In Nigeria’s competitive technology sector, where new products and ideas appear daily, Oluwatunmise ‘Mise’ Ishola has developed a structured approach to building sustainable business growth. Her work demonstrates that lasting success in the startup ecosystem depends on clarity, systems, and measurable results.
Ishola currently leads Go-To-Market operations at SARAL, a platform supporting “always-on creator programmes” for Direct-to-Consumer brands. Before this role, she helped Esca Finance, a Techstars-backed fintech, secure large Business Development Companies (BDCs) and enterprise clients, generating more than $1 million in revenue within weeks — income that continues to this day. She also co-founded Tech Sales Starter, which has trained over 300 emerging sales professionals and placed several in growth-focused roles across global startups.
Her journey from BusinessDay’s CEO Apprentice Programme to leading sales teams in international companies illustrates how structured learning and disciplined practice can evolve into a framework for consistent growth.
Ishola’s first encounter with structured business thinking came in 2016 through BusinessDay’s CEO Apprentice Programme. The week-long competition introduced her to finance, operations, marketing, and product development. Leading her team’s pitch for a “Save Me” app and winning the challenge exposed her to how diverse business functions connect to create impact. That early exposure shaped her view that sales is not just about transactions but about building systems that turn ideas into results.
After earning a degree in Business from the University of Lagos, Ishola began her career at Hugo, a US-based technology BPO firm. Starting as a Quality Assurance Analyst for AI data annotation, she gained insight into discipline, process management, and client engagement. Her transition to Hugo’s business team allowed her to design sales and operational frameworks from scratch. The role expanded her understanding of how structured processes drive efficiency and growth in international markets.
At Esca Finance, Ishola entered a critical phase in her career. The company was expanding into Nigeria’s financial services market from Ireland. Competing in a new territory required precision — every process had to be repeatable and measurable. Ishola focused on transforming founder-led sales into systematic, scalable operations. Her strategy involved identifying specific customer pain points, particularly among large BDCs and multinational firms struggling with cross-border payments and currency instability. By aligning Esca’s services with these pressing issues, she and her team established credibility and built lasting revenue channels.
At SARAL, Ishola has advanced her precision model. She applies account-based outreach and intent-driven campaigns, ensuring each sales effort is linked to measurable outcomes. Rather than pursuing isolated deals, her goal is to design infrastructure that makes growth predictable and repeatable. This process-driven thinking shapes her broader mission through Tech Sales Starter, where she trains aspiring sales professionals to focus on systems and strategy rather than one-off transactions.
Ishola’s framework, developed through her experiences across startups and international teams, is built on three core principles. The first is to “pick the narrow wedge”, meaning to identify the most affected customer segment — those with an urgent and costly problem. Serving this focused group allows a company to dominate its niche and gain early traction.
The second is to “prove the case”, which requires startups to measure results and communicate them clearly. During her time at Esca, her team tracked reduced transaction times, lower conversion costs, and improved operational efficiency — outcomes that built trust and credibility. The third principle is to “own distribution”, which involves scaling success through structured systems. Ishola supports education-led sales, partnerships, and data-driven outreach to ensure growth is sustainable and protected from market fluctuations.
Ishola’s career reflects a steady evolution from a student of business principles to a designer of growth systems. Each stage — from the CEO Apprentice Programme to Hugo, Esca Finance, and SARAL — strengthened her belief that success in sales depends on structure, not chance. Through her Precision Playbook, she demonstrates that consistent results come from deliberate processes. In an environment where many startups chase rapid gains, her method shows that clarity, focus, and measurable outcomes can transform ambition into lasting market presence.
