truQ’s co-founder, Williams Fatayo resigns amid internal crisis

Williams Fatayo, the co-founder and CEO of truQ, a Nigerian-based logistics tech company that connects people and businesses to logistics solutions, has announced his resignation from the company. 

In an announcement via his X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Williams described how the latest development stems from incidents such as internal administrative cracks, financial transparency and leadership tussles. 

Williams co-founded truQ with Foluso Ojo in 2020 to streamline mid-mile logistics across Africa. In 2023, the startup won the TC Startup Battlefield competition, winning a cash prize of ₦2.5 million ahead of nine other competitors.

According to his Medium article titled TRUQ: FIRST WELL DOWN!, he traced the internal crack to a point when his co-founder started acting strangely after he confronted her about running the company into debts of about N100m.

He suggested a change in her role or have her step aside so the company could hire a logistics professional to improve service delivery and strengthen the business.

“Foluso’s vendetta campaign were series of erratic ‘I need to hold my ground’ actions to protect herself, intentional internal sabotage of collective business direction, acrimonious accusations of financial processes that we have ran together since we launched truQ in 2020,” he said. 

To make matters worse, Williams alleged that Foluso turned off his work email and called a “Kangaroo” shareholder meeting consisting of herself and 2 former employees who own equity in the business, to decide his removal as truQ’s CEO. 

Meanwhile, the final decision was upheld by the company’s US entity bylaws and Nigeria’s CAMA laws, as only Foluso’s vote against him wasn’t enough to remove him as CEO.

“…a meeting where one of the two employees refused to vote and the other employee who voted (who she was romantically involved with while he was at truQ) has previously given up his rights to the management of the business when he walked way, hence she was the only valid voter in her misguided attempt to make a shareholder decision..” Williams explained. 

According to his account, efforts were made to restore normalcy. These include shareholders’ meetings and mediation. Amid these, Williams explained that Foluso appeared determined to subvert the business. “After a series of discussions, she goes ahead to do something erratic again”, he explained.

Also Read: TruQ bags ₦2.5 million as TC Startup Battlefield winner.

Final decision to walk away

Amid the impasse, Williams took a bold decision to walk away. This, he claims, is based on his desire to save the company and save his relationship with his co-founder.

“I could either litigate and fight to stay in an expired relationship or choose to walk away from the drama. The fighting and litigation would have been a lost cause for our relationship, and even worse, kill the company, so I chose the latter — Walk away from it all.” Williams explained. 

He added that he took solace after various consultations, his passion for truQ and a reassurance for the future. 

“truQ has been the most exciting adventure of my life till date, I was privileged to flex the same creative power God himself flexed in Genesis 1, served some of the biggest businesses and customers in the market, convinced some for the best investors in the world,” he added.  

Present status of truQ

With Williams’s exit, Foluso will resume as TruQ’s CEO. 

In addition, he announced a transition plan to move his stake in truQ to a board level, where he will serve as part of its advisory board and as an investor. This will “keep supporting the vision we birthed and built through the years, to sell back some of my equity to the business.”

Since it started operation in 2022, the startup has launched various initiatives such as truQ 1.0, a 3PL platform that powered a few thousand operators and helped them execute tens of thousands of fulfilment, truQ 2.0 (Siju by truQ) a model that powers delivery planning and optimization at scale for distribution and manufacturing businesses who were the heavy users of the access platform built in truQ 1.0.

Through its logistics solution offering, the startup has served thousands of commercial fleet operators, powered thousands of fulfillments for businesses, recorded millions of dollars in transaction volume, and won industry competitions.

Note: This is a developing story. We will update as soon as we get Foluso's side of the story.