Last year, in June 2024, Andyson Andrew Ibe and his co-founder, Raphael Jegede, casually took on what seemed like a routine contract. However, that contract ultimately led to the creation of TillSeller, a cloud-based EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) SaaS solution designed specifically for large, medium, and small retail businesses.
Andyson Andrew Ibe is a dedicated software engineer with 5 years of experience building scalable digital solutions for product-driven companies. He has trained, mentored, and impacted over 250+ tech career beginners as a tech career mentor. Passionate about building robust and user-oriented products, Andyson leverages technology to drive business growth and empower the next generation of tech professionals.
Raphael Jegede, his co-founder, is a seasoned software engineer with 7 years of experience, specializing in PHP/Laravel, React/Redux/Typescript, and is a Certified Microsoft Azure Developer Associate.
This strong professional background set the stage for their success. The story began when a family friend of Raphael’s who owned a small African shop in the UK reached out with a problem: the EPOS system he was using was too expensive and didn’t meet his needs. Could they build something better and more affordable? They accepted the challenge.
From the start, Andyson delved into technical and market research, uncovering key issues plaguing the EPOS industry for small businesses: overpriced systems, a lack of real-time updates, poor customer support, outdated user experiences, and a lack of trust from small Retailers. The very next day, Andyson suggested to Raphael that they build the solution as a SaaS product with multi-tenancy capabilities, and to his surprise, Raphael had already designed the backend exactly that way. It was clear they shared the same vision.
They built an MVP in 3 months and installed it at the family friend’s shop. The feedback was positive, and though both Andyson and Raphael still had full-time jobs, they kept iterating on the product at a slow pace. By October 2024, Andyson took the initiative to expand into the Nigerian market. He assembled a small team of marketers, a social media manager, customer support agents, and a graphic designer, all working with a modest budget. They ran TillSeller like a proper startup: daily standups, clear goals, customer feedback loops, and free onboarding to gather insights. Some users thought the product was too basic, but they valued the feedback and planned future improvements.
Then, in a turning point moment on March 28, 2025, Andyson was laid off from his role as a software engineer. The company decided to shift focus towards full-stack developers specialized in PHP/Laravel, which wasn’t Andyson’s expertise. While this could have been a setback, it instead became the fuel that propelled TillSeller forward.
Freed from his previous commitments, Andyson dedicated himself full-time to the project. Within two months, they expanded the product beyond MVP, built a full web dashboard, finalized and launched the mobile app, and closed their first enterprise contract to roll out TillSeller across 12 stores. Small, medium, and large retail businesses began adopting TillSeller to manage their entire store operations efficiently. Today, TillSeller stands for affordability, reliability, and scalability in the EPOS space.
Their mission is to make powerful point-of-sale software accessible to businesses of all sizes, from small shops to large multi-store establishments, without breaking the bank, backed by real-time updates, offline checkout support, and dependable customer support.
This story teaches us several things:
● What seems like a setback can become your launchpad.
● Execution beats timing every time.
● Honest user feedback is invaluable.
● Building with users at the center is key.
● Having the right co-founder can make all the difference.
● A layoff is not the end; sometimes, it’s the very beginning.
Andyson Andrew Ibe and Raphael Jegede are just getting started, and TillSeller is poised to transform retail business management, especially across Africa and the diaspora. If you know a retail business owner looking for a modern, affordable EPOS solution for any size business, TillSeller is ready to help.
