Heels & Tech Founder On The Power Of Bootstrapping As A Generalist
Nigerian founder Bisola Alabi is the powerhouse behind Heels & Tech, an e-learning platform that empowers women with technical education and upskilling. The platform aims to close the gender gap between women and technology, helping women secure flexible well paid work.
As a bootstrapped founder with three toddlers and no external funding, Alabi has relied on being a generalist to succeed in her business. In a recent LinkedIn post, she shared some insights into the advantages of being a generalist.
Versatile and adaptable
“A generalist is someone who has a wide range of skills and knowledge in various areas, rather than being an expert in a single field,” Alabi explained.
Alabi believes that generalists are not only versatile but also adaptable. They can easily switch between tasks and are less likely to get bored working on a particular project.
Alabi initially started Heels & Tech to cater to women like her, moms who wanted to upskill and return to work. However, she soon realized that other women who were bored with their current jobs also needed her platform.
Being a generalist helped her take on different responsibilities in her business, including product development, marketing, sales, customer service, finance, HR, and R&D. It has also enabled her to combine her role as a business owner with motherhood, leveraging her creativity to ensure success.
Staying relevant
Alabi’s willingness to tap into new and emerging technologies undoubtedly plays a huge role in her success as a bootstrapper with no external funding. She is a big believer in leveraging no-code services as well as generative AI tools.
A content marketer today “leverages tools to come up with relatable topic, develops a content strategy, leverages AI to come up with an interesting article to save time, goes ahead to Canva to design the article,” she wrote in another LinkedIn post.
“If there are data to be presented, she then leverages Microsoft power bi to design a nice dashboard for the data and present it in a concise manner.”
Learn more. Take more classes. Know new things that you can use in your tech journey.
Alabi encourages entrepreneurs to do a thorough analysis of themselves and find out the skills they currently have. This way, they can leverage them to create a game-changing business.
“[An] important way to stay on top of the game is to keep being relevant,” Alabi said during an online training session for women in tech. “How do you do this? By not letting your fire die. Learn more. Take more classes. Know new things that you can use in your tech journey. Learning never ends. This way, you are way ahead.”
As Alabi acknowledges, being a generalist may be a curse or weakness, but as the success of Heels & Tech demonstrates, it can be a powerful strength,
