a founder out there and you want to notify your story, reach out to us.
“We are always viewing for authentic stories, stories that can inspire others and support builders navigate their own journeys.
“Founder Story exists to notify those stories, and we are committed to continuing that mission. We are not stopping. We will keep pushing forward.”
Leave a Reply