Ishaq Willson is the co-founder of MyKreeb, a prop-tech startup, revolutionizing real-estate search and discovery in Africa leveraging AI & Big data technology.
They are an innovative proptech startup simplifying and automating how people search and find properties in Africa, saving users the time, the stress and risk of being defrauded leveraging technology
Ishaq Willson shared with Today Africa the story of MyKreeb, how it began, and where they are now.
Tell us a bit yourself
Ishaq Willson is an entrepreneur. I have a background in architectural design. I am the co-founder of MyKreeb. MyKreeb is a property tech startup that is simplifying how people search for properties, simplifying the entire house hunting search process in Africa.
The entire process of finding properties in Nigeria and Africa is very tedious, it’s very stressful. And we’ve identified this as a big problem and we’re leveraging technology to be able to simplify how people find properties, making the process 10 times faster for them. So that’s who I am in the nutshell.
What inspired you to start your business and who are your target market?
As far back as 2019, I moved to Lagos. Within that period, I was looking for an apartment. And that period, I still have PTSD thinking about it. It was so stressful. I was moving from one inspection to another inspection, taking me to trenches.
I remember one taking me to an uncompleted building and saying, if I pay now, in the next two weeks, the place will be ready. And I’m like, what in the hell is happening here. I remember going to different inspections and they would charge me for the inspection fee. At that time, I think the inspection fee was N5,000.
I would pay inspection fees from different agents, and the houses I would end up seeing are terrible. The condition of the houses are terrible. And they will give you a very exorbitant price for it. At that time I was looking for a self-contained, you see a self-contained that is in a very bad condition. They’ll be calling millions for you for that.
And it was so crazy, I remember sitting in traffic, stressed out, and I was juggling this and also my new job that I got in Lagos, because the reason why I moved to Lagos, I got a job after my NYSC.
And I sat down in traffic and I was thinking, why is finding a house this hard? Why should it be this hard? And at that time, some of the online platforms that we had at that time were not really kicking it for me. They were not really doing the job to the barest minimum.
And that was when I thought of, how can this entire process be simplified with technology whereby I’ll be able to sit down in the comfort of my home and virtually inspect the property. Whereby I’ll sit down in the comfort of my home and be able to see how the neighborhood looks like with Google street view.
I’ll sit in the comfort of my home and be able to see the price tags of properties in different neighborhoods to be able to compare prices on the map. And that was when we began to build MyKreeb with this solution for people to be able to virtually inspect their properties with virtual tours from the comfort of their home.
Because we realized that it’s also important for people to see how the neighborhood looks. And there’s what’s called Google Street View on Google. We partnered with Google and integrated their API into our system so that people can also virtually inspect the neighborhood and see the neighborhood how it looks.
Because we realize that you can get a very fine apartment that fits your need, fits your preference, but it’s in a bad environment and the reverse can be the case. You can get an apartment that is not so good, but is in a very good environment.
Once we’re able to help home seekers match these two together, are you looking for an apartment, a fitting apartment according to your lifestyle and your needs and also in the right environment.
Because families will also be skeptical about raising their kids in a very bad environment. And we also realized that people move into apartments without having an insight about the dangers in that neighborhood.
So we thought of feeding the platform with neighborhood insights. Like you want to know, how frequent is the electricity supply rate in that place? Is it in band A or band B? What is the network coverage? Is it MTN that is good there? Is it Glo that is good there? Because you can move to an apartment, you’re using MTN, and realize that the network is very bad.
Flooding is another risk that we’re trying to mitigate for people. So we’re using AI to help people do flooding analysis. The AI can help analyze flood prone areas and also do flood prediction for them. So that if you are taking an apartment in a particular location, AI can help you give you a foresight that probably in the next five years down the line, this place will be prone to flooding.
We are building Blueprint solutions to really help people make the right choices. There’s power in choice. And making a choice of a place to reside in is one of the biggest choices you make. So people really make bad choices and that is because they do not have the right data, the right insights, the right information.
And we are feeding them with all of that. And our target market is basically home seekers, people are looking for an apartment to stay in, um, either short term or long term.
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Can you describe the process of launching MyKreeb into the market?
