From Venmo for Africa to Accelerating Growth for African Businesses—How I transitioned from a graphic designer role into a partner at Byte.

Since first venturing into tech at barely 18 by learning photo editing at a photography studio in Mokola, Ibadan, my work for about a decade has been at the intersection of products, design, marketing, brands, and the people they serve—helping people live their best lives while I live mine. Not surprisingly, my resume is filled with high-profile organizations like the United Nations (Hult Prize), Prunedge, Tech4Dev, ADP List, Home Advantage Africa, and Extramile Africa, amongst others. I have chosen to do this for the first time—to talk about my work, my achievements, and perhaps the not-too-good things openly. Byte has been a thorough channel and phase for growth, opening me up to newer dimensions I didn't know existed and setting me up for the future I am stepping into.? Later on, I'll be sharing some insider information that will be expanded into its own story in due time

The Break that birthed Good things

It was a calm Thursday evening. I was taking a short break from continually trying to figure out how to approach marketing for a technology agency servicing both the public and private sectors, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with businesses in Europe and the United States.?I saw a job ad for a graphic designer role on LinkedIn—LinkedIn has always been my go-to social media platform, perhaps because it takes me away from the noise on X or the risk of addictive and endless scrolling through interesting but not too beneficial reels and pictures on Instagram. That ad brought back memories of the amazing work I had done in design, getting hired on the spot by Victor Fatanmi (I'm not sure he can still remember my pitch), and my internship at FourthCanvas which was to model me into one of the best designers in the world.

I have led design teams in various industries, both public and private (more in the latter). Before seeing the job notification pop up, I had taken a partial break from core design and was testing the waters of marketing by pioneering the marketing team at Prunedge. I had never worked in a marketing team or built one from scratch, but like everything I have always done, excellence was always a question away—how? I have never doubted the possibility of anything, my curiosity and versatility in these instances have always been a blessing. Before I forge ahead, you should check out my marketing piece titled “The Chosen Strategy”. I dissected how a church in Nigeria is inspiring others to do human-led out-of-home marketing. Let's get back. Getting a design role was a chance to return to my first love, at least on the side, but it would not be a “graphic designer” role. It had to come with a prefix like senior or lead, even if the only person I was leading was myself ??????. I had spent over half a decade doing amazing work in design, and if I was ever going to look out for a role in design, it would be a senior role. In this case, it would not matter so much since my marketing job at Prunedge was not something I would leave for anything; it was an exciting one. I was enjoying my discoveries, honing my marketing skills, and finding the balance that exists between design and marketing. So taking on a graphic designer role on the side would not be a bad idea—only complementary. When I finally decided to apply for this job, the only option was to exhaust my strength and capability to get it. All of my effort went into it. It was an opportunity to see marketing from a design standpoint and design from a marketing standpoint concurrently, although from two distinct verticals. For close followers and readers of my work, you would have an idea of how I forget my “status” when it comes to getting things done. I am eager to ask for help and can be motivated to do more than the barest minimum, “unshirting” when necessary and rolling my sleeves when required. In this case, my resolve to get closer to being hired at Byte was to send a direct message to a mutual who worked at Byte at that time. I asked him to put in a good word, and luckily he did. Richard's role in the emergence of this story cannot be swept under the rug. I am grateful, to date, for the recommendation. We would later work together on the product team and become amazing friends. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met, by the way.

I just checked the time stamp of that screenshot. LOL. I am sorry, but I have to make it in life.

Beyond being a Side Hustle.

You would think the only thing that contributed to my applying to join Byte was that it was a supposed side hustle. I think the name played a pivotal role. Byte sounded unconventional and intriguing, and I had to check them out in a second. More interestingly, I found out how amazing (at that time) what they were building was—Venmo for Africa. They would certainly need my input and wealth of knowledge (having worked at early-stage startups) to catalyze their dreams—I was ready from the application.

