Prosper has been building products for the past 10 years and has risen through the ranks from programming newbie to CTO at Eden Life. His reputation as a world-class software engineer precedes him and his ability to significantly improve those around him makes him one of the most sought-after developers on the continent.
What’s your name?
My name is Prosper Otemuyiwa.
What do you do?
I am the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Eden Life.
How does it feel to be responsible for the technology of one of the most innovative startups in Africa?
It’s a mix of enjoyment and a lot of challenges. The interesting thing is that I didn’t plan to become a CTO, at least not in the near future. Before Eden Life, I worked as a senior engineer and also a developer advocate, so that was what I was used to.
A developer advocate is a developer that is hired to build better relationships between companies and developers by presenting the wants and needs of developers to the company and showing developers the best way to use a company’s product.
Now, being a CTO is like being taken from a shallow swimming pool where your legs can touch the ground and being thrown into the middle of the ocean without any assistance.
That sounds intense. I’d like to think you’ve done a good job of staying afloat.
It looks like that most times but the truth is that 50% of the time, you’re drowning, there’s always stuff to do and you’re wondering if you’ll ever meet up, but you do. You have to find a way to get your head above the water. That’s how you survive.
Now it sounds scary. So let’s track back to the beginning. How did you start out as an Engineer?
That’s funny because just like with CTO, I also didn’t plan on becoming an engineer. I wanted to be a doctor.
That’s interesting. How did you move from medicine to tech?
I applied to study Medicine and Surgery at the University but I didn’t get in. I didn’t meet the cutoff for medicine so I had to spend one year at home. During that time, I attended A levels while I prepped for JAMB again. When it was time for JAMB, I knew I couldn’t risk picking medicine and spending another year at home if I didn’t get in. I had also lost the passion I had for it.
So I picked my next favorite choice, Computer Science. It wasn’t as popular then and very few people were interested in it. I developed an interest because we learned a programming language called Q Basics in Secondary school. I felt like it was something I could do, understanding computers. I was in for a rude shock.
What happened?
In my first year, we did some programming courses. C and C++ were like Mandarin Chinese to me. I didn’t have an idea of what was going on. It was way different from the Q Basics which I had learnt.
Between 100 level and 200 level, I realized I had to put in more work in order to understand programming better. The plan was to graduate with a first-class and if I wanted to do that, I’d have to understand what programming was all about.
I feel like everybody starts school with the plan of graduating with a first-class.
Yeah. It was for my parents and not really for me. I just wanted to understand computers.
African Parents and Excellence. How did you overcome your programming challenge?
During the holidays, I attended this school for programming and networking, New Horizons. I learnt Java and PHP, started building web applications and the rest is history. Being able to create something out of nothing gave me so much joy. I started killing it. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a software engineer.
That’s very inspiring. How long have you been writing code?
I started in my second year in school. That’s 2010. That’s when I started writing code but I got my first job in 2013, immediately after my last paper. That’s 12 years unofficially and 9 years officially.
That’s a very long time. I was in JSS3 in 2010. Walk me through your engineering journey from then till now.
As I said, I got a job just before graduation and started working immediately after. I got my first job with Anakle, the media company and marketing agency. I worked there for about 6-7 months.
Then, I went for my NYSC and I was supposed to return to Anakle but a friend told me about Andela. They were just 3 months old then and were looking for technical trainers to teach people to become world-class engineers. I liked teaching and used to teach many people in school so I applied.
Interestingly, Nad, the CEO and co-founder at Eden Life was the one who interviewed me. He was my boss at Andela. I worked in Andela from 2014 to 2016 and watched the company grow from an unknown to a household name.
I left Andela and joined Auth0, a US-based company as a technical writer. I worked there for 18 months and left for another company called Apollo.
For some reason, the first four companies I worked for all started with “A.”
That’s a funny coincidence. Did it continue like that?
Not really. But most of them aren’t too far off from A. I mean Eden Life is just 3 letters away from A. While at Apollo, I consulted for Cloudinary. Cloudinary is a world-renowned US company that allows users to upload, store, manage, and manipulate images and videos on websites and apps.
