#51 (Part 1) Building an on-demand platform for African content, Tonje Bakang, Founder and CEO at Afrostream

Building The Future Podcast

Tonje Bakang is the Founder and CEO of Afrostream. Afrostream is Afrostream is subscription video on demand (SVOD) which provides millions of fans with unlimited access to Afro-American and African movies and TV series. In 2017, Tonje penned an open letter announcing the closure of the business. The service closed in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and in 24 African countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Togo. This is the first part of his two-episode conversation with Dotun. The second part will be published next week. In this episode you’ll learn: Why Entrepreneurship is not just about becoming rich About growing up in Paris and his love for the creative industry How did he stumble intro entrepreneurship? Why being an inspiration to other immigrants was important to him How he moved from being an intern to being a music video director Why he decided at 21 to own his own production company The role of mentors in his decision to become an entrepreneur The alternative to studying business if you can’t afford a business school Why testing your MVP is important and how Tonje was able to test his before launching his first business At the age of 24, he launched a comic street show in France. How successful was it? What were the challenges? His pilot for his debut as a movie director failed. Why? What lessons did he learn? What decisions did he make afterwards? Why and when he started attending hackathons and bootcamp to understand how tech works for business Why did he quit from theatre, production company and entertainment? And more