Many African founders talk about pivots; few talk about positioning. And according to Emeka Ajene, founder of Afridigest, a media and intelligence platform, that’s where the real problem lies.
Speaking on a panel titled “The Reality of Building and Scaling Startups in Africa” at Moonshot by 2025, Ajene argued that poor positioning is often what drains startups of time, money, energy, and morale. “When you have the right positioning,” he said, “you close deals faster.”
To illustrate, he pointed to Listerine and Flutterwave. Listerine, once sold as a surgical antiseptic, didn’t achieve mass success until it was repositioned as a mouthwash. Flutterwave, meanwhile, found its edge by branding itself as the infrastructure powering Africa’s payments, rather than another consumer-facing fintech.
Ajene broke it down further, explaining that every successful company operates in three dimensions: its current reality, its vision, and the strategy that connects the two. Many founders, he noted, skip straight to the vision — marketing a distant future instead of grounding their strategy in the present.
“The mistake I see startups make is that they start with their vision. Tomorrow’s mission shapes how they position the product today. The logic is simple: customers pay today’s cash for today’s value, not tomorrow’s promises.”
To help founders put positioning into practice, Ajene outlined five steps. It begins with identifying what alternatives customers would turn to if your product didn’t exist — that’s your real competition. Next, define the unique attributes your product offers that those alternatives don’t. Tie those attributes to clear value and proof, then zero in on your target market characteristics. In short, positioning is about understanding what you sell, why it matters, and to whom.
Ajene speaks from experience. He is the Managing Director and co-founder of Gozem, a Francophone Africa-focused super app that has evolved from ride-hailing into digital financial services. Before founding Gozem, he was second-in-command to Uber’s Country Manager for Nigeria. Today, through Afridigest and Africreate, he helps African founders scale smarter by combining data, insight, and strategy.
In the end, Ajene says positioning is about direction — it’s how startups find their place in the market and build momentum from it. As he put it simply, “Positioning is a superpower.”
