personal photo of Opeyemi Awoyemi

Opeyemi Awoyemi

Tagline:Partner @ Fast Forward Venture Studio. DotCV evangelist. Prev founded Jobberman (no 1 jobsite in Nigeria), Whogohost (no 1 .ng domain registrar) and led Product teams at Indeed. Wharton MBA '25. MIT Legatum Fellow.

About Me

'You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.'
My life has been filled with epiphanies and migrations. I was born in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, a small university town.

👉🏽 I was lucky to have constant access to a computer at age 16 - and this changed my life forever. I was one of top 3 best designers in my university by 18 and also developed many sites and apps.

👉🏽 Then I realized I wanted to build to impact hundreds of thousands of people through tech, so I moved to Lagos, the capital city of Nigeria to build my dreams.

👉🏽 I founded 2 category leading companies in Nigeria which are widely known and used by millions of people till today. The first one was Whogohost, the leading domain registrar in Nigeria with 100k+ domains under management. Then I founded Jobberman, a job site backed by Tiger Global and with 5m+ users.

👉🏽 After exiting Jobberman in 2018, I became bullish about learning from global bests, building for the world and deploying capital to support Africa. So in 2019, I migrated again to the US on an EB-1 (Visa for Extra Ordinary Ability) Visa.

👉🏽 Got introduced to Indeed and got a job within a week. At Indeed, I product-managed technical teams to build critical APIs, Indeed Gigs, and WFA.jobs (a top 10 app in the jobs category in < 1 year).

👉🏽 Now I am actively building on my lifelong commitment to unlocking prosperity for Africa and Africans. This I do through Fast Forward Venture Studio and I invite you to join us. DM to learn more. Fast Forward Venture Studio builds upon my experience as a founder and investor in 50+ startups over the last 5 years with a personal 16x multiple on invested capital; as well as my partners' experiences building unicorns and platforms to support growth of Africa's technology scene.

👉🏽 In my almost non-existent spare time, I like to be super helpful and I mentor talented folks looking to pursue their dreams as founders and product managers. Feel free to DM.

Education

  • MBA

    from: 2024, until: present

    School:The Wharton School

    Description

    Class of 2025

  • Advanced Growth

    from: 2020, until: 2020

    School:Reforge

    Description

    Reforge is the world’s top growth school.

  • Innovation for Growth: Strategies for Creating Value

    from: 2015, until: 2015

    Field of study:Executive EducationSchool:The Wharton School

  • Executive Education

    from: 2015, until: 2015

    Field of study:CIO InstituteSchool:University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business

    Description

    The three-day program is a collaborative effort between the Haas School of Business and the CIO Institute Leadership Board. Designed as an exclusive IT leadership development academy, this program is for high-potential technology executives who are candidates for significant management responsibilities. The CIO Institute focuses on strategy and leadership in a highly interactive learning environment facilitated by Fortune 1000 CIOs (McKesson, Salesforce, Technocolor et al) and world-renowned faculty from UC Berkeley.

  • Bachelor of Science

    from: 2004, until: 2009

    Field of study:Computer Science & EngineeringSchool:Obafemi Awolowo University

  • High School Diploma

    from: 1997, until: 2003

    Field of study:High SchoolSchool:Federal Government College Ilorin

Work Experiences

  • Managing Partner

    from: 2021, until: present

    Organization:Fast Forward Venture Studio

    Description:

    Fast Forward is a venture studio—and early-stage fund—that builds and backs companies to unlock prosperity in Africa through technology.

    Portfolio: AltSchool (TalentQL), Dojah, Bumpa, Pesa, Autogon, Alliance Chemicals, Caregave Health, Cloudmall, Chimoney, Cribstock, Clickafix, LifeBox Health, Sendchamp (acq. by WhoGoHost), Ola.CV, Rivia Health

  • Evangelist

    from: 2023, until: present

    Organization:OlaCV (operator of the .cv domain)

    Description:

    Your name is your story. Tell it with .cv

  • Venture Investor

    from: 2014, until: present

    Organization:MyselfLocation:Lagos, Nigeria

    Description:

    Invested directly (40+) as an angel or through VentureKinetics or Whogohost Ventures. Also as an LP in Musha Ventures, RallyCap, Future Africa and Future Outer Join.

    Portfolio includes: Leeds United, Formless, kiki.club, Ropay, Clearbit (acq by Hubspot), Laskie (acq by Twitter now X), Cova, Buycoins, ESL(PayCentre Africa), Bumpa, VFD Group, Vela, Rohealth, Ongair, Kippa, Remedial Health, Rovedana, Rollout, 1500naira.com (exited), Eventprime, Nguvu Health, moni.africa, Payday, Reliance HMO (part-exited), Verilium, Veend, PayFlexi, Bank54, Apata, Sendstack, Klump, Timon Cards, Tunl, Snoot and more.

