Toronto, Ontario, Canada
16 years helping build some of the biggest products in finance and tech that hundreds of millions of people use every day, from Mastercard or Amex iconic cards and watching an African movie online, to ordering an Uber. Nigerian by birth, British by education. I have spent my career somewhere in between business, operations and product; and worked on the ground in more than 20+ countries. I spend 20% of my time finding scrappy, clever ways to do things and the other 80% - I am fortunate to work up, down, and across Uber (Mobility, Delivery, and Platform). From country general management to leading Uber's Business Development & Strategic Partnerships teams leading holistic deals that drive significant value exchange across our enterprise assets. Early business hire on the engineering-heavy iROKOTV team (Netflix for Africa and credited for the rise of the subscription industry in Africa). Worked on “business and growth stuff,” and served as the GM of a cross-functional business unit that took Irokotv’s distribution and mobile products from 0 to 1, landing large-scale distribution partnerships (such as with Multichoice and Netflix) and building first-in-kind product partnerships (such as with Airlines, Samsung, Tecno, Airtel, Vodacom). Driving significant user growth and payment volume, I have worked with several world-class payment teams at Mastercard and American Express. I built out Mastercard’s commercial payments business in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Amex Global Capabilities team, where I cut my teeth on everything from strategy work to product management. As a consultant and active angel investor, I’ve worked across numerous spaces, many unknown to me on Day 1. I bring the same fast-ramp attitude to my personal endeavours. You can count on me to bring this curiosity, commitment, depth, and intensity to all our endeavours. Whether you’re making your first ops hire, crafting your initial product marketing strategy, or spinning up a new business unit and wrestling with how to re-org, I have been in your shoes recently. If you need a sounding board as you iterate toward product/market fit, or help “with the business side of things”, I’ll always have tactical advice. I focus on founders building fintech, SaaS and developer products where systems are big and broken at multiple points — think health care, government, and education. Outside of work, you’ll find me working on my jokes or exploring different live music venues around the city or maybe on a plane.
I invest my own capital and time directly into startups I think can make a difference in Africa. I spend most of my time with founders building in B2B SaaS, developer tools and financial technology.
The Execs on Deck Fellowship is a highly selective program where top talent comes to accelerate their ideas and careers, surrounded by a world-class community.
Led Mastercard's Enterprise and Commercial Payments Product teams! (Plus tours of duty on FinTech, Mastercard startup community, advisory platform, financial inclusion etc.) #cashless