Before the VCs arrive, FirstFounders wants African AI startups built to last

FirstFounders, a Nigerian venture studio, operates with one thesis: build startups long before traditional venture capital shows up. The firm embeds itself with founders from ideation through execution, combining operations, talent, and capital to turn early ideas into scalable AI-driven companies.

Launched in 2020 by David Lanre Messan, the firm works alongside founders from day one. The approach addresses a familiar challenge in Africa’s market: ideas are abundant, but the support needed to turn them into traction-ready businesses is scarce.

For Messan, FirstFounders emerged from a clear diagnosis of Africa’s startup problem: limited access to capital and weak operational execution. “There are many founders at the bottom of the pyramid with strong ideas but without the expertise or support needed to turn those ideas into products,” he told TechCabal.

He also points to the wave of startup shutdowns as evidence of these structural gaps. In the first half of 2025, TechCabal Insights tracked six startup shutdowns.

Still, Messan argues that many of these failures stem from the same root causes: founders securing funding without the operational discipline to deploy it effectively or lacking the support required to scale sustainably.

How the model works

FirstFounders’ venture studio is built around three core pillars: the entrepreneur, the operator, and the investor. 

The process begins at the ideation stage, where the studio works closely with founders to validate ideas and test the early product-market fit. 

Startups then move into a hands-on operational phase lasting 24 to 36 months, during which FirstFounders provides talent, technical expertise, and strategic support to strengthen execution.

Capital deployment follows this operational grounding. FirstFounders deploys staged investments aligned with each startup’s growth milestones. Messan said the firm has deployed about $1 million.

“Venture lab capital tests ideas with small cheques, then studio capital, typically around $120,000, helps bring the product to market,” he explained. “Once a startup matures, venture capital partners can step in with larger investments, often $500,000 or more, to support scaling.” 

This approach enables FirstFounders to build investment-ready, high-value startups while avoiding the costs and risks of premature scaling.

Yet across Nigeria, and much of Africa, the venture studio model remains relatively underdeveloped. Data from Africa-focused intelligence firm Briter shows there are about 50 venture studios operating across Africa.

In a yet-to-be-published report shared exclusively with TechCabal, Briter found that Nigeria leads the continent with 11 venture studios, including Ceedcap, FastForward, Aidi, Peo Venture Studio, Sunray Ventures, and FirstFounders. South Africa follows with 10 studios, while Kenya has nine.

Betting on AI 

While FirstFounders initially supported a wide range of industries, the studio has increasingly focused on AI. 

Messan points to the transformative potential of AI for emerging markets, describing it as “not just a tool; it is the operating system for the future.” 

Today, FirstFounders’ portfolio has five AI startups out of seven, including PocketLawyers, an AI-powered virtual office for legal professionals; PayAfta, an AI-driven payments platform; KorinAI, an AI-generated music platform; Fleekstar, a consumer insights and research platform; Zurri, a marketplace for AI agents and models; IDX, an AI-based identity verification platform; and Avant, a cross-border commerce platform for SMEs.

Messan notes that AI adoption is not about following trends but about solving real problems. 

“We look at the moving needle of the problem we want to solve, and where AI comes in as an operating system,” he said. “We are building infrastructure, services, and products tailored to African markets, using local data and context to deliver practical solutions.”

Finding founders that fit

A key criterion for FirstFounders is founder discipline and accountability. Messan describes the studio’s philosophy as “build fast and kill fast,” meaning that underperforming ideas are quickly phased out to conserve resources. 

The studio also emphasises founder character, passion, and operational rigour. This approach is intended to ensure that only founders with demonstrable execution capacity progress through the venture studio pipeline.

Messan insists that this level of involvement is crucial for early-stage AI startups, which often require heavy experimentation and iterative development. 

FirstFounders frames its mission as contributing to long-term structural change in Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Messan describes success in terms of democratising entrepreneurship and institutionalising venture building: 

“In the next 10 years, we aim to help 1,000 entrepreneurs launch businesses and create over one million jobs in Nigeria alone,” he said.

In 2026, the studio plans to focus its resources on scaling its seven portfolio startups, while Messan works to raise a $7.5 million fund in the U.S. to support future expansion. 

The studio is also developing a venture studio operator program and publishing a white paper to share its playbook and best practices with ecosystem stakeholders.