The founder of Caolo Gerald Layu talks to Spotcovery about his entrepreneurship journey. Having graduated with a law degree, why did he opt for business in a different field? Layu explains this and also shares more about Caolo, his services and products, how you can benefit from them and his future prospects.
Who is Gerald Layu?
I was born and raised in Bambui, a village sixteen kilometers from Bamenda. My father was a lawyer and my mother was a teacher at École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Bambili at the time, a village nine kilometers from Bambui. The story goes that she was driving home to Bamenda from Bambili, heavily pregnant with me when I decided I had enough of my cramped living conditions and needed to relocate urgently. She got as far as Bambui and I gave her no choice but to stop at the local health centre and indulge me.
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I attended Catholic Primary Schools Bayele and St John and Government Primary School Atuakom. Afterwards, I joined Sacred Heart College, Mankon for secondary school and Government Bilingual High School, all in my beloved Bamenda. I got a degree in law from the University of Birmingham in the UK in 1997. I like to read and I’m an unrepentant soccer fan.
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Why business? What led you here as the entrepreneur you are today?
My instinct was to become a lawyer like my father and take my turn in occupancy of his law firm, a plan I pursued despite his passing in 1991, when I was only sixteen and still waiting for my GCE Ordinary Level results. I was losing the appetite to practice law as I did my degree and eventually decided to change course. I caught the business bug and returned home from the UK in August 2002, intending to set up a business as I considered Cameroon to be ripe with opportunity. Despite the insurmountable challenges, my opinion remains unchanged.
Why is it difficult to find your services/products in the market?
Caolo is a platform that allows parents and students to buy, sell, exchange and donate used school textbooks with each other. The practice of buying, selling or exchanging used textbooks is not new and these platforms have been in existence. What Caolo seeks to do is to combine both, thereby widening people’s options by eliminating the middleman and unlocking the true value of their used textbooks conveniently and efficiently. In an economy with modest incomes, compounded by a global cost-of-living crisis, I think this service could help provide much-needed financial relief for parents and crucially improve many children’s chances of a better education.
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Take us through the process of providing one of your services/products
It is quite simple. You register on caolo.org by providing basic personal information: your name, phone number, and location; region, town, neighbourhood; then input the title of books you wish to sell, exchange or donate by selecting options from dropdown menus which describe the book and then uploading onto the main book list which is visible to all users. From there, users can search for specific books or filter by educational subsystem, class, subject or even by region, town or neighbourhood to narrow down their search further.
All they have to do then is click on specific book titles to get the information and location of sellers and contact them directly to trade. Caolo is designed to help users buy, sell, exchange and donate textbooks without leaving their neighbourhood. Transactions do not take place on the platform. Donated books are collected by us and handed over to faith and charitable organizations such as churches, mosques, orphanages, etc., for free distribution to needy children.
Without being too technical, which is your highest-selling service/product and why do you think it’s very popular amongst your clients?
Caolo is a subscription-based platform. It costs 1,000FCFA or $1.68 for three months, 1,500FCFA or $2.52 for six months and 2,000FCFA or $3.36 for twelve months, although registration is currently free for a limited period. The longer subscription options will provide extraordinary value when we expand our services beyond trade-in used books at the start of the school year.
Our service is designed with modest-income families in mind and our pricing reflects that. These sums compare favourably with the round-trip taxi fare spent to sell or buy textbooks from a second-hand book dealer or bookshop; a trip you may have to undertake more than once before your textbook needs are satisfied. At an equivalent price, Caolo offers convenience, wider sale and purchase options along with consequential savings.
Do you have new products/services that will be released soon? What will be the differentiator?
It is only our first back-to-school season, so for now we are concentrating our minds and efforts on a streamlined offering. We plan to broaden our service base and provide more solutions to longstanding problems around school and study needs as we move into 2025, but I can’t go into the specifics yet. Of course, where Caolo goes beyond that in broader terms is anyone’s guess. I’ve had interesting conversations with people across multiple disciplines linked to books and education which demonstrate Caolo’s potential. I am excited and looking forward to the journey.
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What’s your biggest challenge to date? As a black-owned business person?
In broad terms, having access to capital or credit is always a challenge in Cameroon. Many ideas like this never come to fruition or do not survive because of underinvestment. It has not been easy raising the capital to get Caolo off the ground and the challenges continue, but thankfully, it has been a collaborative effort with some trusted individuals so far. Inadequate infrastructure is a concern too. Broad and consistent internet connectivity is a persistent problem, but progress is always being made.
What are the challenges of this niche and how do you plan to overcome them?
The single biggest challenge we have to overcome is old habits. As consumers, we still do not instinctively resort to online services in our daily search for solutions. But, we have to persist knowing that trends are in our favour and hopefully, services such as Caolo which meet an obvious need, may help drive those trends.
Share a success story of what was characterized as the highest moment of your business journey.
It would probably be the opening day in November 2009 of a boutique hotel called Autograph, which my brother and I built in the coastal town of Limbe. Of course, the hard work was only just beginning, but it was a proud moment to see that dream become a reality.
What should people expect next from you? Any exclusive you’d like to share with the Spotcovery audience? When can they get your products?
Caolo is operational as the back-to-school season is already upon us. At the moment, we are doing all we can to drive registration. As I said, plans are underway to make Caolo indispensable to parents and students in other areas going forward. As for me, hopefully there’s much more to come; with Caolo and who knows what else. The Spotcovery audience will be the first to know.
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