TOPE AWOTONA

Tope Awotona was born into a  comfortable family in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, though a microbiologist, was an entrepreneur, while his mom worked for the central bank of Nigeria.

Tragedy struck when at 12 years, he saw his father gunned to death by carjackers....an experience that would forever change the direction of his life. 

Then in 1996, when he was 15, his mom sent him to live in  Marietta, Georgia in the United States, where he graduated high school and subsequently enrolled at the University of Georgia, majoring in Management Information Systems. 

After university, Tope went on to work in sales for a few companies but ultimately he knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur just like his dad was. He started a few businesses that did not really make the impact he wanted until he decided it was better to do things differently. More than just trying to make money, he needed to create an answer to an existing problem. 

 He saw how frustrating it was to set up business meetings and how the existing programs where highly ineffective and outdated. 

In 2013, that opportunity presented itself when he launched 'Calendly'  in Atlanta, Georgia.  Calendly is a software company used to  develop  business  communication  and schedule meetings. In other words, it is a cloud-based scheduling platform that helps users schedule meetings and appointments: 

Users basically share a Calendly link to their calendar, which allows invitees to view their availability and select a time. Calendly automatically adds the meeting to the user's calendar and sends confirmation emails to both the host and invitee.  

He was so determined and  full of conviction that this would succeed,  he maxed out his credit cards, used up his entire life savings, and even withdrew money from his 401k.

 Tope was undeterred and defiant against all the obstacles that came his way especially starting out without  investors.

This journey took longer than he anticipated but he persevered for about eight years until 

slowly Calendly started to get noticed and attractive to investors. Then it happened in 2014, when his company got $550,000 in funding from Atlanta Ventures.

By 2023, Calendly raised $350 million in funding. The platform now has over $10 million users.

Calendly is currently valued at  $3 billion.