First of all, it started as an idea. That’s the way any other business starts. And that idea is being influenced by a problem, a problem either you face or a problem that is common around you.
So it started as an idea to make sure that people make the right choices and that the entire process of finding properties is simplified and automated for everyone involved, either the agent or the landlord or the homeseekers. It started as an idea back then in 2019 and I didn’t first start by assembling the team.
I started by doing market research, and also studying the already existing players in the market to see what they are doing, and understand their loopholes, to know where they are missing in actually solving the problem actively.
Because one thing I realized is the solution of the future is always a derivative of the loopholes of the current existing solution. So I had to sit down to do a thorough market research, both the platform that we have locally and the one that we have internationally, like the likes of Zillow, Redfield in the United States.
And I realized that there’s a vast distance in the proptech marketplace platforms in Nigeria when compared to the ones in developed countries. I mean in terms of technology and features. And so we decided to identify those loopholes and pen down solutions on how we can be different from every other player here in Nigeria.
I began to talk to people who are looking for properties. Would you desire to have a platform that gives you the opportunity to virtually inspect the property. Would you like a platform where you’ll be able to have neighborhood data or insight about the property and all of that?
That was when personally I realized that it’s actually a big problem. I have a background in architecture. So I’m in the housing industry and I have experience selling properties. And then I began to assemble the team. My co-founder was my colleague in the real estate company as far back as 2019.
We met as colleagues in a real estate company. And when I shared the idea to him, he bought the idea. It was an easy fix for him because he also is somebody who has faced that problem. He has that enthusiasm to collaborate with me to also tackle that issue.
We started building late 2023, just three of us, my co-founder, the COO, and then the CTO, the tech guy. And then we came up with a prototype of the platform. Funny story, I always give this story, is that at a point we were looking for funding, early funding, all we had was an idea.
I created just a very rough business plan and I had a client back then in the US. And I spoke to him about the idea. I told him that this is something we are building. We’re building this platform that can simplify house hunting in Nigeria. And he bought the idea. He was very interested. And he asked the question, do we have a prototype to show him of this app that we’re talking about? And we told him yes.
At that time we actually did not have a prototype. But we’ll show you the prototype in a week’s time. We scheduled a meeting in a week’s time to show you the prototype. I said, okay, no problem, that’s fine. After that call, I sat down with my team. I said, we need to have a prototype as soon as possible to show this man now that he sounds interested in it.
And I asked, how do we go about it? So we began to look for product designers and we were getting ridiculous bills here and there. It wasn’t even the bill that was the problem. It was the time, the shortest period of time that we had was at least two months.
Because it was a bit of a complex prototype to build at that time. Now it’s simplified. I was going mad, I was like, we need to show this man this thing. And at that time, two days were gone already and we only had five days left.
I said okay, you know what we’re going to do? I’m going to download Figma on my system. I’m going to sit down with YouTube, download all the tutorials I need to build a prototype on Figma and I sat down and I did that design in four days. The design that they were saying will take two months. I sat down and I did it in four days.
That was one of the most terrible four days of my life because I wasn’t sleeping. I didn’t close my eyes in four days. No jokes. I was looking terrible. I still have a picture of it. And finally, we were able to show him the prototype and he loved it and all of that.
So those were just one of the few sacrifices and the struggles we had to go through to make sure that we build this thing relentlessly and not giving excuses and all of that. And those are one of the qualities that an entrepreneur needs to have in achieving his dream.
No excuses. That is one of my mottos, no excuse. Regardless of how terrible the situation or circumstances, there would definitely be a way if we decide to find a way.
How did you raise capital to start your startup?
MyKreeb has been bootstrapped so far. So we’ve been bootstrapping it, using personal funds to build the products and settle everything that has to do with operations and none of that. And also we’ve been able to raise a few funds from family and friends.
That’s how we’ve been able to tackle funding for now. And we are currently also raising for our pre-seed but all the while the journey has been bootstrapped and fundraised from family and friends.
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What is your business model and how do you plan to generate revenue?
MyKreeb runs a freemium model and there is a pro plan where people subscribe to have access to features that they can access anywhere like the neighborhood insight and flooding analysis.
So there’s certain exclusive features that will be available for paid users, but only on freemium. And then we charge a particular amount for the whole year. Also we have partnered with a virtual tour production company to create virtual tours for property owners, shortlets, managers, and landlords.