  • Board Member

    from: 2023, until: present

    Organization:WhoGoHost

  • Innovator In Residence

    from: 2022, until: present

    Organization:Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT

    Description:

    Supporting Legatum entrepreneurs, MBA students and initiatives accelerating development in growth markets with product strategy, venture building support, industry access and office hours.

  • Non Executive Director

    from: 2023, until: present

    Organization:Mutual Benefits Life AssuranceLocation:Nigeria

    Description:

    Mutual Benefits Life Assurance Limited, began operations in 2003 as a business unit of Mutual.
    Benefits Assurance Pic. Today, it is Nigeria’s leading life insurer with three subsidiaries across West Africa - Mutual Benefits Micro-finance Bank and two offshore companies: Mutual Benefits Assurance in Liberia and Niger.

  • Founder & Chairman

    from: 2006, until: 2024

    Organization:WhoGoHost LimitedLocation:Lagos, Nigeria

    Description:

    Leading cloud hosting company in West Africa with 100k+ paying clients.

  • Co-Founder

    from: 2021, until: 2022

    Organization:MoneymieLocation:Austin, Texas Area

    Description:

    Tinkering on x-border, money flows and newer ways of value transfers

  • Senior Technical Product Manager

    from: 2019, until: 2021

    Organization:Indeed.comLocation:Austin, Texas Area

    Description:

    Worked on Jobseeker APIs, Platform Segmentation, Verticals, Co-brands and new bets.

  • Head of Jobs

    from: 2016, until: 2017

    Organization:ROAM (Ringier One Africa Media)Location:South Africa

    Description:

    One Africa Media owns and operates leading classifieds (Cars, General Classifieds, Jobs and Property) in Africa (currently operating in 10 countries). As Head of Jobs, I was responsible for P&L, product and business strategy for the Jobs Vertical and working closely with the country CEOs of the jobs businesses in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Projects

  • TEDxIfe Speech

    date: 2024

    Description:

    A rant on my thoughts on the need for change in Nigeria’s education.

  • Give Good Away

    date: 2016

    Description:

    Non-profit focused on finding out scalable ways to do good.

Honors & Awards

  • Future Awards 2013

    date: 2013-12-01

    Description:

    The Future Africa Awards & Summit, also known as (The Future Africa Awards and formerly known as The Future Awards), are a set of awards given by The Future Project (TFP), a social enterprise communications firm affiliated to Red Africa. The awards celebrate young people between the ages of 18 and 31, who have made outstanding achievement in the year under consideration. Forbes has described the awards as "Nigeria’s most important awards for outstanding young Nigerians".

    LINK: https://www.bellanaija.com/2013/12/the-future-awards-2013-first-photos-full-list-of-winners-oc-ukeje-uche-pedro-of-bellanaija-jobberman-trio/

  • 30 Under 30 Africa's Best Young Entrepreneurs

    date: 2013-03-01

    Description:

    This was an editorial list of 30 Africans under 30 years old who are making the most dramatic impact across the continent. Forbes enlisted an outside panel of 12 judges from across Africa to help identify this group of outstanding entrepreneurs and innovators under the age of 30.

    LINK: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2013/02/23/30-under-30-africas-best-young-entrepreneurs/3/#5155b01c3ba5

  • Two Time "The Future Awards" Nominee

    date: 2024-08-02

Skills

  • Entrepreneurship
  • SEO
  • Web Development
  • E-commerce
  • Business Strategy
  • Business Development
  • Software Development
  • Start-ups
  • Web Design
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Digital Marketing
  • PHP
  • Social Media
  • Mobile Applications
  • Web Project Management
  • Online Marketing
  • Management
  • Online Advertising
  • Graphic Design
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Product Development
  • Google Analytics
  • Market Research
  • SEM
  • MySQL
  • User Experience
  • Web Marketing
  • Strategy
  • Mobile Commerce
  • Web Analytics
  • Website Development
  • Strategic Planning
  • E-commerce Consulting
  • Mobile Marketing
  • WordPress
  • Web Applications
  • Project Management
  • Internet Strategy
  • Web Strategy
  • Information Architecture
  • Online Reputation Management
  • A/B testing
  • User Interface Design
  • Web Hosting
  • Emerging Markets
  • Web 2.0
  • Product Innovation
  • Growth Hacking
  • FinTech
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Certifications

  • Google Analytics Individual Qualification

    Issue date: Apr 2012,

    Expires date: Oct 2013,

  • Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) - Projects 2010

    Issue date: Aug 2024,

  • Mini-MBA

    Issue date: Jul 2012,

  • Private Equity and Venture Capital

    Issue date: Mar 2017,

  • Series 65

    Issue date: Aug 2020,