Forward Thinking ALUmni
In Abraham Lincoln’s words, “The best way to predict the future, is to create it.” Amenan Couboura and her team at Tutoo+ are doing the exact same thing. Creating a tool that is not only needed now but tens of years from now, especially on the African continent.
Amenan Coubora is an ALUmni from Côte d’Ivoire. She is a young woman who is very passionate about digital entrepreneurship with the aim of improving the education system in Francophone Africa through cutting edge technology. Her passion has led her to work with one of the French leading television company in Francophone African, Canal+Group as a commercial business manager and business developer.
Before joining Canal+ Group, Amenan spent 4 years at ALU, a place which helped her build an entrepreneurial mindset. The Student Venture Program at ALU supported her to gain knowledge on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, human-centred design thinking and supported her as she started her own venture, Tutoo+.
“I don’t think I would have been an entrepreneur if I didn’t come to ALU. Back home, entrepreneurship is not something that is encouraged or taught in schools. Everything is more focused on getting a job with a good salary. ALU has a great spirit and the system encourages entrepreneurship. Even when I shared ideas with my peers, they would motivate me and criticize the idea in a productive way. The community would never discourage me.”
Tutoo+ is an innovative and contextualized e-learning platform with an offline version that aims to provide a disruptive education on 21st century skills with a focus on cutting edge technologies in Francophone Africa in order to bridge the graduate skill gaps problem. The idea for Tutoo+ came up after Amenan had interned with Canal+ and had to create a tutorial to teach employees how to use a GIS solution which she had created. When the internship season ended, Amenan went back to ALU campus where she teamed up with her fellow ALU students to create Tutoo+. When she and one of her partners first pitched the idea in a Student Venture Program event, it was clear that the idea needed more work. Luckily, the Guest Relations team at ALU, had invited Christopher Williams (OCW) as an expert in residence. OCW was present during Amenan’s pitch and he supported her and her team as they started their journey of turning an idea into something greater.
“The first day we pitched the idea at SVP, it was horrible but we received such great feedback from OCW. I wouldn’t be able to get to speak to him and meet world-class experts if I wasn’t at ALU. OCW also supported us as we worked on Tutoo+ and from there on, we won almost all the competitions we participated in.”
After conducting market research in 17 francophone countries in Africa over 8 months, with more than 6000 sample sizes, Tutoo+ was ready to be launched. Tutoo+ has won awards from The African Union, Orange, Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, and best Africa, and many more. The venture is now in the go-to-market process as they have tested their almost final version for 10 months. There are now more than 500 users on the platform with around 100 daily visitors plus paying customers. Five years from now, Tutoo+ aims to impact more than 5000 young people in Africa in terms of providing them with the necessary tools to easily transition into the job market. The job matching solution on Tutoo+ works to give multiple users jobs and support entrepreneurs who would like to launch their own projects through mentorship programs that they are hoping to start.
“What we are doing may not be fully understood by many Africans but in time, they will realize the relevance of Tutoo+ as many young people are graduating with skill gaps. This is why Tutoo+ is a great solution as it is also in the African context.”
Amenan mentions the one of the best things she got from ALU was the internet. She expresses how it might seem as if it is something simple but having access to fast and reliable internet is not the norm for everyone on the African continent. She was able to access quality online resources that taught her anything I wanted to learn. Even as she majored in Business Management she was able to explore her passion in computer science and the digital space as a whole.
“Five years ago I was just an ordinary African girl with a limited ambition of just getting a degree, get a small job, get married, live and die. I got my own personal computer when I first went to ALU. That was the beginning of my dream to become a digital entrepreneur who wanted to make employment opportunities and have a great impact on Africa.”
We celebrate Amenan for pursuing her mission and aiming to make a positive impact in her community and communities around her.
