Tomiwa Aladekomo | Building Big Cabal Media and the Media Business Behind It

African tech media is usually described from the outside. This time, it’s explained by the person who actually runs one of its biggest newsrooms.

In this episode of The Wimbart Way, Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO of Big Cabal Media, pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to build a modern business in African tech - keeping investors patient, experimenting with products and events, and dealing with founders when coverage doesn’t go their way. 

Tomiwa runs one of Africa’s most influential digital media groups, home to TechCabal and Zikoko. Under his leadership, TechCabal has become a central reference point for the African tech ecosystem, while Zikoko has helped define a distinct online space for a new generation of Africans. 

In this conversation, he doesn’t romanticise the job. Instead, he talks about why his role often turns into  “unhappiness management” when stories land badly, and why being “editorial first” and “relentlessly commercial” is the only way a media house can survive in African markets.

He also discusses:

• The mechanics of building a pan-African media business when margins are thin.

• How Big Cabal Media experiments with products and events. 

• How Tomiwa “talks founders off the ledge” when coverage lands badly.

• How TechCabal is growing a pan-African footprint, including its next market.

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