The New Byte—Rebranding in Bits

For someone who has learned directly or indirectly from ancestors like Tunji, Victor Fa, Aluko, Mary, Praise, and the bunch or design cartel that FourthCanvas has produced, you know the branding has to be tight. I took the first month to inherit and understand the brand, continually dishing out meticulously improved brand design daily, but an overhaul was inevitable. Yes, I joined Byte on the side while I retained my interesting marketing job at Prunedge, so rebranding immediately was not an option.

Redesigning Byte’s identity system was the first test of capability, openness, and leadership. It was a process that left no one out, right from the newest intern to the oldest of the team members, the CEO—by the way, he is “just” 23. Like every other brand design process, it was a test of patience, communication, and ultimately, storytelling. Luckily, after some back and forth, I got them in, and to date, our iconic B fits into the unimaginable number of times we have pivoted—I will share how many whenever I have the permission??.

Taking the Leap

I had spent about three months pouring my heart into this project and more interestingly, how a 21-year-old dropped out of school at 19 to build and contribute to the tech ecosystem. I had gotten used to these builders—team members—their energy, their commitment, and then one evening, Khalid, the CEO called. It is quite interesting that most of the life-changing experiences I have had at Byte are usually set in the evenings—more like how God visited Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Before I digress even further, He (Khalid) called to share progress on our work, the next investor he and Dolapo (his co-founder) were going to talk to, and felt we could take things a little further. He was spot on on the argument that we could do much better and faster if we all focused on building Byte together. It was an interesting pitch, and while I was convinced we would do great things together, I was not going to leave my interesting marketing job in just one night. Joining Byte fully was not an option (at the time), but the one who calls the shots in my life said it was the only option. Even though I risk sounding religious, my move was not solely a result of Khalid’s interesting pitch; it was a result of my interaction with God. It was His leading, and although there were challenging times, I have never once regretted following the lead. After so much back and forth, I drafted a WhatsApp message to my very lovely and respected boss at Prunedge (more like elder sister), Diwura. It was time to fly.

Orchestrating the Culture

I had worked with several highly structured organizations before joining Byte and I was certain that we would do better if we could put more effort into our culture and organizational structure. I was seeing the gaps, and it was something that we needed to fill ASAP. This time, I was the one who put a call across to Khalid, telling him how I thought we could be better at managing people who in return would bring better results to the overall business goal. The next Monday, I resumed as Head of Operations Design. The design in my title was retained because I still had to overlap as a designer, just that the core of my work shifted to building and laying the structure of the amazing culture we have today. I have never believed that a role is out of reach because the core of excelling at anything is, as I mentioned earlier, being willing to find out how to do things—this is my greatest adventure in life. Like my previous role at Prunedge, I had no prior structured learning about operations. It was only the knowledge I got from reaching out to friends like Emmanuel Faith and paying attention to those who led these roles in my previous workplaces—what they did well, what they did not, how they salvaged situations—and putting together all of this knowledge in synergy was what birthed our unwavering team. We had several team-bonding activities and office hours, which were powered by friends like Ore, Seun OG, and Emmanuel Faith. We had really difficult but important conversations that encouraged openness among team members. All of these and more were intentional orchestrations that enabled emotional safety on the team.

One moment, I would be caught up preparing contracts, interviewing and onboarding new talent, and organizing team bonding activities; the next, I would be researching our product offering, talking to customers, or giving brand direction—our culture never suffered. Since I took on the challenge of using my curiosity and versatility to scope out our culture at Byte, even in the bad times, we have always had the back of our talent. Byte has enjoyed 100% talent retention for over a year and a half now—one of the results of the culture that we have collectively and intentionally built. Today, everyone is happy to lend a helping hand.

From Venmo for Africa to Accelerating Growth for African Businesses.

