Being an entrepreneur or a small business owner isn’t for the faint of heart. Founder and CEO of sBAU, Lambert Egbuchulam, understands that all too well, and he draws inspiration from his father’s relentless dedication and commitment. He watched him go to work as an engineer from 9 to 5 at his architectural company, and then come home and go to work on his small side business from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. “He did that for 30 years. Seeing that growing up really motivated me. It was inspirational. There was a pivotal moment when I thought, ‘Maybe this is something that I would like to try.’”
Later Lambert shares, ”When my dad started focusing on the side business, it was a struggle for him because he dove in deep, and that affected our lifestyle. There were certain things that we just couldn’t do because of financial reasons. It was tough.” Experiencing that also inspired Lambert. “I thought to myself, ‘why sacrifice your lifestyle for the business?’ That realization led to the birth of Lambert’s entrepreneurial philosophy: business and lifestyle need not be mutually exclusive, a concept embedded in the ethos of sBAU.
Lambert’s solution, sBAU, is a streaming platform for small businesses which he conceptualized during pharmacy school. By combining his passion for coding with his entrepreneurial spirit, he devised the idea in hopes of helping small business owners promote, monetize and enhance revenue through content creation.
“When the idea started, I was just coding, playing around with things. The original idea was to have businesses paywall their content because a lot of them already have great content that they didn’t monetize; they only monetize it one dimensionally, which is through sales. They promote content, and hopefully that content drives the customer or consumer to buy their products or services. But there’s other ways to monetize content, and a lot of businesses don’t capitalize off that. And, until now, there hasn’t been a platform to help them do that.”
Lambert further explains that many businesses don’t have time to be content creators and TikTokers and YouTubers. “I thought if I could create a platform where small business owners can create content in a way that’s convenient for them, that fits to their current lifestyle, their current business lifestyle, then I can help them not only promote their business but also monetize and bring more revenue. And, I can save them money. That’s what the whole sBAU idea stems from.”
He used his undergrad computer science background to create the front end and the framework to show how everything should look. “After I did that, I pitched it because I always knew that I couldn’t do this myself. I needed help; I needed someone who was an expert.”
Lambert met Kyle online. “It’s kind of like dating,” he laughs, “you meet people online, connect, pitch them your ideas. Not too many people understood the idea like Kyle did because he has a history of being a small business owner himself. He’s owned a couple of bars and restaurants.”
Kyle became the CTO. “He believed in the idea so much he quit his $200k job as a software developer to do this with me.” He takes care of all the tech, the servers, the front end, everything needed to launch sBAU. “This was a big sacrifice for him. And after I met him, we launched it on the App Store. It took a while because I was trying to get it perfect, but now we’re at a stage where we need to raise capital and start moving and start growing.”
The sBAU solution
sBAU leverages streaming for targeted exposure and outreach to address the unique needs of local businesses requiring quick customer engagement. “Streaming is becoming so much more accessible to everybody. Imagine a button on say Zoom or any platform where business owners can click it and stream their amazing offerings. Then they can post and share it on our platform, TikTok, or whatever platform they want.” With sBAU, business owners can reach customers quickly. Lambert explains, “With a small business, it is all about how fast you can reach customers at a particular point in time.”
Small businesses have to attract consumers right then and there because they need foot traffic. They need people engaging quickly and coming into their business and buying drinks, buying food, et cetera. Lambert notes, “Streaming is perfect for small businesses because they can reach customers locally right then and there in real time. That’s what they need. And they don’t do enough of that on other platforms, like YouTube ,because other platforms are not geared towards small businesses. They’re focused on getting the maximum amount of exposure so they can get the maximum amount of money. Small businesses don’t need that. They just need targeted exposure, targeted outreach.” They need sBau.
The importance of targeted exposure and real-time engagement is critical for small businesses seeking to thrive in today’s competitive market. The need to attract immediate local customers highlights the value of sBAU as a tailored solution, a solution that is bridging the gap between business and lifestyle while offering a solution that enables small businesses to thrive without compromise.
Published by: Martin De Juan