Our goal is actually to popularize virtual tours,and virtual inspection. And we’ve partnered with a virtual tour production company to facilitate that for our users at a very affordable price, like at a very ridiculous price.
If you know about virtual tours you know that it is pretty expensive. We bring to the market a virtual technology experience that is pretty much affordable, so that everyone will embrace it and we can democratize that technology. And then we’re also charging for that as well. So we are monetizing using that platform.
Also we are monetizing with escrow payment for caution fee. Now let me explain. We are bringing the solution whereby, so when you want to get an apartment, certain extra charges that you pay. One of our solutions is that we make it affordable for you to get an apartment.
How do we intend to do that? By mitigating some of or reducing some of the extra charges. For example, the extra charges you pay when you get an apartment for the first time apart from your rent is legal fees 10%, agency fee 10, and caution fee 10%, sometimes it’s above and then if it’s a service apartment you pay for service charge and so you have four extra charges that make rent and value of property skyrocket in Lagos.
So we intend to cushion the effect of these extra charges. First, by having a fleet of lawyers or legal practitioners partnering with the landlord and say, look, we have a set of lawyers. So instead of 10% for legal fees you can slash it down to 5%.
Because our lawyers will handle everything that has to do with your property, will cover it for your property, your tenancy agreement, everything that has to do with legality for the property. So instead of people paying 10%, you can slash it down to 5%.
Now, caution fee, which is the security deposit you pay that amount of money when you’re renting a house in the event that you are moving out, the landlord will call my inspector to make sure that nothing is damaged in the house. If you damage anything, they’ll use that money to fix it.
These days, people don’t get refunded their caution fee. And at some point, it’s beginning to become a big problem or even a scam if I’ll put it that way. Because property owners collect a caution fee and when the tenant is moving out of the house, they don’t get their caution fee refunded. Ask anybody that you know if they have never refunded their caution fee ever.
So people pay a lot of money. People pay as much as 300, 400k in this economy because things are not so good. You pay that kind of money for a caution fee. You expect that when you are leaving the house, you get your money back because it’s refundable. And that’s what they always say, but it’s not refundable.
These days, people don’t have the energy to take it to court. And people don’t have the energy in Nigeria to do that. So they just leave the money. And that’s a lot of money, millions of dollars going down the drain in non refundable caution fees.
So we have spoken to property owners that we’ve created an escrow system whereby when people are making payments, the caution fee will be paid to my crew to hold in escrow. At the point where the tenant is moving out of the house, a MyKreeb representative because we have property managers, will come and inspect the property and make sure that nothing is missing or nothing is broken or nothing is destroyed.
Now, in the event where anything is destroyed, we’ll check the value of that thing. For example, is the doorknob that is broken. We’ll check what is the value of that doorknob and use a portion of that money and fix the doorknob and the remaining balance is refunded to the tenant.
That way when people are getting property, they have an assurance that the money that they are paying as a caution fee will be refunded. Because MyKreeb will facilitate that for them. So there’s that peace of mind that my money is in escrow. And so we are charging also for that escrow transaction.
There are different ways we’re actually monetizing. But for now, these are the two channels, the premium model where we charge you subscription for the pro plan, the virtual tour production markup, and the security deposit.
Lastly, we have the rent savings wallet where tenants save periodically for their rent. And it’s automated and secured because we have backend partnerships with commercial banks and all of that. So it is a secure way of saving for your rent.
And there’s also different savings plans where you can save flexibly, you can also co-save. Co-save means if you are staying with a flatmate, you can co-save money for your rent, or if you are staying with a roommate, you guys can have joint savings on MyKreeb. So that’s also another monetization channel.
The rent savings wallet will help a lot of people in paying their rent
Yes, that’s the goal and like I said it’s an automated savings. And let me explain what I mean by automated. For example, you are a salary earner and you earn a particular amount of money every month. You sign up on the MyKreeb wallet, create a savings plan or choose a savings plan.
And you agree that you’re going to be putting a specific amount of money from your salary. Say you want to put in like 100,000 Naira every month. You choose what you want to save automatically. Automatically meaning you put in your salary account card details and choose a day and time where the money will be debited from your salary account into MyKreeb wallet.