In terms of pace, my work at Prunedge would set me up well for the pace we would need to execute at Byte. Earlier knowledge from FourthCanvas of how coming together under a roof to build could be beneficial for the culture and ultimately the team’s output made me suggest this idea to Khalid. We were able to convince Richard from Uyo, Victor E from Enugu, Khalid & Success from Abuja, and everyone in Lagos fell into our own Silicon Valley in Lagos—Yaba. In fact, Kabir traveled from Ibadan to our HQ every two weeks. We were set to build on what the world of fintech players have built—the future of paying and receiving money.

We had come together to build, live, and work in the same space. I would not need to ask Success, Ben, or Quzeem “Can you hear me?” This meant that we would break every barrier in communication and turn out features as fast as possible. I remember the team developing a product from ideation to implementation in about 24 hours. It was fun sleeping and waking up to work. I woke up several times to Khalid’s noodles and fried eggs or came back to Joel’s Egusi soup—I recommend team bonding activities every three months because this is why we have gone this far; in our case, team bonding was every day. We played games together and Joel would thrash almost everyone—the closest winner to Joel was Dolapo, I guess. Regardless of the time we spent on the games, we worked hard and fast. It was an interesting time.

The next big thing happened. We had finished building this new version of Byte and this time, almost everyone was on the field for this marketing campaign. I did almost everything related to marketing—I was designing the materials and going to Shomolu to print them. We would have preferred using Wii-create but our burn rate always had to be lean. Take a moment to picture a “Head of Operations'' in a Keke Maruwa (tricycle) to pick up prints—again, startups are not a bed of roses. It was one of those days when we were fortunate to have Khalid as our CEO—the day everything changed. We had built an amazing product, we thought. After a very hot day of spending energy and money on marketing, right there on the field, we knew it might not be what customers were looking for.? We sat down to measure success against resources and it was not close to what we envisioned. I remember Khalid's face, filled with disappointment, but that was not the only thing. I could see that he realized how much effort the marketing guys were putting in to get the “little” results we had, how amazing their work was regardless, and perhaps something needed to switch. That was the last day we pushed that product. We knew we had to take a new turn, ask more questions, and find what people wanted solved for them. We asked really important questions, built fast like we always do and we got right where we needed to be—accelerating growth for African businesses.

Solid Evidence for Less than a Year's Work.

We have built amazing products, people who power the products and we are getting closer to our dreams daily. While I cannot take this as a personal achievement, I think the solid culture I pioneered gave us some form of clarity, helped us to build fast, and played a significant role in being discovered by people who would later invest in our venture. I have achieved more things here—on team building, design, product decisions, and even customer retention—perhaps these statistics are only meant for my resume—one of them is being nominated for the 25Under25 awards in less than a year of joining Byte. The entire team made this happen and I give it to them, always

Accelerating Growth for Ourselves too.

We have gone really far—further than we thought. Our collective passion, sacrifice, and interest in building something worthwhile are paying off. Businesses are using our tools to grow daily, this is such a delight to see, but we should also care about ourselves. Now that the business is stable, we should accelerate growth for ourselves too.

I have switched priorities back to leading the design team—product and brand. Although I continue to manage our day-to-day operations on the side, my role has changed from Head of Operations Design to Head of Design. I am set to build a formidable design team.

I forgot to mention that the team has gotten quite robust (in numbers). We have also achieved a lot of stability in our team structure, the way we work, and our culture. The output has been nothing short of explosive. With the help of everyone on the team, we came up with a flexible but defined structure that would not only help us perform excellently but also aid our growth—individually and communally.

What is Next?

Today, I have grown from the ranks of applying for a graphic designer role to being a partner. It has been an amazing ride with our lean team—navigating turbulent times together, building, bonding, and growing together. While we are very optimistic about the future, singularly and communally, we are also aware of the volatility of the start-up environment and how policies can have drastic effects on your hard work. Our strength has always been in finding interesting ways to solve problems regardless, and we doubt that that will change anytime soon. For me, it has been 2 years, and I can’t wait to count the years in double figures if fortune permits.