LDC Top 50 2024
Yomi Tejumola
Founder
Algomarketing
In 2017, data scientist Yomi Tejumola was working for Google when he saw the opportunity to build a disruptive new agency using AI to automate mundane tasks and transform the workforce into what he calls a new era of ‘evolved workers.’
“I’m on a mission to restore joy to the world of work,” he explains. “80% of most people’s jobs is made up of repetitive or redundant tasks. I have built a platform that frees people from the shackles of the mundane.” Today, Algomarketing generates 65% of its revenue from outside the UK, with clients like Google, Cisco, Stripe, and Zoom, and is on track to reach £150m by 2030.
I’m on a mission to restore joy and satisfaction to the world of work.”
Q&A
Why did you leave your job at Google and create Algomarketing?
While I was still at Google, I was asked to find more ‘Yomis’ – talented data scientists for the Google Ads team. It gave me a lot of satisfaction to hire four brilliant people who would never have been able to get a job at Google through the ordinary channels, because they got bad grades at school or hadn’t been to business school. I left my job in 2017 to focus on building Algomarketing because I wanted to create more opportunities for people. Today, we employ 200 ‘Algos’ across 32 countries.
How are you going to grow the business?
Around 40% of revenue comes from the US and that will keep growing. We are also seeing a lot of growth from Asia. We will be making a few acquisitions over the next five years and plan to build the world’s largest repository of enterprise sales and marketing intellectual property. We will become a unicorn in six years, with £150m in revenue. It’s a big ambition but we have a clear path and we are on track to get there.
Where does your entrepreneurial skill come from?
I have been building businesses since I was young. My father had his own market research business, which he sold to Kantar, and I remember going to his office as a kid. That’s probably why entrepreneurship was programmed into me early. Over the years I have created many start-ups; I created a food delivery business, working with Nigerian restaurants in Burnt Oak, London, at the same time as Deliveroo but I didn’t have enough investment to grow it. Over the years, I have got better and better at taking risks.
How have you created a people-first organisation?
Algomarketing has become a platform through which I can elevate people. I have an initiative called ‘side hustles’, which allows people to work on other businesses alongside their day job here. They can work with a different team to solve a problem or help another Algo with their problem and we compensate them for that time too. We want to create millionaires via work, and encourage people to do something that changes the world via work.
