Before Temi started Tees & Co, she had already built a successful shoe brand.
That experience would become important when she eventually moved into apparel. She was no longer entering the consumer business completely from scratch. She had already learned some of the fundamentals that come with building and selling a physical product: finding manufacturers, understanding customers, managing inventory, thinking about margins and figuring out how to turn attention into sales.
So when she started Tees & Co, she had some of the rudiments already in place.
What she did not necessarily expect was how quickly people would pay attention.
Temi started Tees & Co with a tweet, and the post generated thousands of interactions around the new business. For a young consumer brand, that kind of attention can be difficult to manufacture. Temi had it from the beginning, giving the business an early advantage as she began figuring out how to turn the buzz into something sustainable.
The motivation for starting the business was partly financial, but there was also a familiarity with the industry. Temi had sold shirts while she was in school on commission, so apparel was not an entirely unfamiliar space.
This time, however, she was building the business for herself.
She also did not have a wealthy relative financing the idea. Temi funded the business herself, which meant that every decision around production, inventory and cash had to be made carefully.
Rather than simply buying large quantities of products and hoping they would sell, she developed a direct relationship with manufacturers and became strategic about what she stocked. Product colours were one example. Instead of trying to carry every possible variation, the business paid attention to what customers actually wanted, with colours such as black and white becoming reliable choices.
These decisions may seem small, but for a growing consumer business, they can determine how much cash gets tied up in inventory.
Her previous experience with the shoe brand gave her a useful foundation, but Tees & Co also presented a different challenge: building a recognisable apparel brand in a market where customers have plenty of alternatives.
Turning an Early Buzz Into a Brand
The initial tweet created attention, but Temi understood that attention could not be the entire business model.
Customers might discover a brand because of a post, an advert or an influencer. They return because of the experience they have after making the purchase.
That became increasingly important to how Tees & Co approached growth.
The company began working with influencers and trusted communities, focusing on relationships that could introduce the brand to relevant audiences rather than simply chasing reach.
Over time, this helped Tees & Co build a social community of more than 20,000 people in less than three years.
For Temi, customer experience became one of the ways the company could differentiate itself.
Growing Without Giving Up Ownership
Temi has also taken a deliberate approach to financing the company’s growth.
While raising external investment has become a common route for many startups, Tees & Co has focused on growing without giving up equity.
Inventory expansion has been supported through carefully managed debt and operating cash flow, allowing the business to continue expanding while retaining ownership.
Her approach reflects something that is often overlooked when discussing consumer businesses.
Growth is not always about how much capital a company can raise. Sometimes it is about how well a founder understands demand, manages inventory and reinvests money back into the business.
Temi’s earlier experience with her shoe brand gave her some of that understanding before Tees & Co began.
Building Beyond Tees & Co
The ambitions for the business now extend beyond selling directly to consumers.
Tees & Co is growing its B2B operations while laying the groundwork for broader distribution across Nigeria. Plans include warehouse infrastructure across four major regions to support future expansion and improve fulfilment.
There are also plans for additional product lines, including a women-focused brand.
Longer term, Temi wants to build a broader group of companies rather than remain focused on a single apparel business.
Her journey has also shaped how she thinks about entrepreneurship.
One of the principles she often returns to is to “do it afraid.”
For Temi, starting does not require having every answer figured out. Her own journey from building a shoe brand, to starting Tees & Co with a tweet, to developing a growing consumer business reflects that process.
She also believes entrepreneurs should document their journeys. Recording milestones makes it easier to recognise progress, particularly during periods when growth feels slower than expected.
Tees & Co may have started with a tweet, but the foundations of the business were built long before that post.
They came from Temi’s earlier experience building a shoe brand, selling products while in school, learning how to work with manufacturers and understanding what it takes to manage a consumer business with limited resources.
The tweet brought the attention.
The experience she had already gained helped her know what to do with it.