Why I Resigned From Google—Juliet Ehimuan

One of the most prominent African women in the tech space and a former West African Director of Google, Juliet Ehimuan, has revealed how her passion to drive the growth of unicorns in the continent influenced her decision to exit the company.

Ehimuan shared her resignation on LinkedIn and her intentions to pursue a bigger picture.

When the Nigerian joined Google in April 2011, she was first appointed Google’s Country Manager for Nigeria.

But she had left behind a firm called Strategic Insight Consulting Ltd which she started in 2005 immediately after she left Microsoft.

Ehimuan said in an interview on Arise monitored by THE WHISTLER that on joining Google, she started in a small office of two people but her team transformed the little office to life savers for tech startups.

She said, “I’m very grateful for the last 12 years and the opportunity to contribute in the way that my team, my colleagues, and I have been able to contribute to the growth of the tech ecosystem. In the last decade, we have seen such a boom in terms of Nigerians and Africans coming online and doing amazing things.

“When I started at Google about 12 years ago, it was just a small office of two people and internet growth year on year was really small and a very small percentage of the population. But when I look back and reflect, I see the growth across three areas.”

Ehimuan focused on three areas which are in terms of infrastructure; helping African tech startups develop great content and in the area of capacity building.

“It is great to see an increase in skill set,” she said.

During her time, over 6 million people in the continent were trained including developers.

She said, “When I joined, we have gone from zero unicorns to at least four unicorns in Nigeria out of almost ten unicorns in the tech startup space across Africa and it is really great to see the level of activities and investment that are attracted into the ecosystem from a tech perspective and I am really glad that some of the unicorns we have today in Nigeria were part of our Google for startup accelerator programme.”

After exiting Google, Ehimuan said she wants to focus on helping African startups raise funds and get the help that would elevate them to become unicorns in the nearest future.

The businesswoman wants to use her Beyond Limits Africa Initiative to drive the agenda.

Ehimuan said, “I’m focusing on three things, around excellence and leadership development. I published a book called 30 Days of Excellence over a year ago, and I have a programme anchored on that book. It is a coaching programme that is around personal growth and transformation.

“I am looking to expand that because when we talk about capacity building, it is great for us to invest in digital tools and infrastructure but we need to also think about the human infrastructure, ensuring that we are driving excellence in thinking, driving innovation, and making sure that we are bringing that excellence as we look at driving growth on the continent.

“The other two pillars that I am focusing on, one is around tech entrepreneurship because entrepreneurship contributes to national growth and job creation. We have seen the birth of unicorns but for every unicorn, there are at least a thousand companies in the same space doing great work but they are not getting the exposure and visibility to be able to attract funding and the support that they need.”