Socium Talk #1: Tidjane Dème × Omar Cissé
Directors: Amath Mbaye · Samba Lo · Production: Socium
Two men who built part of African tech. One table. No corporate speak.
- Type
- Talk
- Released
- 2022
- Language
- French
- My role
- Directors · Samba Lo · Production: Socium
One of the best conversations I have ever heard, honestly. Tidjane Dème (Partech, ex-Google Africa) and Omar Cissé (InTouch) retrace 20 years of building companies in Senegal, from a classroom lent by their school to funds and pan-African fintech. Nearly two hours, no filter, filmed at the Partech villa in Dakar.
The opposite of a panel
Business leaders get plenty of advice and very little truth. With Samba Lo, at Socium, we wanted the opposite of a panel: two builders who have known each other for years, one table, and the time to talk the way they do when nobody is listening.
The guests
Tidjane Dème, who went from Google Africa to becoming one of the most influential investors on the continent at Partech. Omar Cissé, who started his first companies straight out of school before turning InTouch into a business present in many African countries.
When you succeed, they take your baby.
What you’ll hear
A first startup that collapsed in two years. The loneliness of the founder. Bets made before headquarters believed in them. Profitability won month after month, plan in hand. And, to close, what success really means.
What you’ll hear
- How Omar Cissé started his first company straight out of school, in a room lent by the ESP, and won his first public contract by offering to do it for free.
- Why being a “pure product of Senegal” is a strength: you have to live the real problems to solve them.
- Tidjane Dème’s father: “If I had stayed where I was born, I wouldn’t have done what I did.” Choose where you will be useful.
- The failures: a first startup in Dakar that collapsed in two years, the loneliness of the founder, and why you must go and hunt your mentor.
- Inside Google Africa: betting on YouTube and Android before headquarters believed in them. “When you succeed, they take your baby.”
- The InTouch turnaround: a written plan executed to the month to reach profitability, and full transparency with the team.
- The last word: what success really is.
What I took from it
- Trust between the guests beats any question you could ask.
- The best brand content doesn’t talk about the brand.
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