How She Did It with Akudo
There's A Method to The Madness: Wins, Failure, & Juggling Multiple Enterprises
Akudo, is the creative director of Shekudo, an award winning footwear and accessories brand, proudly showcasing Nigerian craftsmanship and heritage. Shekudo works with Hausa goldsmiths, jewelry makers on the continent and uses traditional fabrics, like aso-oke cloth, a traditional Yoruba material, hand crafted using a process that’s over 500 years old, and up-cycled leather to create part of their beautiful footwear, bags and accessories collection for women. Half Australian and half Nigerian, Akudo moved to Lagos from Sydney in 2017, buoyed by her love of travel and a desire to experience other cultures and meet new people. She arrived on the shores of Lagos ready to re-invent herself, transfixed by the energy of Lagos and the energy of its people she stayed. One year later, Shekudo was born. Akudo is a power house, starting 5 brands in just 6 years. Her vigor and determination is unabating and above all she is fearless. In her own words, she is passionate, relentless and scattered(with a purpose). In mine, she’s a tour de force.
Shekudo has been featured in Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Financial Times, ELLE and sold on Shop Bop, Nordstrom and Zalando as well as endorsed by Beyoncé.
Name: Akudo Iheakanwa
Brands: Shekudo, Reclaim, Gather / Gather House, Noju, Oolo
Bio: Akudo Iheakanwa was born in Sydney, Australia and relocated to Lagos Nigeria in 2017 with the aim of investigating the craftsmanship and design culture in Nigeria as well at looking at community inclusion through design.
With a background in community development (namely youth work and women’s empowerment) business development and sustainability, Akudo has worked tirelessly to integrate some of the local skills and techniques as well as some underutilised local resources into her own design aesthetic through her brands SHEKUDO and RECLAIM WELLNESS and now the community based branch of Reclaim Wellness: Gather Market which promotes the work of women-led SMEs.
In 2018, Akudo founded Shekudo, an award winning footwear and accessories label. In addition to this, Akudo launched reclaim Wellness, one of the first Wellness focused brands in West Africa in 2019 providing wellness events, products and community empowerment experiences.
Since then Akudo has gone on to launch Noju a sister brand to Shekudo, and in 2024 Gather House a physical space for some of the Gather Market favorites.
Websites / IG:
Interview
1.) What inspired you to start Shekudo? What’s behind the name?
I’ve always loved shoes, I’m a big footwear girl. Moving here, from Australia, I was inspired and fascinated by the energy I found in Lagos. And I’ve always wanted to work with women! I trained as a community worker and originally wanted work, in sexual health, within communities in Arusha, Tanzania. But whilst discovering Lagos, I saw what the artisans here were doing and saw that we have such talented shoemakers. So I pivoted. I wanted to do something with solely women artisans, but there weren’t just enough. I ended up with a team of all male artisans, but also an administrative team that’s 90% women. For Shekudo, I wanted women to be seen, especially the women that were pushing hard and not getting enough appreciation. Shekudo was founded in 2018, and the name is derived from a fusion between my name and my best friend’s name Shetu. Although, she’s now gone in a different direction, she is still the biggest supporter of the brand and of course my best friend.
Taken from their website…
Shekudo aims to establish a global sisterhood, promoting a sense of caring, empowerment and celebration among women across the globe, allowing its wearers to push boundaries, stand out and know that their Shekudo item is responsibly made with traceable origins.
2.) Have you always wanted to be an entrepreneur? What were you doing before you became an entrepreneur? Why the move?
I think so, I was very passionate about being a doctor and singing. The doctor angle was really my parents having other plans, more traditional plans. My mum was very particular about having a doctor in the family. As, time went on, I realised I was more passionate about social welfare, community development, community engagement and empowerment. Instead of being a doctor and fixing something that’s progressed too far, I wanted to be part of the preventative arm, and solve for things right from the beginning. This is the ethos behind Reclaim, putting wellness at the forefront instead of as an after thought.
However, it took me some time to make the move to being an entrepreneur. The big shift, was when I was working for a government organization and getting ever increasing anxiety and a growing sense of listlessness. I felt there was limited flexibility and I wanted time to figure out what I wanted to do and to explore. It wasn’t enjoyable anymore, doing the same thing every day. I wondered if this was going to be my life every day for the next 10 years. I didn’t want it to be, so I made the leap.
3.) You run multiple brands, what does your day look like? How do you manage your time between the brands?
I have five brands that I run, it’s a bit crazy (this is an understatement!). I’m not very good at sticking to a structured routine. I split my day into segments, and set a minimum amount of time I will spend on something and if I can do more, great. I start my day by focusing on myself. I try to have a moment of time that is uninterrupted and I’m very particular about this. No phones, a little bit of reading, some writing if I can, a cup of green tea, and then some coffee after to kickstart my day.
