Business
Profile: Tre Baker and Lawrence Watkins co-founders Ujamaa Deals
Tre Baker (left) and Lawrence Watkins co-founders of Ujaama Deals PHOTO: Courtesy of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs
Meet Tre Baker and Lawrence Watkins, the co-founders of Ujamaa Deals. Ujamaa is a kiswahili word that signifies the notion of cooperative economics.
The model is straightforward: “The [partner] businesses have no upfront costs, but pay a percentage of the deal amount,” Baker says. “For example, one daily deal may be US$20 worth of food for only US$10 at a local restaurant. The restaurant would give us a percentage of the US$10 for each deal sold. If nobody purchases the deal, the business pays nothing. There will be one main deal and several side deals once we are able to build a sufficient deal flow.” Simple, and it’s been proven to work. The goal of Baker and Watkins is to focus the power of group purchases on the African-American economy, which they estimate as close to US$1 trillion annually.
