At 25, Bejay Mulenga has helped big brands like Facebook, Nike connect with young creative talent

At the age of 12, Bejay Mulenga began showing signs of a person who can be entrusted with business and event management. His talent for event management was on display when he organized a talent show that unearthed raw talents when he was in secondary school.

The success of the event propelled his desire to become an entrepreneur. A business student at the time in secondary, Mulenga took up the task of opening and running a small tuck shop, which fetched him some considerable amount of returns.

While running his tuck shop, the United Kingdom-based entrepreneur became familiar with the idea of franchising as he became fascinated by the potential it has for the growth of his business, opening his tuck shop in a number of schools.

The serial entrepreneur is now being celebrated for establishing businesses across multiple sectors such as recruitment, marketing and media production via his venture Supa Network.

On its Twitter account, Supa Network says it “connects businesses with super-talented humans through reach campaigns, recruitment programmes and retention strategies. Supa Network is the conduit between brands and young creative talent. Our little black book is not so little and very colourful.”

Mulenga prides himself on working for global brands such as Apple and Facebook to offer services on how they can successfully connect, recruit and understand the next generation. He also offered services to The Office Group and the UK government’s Cabinet Office, leading to the training of 3,000 people in digital skills in partnership with Facebook.

At the age of 19, Mulenga was invited to the Conservative Party conference to discuss business enterprise for young people. Afterward, he received an invitation to Downing Street to meet Lord Young, Enterprise Advisor to former Prime Minister David Cameron. “As a young black boy from London, I never envisioned being invited to Downing Street,” he told Forbes.

In 2015, he created a pop-market in Truman Brewery in Shoreditch, East London, where young entrepreneurs met and sold a variety of products. By 2016, the pop-market had recorded over 200,000 customers.

His entrepreneurial skills were acknowledged by the Queen of England. At the age of 21, he was the youngest recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. Gingered on by the Queen’s recognition, he identified a gap in the influencer industry when it was gathering pace in the year 2016. Mulenga realized that many influencers were not getting “fair payment terms”. Thus, he created Filli Studios and has since worked with some of the best influencers in the UK.

Mulenga now has businesses spanning creative content production, event production, Gen-Z marketing, influencer marketing and recruitment for large companies. Supa Network brings all of these businesses under one roof. According to Forbes, it is comprised of three in-house brands:

• SupaSpaces, focusing on bespoke events and workshops.
• SupaNetwork Creative, focusing on content production for online, social, video and performance artists.
• SupaInsight, a consultancy for brands and client, providing insight and support on areas such as recruitment and how to effectively engage with younger generations.

Mulenga’s recent venture, Supa Talent, works on diversity campaigns and programmes for businesses.