LemFI - Director of Product, AI
I'm building something new.
I'm building something new.
I helped build HIFI, a New York-based financial infrastructure company for moving value across stablecoins and global banking rails.
I joined early and shaped the product and team from scratch. I started with the Dashboard and expanded across the website, brand, docs, compliance and internal tooling.
My work covered design, engineering, and leadership. I also supported marketing, compliance and people operations.
I founded Paystack in 2015 with Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi.
At first it was a contract to redesign and build Checkout, a web app for accepting payments in the browser. I later joined them in San Francisco for YC and ended up working together for almost a decade.
I built a lot of foundational products at Paystack, including the Dashboard, Watchtower, Commerce, Docs, Compliance Engine and more. I also designed and established company-wide production, communication and documentation systems.
As Head of Design, I built and led a 20-person organization spanning brand, product, editorial and operations. We created the company's visual identity, designed all products, and established design systems and processes.
Paystack is by far one of most important experiences of my life. The company values are a model for my personal life, the people are kind but critical, the work is meaningful and I was constantly learning.
In 2020, the company was acquired by Stripe.
In 2014, Timi Ajiboye and I started working together as Hello World. We made digital products for clients and small experiments of our own.
Hello World was also a collective. On larger projects, we enlisted friends like Onyekachi Mbaike, Lolu Bodunwa, Segun Famisa and Efe Money.
In early 2014, I joined Lanre Oyedotun at Chronos as a web designer. Months later, he teamed up with Chuka Ofili and Ezra Olubi to start Delivery Science.
At DS, we were encouraged to learn everything. Version control. Backend Development. Microservices. Monitoring. Everything.
We were often working on multiple projects at a time and there was always room to pick up something new. This was very formative for me, and I got a well-rounded education in software development.
Ezra and I left for Paystack at the end of 2015. A few other friends at DS - Seike Ibojo, Loknan Nanyak and Shope Johnson - also joined us.
The company was later renamed to Field Insight.
In 2013, I created a database of Nigerian designers called Curation. It didn't go far, but I connected with Akin Falomo as a result. A few months later, we signed up Seun Awoyele and Kolawole Balogun to start Devcenter.
At first it was a website for sharing side projects but slowly it evolved into a community. I worked on the Devcenter brand and product for about two years. I also founded its open source arm Devcenter Square.
Under Akin's direction, Devcenter is now a community of 20,000+ software developers, designers and technology professionals. The product is now a developer support service called Gigson.