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Hello blank slate.
It’s 1 am and I’ve not written in a while. My typical letters have been replaced by Sunday evening conversations in my school of philosophy which we call Curiosity Sundays. They’re lovely.
It’s one more revolution around the sun, so transferring thoughts to digital paper is customary.
As a kid growing up in the Junior Staff Quarters of Obafemi Awolowo University, I had a blessed childhood. Back when I was a kid, living was very communal. My brothers and I would spend hours in the homes of our neighbours, listening to the ‘Uncles’. Uncle Dayo. Uncle Bunmi. and more.
As a teenager, I was intrigued by the Uncles. I was typically in adoration of their knowledge, freedom, humour, openness and care. I wondered what being an uncle would be like.
If I lived in similar environs today, I’d likely be called Uncle by a good number of the kids around.
Reflecting on the Twenties
I began my 20th year in the thick of an evolution like the one I find myself in yet again as I enter my thirties. I had spent the first three years of my time (and my last years as a teenager) in university building six different ventures, running for political office from year 1, becoming PRO of my department in my 2nd year and Financial Secretary of my faculty (the largest in the university) in my 3rd year. I had always had the fantasy of becoming one of the youngest presidents of the largest faculty in one of the most prestigious universities in the country at 19.
That’s how they said I should come and become Daddy Welfare in NFCS (the catholic student organization). I had been a not-so-active member of the Welfare group in my three years but never thought of playing a leadership role. I rejected it initially to focus on my presidential aspirations. One random day on my way to lectures, I met an Egbon who asked for a chat at the famed White House. We chat for a few minutes and he tells me that his spirit believes strongly that I should take the welfare role. I consulted with my spirit later in the day and I got a strong feeling to go down the unchartered path and there I went.
That decision was the foundation of the evolution I needed for my twenties. While I did great work as Daddy Welfare, supporting my colleagues to provide better welfare to catholic students, God set me on that path for a different purpose. Towards the end of that semester, I attend a seminar by Dr. Matthew Ojo on a random Saturday. There were about 20-30 people in attendance, I loved the presentation so much that I went up to him afterwards to let him know I'd like to volunteer. He was so welcoming and introduced me to Oga Ay who was the head (and only member) of the planning committee. Excitedly, I go chat with Ay and I was quite shocked to find out that he was graduating that semester, so effectively, the new volunteer became the lead of the team. Lol.
Under the leadership and spiritual guidance of Dr. Matthew and the ever-present support of the visionary Fr. Abe, we expanded the seminar. The first one I led had 270+ participants and MC Lively did his first official gig at that event. We went on to hold them at a much larger venue pulling in an audience of 800+ for the three additional seminars we did over the next two years.
The seminars were usually towards the end of the semester. At the beginning of the next semester, folks will stop me randomly and tell me about how they loved the experience so much and were positively impacted by it. That was one of the first times I felt true fulfilment in my heart and I knew I wanted to only do things that brought me that feeling.
That experience allowed me to learn my fundamental purpose which has guided almost everything I've done since then: To support people to become better versions of themselves and receive fulfilment as a reward.
I didn't know how to support people in a structured manner post-uni but I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. With the selfish purpose of helping others become better, I decided I would go learn how to help people build better businesses.
I volunteer for a TedX Ife event and my supervisor likes my contributions. She mentions a friend of hers is looking to hire someone, introduces me and I meet Bomi. He was hands down, the best way to start my professional experience. He was a one-man consulting business but with deep self-training from the best business schools. I loved listening to him and decided to join Raylinks. Bomi taught me the fundamentals of understanding value creation and distribution. Our thesis was to use world-class consulting knowledge to support local entrepreneurs to grow and we did quite a few.
While I'm doing that, a friend approaches me two months after school about an investment opportunity. I found the investment model interesting and asked to be introduced to the founder. I like the founder and support him in growing his AUM from N50M to N2BN in 18 months while consulting during the day. I was making good enough money to defer NYSC. In early 2016, I decided that my heart wanted to spend more time supporting entrepreneurs than on the investment firm side of things. I leave the investment firm and decide to put all my effort and resources into the consulting firm.
