Timecoded Guide:
From Nigeria and to Chevron, Facebook and beyond
AJ became interested in computers fairly early on in Nigeria. By finding other like-minded individuals online, he familiarized himself with a digital community at a young age and also valued the local physical community he had around him. After jumping from Chevron to Facebook in the US, AJ then had to work on a platform that serves half the planet. This inspired him to connect and nurture local communities and to create something that could do so. To his startup now, he brings experience from Facebook, Coinbase, and Faves—experiences ranging from social media to cutting-edge crypto products.
“The whole mission is to get people involved to build community and bring the world closer together.”
Taking AI Skyward with Astronaut
Prior to starting Astronaut, AJ’s biggest takeaway is this: what he did was not an accident. Applying to Facebook, going to Coinbase and Faves—it was all deliberate. AJ says that the rigor of the journey while understanding the customer and product market fit is what he still carries with him. Now, as he recognizes the revolutionary power of AI, AJ is channeling that power into a useful community management tool with Astronaut—a matchmaking tool for communities. After noticing that community leaders have had trouble nurturing and engaging their communities, AJ saw a solution.
“I look at AI really as like a 10-lane highway. My brain can only think in one lane but with AI, I can like expand on the capacity. And so it’s almost like I can think faster, wider.”
The Build, Measure, Learn Loop
As AJ has gone from deploying features on Facebook used by millions, he is now deep in the startup process with Astronaut. After quitting his job and starting a company, AJ has realized that the journey is brutal—but comes with many lessons. First, he had his vision. Then, came product market fit and customer discovery. He had questions for community managers: what problems do you face? What do you want in a product? Here, the build, measure, learn loop is simply spending as much time measuring the impact and success of the product as one spends on building the product itself, AJ says.
“So in my discovery process, I’m really just trying to talk to the person. Identify, in this case, in our product, we primarily sell to community managers. And so I’m just wanting to reach out to the manager say, hey, do you want this? Or like even better, what do you want? What are your problems? What do you struggle with?”
What is your advice for young startups?
With AJ’s experience, his advice for anyone looking to create or build something is just this: do it. He says there is a lot of hype out there around startups but says that it seriously comes down to one’s skill set. It’s seeing solutions to problems, solving those problems, and using one’s own unique skill set to do so. He says it’s also about advantages: do you have an advantage in this space? Can you create one? Can you do this at the highest level? Although the journey is brutal, AJ can testify that it is rewarding.
“When you put your product in front of a person and they use it and say, “Thank you this has solved my problem,” that’s like the best possible drug, someone actually telling you thank you for what you’ve built.”
