‘Why I started the Personify app’

Could you tell us a bit about you?   I was born in Nigeria to parents who inspired me to push myself to the limits. My father is an engineer, from whom at an early age I learned the true meaning of taking pride in labour. My mum is a school administrator who instilled a […]

Could you tell us a bit about you?

 

I was born in Nigeria to parents who inspired me to push myself to the limits. My father is an engineer, from whom at an early age I learned the true meaning of taking pride in labour. My mum is a school administrator who instilled a selfless sense of discipline in me at a very young age.

On my first day in secondary school, she challenged me to make it to the top 20 in a class of 144. In the first term I came 5th, but I wasn’t too happy. I didn’t see why there were four students ahead of me. Due to this internal ‘disappointment’, I spent the next six years immersed in a world of the pursuit of knowledge.

In senior secondary school, I was doing so well, competing in numerous national math and science contests, appearing on several TV education shows, and winning several science related contests that I became a household name. When I was 14, computers were introduced to our school, and I immediately jumped at the opportunity to learn much about computers. In no time, I was the only student programming on those computers. That same year, I competed in a national computer programming contest, and placed 2nd. I was sold. Whatever I’d do with the rest of my life would involve computers.

At age 17, I ended up graduating top of my secomdary  school class, setting an academic record no one before me had ever come close to from my school.

So you were able to live up to your parents’ expectation…

Still, I wasn’t satisfied, because I aimed for all eight A1s. I knew I wanted to study computer science/engineering, but at the time, there weren’t any institutions in Nigeria to learn anything meaningful in computers. So I opted to leave for America, Canada or England. However, seeing that it was ‘impossible’ for someone with my working class background to consider studies abroad, I remained determined to overcome just another challenge.

Then, the cost of attending a US college for a year could feed the entire town where I grew up, for a whole year.

However, this did not deter me. In what has become the most serendipitous moment of my life, I contacted seven colleges in the United States which all offered computer science programs – The University of Texas at Arlington, Washington State University, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and Harvard University, and they all sent me their prospectuses.

All these colleges were interested in was the tuition and living expenses it would take me to attend. Only one university sent me an insert that contained academic scholarship opportunities – The University of Texas, Arlington. Through a gift from a relative, I had the money ($50) to apply to just one school.

I sat for the exam, and with almost perfect scores, I had more than what it took to be admitted to any of those schools. However, I had no funds to actually make it to America, even if I got accepted. Armed with determination and all my past accomplishments, I traveled to Lagos to source for funding.

As a 17-year-old boy, I walked the streets of Lagos knocking on every door of just about anyone who’d listen to me.

Successful a year later with the backing of my family and the academic scholarship I had long dreamed of, I landed in Dallas en route to Arlington, Texas, where I enrolled in engineering. Four years later, I graduated with honors, and joined Nokia as an engineer.

While at Nokia, I started thinking of opportunities to use technology to bring the world together. The seeds of ‘Personify’ had been sown in me. After nine years of a successful career at Nokia, I left to embark on this journey, a journey that takes me back to my humble beginnings.

What is Personify about?

It’s about discovering volunteer and social good opportunities anywhere you are. My mission with ‘Personify’ is to turn the world back to thinking of a smarter way to live. I started building ‘Personify’ to connect people everywhere to local causes that they can be involved with, causes for the greater good of humanity.

As an engineer, I believe that mobile is key to achieving this goal. I think the world can be a better place, and what better way to do this than by connecting people to the greater good wherever they are.

What kind of impact do you expect it to have on users?

A longing feeling to do good anytime, armed with simple tools to discover what to do anywhere.

Would you say it is an entirely new creation and there is no other related work like Personify?

It’s a new creation; I built the site, and am currently developing the mobile applications. There are several entities trying to tackle the general problem or finding volunteers to work at causes. However, ‘Personify’ takes a different approach. The ‘Personify’ team is global, and we are unique. The problem is big enough that we need several entities to tackle it from different angles.

Why do you think people should pay it any attention enough to subscribe to it?

For the following reasons: It’s social. It’s free. There is no subscription. No fees. It’s actually a cool product to use. Doing something good naturally makes you feel good. Hence an easy way to find out what good to do naturally falls in the same category. Given all of the above, why wouldn’t you?