Startup Spotlight #70: Eze

Eze is a B2B Marketplace allowing buyers & sellers to trade electronics in wholesale quantities with realtime market data.

Jan 08, 2021

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I got the chance to speak with Joshua Nzewi and David Iya, cofounders of Eze, about what they working on at their startup, and any advice they have for emerging entrepreneurs.

Nzewi and Iya are the founders of Eze, a B2B commodities exchange for used smartphones. The mission of the company is to make used smartphones accessible to those that need them. They launched the company in January 2020 after trading over $8 million worth of used smartphones within 2 years, during which they experienced the inefficiencies in the market first hand.

Startup Spotlight: Eze

Eze cofounders (from left to right): Josh Nwezi (left) and David Iya (right).

Problem: Used smartphones touch on average 7 middlemen before they are ultimately sold to the end consumer. The inefficiency of the market drives up the price of used devices and creates higher barriers to trade.

Market: The used smartphone market is estimated to be currently worth $46 billion. The market is growing at 15% YoY as the technology in these devices improves and they are passed to more users before being discarded.

Solution: Eze helps sellers and buyers of devices in wholesale quantities trade with each other risk-free. The platform is bridging the fragmented and opaque space by providing real-time market prices, a secure payment system, and automated shipping.

Team: David Iya was a former software engineer at Evercheck and did database programming at Coach. Josh Nzewi worked for Shell as a Reservoir Engineer and traded cryptocurrencies in his spare time.

Recent Success:

Nzewi & Iya: We've done a good job hiring and working with a global team. Currently, we have employees in Nigeria, Philippines, Ukraine, Mexico, and the US. This has been a huge advantage for us since we have been able to hire the talent necessary to scale our business without having to pay exorbitant salaries

Recent Struggle:

Nzewi & Iya: We have struggled heavily with documentation. This pertains to not only onboarding but documenting processes, learnings, and making sure that everyone has access to the information they need. We are starting to get things into a better place, but we still have work to do to get the company to where it should be.

Founder Advice:

Nzewi & Iya: We’ve found that the fastest way to move a company forward is to empower your staff. This can come in the form of many ways, but first and foremost is giving them clear instructions and access to the data necessary to accomplish their tasks. As a founder, spending an extra 30 minutes with your employee every week can drive down the amount of work you need to do. We have made it a priority to fire ourselves from as many roles as possible and give them to our employees.

Three Cool Founders You Should Know About:

Nzewi & Iya: Here are three founders you should check out next!

Sam Udotong, Founder of Fireflies: Fireflies.ai is an AI that joins calls/meetings and automatically takes bullet point notes.
Tommaso Tomba, Founder of Moons: Moons helps people get the smile they've always wanted at a price they can afford.
Ty Griffin, Founder of The Mercer Club: The Mercer Club is the leading online rental marketplace for luxury clothing.

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