Growing a Mission Led Startup: A Tech Startup Story from Niyo Labs

In this episode of the Tech Startup Stories Podcast, we sit down with Oyinkansola Adebayo, founder of Niyo Labs, to explore how a community built idea became a mission led tech company focused on economic empowerment. Her journey begins far from the world of software and investment decks in health and beauty, and into building a platform designed to help people access skills, confidence and opportunity at scale.

Listen to the Podcast
Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

From community roots to a global vision

Niyo Labs started when a teenage Oyinkansola moved from Nigeria to the UK and began braiding hair for her sister. That small act of necessity grew into a client base in the thousands. Many of the women sitting in her chair sought career and life guidance. Instead of turning them away, she turned this into an opportunity, creating events, workshops and finally coding sessions that quickly became oversubscribed. Those sessions evolved into a bootcamp model and ultimately into the technology that powers Niyo Labs today.

The point of it all is clear, economic empowerment for underrepresented groups is not a slogan. It is the foundation on which the company is built.

Learning to lead with authenticity

Oyinkansola has always been a problem solver, and activism, community organising and speaking up for women, shaped her early years. As a founder, she has learned to use those instincts in a different way and she now works within rooms where decisions are made. She leans on storytelling to create common ground, build trust and drive change. Her authenticity is not something she hides, its the advantage she carries into every conversation.

Building the platform

After training more than one thousand women through bootcamps, she recognised that scale would only come through technology. Niyo Labs was built around the behaviours observed in those early cohorts. Reward mechanisms increased engagement. Gamification helped people complete demanding content. AI tools made collaboration and project work more accessible. The result is a platform that gives users a clear path through learning and gives companies real insight into progress without relying on CVs or word of mouth.

Going to market with community as the engine

The business grew rapidly, helped by significant media exposure and genuine community engagement. Press coverage from major outlets brought in a wave of inbound interest. Events, webinars and existing relationships from the bootcamp era helped build trust with companies like Google, Apple and Meta. Even so, the B2B path has been demanding and the buying cycles long. Understanding economic buyers, technical buyers and the internal politics of large organisations became essential learning.

The challenges of growing fast

One year, Niyo Labs grew by 500%, the pace created huge pressures across hiring, operations and cash flow. The team was full of passion and creativity, yet the business also needed people who understood compliance, paperwork and structured programme delivery. Bootstrapping amplified the challenge. Working with large partners meant carrying project costs before revenue landed. While the company has raised impact investment, choosing when and how to fundraise remains a careful balance.

Looking ahead

The ambition is bold for Niyo Labs, they plan to upskill ten million people by 2030 and prepare them for a future of work defined by skills rather than job titles. The next phase focuses on expanding B2B partners and bringing thousands more women onto the platform. Early numbers show strong traction, the long term aim is to build a global pathway that supports people from their first lesson to meaningful employment.

Advice to future founders

Her message is straightforward, start as you mean to finish, know where you want to go and work backwards. Strengthen your decision making, build from a place of clarity rather than emotion and accept that progress will not be linear. It will zigzag and shift and require resilience, purpose helps you stay anchored when it does.

Listen to the Podcast
Available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Connect with Oyinkansola Adebayo or learn more about Niyo Labs.