Founding · Marketplaces · 4 min
MaketAam: My First Foray into Entrepreneurship
In 2019, before crypto, wallets or video, I co-founded a marketplace that held the buyer's money until the item arrived. Most of what I still build started there.
Writing
Essays on the systems in this archive, and Operator Notes: field notes from building, deciding and carrying the cost of clarity.
New essays
On systems, agents and the work
Long-form essays on the systems in this archive: what was built, why, and what it taught me.
Founding · Leadership · 2 min
What It Actually Takes to Be a Founder
Not vision, grit or passion. A life where every decision costs something real, and the discipline to keep deciding anyway.
AI engineering · Testing · 5 min
A Sentinel That Learns From Its Mistakes
An autonomous system that decides what to test has to grade its own homework against what the scans actually found, or it becomes confident noise.
Verification · Trust · 5 min
Verdicts You Can Verify
A security or quality report you have to take on trust is marketing. A sealed, independently checkable one is evidence. The difference is the whole product.
Testing · Security · 5 min
Logging In Behind an OTP Wall
You cannot test what you cannot reach. Authenticated API testing means signing in the way a real client does, and never letting a secret touch the conversation.
AI engineering · Verification · 5 min
The Validation Wall
Coding agents made writing software almost free. Shipping barely moved, because the queue is now at verification, not at the keyboard.
AI engineering · Infrastructure · 5 min
Route by Task, Not by Model Size
In production, the fast-versus-deep model choice is the wrong axis. Classify the task, route it to the model that fits, and give every route a fallback chain.
AI engineering · Leadership · 5 min
Skills as Versioned Software
If coding agents write production code, the instructions and skills that steer them are production code too. Version them, review them, test them, roll them out.
Fintech · Architecture · 5 min
A Transaction Isn't the Same Thing as Access
Moving money and granting rights are separate systems that fail in separate ways. Across video, investing and payments, I learned to design the bridge between them explicitly.
10 entries · Engineering and product experiments at Circo, 2024–2026
The Circo Engineering Diaries
Circo-focused engineering and product experiments from a creator-first video platform: video infrastructure, DRM and provenance, live premieres, moderation, recommendations, the move to WebSockets and the years we took peer-to-peer seriously.
- Part 0118 Sept 2024The Recommendation Problem in ReverseRecommendation asks what a viewer should watch. Creators ask what they should make. Turn the arrow around and the answer is already in the data.5 min
- Part 023 Dec 2024Before Circo Became a Creator Platform, We Experimented with P2P ChatIn 2024 we asked whether creators and fans could talk with no server of ours in the middle. The experiment is already shaping how we build messaging.5 min
- Part 0313 Feb 2025DRM Is a Business Rule, Not a Cryptography FeatureEncrypting the video is the easy half. The hard half is deciding who may watch, and that is commerce, not cryptography.5 min
- Part 0420 Feb 2025Why We Moved from P2P Messaging to WebSocketsPeer-to-peer and server messaging both need something that is always on. The real choice is who owns it, and for a creator platform the answer was us.5 min
- Part 058 Oct 2025Can You Really Own a Video? Exploring Decentralised Content InfrastructureDecentralised storage answers who holds the bytes. A creator's business depends on three other questions: who made it, who may watch it and who gets paid.5 min
- Part 0624 Nov 2025What Happens When a P2P Video Has 100,000 Viewers?Popularity is peer-to-peer's best case. Phones, the live edge, quality levels and the long tail are where it gets hard, and they decide whether a swarm can carry a creator platform.5 min
- Part 0722 Jan 2026DRM, C2PA, and Decentralised Storage: What Actually Gives Creators Control?Three technologies, each sold as creator control. Each controls something different, and none of them, on its own, makes a creator the owner of their work.5 min
- Part 0829 Jan 2026When Recorded Video Needs to Feel LiveA premiere feels live because everyone is in the same moment. You can manufacture that moment from a recorded file, without a single live encoder.5 min
- Part 099 Feb 2026An AI Refusal Is Not a Moderation VerdictWhen a model declines or a provider falls over, your pipeline is making a safety claim whether you meant to or not. Decide what that claim is.5 min
- Part 1010 Mar 2026Why I Still Believe in P2P, Even After Choosing Different ArchitecturesWe chose servers for messaging and a conventional pipeline for video. I still believe in peer-to-peer, and the reasons say more about engineering leadership than about networks.5 min
Operator Notes
Latest from the newsletter
Latest · AI engineering · 4 Apr 2026
I Stopped Claude Code From Burning My Tokens. Then I Built a System Around It.