I was in Ife throughout this period. There was a running joke amongst some of my friends that I was never going to leave Ife. I was born there, did all of my schooling there and after university, I was still there. Tbh, back then I didn't think very differently. At this age, I had gone to more than 12 states in the country in different competitions in secondary school and university. I read Ben Carson's Gifted Hands at 13 and that kickstarted my curiosity. Yet, I didn't really have a view of the world much beyond my Ife.
Mid-2016, my partner in crime for Dream Seminar, Jennifer, tells me about YALI RLC and makes sure that I apply. I reluctantly do so. I remember she had travelled to one Arab country while we were in school so I was like, free trip no go bad oo. It was the regional programme and the last one had been held in Ghana so I was looking forward to the possibility of going out of the country for the first time. I get in but it'll be holding in Badagry. Well, not so bad.
I remember that our consulting business got into a programme in Ilorin for a one-week training around that period as well. I meet my Oga, Edward Esene for the first time there and I learn a lot. At this point, the plan to build the consulting business was on full throttle and I was just going to stop by Badagry and head back to Ife to continue building our business. I got to Badagry and one week has passed of the five-week programme because of my Ilorin detour. I have the most incredible time meeting a lot of my very good friends there. There were 150 young leaders from multiple West African countries. My performance in the little competitions and activities we did showed me for the first time that I had what it takes to be in the top 1%.
The night before we depart from Badagry, I go see Femi Iromini in his room and we talk about life after YALI. He asks me why I'm being a big fish in a small pond. He mentioned that he saw a future where I owned my venture capital firm. Ife boy, I no even know wetin venture capital be. He advises I should start my journey by moving to Lagos and taking a chance at working for one of the innovation hubs in the country as a start. I ask for his help and he promises to help me on the journey. We leave Badagry at the end of September. I went back home and Bomi offered me a partnership position at the consultancy which was very tempting but my soul knew an evolution was near and Francis loves his evolutions.
I spend the next few months applying to all the top innovation hubs in the country. I get only two responses. The interview in Ibadan goes well but they say I should be a community manager and it doesn't feel right. One day, I got a response from Tunji Eleso of Growth Capital inviting me for a chat. I leave Ife, stay at my friend's place in Ikotun for a few days and then go to my future home, CcHUB. On the day of the chat, Synchronicity occurs.
After waiting for a little, Tunji calls me into his office, I chook my mouth into a conversation he's having with Simeon Ononobi. We had a good chat after Simeon left. By a stroke of luck, future HM Dr. 'Bosun Tijani is in the country, upstairs and available for a chat when Tunji texts him. I always think back to how much of a chance occurrence this was. I get taken upstairs and nervously talk through my conversation with him. Right after, I have a conversation with the Head of Hr, Toun Tunde-Anjous. She was very kind and I got the comfort that this will be a great place to start my new career. We're in February 2017 at this point. Two weeks later, I resumed at CcHUB.
A beautiful four years follow. I spend most of my first two years leaving the office last. I typically closed the doors or was there when the doors were closing. I continue to learn from the best in the game. I learn directly from Tunji and eventually, perhaps my best boss yet, Dami Teidi. When you learn at the feet of Juggernauts like HM Dr. 'Bosun Tijani, Femi Longe and Tunji Eleso, alongside all the great people I got to work with at CcHUB, you learn the right things and do impactful work. I support over 200 entrepreneurs across multiple programmes and countries. I get the privilege to lead the first deep tech accelerator by Facebook on the continent. Our entrepreneurs create thousands of jobs, raise millions of $ and create useful solutions for society. Most importantly, I'm with the organization as we grow from 20+ to 100+ beautiful people. I remember my time and memories from CcHUB very fondly.
As we go through quite the year in 2020, I yearn for more. I yearn to learn more about markets outside Africa, to gain knowledge, relationships and insights that will be valuable for larger-scale work in the future. I put it in my spirit and let the universe know. In late December, my brother Ife connects me with Goke who's looking for someone crazy for his even crazier plans. We vibe and decide to work together. I moved on from CcHUB to the world of venture capital even though I was mostly clueless about it. But it had a global focus on 5 continents which is what my soul yearned for.