I’m really happy with my current schedule. I think it’s a good foundation that I can build on. I spend half my day on Shekudo and the other half on Gather. All the other brands fit in somewhere in-between. I don’t have to spend too much time on Reclaim and Oolo, which are sister brands dealing with personal wellness and lifestyle wellness, respectively, because they are capable of sustaining themselves and have a very seamless order and delivery process. My team also help me manage these smaller brands. Another smaller brand in the portfolio is Noju, Shekudo’s sister brand, which we started when we wanted to create simple looks for our models during photoshoots using remnant fabrics from Shekudo to create fun easy pieces. This allows me to focus on our two main bread and butter brands Shekudo and Gather.
4.) Which brand had the quickest start to “successful” moment trajectory? And where you able to leverage of the success of one brand for the other?
Reclaim! It was the right time and a good market fit. People were looking for those products and they weren’t available until we entered the market. We were also able to provide them in an easy and stress free manner. Also, Reclaim has a very similar customer base to Shekudo, which means we could cross over using Shekudo’s existing customer base. All of our brands feed into each other, in one way or another, which makes things easier. Leveraging of the success of Shekudo, we were able to fund the other businesses and cross-market our brands which boosted brand awareness and helped to grow the customer base for the newer brands as they came along.
5.) What has been the hardest part of your entrepreneurship journey? Do you feel you have faced any unique challenges as a female entrepreneur? Are there any unique challenges you encounter with the different brands?
Logistics. I was shocked at how hard it was to find reliable and affordable logistics for a small business. It’s very frustrating as it’s expensive and depleting as we spend so much money on shipping. A small brand will spend several thousands of pounds shipping and there’s no consideration for the size of your organization and shipping costs can really eat into revenue. It has gotten better, but there is still a shortage of viable options.
Funding. The lack of funding keeps me up at night, it’s frustrating, sometimes to the point of tears and honestly can make one want to give up. I know what we could achieve with adequate funding and financial resources, but it’s hard to having to prove yourself and show significant track record, but still not be able to get the funds needed. I’ve always felt that if I have a good idea, a good track record then I should be okay, but that’s not the case.
When it comes to funding. We need more women giving money to other women even on just a smaller scale. I think women understand the struggles of other women better and as such are uniquely positioned to help other women.
Perception. There’s also not being taken seriously. As a woman here in Nigeria, your business is viewed as this cute little thing that you are doing almost like a hobby. Whereas I feel like if I was a man I would be taken more seriously.
6.) What’s something you considered a failure, and how did you recover from it
I would say not getting a business partner early on and not getting an accountant early enough. These two things are essential for good planning. My skillset is very much in the creative arena. When I started, I didn’t know how to handle operations and finances. I think we would have grown faster if I had a business partner to handle those aspects of the business. I’ve learnt from that and now with Gather House I have two other business partners that compliment my skillset.
7.) What are you proud of? What has been the most rewarding part of your journey?
Gather House. The reception has been overwhelming. I’m so excited to see what comes out of this. I drew this place on my pin board years ago, so to see it come to life makes me feel so blessed and filled with gratitude. I want people to come in and feel inspired, to shop, use the space for work, events, to hang out at the cafe. It really has so many possibilities.
Another significant moment for me, was when Shekudo started getting invited to trade shows. It was a wow moment, that Shekudo was taking me to places I had never been, meeting new people and new brands. I have never taken those moments for granted.
8.) Let’s talk numbers. How much capital was required to start Shekudo? Did you self fund, raise from family or friends, or capital raise? Best Numbers?
$2000 USD! Which was about 4000 Australian dollars at the time. I self funded, so then I was broke, but once the orders started coming in I was fine.
Peak annual revenue was $200,000. We have a little way to go get back to that, but at its height, those were the numbers Shekudo was raking in.
Funding has been tricky. I would still like to get funding at the seed round, grant money or funding for very specific things like machinery.
9.)What’s been a key learning point in your journey, about business, about yourself?
I’m very tough. It’s very hard being an entrepreneur, and I think I’ve been through a lot and put myself through a lot. Any one that lives in Lagos is tough and maybe a little mad. I’m proud of how I have evolved, my emotional EQ has grown. How I handle things now in so many aspects of my life, relationships, works, friendships has changed.
10.) What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs?
Don’t take your local community for granted. Get a business partner early on. Partnerships!! I think we don’t have to do it alone, tap into your network and leverage off expertise, resources and cross marketing. Know your audience, understand your core customers and keep communicating with them.
Risk Appetite
9/10 - I’m not afraid to start.
Her Selects:
I ask all the founder’s I interview what are their favourite pieces or offerings from their brand. Here are Akudo’s favourite Shekudo pieces from the new collection. Listen to why above.