How a five-agent infrastructure, a custom Bun fork and a JSON file changed how I ship software.
- Growth · 23 Jan 2026Why Influencer Campaigns Burn CashPart I: how the algorithm actually allocates attention. (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- Leadership · 16 Jan 2026Why the Best Companies Aren’t Built by ConsensusField observations from building, deciding and carrying the cost of clarity. (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- Operating · 12 Jan 2026Resuming Isn’t the Hard Part. Shipping Is.January resets intentions. The market still demands action. (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- Notes · 8 Jan 2026A Reset, a Rebrand, and the Work AheadWhy I started this publication in 2020, and what it is for now. (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
From the blog · 13 essays
On Sovereignty & Systems
Money, crypto and the infrastructure of trust, mostly from Africa.
- 22 Apr 2025The Rise of Ugly Ads and the Collapse of the Old Attention EconomyBrands that scaled using pure ads (like Meta, X, etc) are now rethinking their growth loops entirely.3 min
- 21 Apr 2025Social Capital Is the New Currency: But It’s Getting ExpensivePlatforms are extracting attention but not sharing the upside.2 min
- 12 Feb 2024Fully Homomorphic Encryption: What?The next chapter of data privacy and trustless computation in Web32 min
- 10 Jan 2024Web3 Africa 2024: The Pain Is Not OverThe past year has been a rollercoaster for crypto adoption and venture capital in Africa, marked by bear markets, hacks, layoffs, shutdowns, and burnout. If 2023 was a race, it felt like sprinting the 100 meters with Usain Bolt… over and over again.2 min
- 6 Dec 2023Unlock Web3: The Protocol Sink Thesis and Enabling Builders in AfricaThere’s a quiet gravity to Web3 that most people miss.2 min
- 8 Oct 2023Stablecoins: A New Way to Access Dollars“I need a dollar, just to survive.” Aloe Blacc2 min
- 24 Sept 2023Stablecoin Stats That Prove Web3 Adoption Is OnAt some point, we need to stop acting like stablecoins are just another crypto feature. They’ve quietly become the most useful and adopted part of the entire Web3 story, especially in markets where traditional finance has failed people.2 min
- 12 Sept 2023Crypto Intelligence Will Power Self-RegulationCrypto is supposed to be about trust without institutions, right?2 min
- 22 Jul 2023Bundle’s Shutdown to Focus on Cashlink Is a Win for Crypto in AfricaOn The Flip podcast,@Ngozi Dozie(https://twitter.com/ngozi) called stablecoins “the best thing since sliced bread.” Not as investment vehicles, but as infrastructure. As a practical, usable way to move money across Africa. I couldn’t agree more.1 min
- 16 Jan 2023Africa: Institutional Crypto Adoption Is Quietly Taking RootThe conversation around institutional adoption of crypto and Web3 is heating up globally.2 min
- 1 Jan 2023Africa Needs Web3 to Solve FragilityFragility is one of Africa’s most urgent, complex, and under-discussed challenges.2 min
- 1 Dec 2021Crypto Gone MadIn a world gone crypto-mad, it’s easy to feel like you’ve missed your chance.1 min
- 8 Feb 2021Is Software Eating Africa, or Is Africa Eating Software?Marc Andreessen once said, “Software is eating the world.”2 min
From the blog · 8 essays
On Building & Social Contracts
Companies, leadership and the agreements that hold teams together.