So all you need to do is just face your work and as much as you’re earning a portion of that amount is automatically entering MyKreeb wallet, saving it for your rent. And we do that for a particular period of time you want to save it for say you want to do it for one year. And when the savings is matured, we’ll send you a notification that your savings is matured.
When you’re opening a savings account, we also have a place where you can input your landlord’s account details, if you want to. Because at the end of your savings tenure, when your savings is matured, we’ll congratulate you that you’ve saved successfully. And we’ll ask you if you want to send it directly to your landlord.
We’ll ask you for permission. If you click yes, that exact money for your rent automatically goes to your landlord and will send you a payment receipt, which you can also use as a utility bill. We’ll send you a payment receipt for that transaction.
So that’s how we also want to automate that, just face your work, and, you know that at the end of the month, you’re automatically putting aside a portion of your earnings into MyKreeb for your rent.
Since you launched, what strategies have worked in attracting and retaining your customers?
We’re all about community. One of the strategies we’re putting in is something called community led group. And so from the onset of MyKreeb, we started a Realtor community called Kreeb Clan. The entire idea of creating the Kreeb Clan community is to empower realtors.
We started off thinking of how we can eliminate the real estate agent because there are a lot of problems with the agents and all of that. So we started off with the idea of connecting property seekers directly to landlords. And every other property tech startup that started off was to start with that idea. But with deep knowledge into the market, we realized that that is practically not possible, at least for now.
So we thought instead of eliminating the middleman or the middle men which are the agents, let’s empower them instead. We also saw an opportunity there. The opportunity is to change the face of real estate agencies in Nigeria. So we created a community and onboarded some agents.
The goal is to empower them with knowledge to execute their business effectively. To be ahead of the competition, we also created the gamification strategy whereby you make certain transactions on MyKreeb. We’ll categorize you in different levels.
There is rookie, there is platinum, there is gold and all of that. So people will move from level to level according to the number of transactions they make on MyKreeb. And each of these also comes with different perks and benefits that they will get. This is the gamification strategy to retain them so that being part of MyKreeb would be a status symbol for realtors.
We have other plans to give them plaques just the way they do on YouTube whereby if you get one million subscribers, you get a plaque. So we are using that strategy also on MyKreeb that if you’re able to achieve certain milestones probably by transactions like the number of properties you sold or rented out, we give you an award and plaques.
And so these realtors will also be proud to be called award-winning realtors. The whole idea is to service a community of realtors and also empower them with knowledge, skill set, and also appreciate their work. And that will in turn change the face of real estate agents. So that is how we are strategizing in terms of the agents.
In terms of the general users, the homeseekers, we’re putting out a lot of marketing campaigns on social media and YouTube magnifying the problem and then introducing them to MyKreeb as a solution to that problem. And like I said it’s a big problem and every adult who has moved out from their father’s house or their family house definitely have tasted this problem one way or the other.
We are putting out a lot of marketing campaigns and strategies to create awareness of our platform. And then using referral systems as well to make people earn points while they refer people to the platform.
What are the roles that technology plays in your startup?
We are the first tech startup that is empowering real estate. I’d like to consider ourselves that way. We are leveraging technology and emerging technology to simplify this entire process.
One of our biggest goals is to help people make the right choices. If we can help you make the right choice, and not make the mistake of renting an apartment only to realize that there’s a lot of noise in that place.
And probably you as a creative or as a content creator you can’t hold your meetings without the whole noise in your environment embarrassing you. So if we achieve those goals we are satisfied. That people who are looking for a house make the right choice. And so we are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze flood-prone areas.
We are building Africa’s first AI home search assistant. So this AI model just helps you find a property for you. It’s basically like an AI agent or AI realtor if I’ll put it that way. The process is simple. You come on the platform.
You click the AI assistant button, and then it will ask you certain questions based on your preference, your lifestyle, proximity to your workplace or proximity to school, church, mosque, and all of the preferences. Do you like a house that has POP, or a house that has a high ceiling. It will ask you certain questions to be able to understand your needs and it will then feed you with properties that are aligned to those needs.
