Oftentimes, in the tech world, it is the founders who build in public that are rewarded. It is easy to get swept up in the hype of building visibly and fast, neglecting the fundamentals. For Opeyemi Obembe, this trend makes him hold fast to his personal philosophy of building for the long term.
In the early 2000s, before YouTube tutorials and abundant online courses, a young Opeyemi Obembe’s access to a computer was measured in paid-for time slots at a cyber café. He didn’t own a laptop. His learning resources were scattered across the early Internet and downloaded onto floppy disks. When he was away from a screen, he would painstakingly write out code on paper, close his eyes, and imagine how the lines of text would render in a browser.
This foundational scarcity is the very thing he sees missing in an ecosystem now flooded with venture capital and pressure for rapid, often unsustainable, growth. “A lot has really changed in technology,” Obembe recalls. “These days, you have fancy editors with beautiful colours, syntax highlighting, and all of that. In those days, there was no clear guide.”
Today, Obembe is the co-founder of Engage, a marketing automation tool he launched in 2021 with Victor Eduoh, that allows businesses to understand and build relationships with their customers.
After more than a decade building in the Nigerian tech ecosystem, Obembe’s journey is illustrative of an atypical founders’ journey, one that eschews rapid hype cycles and “clout chasing” to champion a more sustainable entrepreneurial path.
From “coding as an art” to the business of building
Obembe’s career has been a long transition from pure creation to the multifaceted role of a founder. For years, he was “the guy behind the scenes,” co-founding a project management tool and a telephony startup, Callbase. But with Engage, a product he had always wanted to build, he had to step into the spotlight.
“The transition was a lot,” he confesses. Being a founder meant managing relationships, hiring, fundraising, and communicating with customers, a world away from the solitary focus of writing code. “I need to always constantly remind myself that hey, I’m not just a developer, I’m a founder first, then a developer second.”
Yet, the artisan has not been lost in the executive. His technical background remains the bedrock of Engage, a product that helps tech companies communicate more effectively with their customers. “My role, interestingly, even though I’m the CEO, is behind the scenes; so I’m also still more like a CTO,” he explains. This allows him to guide the technology roadmap and ensure the product is built on a robust, scalable architecture.
Distribution over hype: The contrarian’s gospel
Perhaps the most defining tenet of Obembe’s philosophy is his unwavering belief in distribution and product-market fit, lessons he learned “the hard way.” In a tech culture often obsessed with the “build it and the customers will come” myth, his stance is refreshingly pragmatic.
“It’s not about building the best or building something fancy,” he states. “Number one thing is you need to build something people want.” He points to Amazon’s Fire TV and Google’s Android OS not just as products, but as powerful distribution channels for their broader ecosystems.
This focus leads him to a conclusion that many technical founders are reluctant to voice: marketing is paramount. “I’m not one of the technical founders who don’t believe in marketing. Marketing is very, very big,” he asserts. “I always say that building itself is maybe 10% of the job. It is when you are done building that yes, the work starts.”
The joy of building and a balanced life
Despite the business pressures, the core motivation for Obembe remains the sheer joy of creation. Coding remains a sanctuary. “Building is therapeutic for me. The fact that I can just create ideas out of writing code will never cease to amaze me.” This pure joy of creation is the bedrock upon which he’s built his entire career, a reminder of the passion that often gets lost in the scramble for funding and exits.
A married father of two, he is also an artist who draws and paints professionally and makes music with guitars and a piano in his home.
“Anything that is just creative, I enjoy doing it,” he says. This creativity is the through-line in his life, with his work being an extension of it. To manage it all, he maintains a strict schedule, prioritizing family above all. “I put a lot of priority on my family – I think they come first.” He often works odd hours after his family has gone to sleep, ensuring he is present for his children’s development.
A vision for a mature ecosystem
With over 15 years of experience, Obembe has a nuanced view of the Nigerian tech ecosystem. He is “very, very happy” to see its growth but feels “there’s a lot more to be done.” He points to an over-concentration in a few verticals, like fintech, and the challenge of limited market purchasing power for other types of products.
His vision is for a more mature ecosystem with more success stories and diversified growth. “The big dream would be that the market is also there to encourage people to build these products.”
This mature perspective informs the advice he gives to young developers overwhelmed by the noise of the modern tech landscape, “Ignore the noise, and also do the work.”
It’s the same principle that guided him in the cyber café years ago. For Opeyemi Obembe, the path forward isn’t found in the loudest headline or the trendiest framework, but in the quiet, consistent practice of the artisan – building something people want, and doing it with respect, resilience, and a deep understanding of the craft.
