In a fast-paced world where stress and work demands often take center stage, the importance of leisure and lifestyle experiences has often been overlooked.
Recognizing this need, Culr is offering a holistic approach to wellness through curated leisure experiences.
Despite its vast potential, the leisure sector in Nigeria faces several challenges that hinder its full realization. Infrastructure deficits, security concerns, and limited access to financing pose significant barriers to the development of leisure facilities and experiences.
Moreover, cultural attitudes towards leisure and lifestyle pursuits, coupled with socio-economic disparities, present additional hurdles for market penetration and inclusivity.
Just like Culr, leisure-focused startups can pioneer innovative solutions to transform Nigeria’s leisure sector.
By leveraging technology and strategic partnerships, Culr aims to democratize access to leisure experiences, catering to diverse interests and preferences.
Through curated offerings and personalized experiences, Culr empowers individuals and brands to prioritize holistic wellness and happiness, thereby reshaping the narrative around leisure in Nigeria.
In a chat with Oluseyi Michaels, the lead strategist, and co-founder of Culr, Techeconomy uncovered the vision of the startup and its desire to transform the leisure space in Nigeria and beyond.
Tell us about Culr
Oluseyi Michaels:
The concept for Culr was sparked by the need to offer more accessible and affordable recreational options, allowing young people to achieve a work-life balance.
Furthermore, it was our aspiration to enhance Nigeria’s standing in tourism. In the mid-2010s, I innovatively developed the initial idea, drawing inspiration from a pack of 64-in-1 DVDs. This concept has since transformed into the Culr startup we recently unveiled in 2023.
Culr, by its very definition, is a leisure and lifestyle tech startup that assists individuals in leading a healthy and balanced lifestyle by providing access to a diverse range of leisure experiences. We enable brands and individuals to utilize leisure pursuits to foster overall wellness and happiness.
In 2023, we introduced various community-led activities, such as CULR Weekends, which offered members a wide array of leisure activities. From self-hosted experiences like ‘Goof House’ and ‘Mellow Train’ to engaging partner events such as ‘Sand Screen by Minji’ and ‘Yang, and Filo by A Billion Laughs’, each event showcased the brand’s commitment to delivering unique and innovative leisure options.
Currently, we are in the process of developing a leisure planning app and operating a B2B service that aids companies with employee well-being initiatives, team bonding hangouts, corporate gifting, and event planning.
Fun fact:
The name is pronounced Cooler (Culr), meaning we are your go-to place whenever you need to cool off. And we are showing you the Culr way to live.
What is the market gap or need that your service will bridge or meet?
Oluseyi Michaels: The leisure industry is currently fragmented and in silos. This sort of makes leisure options appear limited and leisure experiences feel expensive and like a luxury when, in fact, they are to a large extent, necessities.
There are apps for travel, vacation, event ticketing, and other entertainment options; they all cater to leisure needs, but the fact that they are scattered across different domains reduces the chances of visibility for most operators, thereby making leisure experiences relatively inaccessible.
An infrastructure that amplifies exposure, enables collaboration and provides easy accessibility within the industry will have a major impact on the rate at which customers seek leisure experiences, and this will in turn help leisure operators increase their turnover.
Our brand approach is designed to do that and more. We are making leisure and recreation seamlessly accessible.
How does your business strategy stand out from other leisure startups in the country?
Oluseyi Michaels: Our approach is comprehensive: an app that connects users to a wide range of leisure experiences accessible through PAYGs, bundled packages, and subscriptions. This means less need for expensive marketing, as there will be more opportunities for complimentary sales and cross-selling. And more people will see leisure as more of a necessity and less of a luxury. We are also optimizing for both B2B and B2C users.
As an aggregator platform, it builds on the synergy of its community. We aim to foster as much collaboration within our community as possible that can have a major impact on the user experience and industry outlook.
We are building to help enhance investment within the space and equip leisure investors and operators with the right tools that will enable them to seamlessly conduct their operations and serve end consumers.
What specific challenges have you faced so far?
Oluseyi Michaels: Like any business that probably launched in 2023 with zero money in the bank, you can expect a bunch of cash-related challenges, but they were nothing we did not anticipate. 2023 was quite bumpy, but we held on tight. We’ve maintained a lean operation and stayed resourceful. We have a solve-it attitude as a team, and that has saved us more time than we can count.
Other challenges were around building quality relationships that would be beneficial to our operations, and we have been solving those problems.
Following our rebrand, we are launching REST Network, which is a community of leisure operators to help us move faster with the execution of all our plans. We are already in talks with potential angel investors. With the deals we have in the pipeline, 2024 is definitely going to be an interesting ride.
What are your expectations from Nigeria’s leisure space?
Oluseyi Michaels: I would say speedy adoption. We have been doing the background work, and Nigeria looks ready for what we are building.
Nigeria has a youthful population yearning for leisure experiences. The demand is already there, and with our comprehensive approach, we expect to be able to capture users and retain them in no time. Of course, we are committed to doing the work; we are here for the long term, but our predictions are very optimistic.
Another thing we expect to see is diversified investment in the space. Most of the investment in the space is concentrated in Lagos and mainly in three subsectors: hotels, bars and lounges, and restaurants. We expect more diversification in the coming years, and we are committed to supporting leisure investors with insights from the data we gather to guide their investments to alternate options with potentially equal or higher returns.
What is the team strength at Culr?
Oluseyi Michaels: We are currently 10 on the team, with me leading strategy and some part of operations and my co-founder Adetomiwa Ayomide supporting me on both fronts. The rest of the team includes UIUx designers, developers, brand designers, communications and partnerships, business development, and sales associates.
What should we expect from Culr in the coming years?
Oluseyi Michaels: For the immediate future, we are doubling down on Bubli by Culr (formerly Culr Corporate), which is the arm of our operation that caters to organizations and corporations. We are democratizing access to wellness initiatives and team bonding experiences and redefining the corporate recreational outlook.
Having worked with the likes of Boomplay and Figorr, CULR is more than committed to helping companies shape their employee welfare experiences and redefine employee satisfaction.
Once we successfully roll out the Culr App in Nigeria and gain reasonable traction, we plan to launch in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, and a couple of other African cities, and eventually in the UK, US, and the rest of the world.
We’ll also be facilitating some interesting events from time to time. There are already a bunch of activities in the works; some of them include Goof house, photo-Op, not-so-mellow party, and two very exciting Owambe events. It’s really exciting to look into the future.
