Closing a chapter
For the past year, I’ve worked closely with
@Sir_Damilare at
@Based_Africa, driving ecosystem growth across Southwest Nigeria for
@base.
In that time, we:
– Onboarded 27 early-stage products
– Supported 12 mature products
– Helped launch 10 mini apps and 4 AI agents
– Ran hackathons and founder programs
– Connected local founders to global incubators
– Helped investors discover builders from South West Nigeria through my network and contents.
Grateful to
@Sir_Damilare and the wider
@Based_Africa team for the opportunity, trust, and room to execute.
Beyond the numbers, the experience reinforced something I’ve believed for years:
Some of the most interesting crypto products today are being built and actively adopted in emerging markets.
They’re just largely mispriced or overlooked.
Not because demand is absent, but because distribution here doesn’t look like what most investors or global teams are used to.
On-ground adoption is driven by:
– Informal trust networks
– Physical onboarding and education
– Stablecoin-based use cases (payments, savings, FX)
– Speed, access, and utility over “perfect” UX
That’s the work I’ve spent the last few years doing:
Helping early-stage products find users, building local onboarding systems, growing communities from the ground up, and connecting African founders to global opportunities.
Now, I’m looking for my next role at the intersection of ecosystem building, early-stage product growth and African market distribution. Ideally with a;
- protocol
- crypto fund
- infrastructure company
- founder who needs an operator with deep local insight and execution experience.
If that sounds like you — or you know someone building something relevant — my DMs are open.
At the same time, while I look toward my next role, I’m starting a weekly editorial called On Ground.
A written series exploring how crypto actually moves across Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia — through field observations, founder conversations, and real user behavior.
Less theory. More reality.
Using my experience building
@blocstreets, I’m also building a product for Africa’s informal markets with a small team, and we’re currently looking for a frontend engineer to join as a contributing founder (equity only for now).
wandeofweb3@gmail.com