He Almost Didn’t Apply. Then IBreed Global Academy Won First Runner-Up at Founders Friday Abeokuta

Tobiloba Akanni saw the Founders Friday flyer on a Tuesday. He registered on Wednesday. By Thursday night, he had talked himself out of applying for the elevator pitch entirely.

Too late. Not enough time to fill in the application. Not worth it.

Then, late Thursday into Friday, something shifted. He applied anyway, with no certainty he would even make the shortlist given how close it was to the event. He showed up on Friday evening, arrived minutes before the pitch began, and heard IBreed Global Academy called out fourth on the shortlist.

What happened next is the kind of story that makes ecosystem events worth running. Three brands ahead of him were either absent or not ready. The judges looked at Akanni and asked if he was ready. He said yes before he had time to think about it, stepped forward, and pitched.

The result: first runner-up at the Founders Friday Abeokuta June Edition elevator pitch.

IBreed Global Academy is the startup Akanni has been building to equip young people with skills across technology, business and entrepreneurship, personal development, and life skills. The goal is to prepare young Nigerians to become solution providers and change-makers ready for both local relevance and global impact, building the kind of foundation that formal education alone rarely provides.

The pitch win did not come from perfect preparation on the day. It came from work done long before the event. Akanni’s pitch deck was already ready. When the opportunity appeared, applying took under an hour. He was deliberate about sharing that detail afterward, noting that preparing before opportunity arrives is what makes last-minute moves possible at all.

For Ogun State’s ecosystem, the story lands on two levels. First, it is a reminder that pitch sessions inside events like Founders Friday are doing real work, surfacing founders who might otherwise stay on the sidelines. Second, it is a picture of what early-stage ecosystem building actually looks like: a founder who almost sat this one out, decided to show up anyway, and left with recognition, judge feedback, and a stronger network than he walked in with.

IBreed Global Academy is just getting started. But first runner-up at Founders Friday Abeokuta is not a bad place to begin.