A few things Aneglica Nwandu has in common with Linda Ikeji is that they both run digital urban media in their respective countries, sitting on top of multi-million dollar fortunes, and they are both Igbo.
Igbo women do love telling stories, but sentiment aside, Angelica Nwandu is worth a gazillion Naira. According to website valuation software, TSR is worth $23 million. We wager that may be a bit conservative, but the young woman is making cheddar.
Like Linda Ikeji, Angelica was faced with a struggle but of a different variety. While Linda had to navigate the treacherous terrain of a Nigerian start up society, Angelica’s struggle was her childhood tragedy.
After losing her mom to domestic violence, Angelica became an orphan in America’s brutal culture shock society. She narrates to Cosmopolitan
When I was 6 years old, I lost my mother at the hands of my father to domestic violence, and I entered the foster care system. Trying to cope with the pain and confusion of the situation led to me getting in trouble in school. I was angry all the time, and I was fighting a lot with other kids. When I was 12, I met one of my mentors, Zaid Gayle, from Peace for Kids. It’s a program that helps foster youth find creative outlets to let their anger out. I joined the poetry program because I didn’t want to do anything else like music or art. Writing became my therapy. I stopped fighting. I was doing well in school. I started to see myself as different than my circumstances.
I went to Loyola Marymount University on a full scholarship. I studied accounting and human resources. My biggest concern was that I had to support myself. Who else was going to help me?
After graduation in 2012, I was hired to work with a senior accountant at a motorcycle shop in Los Angeles. I did the daily grunt work of paperwork and filing taxes.
Whatever she faced she sure seemed to overcome as if by divine providence, or perhaps just sheer determination.
Last year as she turned 25, Forbes crowned her one of the 30 leading business personalities in America under 30 years old. The talented businesswoman told TechCrunch recently that several major American studios had made acquisition offers, but she turned all of them down.
Angelica Nwandu, creator of The Shade Room, joined our own Anthony Ha on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt to discuss the growth of her Instagram-first gossip blog. Despite growing The Shade Room to 9.3 million Instagram followers and profitability, Nwandu says she has no interest in an acquisition.
Nwandu attributes her success to meme culture — the ability for large groups to effect change using the internet as a platform. She first recognized the value of her creation when it started influencing the news its writers were covering. And unlike many of her peers, Nwandu stepped back from complete control early on to allow the community around her to have a voice in the stories being written.
“Social media is about the community, and so are we,” explained Nwandu. “People come for the comments and for fellowship with the other roommates, that’s the main purpose, they want to hear what they have to say, it’s a forum.”
The Shade Room now lives on most social media platforms and has its own website and video team. By sheer numbers, the blog punches significantly above its weight. Unlike other viral media sites like BuzzFeed, The Shade Room has taken very little venture financing. Its only investor to date is Indie VC.
“I’m not completely closed off to investors when the right partner comes,” said Nwandu.
“The block is hot for The Shade Room right now,” asserted Nwandu. “Literally we have been approached by every studio you can imagine in Hollywood. We have all the deals on the table, but I have a huge vision for what I see The Shade Room being in the future and we want to be our own network.”