From medical biochemistry to building growth across three continents.
My career started far from tech. I studied medical biochemistry and genetics before finding my way into digital marketing and the startup ecosystem. Straight out of university, I co-founded Rene Digital Hub with a friend. We built a digital marketing agency working with businesses across education, sports betting and consumer products. We learned to find customers, price work, deliver results, and fix mistakes quickly. We scaled that business to 6 figures in usd revenue within 2 years before shutting it down to pursue other interests.
Over the years that followed, I have led growth and go-to-market for startups across Africa, Europe, and North America. At Africhange, a bootstrapped remittance company headquartered in Canada, I built the growth playbook from the ground up and helped scale the business from launch to hundreds of thousands of users and billions in transaction volume. At Smile ID, a Series B digital identity company operating across Africa, I led marketing and strategy through a repositioning and expansion period, building a consistent enterprise pipeline and supporting revenue growth; during my time, identities verified grew by 233% over two years. At Seedstars, a global entrepreneurship platform running programmes across dozens of cities in emerging markets, I led global growth across multiple regions, building acquisition and lifecycle systems that had to work across very different markets.
I have also consulted and worked as a fractional CMO for 10+ pre-seed to Series A startups. I have trained founders, creatives and operators through programmes such as Google Digital Skills, Facebook for Creators, & Digital Marketing Institute.
Beyond these operating roles, I started the Founders Connect Show to document the stories of Black and African builders globally. I noticed a gap in how these stories were told; too often, they were reduced to fundraising headlines in mainstream media or reserved for a select few, without any real depth. What began as a YouTube series has grown into a media and events platform, with long-form interviews, live events across the UK, Canada, Kenya, the US, and Nigeria, and an thriving online community.
I’m currently working on Episode, an agentic web platform for marketing teams. Episode helps teams convert their website to a growth engine by automtically building, testing and improving their pages.
Ideas worth spreading.
TED 2024 Vancouver
The innovators building Africa's thriving tech scene
TEDxAdankolo 2019
Small talks open doors to connections in ways we can't imagine
“My biggest strengths are hard work and resilience. I show up, and no matter how tough it gets, I never stop trying.”
I am based in London, UK.
Outside work, I like to go on long walks to nowhere.
I read a lot of romance novels and non-fiction (self-help) and watch far too many medical, legal, and emergency dramas.
I love teaching and listening to people's stories.
My faith matters to me; God is my anchor.
I hold an MBA from Imperial College Business School. I returned to academia because I missed structured learning, wanted to expand my network, and was looking for a degree that offered a broad grounding across organisational behaviour, economics, finance, and strategy.
My biggest strengths are hard work and resilience. I work hard, I show up, and no matter how tough things get, I never ever stop trying.
I sometimes moonlight as an angel investor. Through HoaQ, Future Africa & the Hustle Fund, and directly, I invested in Lemfi, Raenest, Eden Life, Norebase, Chowdeck, Harriet Osen, Paga, Kunda Kids, Klump, Payhippo, cocreate.ink, pngme, and more.
Off duty — long walks to nowhere
