Meet the Owners: Albert Larter & Nathaniel Wade
When did you launch?
31st August 2020
How and why did you come up with the idea?
Over the years we’d regularly discussed various strategies on how to empower the Black community, who are historically underrepresented in the business world. Being entrepreneurs ourselves and having run our own separate businesses, we could fully appreciate the challenges involved with getting support and being seen. It was then that the idea for Wakuda was conceived. The initial concept was to spotlight small Black-owned businesses and to provide them with a platform to showcase their products to a wider audience, we also wanted to provide them with the the tools to scale their businesses.
‘We’d regularly discussed various strategies on how to empower the Black community…’
What barriers / obstacles did you have to overcome and how did you do it?
One significant obstacle for us was finding the right developer for our team, with the right skillset and deep knowledge of the specific platform we use. We definitely came across a few bad eggs before we found a good match! This was very much a trial and error process for us. Fortunately through this experience and our further understanding of the systems we use, we’re now able to weed out bad developers whenever we need additional support from time to time.
What is different about your product and brand?
At Wakuda we thrive on the growth of the businesses that sell on Wakuda. To us, they aren’t just “sellers”, we see them as valued partners. As such, we do not compete with them by listing any item ourselves, instead we actively invest in them in multiple ways. Our success is their success.
What are your plans for the future?
Our next step is to gain a strong foothold in the UK and then we plan to branch out internationally, initial data suggests the issues Black-owned businesses face isn’t a phenomenon limited to the UK.
‘Our next step is to gain a strong foothold in the UK and then we plan to branch out internationally.’
Are you looking for funding / investment?
We aren’t looking for funding at the moment, but we will be weighing up those options in the future.