Her Six:
A female entrepreneur you admire:
Emma Grede the co-founder and CEO of Good American. I’m obsessed with her at the moment, she’s done a lot of stuff quietly in the background. She is a co-founder of other businesses and board chair of the 15% Pledge, an organization working with retailers to commit 15% of their annual spend to Black businesses. She’s also married with four kids and is an extremely hard worker.
I watched a clip of Emma Grede speaking to Gywneth Paltrow and she runs 5 companies. I can see why Akudo is obsessed with her… this is her lol. I particularly loved Grede’s comment in the clip about trade-offs. Something Akudo and I spoke of, is how entrepreneurship is not sexy at all, despite how its portrayed in the media and I think Grede alluding to the fact that there is a trade-off ie something can be lost, minimized, not prioritized in order to achieve another goal speaks to the reality of being an entrepreneur.
Last book / podcast:
Book - 12 Rules for Life: Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson (controversial I know) and because I’m often reading two books at the same time, the Short Stories of Langston Hughes a book covering the black experience in America circa 1920s.
Podcast - Something from the Feel Better, Live More Podcast, by Doctor Chatterjee. He has some really beautiful podcasts.
A restaurant you would recommend:
Le Botaniste – A vegetarian restaurant in New York that’s just soooooo good. I also go there for a little glass of wine.
Your ideal city to live in:
What’s a mixture between Kyoto, Bajer ,Sydney and the Cotswolds, that would be my perfect place.
A brand / product you can’t live without:
Salt & Stone – Deodorant – Natural - I love this right now….
*Another thing I will adding to my cart.*
What is one book / website/ podcast / or public resource that has helped you you’re your entrepreneurship journey:
Chat GPT….. I need the information now. This consolidates the same information I would get from a google search but in one place, and it’s summarised!
This probably should have been a podcast. Alas it wasn’t. I’ve tried to highlight and focus on aspects of the interview that I felt would both inspire and resonate with fellow entrepreneurs, but also capture some of the challenges women entrepreneurs and small businesses face, which is mainly funding. The Catch 22 here is that without funding women can’t grow their businesses, and not being able to grow their businesses limits the amount of wealth they can create. Women need money to make money.
Entrepreneurship is hard, running a business, any business, especially in a challenging environment is very hard. At one point during the interview, Akudo teared up, and I think this speaks to how challenging the journey is. Social media has overly glamorized entrepreneurship. Whilst it’s nice to have the highlight reels for inspiration, the truth is entrepreneurship is really tough and requires grit and perseverance. It also requires a compliment of skills, that I think is best found by acquiring the right business partners, hiring people with the right skillset, finding mentors that can challenge you, finding resources to help you learn and leveraging of your network for all the above.
Shekudo is a wildly successful brand by any metrics, it has been able to grow its initial capital of 2,000 USD, if you just use the revenue of a peak year, by 10,000%, grow a fan base of over 11,000 people, be featured in multiple popular publications and was even endorsed by Beyonce, but if you ask Akudo about her feats, (add on the fact she is running 4 other brands), she shuffles her feet a little and mutters something about how she feels like she could be doing better. Imposter syndrome at play! Her curiosity and desire to understand the root cause of issues, are part of the dynamism that feed her creativity and her success. Above all she is a risk taker! I found the idea of using the success of one brand to boost and secure the success of another brand ingenious. Akudo’s brands share a similar customer base and in a sense feel and ethos, which has helped Akudo leverage of the success of Shekudo to grow her other brands. Building brands in this way, reduces the initial burden it takes to get a brand to a place of viability. The success of her brands also filters down to the team, with Shekudo profit sharing with its team members on significant orders.
I also love what Akudo said about wanting women to be seen, especially those not getting enough recognition, because that resonates with the spirit of Her Journal. And lastly, this didn’t make it into the interview, but we did speak about married life. Akudo recently got married. The pictures from her wedding are beautiful, but what struck me the most during this part of the conversation were her comments about her partner and how supportive he is of her work. I think this is very important, I’m not sure it easy for anyone to be married to a high-achiever, more so if the person in question is a man (*covers eyes*). If you are going to embark on this journey, you need a highly supportive partner and community of friends.
I’m highly inspired by Akudo's multi-hyphenate nature. Her latest venture Gather House, encapsulates all her brands, and other women-owned brands found at Gather Market. Akudo is not only empowering local artisans but also women-owned brands by bringing their skills, expertise, products and services literally to the market.
Thank you for reading, stay tuned for the next interview and please leave a comment.
So beautifully written and captured. Thank you for amplifying our voices. You are such a star and appreciate your support and love. This is what it’s all about. All my love Mena xxx