Black Entrepreneur Spent Life Savings To Launch The ‘Calendly’ App, Now Worth More Than $3 Billion
In 2013, Tope Awotona, from Nigeria, created the meeting scheduling service, Calendly. He used his whole life savings to launch his idea.
Awotona’s creation began because he had a problem keeping up with his schedule. Today, 10 million people use the platform. In 2021, the scheduling app was said to be worth $3 billion.
Since 2016, the company, that was started in Atlanta, has been profitable. They have obtained corporate customers like Lyft, Ancestry.Com, Indiana University, and La-Z-Boy. Revenue from last year was more than $100 million.
In 2021, Calendly also raised $350 million in funding from Openview Venture Partners and Iconiq Capital. Forbes calculations has valued his stake at $1.4 billion.
40-year-old Awotona is one of only two Black tech billionaires in the U.S. He comes from a father who was a microbiologist and entrepreneur. His mother was a bank employee.
Three years after moving to Atlanta, at 15, Awotona’s father died in a carjacking. Later, Awotona attended the University of Georgia and majored in business and management information.
Awotona saved $200,000 as he sold software for EMC nine years ago. He then used that money to launch Calendly. Although Awotona knew it was risky, he used all his available credit and took money out of his 401k to start the app.
He first featured Calendly from Atlanta Tech Village, a platform for entrepreneurs.
