“There have been two or three occasions where I had to use my savings to pay my employees. Those are the realities of a startup. People just don’t know the sacrifices we have to make. There is an ugly side of being an entrepreneur. Sometimes things just don’t work. You plan 10 steps ahead, you go do it and when you get to step seven things go wrong and everything falls apart.”

He describes an instance when Saya’s investors in the UK wanted to make a cash transfer to the company in Ghana but because of legal issues the process was delayed for three months.

“I had to explain to my employees that I couldn’t pay them their full salaries for the next three months. I gave them small amounts from my own money and told them to hang in there until the transfer goes through.”

Lamptey reckons that steering a business through such challenging times can be very difficult and requires one to be “extremely positive”. The 30-year-old adds that he is spiritual and draws “strength in reading the book of Psalms”.

“I think being a CEO is the most difficult job in the world. First you have to motivate yourself, then you have to motivate your employees. It is really, really difficult. It is only for certain personality types and people of certain mindsets. As the CEO you are the captain of the ship [and] you are the last person to jump out when the ship sinks. Even when you see a storm coming you just tell your team all is well.”

Networks for therapy

Lamptey explains that he finds sharing stories of challenges and successes with other entrepreneurs therapeutic.

“I remember a day I was very down and one of the entrepreneurs I knew came in and said his company had made sales of US$50,000. I figured if he can make that kind of money in Ghana in this hard situation so can I… I stopped crying and got down to work.”

Lamptey urges other entrepreneurs to form partnerships with peers, seek help when in need and support each other. He says he practices pay it forward, a culture of helping each other that is predominant in the US’s Silicon Valley.

“I am not afraid to stalk someone on Facebook and Twitter and send them a message to ask them for help,” says Lamptey. “When I go to Silicon Valley and meet companies that have scaling issues I help them out for free because we have done well in scaling. Today, anytime I am travelling and I need a place to sleep I call someone and I get somewhere to sleep for free. I don’t pay hotels. If I need a partnership with someone in Silicon Valley I easily get connected to that person.”

Lessons from Silicon Valley

One of the key lessons Lamptey has learnt from his trips and interaction with the Silicon Valley ecosystem is to “pay people well”.

“It is a no-brainer. It is the most important thing you can do as an African entrepreneur. We always forget that in Africa people have extended family members that they care for. If you pay people well enough so that they can take care of their families and therefore have no pressure they will give you 200% of their time and effort.”