I had written a lot of technical articles at the time and a few of them had gone viral. I used Cloudinary in one of them and it resulted in a lot of signups for them. So, someone from Cloudinary reached out to me and commissioned me to write a technical series of my choosing for them. I decided to do one on how to build YouTube.
Like Youtube, YouTube?
Not Youtube as you know it but just a simple version that you can upload videos, comment, like, etc. Then if you want to add extra features, you can build on top of what I had created.
That’s really impressive. So how did you go from there?
I was supposed to join another company before Apollo and just after my probation, that was when I decided to start Eden Life.
Wow.
Yeah. Everyone thought I was crazy because I was leaving good money on the table to face the uncertainty of a startup.
What would you say is different about working for a company and now running your own startup using Eden Life as a reference?
The major difference is that with your own startup, the stakes are higher. You’re more involved whether you like it or not. It’s also very fast-paced compared to a company that already has a defined product and market fit.
I had to learn so much while building for Eden. Since we couldn’t afford to hire anyone at the time, I built the first mobile app version, the website, the backend & front end of our internal operating system, and basically everything technology. It was the most intense time of my life. I had a lot of sleepless nights and I didn’t have time for anything else, just work.
Are you confirming the popular idea that tech bros are always busy?
Yes. Software engineering is very intense. Once you start, you have to maintain and improve it forever. If you’re a musician, you can sing a great song and that’s all, as a writer, you can write a great book and you never have to change anything.
With software, you always have to keep fixing bugs, solving problems, and improving processes. There’s no finish line. Even if the software is great, once people start using it, something else will definitely come up.
You mentioned you worked with Nadayar at Andela, how did you guys move from that to being co-founders?
Nad and I did a lot of things together when we were at Andela. We stayed, worked, and played together. We built a very good relationship, but when he approached me that he had this idea for Eden Life, I told him I wasn’t interested in startups. I promised to subscribe to the service when it goes live because it was solving a real problem of mine but I wasn’t trying to suffer by building a startup.
Fortunately, Nad wasn’t a person that took no for an answer. He spoke to me until I finally believed in the project and agreed to work on it. Then Silm joined almost immediately. We started together in April 2019.
You’ve worked with a lot of programming languages. So what would you say is your favourite language?
I like Go, Laravel, Node js but my favourite language has to be PHP.
Do you think your popularity has greatly helped your career?
Yes. A lot. It gets me into a lot of doors. I don’t have to struggle to get stuff or prove my credibility. The work I’ve done is all out in the open for everyone to see. All it takes is for someone to Google my name and boom, they’re interested.
StarBoy. WizKid was found shaking.
It just helps generally for people to know you and what you stand for. I have spoken at conferences across the world and built connections that wouldn’t have been possible if I wasn’t visible.
You’ve spoken a lot about work. What else do you do that doesn’t involve coding?
I like travelling. I like hopping on planes and seeing places. I game occasionally but I’m not much of a gamer. I also like to play football on Saturdays. Sometimes, when I’m down for it, I go clubbing. I like the vibes but it’s not a frequent thing for me.
So not every Friday turn up?
No no. I’m mostly a homebody. But I don’t mind the occasional clubbing.
You’ve had a huge amount of success as an engineer. What would you say to young engineers that are just starting out?
One of the things I’d say is it’s always good to understudy people. Follow the people who have gone ahead of you. If someone has done significant things that relate to what you want to do, bury yourself in the resources that they produce and focus on becoming better at your skill.
You should also trust the process and finally, work on a lot of projects. You need constant practice to get to the top of your career. You can’t become the best at what you do if you don’t have a mastery of the fundamentals.
A great engineer is not just about the code, it’s about how you understand what you’re making and how well you collaborate with others.
Just before you go, I wanted to ask. Did you still graduate with the first class?
Nope. I was close but I didn’t get it. I could have but I spent a lot of time helping others out and doing work. I did many projects for my lecturers and seniors. I didn’t have time for anything else, even my books. I was the course rep but I could barely keep up in class. I used to fall asleep regularly. Coding made me happy and I pursued it with love.
If you liked Prosper’s Eden Life, you can also read about others here.