My Story

Key events in my life

1995 - 2000

I was born on November 16th, 1995. From a young age I questioned everything, from why the sky is blue to why the old ladies in my family house ate without brushing their teeth.

2000 - 2027

During this time I experimented with ventures alongside my cousin. We built things we saw in movies, from wooden cars to tree houses, and sold farm produce to fund them.

I came up with the ideas and designs. He led the work. We built, sold and reinvested. Our final project was a wooden house for sheep our grandmother promised to buy. That never happened.

I loved to draw and write. Shy and quiet, I developed a stammer and spent most of my time drawing. I barely studied and was an average student in school.

In grade six I decided to top my class. I stopped drawing and focused on school. That term I had the highest scores. Soon after, I left the school because my parents couldn’t afford the fees.

2027 - 2010

I was moved to a public school. There I decided to focus more on my studies and channel my love for drawing into writing. I developed a daily routine that included prayer, short study sessions early and late in the day (30 mins), and rest.

Around that time I watched Meet the Robinsons and it changed everything. One quote stayed with me:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney

I wrote “Keep moving forward” on all my books and worked hard to excel. I read Shakepeare’s plays during the final phase of my final exam. I graduated top 2 in my school and district, and had the best handwriting in every school I attended since then.

2010 - 2013

Hard work and persistence became my defining traits. Reading the Qur’an and the Bible reignited the introspective nature I’d had since childhood. I began questioning life and exploring complex ideas.

Two books shaped me deeply during this period: Makers of Civilization by L.A. Waddell and a biography of Isaac Newton. One quote influenced my belief in possibility:

“Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” — Archimedes

Around this time I also discovered Eminem and Naruto. Learning to rap “Lose Yourself” helped cure my stammer, just as it did for Ed Sheeran. Naruto’s relentless spirit inspired me. I saw myself in his story — neglected, misunderstood, but determined to rise.

I wasn’t the smartest person in my class but again, I decided to study a particular course really well, I ended up with the highest score in the entire school and got an award for this achievement. The only award I got in that school. I started to see a pattern.

2013 - 2017

I travelled to northern Ghana for school in search of adventure. The environment was hot and unfamiliar, so I spent most of my time indoors, reading. I studied Biological Sciences (biotech major) and during this time, I read about Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and read The Iliad.

One vacation, frustrated with life, I searched on a basic $8 phone my mom had bought me: “How to be successful.” I found Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by Clement Stone, and it changed everything.

I realized I had been living with a negative mindset. I decided to try a positive one, and things began to shift. Later, I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which gave me a system for unlocking my potential. That semester, I topped my class with perfect grades.

A startup bootcamp introduced me to entrepreneurship. I joined the student council and co-founded a small business. It failed, but it sparked something in me.

In my final year, I led a team to compete in the ENACTUS startup competition. My school had never made it past the quarterfinals. We placed second. But the real win came after. My campus went on to win the national title, and later, the global competition.

“When you change what people believe is possible, you change what is possible.”— Alex Banayan

I was juggling so much at once that I told myself: “If I survive this, nothing will ever break me when I go out into the world.”

2017 - 2019

I went on to run Startup Grind in Ghana and started an online motivational brand called the_wanamaker.

I worked briefly at a tech recruitment company and later applied to the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a startup training program that gives a full scholarship and invests $100,000 into founders.

Two weeks before the final interview, I quit my job so I could go all in. I had two options: get in or get in. I got in. Selected for the 2018 cohort out of over 20,000 applicants. I was in the cohort with 60 other Africans from more than 12 African countries.

2019 - 2023

My company, BezoMoney, was selected as one of 14 startups to receive a $100,000 pre-seed investment. We grew from a few hundred users to over 50,000 customers. We partnered with Visa and Vodafone and raised a total of $1.3 million in funding.

We got accepted into Techstars Silicon Valley, Google for Startups, Halcyon Incubator, the Summit Fellowship, and the ExpertDojo Accelerator.

I once met Sergey Brin on a boat in Miami. I also came across an interview on YouTube with Alex Banayan, author of The Third Door. After watching it, I applied to a fellowship he was affiliated with. I got in, was invited to an event, and met him in person. Three years later, I interviewed him on stage.

I exited BezoMoney in 2023 to pursue a path of ethical finance.

2024 - Date

Today, I am building the future of ethical finance with NylaBank. I co-founded Exo AI, an AI-powered expert on your money. I support startups at Cookies Catalyst, a venture studio for early stage African founders.

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