So it’s not a quick guess. Like other platforms, you’ll go to and you’ll see the search button and then you search two-bedroom apartments in Sangotedo. It’s basically like the same thing you go out there and do.
But this AI model would first understand your needs, your preferences, and then feed you with properties that are in accordance to those needs. We are building that model and in 2025, we are going to be launching that as well.
And then property valuation, using AI is another thing. Because we are not just solving for home seekers. We are also solving for home providers. For example, let’s say I want to enter into real estate and I’ve developed a property, a duplex. But I’m not sure about the value of that property in the market.
I’ve worked with clients whereby I did the design for them, we did the construction, and the development. And then they were having issues putting up the right value of that property. So traditionally what people do now is to compare the prices of that same property in that same neighborhood.
For example, a fully detached four bedroom duplex in Lekki phase one. So what new landlords do is to ask questions around to check what is the value, how much are other people selling in that particular neighborhood? And they would now use that information to create a value for their own property.
But we’re using AI for property valuation so that you can just come on the platform, you wanna sell your property, but you are unsure on the right value because some people undersell themselves and oversell themselves. That’s why sometimes you see properties that stay in the market for a very long time.
We are building AI models for property valuation, whereby you put in the location. The AI already understands the value of properties that are in different locations. It has that data because we are gonna train the model and feed it with those data.
They’re gonna impute what is the category of that property? Is it a terrace? Is it a duplex, semi-detached? or a block of flats? What are the amenities that you put in that property? And every detail about the property and it will give you an estimated value of your property.
So we’re leveraging AI for property valuation, leveraging AI for fraud detection, fraudulent listings. So if you come on the platform to put in fraudulent listings, AI will be able to detect that it’s a fraudulent listing and flag it off.
As it is on our platform, when you post your property, it doesn’t go live immediately. We have an approval process so we can fish out the ones that are not genuine and leave the ones that are genuine.
Because we want to create a safe environment or a safe platform where people can come and trade without fear of being defrauded. So that’s how we’re leveraging emerging technology to solve this problem.
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What are the key lessons that you have learned in your journey as an entrepreneur?
In building solutions, you must first validate that solution or validate that idea before building. If not, you’ll be building the solution only for yourself. I’ve learned that it’s important to validate your idea.
The first step of building a business or building a product, carry out product validation. This will help you to know if the market is ready for your solution or are you too early? Do you need to wait until the market is ready for your technology? Because timing is very important. So you need to validate the idea. There must be a lot of validation before building that solution.
Secondly is to follow the money. It is important to build solutions that people are willing to pay for. Because if people are not willing to pay for your solution then you should stop building. Because the core of every business is to make money.
You are not an NGO. So you must follow the money. It is important to follow the money. And that’s where validation comes in. You must build a solution that people will be willing to pay money for.
The last one is that doing business in Nigeria is hard. And so if you’re entering business without tenacity and ruggedity, sooner or later you won’t last the test of time. So doing business in Nigeria is very hard. And so entrepreneurs must have the posture of tenacity and ability to keep on pushing regardless of the situation, regardless of whether things are not working or not.
What advice would you give to others who want to venture into business or who are just starting their business?
I would say go for knowledge. You can’t give what you don’t have. You must seek knowledge. And knowledge can come in different forms. It can come from mentorship, looking for someone who’s already where you are aspiring to be in life and seeking mentorship from them.
That is the highest leverage for me. Because if you are under the cover of a mentor, you’ll have wings to fly. It makes your journey 10 times faster. Because they’ll be able to help you identify pitfalls, where they fell before, and so that you also don’t fall. You also make the right choices as you build your business. So that’s one part of going for knowledge.
Secondly is investing in materials, in books, in attending seminars to learn and all of that. Thirdly, is building your networks. Because who you know is better than what you know. That’s the truth of the matter. Who you know in this life is far better than what you know. It doesn’t matter what you know. It doesn’t matter how intellectual you are. If you know nobody, your journey will be long.
So I always say that there are five buckets as an entrepreneur you need to fill. Number one is what you know, which is your knowledge. Number two is who you know, your networks. And number three is what you have, your resources.
Number four is what you can do, which is your skills. And number five, what do people think about you? That is your reputation. I think these are the five buckets that every person that’s entering into business or entrepreneur should be aware of.
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