Our story
It started with four people and a group chat.
Before GrowthHackers Africa was a community, a webinar series, or anything you could put on a website, it was just four people who wanted to keep a conversation going.
Back in 2017–2018, Dara came across Sean Ellis' work on growth hacking and, through Oluwatobi Olagoke and the Startup Grind Ife community, found himself in conversations with people who were just as curious about startups, technology, and how companies actually grow.
By early 2020, Dara went back to Barakat, Tobi, and Johnson with a simple question:
“What if we had a community of our own?”
In July 2020, he created a WhatsApp group called GrowthHackers. Four people in one group chat with a lot of growth ideas and a growing desire to do more than just talk about it.
So they invited more people in and turned it into a mastermind. Around fifteen people were setting tasks, holding each other accountable, sharing what they were learning, and pushing one another to actually do the work.
What started as four people in a WhatsApp group was already creating real outcomes. And that became the foundation for what GrowthHackers Africa is today.
We started with accountability before the audience came. That's the part of our story we never want to lose.
GHA was built by practitioners who wanted to figure things out together. And we're still here to help more growth people find each other, find what's true, and keep getting better at the work.
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2017–18
The conversation starts
Dara finds Sean Ellis' work on growth hacking, and finds the people through Oluwatobi Olagoke and Startup Grind Ife.
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Early 2020
The question
Dara goes back to Barakat, Tobi and Johnson: what if we had a community of our own?
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Jul 2020
Four people, one group chat
A WhatsApp group called GrowthHackers. No audience, no plan — just growth ideas and people who wanted to do more than talk about them.
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2020
The mastermind, then the first webinars
Around fifteen people setting tasks, holding each other accountable, and actually doing the work.
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2021
Go Global
A series for growth people moving into new markets through the Global Talent Visa, study, or job relocation. Several members went on to do exactly that.
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Today
700+ and counting
A community, a weekly newsletter, partner programmes and gatherings — still run by the people doing the work.
