Tope Awotona, the 40-year-old founder and Chief Executive of $3 billion worth Calendly, a meeting scheduling platform, has been profiled by Forbes as one of the wealthiest immigrants in the United States.
Awotona launched Calendly in 2013, injecting his life savings of $200,000 into the platform and later left his job selling software for EMC.
The platform now has over 10 million users with Lyft, Ancestry.com, Indiana University and La-Z-Boy among its customers.
The company recorded a revenue of over $50 million in 2020, over $100 million in 2021 and is expected to record $200 million revenue this year.
The company was founded in Atlanta and no longer has any physical office. It has been making profit since 2016.
It raised $350 million in funding from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq Capital at a price which values the business at $3 billion last year.
By implication, Awotona has the majority stake which is worth at least $1.4 billion, after the 10% discount that was applied by Forbes to shares of all private companies.
He is one of two Black tech billionaires in the United States, with David Steward, the 70-year-old owner of Missouri-based IT provider World Wide Technology.
While talking about how far Awotona can go, David Cummings, founder of Atlanta Ventures, which led a $550,000 seed investment in Calendly seven years ago said: “Tope could be the most successful African-American tech entrepreneur of his generation.”
Though Square, Microsoft and Zurich-based Doodle offer competing products, Calendly has carved a niche with its sleek, consumer-friendly design and its freemium model that makes it gain paying customers with no marketing.
While talking about his life, Awotona said: “In my life, I’ve benefited from not taking the conventional wisdom.
“It’s benefited me personally, and I think it has benefited the business.”
Awotona was born into a middle-class family in Lagos, Nigeria.
His father was a Microbiologist and Entrepreneur while his mother worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Awotona witnessed his father get shot and killed in a carjacking when he was 12 and moved with his family to Atlanta in 1996.
He studied computer science at the University of Georgia before he switched to business and management information.
He said: “I loved coding, but it was too monotonous. I’m probably too extroverted to be a coder.”