- 23 Nov 20254 Factors to Consider When Making a Career DecisionThe choices that shape your life rarely show up on your payslip.2 min
- 20 Nov 2025The World Is Too Multi-Causal for Stories to Guide YouA good bet rarely has a clean narrative. A clean narrative is usually a sign you're late.2 min
- 11 Nov 2025The Best Companies Aren’t DemocraciesDemocracy in product feels polite, until you realise nothing great survives by consensus.4 min
- 20 Sept 2025Marketing Is the New BottleneckUnderstanding is the real distribution. Distribution shapes the product.3 min
- 9 May 2025Why Gifting on Instagram Feels Like a Dud!Instagram wants to play in the fan economy.3 min
- 15 Oct 2023African Founders: No Corporate Governance Happened!Many founders in Africa (and globally) like to say they're “too busy” for corporate governance in the early days.2 min
- 25 Sept 2023Builders Are Still HereI decided to start Yuki: a B2B startup focused on building critical custody and compliance infrastructure for Web3 in Africa. One of my resolutions before starting this mission was to avoid any Web3 events: to literally escape the groupthink…2 min
- 15 Aug 2023Web3 Needs Humans, Not Just Self-CustodyBuilding a Web3 investment platform like ComiBlock taught me one hard lesson: Trust isn’t a feature; it’s an experience. And building it is harder than writing code.2 min
From the blog · 7 essays
On Self & Life
Reflections on faith, persistence and why we build at all.
- 21 Dec 2022Why Do We Build? (Thinking Out Loud )This might be a little out of character for me, but recently I was walking down a long street, just observing. The buildings. The structures. The shadows they cast. The energy they hold.2 min
- 22 Apr 2022When I Say “I Am a Macro Analyst”What does it mean to call yourself a macro analyst? For me, it’s not just a label. It’s a mental framework: a way of understanding how the world works, and more importantly, how to build for it.2 min
- UndatedChaos Can Be a Crucible: The Spirit Refines Us, as in Acts 2“ When the day of Pentecost arrived, the believers were gathered together, and a sound like a rushing wind filled the house.” Acts 2:12 min
- UndatedFeast On Your LifeIt’s a reflection: a quiet coming home.1 min
- UndatedMountain Goats and Human PersistenceA short, powerful reflection on mountain goats, resilience, and the quiet climbs we all make for love, meaning, and the things we need to feel whole.1 min
- UndatedReflection to Intensity: 2025 → 2026In 2026, I want to do less3 min
- UndatedThe Harrowing of Hell: Christ’s Triumphant Descent on Holy Saturday“He descended into hell; on the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead…” The Apostles’ Creed4 min
Operator Notes · 2020–2021
Early notes on African fintech
Where the newsletter began: payments, crypto and the companies shaping African tech.
- 28 May 2021Money RediscoveredThe things hardest to think about are the most familiar. Crypto is money, rediscovered.Fintech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 13 Dec 2020Crypto Regulations in Nigeria: Deal or No DealThe fluid terms that describe Nigeria’s fast-growing crypto market, and what regulation means for them.Fintech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 21 Aug 2020Hawala, from a Retrospective Point of ViewA value-transfer system older than banks that has lasted more than a millennium.Payments (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 14 Aug 2020Hawala and Use CasesHow hawala survived failed states, regime change, war and heavy regulation.Payments (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 7 Aug 2020Many Banks, but Many Unbanked1.5 billion adults still have no account. Why banking access lags bank count.Fintech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 3 Jul 2020Mobile Money: Under-regarded VulnerabilitiesAs mobile becomes integral to daily life, it also becomes a platform of surveillance and control.Payments (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 26 Jun 2020Is Bamboo, Chaka, Rise and Trove Stuck in a Commodity Trap?The race to own the Nigerian retail stock trader.Fintech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 19 Jun 2020The Untold Growth Story of JumiaJumia’s turn from e-commerce to infrastructure for everyone in the supply chain.African tech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
- 22 May 2020A Unicorn, but Still InterswitchDoes unicorn status make the game harder for competitors, or for Interswitch?Fintech (opens Operator Notes in a new tab)
Operator Notes
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Field notes from building, deciding and carrying the cost of clarity.
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