Tbh, the terms are not what I expected to have when I was leaving CcHUB at the position I was at (Interim Startup Support Lead across the org while Dami was away on maternity leave) back then. But it felt right and I made the leap. We raised $15M of our fund in one month in the most incredible fundraising performances I've ever seen in my life by Goke (who's an absolute genius). I'm employee No 1 and set up the new fund, alongside Goke and Matt in record time. The MAGIC journey is beautiful. We created (and continue to create) true MAGIC. I also get to work closely with Goke on Helium as we go through an expansion and a $30M Series B. Also supported Goke personally, so it was a little like three jobs in one. I've always been privileged however to do work I genuinely love. I am truly grateful for this gift. Since joining, MAGIC has invested in 200+ companies across five continents and 30 cities, creating thousands of jobs and supporting truly incredible innovators making society better.
Around this same time, I left a long-term relationship at the end of 2021, sell all of my stuff in January 2022 and decided to be a digital nomad and travel the world. In Accra (my first city), I decided to start listening to something other than music on my walks/runs. I remember some Sadhguru guy that Lively used to listen to during COVID and decided to try him out. That supercharges my philosophy and spirituality journey. The gift of being able to travel, work from anywhere and have all my possessions fit into one suitcase was a truly spiritual journey. I learned about Alan Watts from a beautiful lady I wanted to ask out at an Irish pub in Dubai. She gave me one of the most precious gifts anyone could give me. I've listened to thousands of hours of Alan Watts since then and his insights have been a guiding light into understanding the universe and the beautiful conscious experience we exist in.
I live in three countries for an average of 3-4 months each and visit 10+ countries during my nomad days. In July 2023, my old boss was nominated to become a Minister. An opportunity presents itself to do work at a national level. It was a difficult decision but an easy one.
The civil servant evolution.
I call myself a civil servant nowadays and everyone laughs when I say it. I didn't know what to expect when I was considering the decision one year ago. It was a logical decision eventually. My life's purpose is to help people become better versions of themselves. I discovered that when I was 22. Since then, I have done it at different scales. With the seminars for the students. With the small businesses in Ife. With the entrepreneurs at CcHUB. With businesses across the globe at MAGIC. None of them could measure to the scale of a nation though. Especially one like my beloved Nigeria. 240 million people. Even if it's only 1% that our programmes and policies impact positively, it'll be the most impactful work I've done yet. I make the switch.
One year later, I continue to evolve. I've spent a good chunk of my time in the past year designing and executing the largest technical talent accelerator in the world, under the visionary leadership of HM Dr. 'Bosun. No one anywhere else in the world has done what we’ve set out to achieve. It’s been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Adjusting to public service life hasn’t been easy, especially coming straight from VC and life as a nomad. I’ve had to learn and grow. As always, I’m blessed to have a team of truly exceptional people. Running a programme in every state of the country, working with hundreds of partners, supporting hundreds of thousands of learners with limitless potential wouldn’t be possible without them and I’m truly grateful for the gift of building something unique with people who truly care about their country and citizens.
I think I’ll be a public servant for much longer than I could have imagined this time last year. I’ve learnt that we have the power to create the nation we yearn for. Too many of us spend our time today complaining, playing the blame game and not taking responsibility. No matter what side of the ideological divide you stand on, we have the responsibility as a generation to create a prosperous African nation. The analogy I share with my friends nowadays is that I dream of a Nigeria where we have tens more of cities like Abuja. I love that city and I’m glad that it exists in our country. A model city. A city that shows us that we can build decent, green, relaxing and well-planned cities in our country. I dream of a Nigeria where more Nigerians and Africans express their true gifts.
We’ve thrived, often despite government support, as a nation (even though the current government support isn’t appreciated enough). Our private sector, our entertainment industry, our football talents abroad, our diaspora and more. All the signs are there that Nigeria can be a prosperous African nation that shows the world what African excellence looks like. Contrary to popular opinion, I think we can do more than we give ourselves credit for. The political and institutional apparatus that exist in our country are not tools to leave alone. They are tools to understand and wield to create the Nigeria we dream of. I truly believe this and will do that which is in my power to spread this gospel and take action on this path. I call on Nigerians anywhere reading this. We are a young country. The countries we often compare ourselves with often are much older than us. Even if they aren’t, the process of building the nation we seek isn’t a one-day journey. It’s a journey of decades. However, it’s a journey that we have direct control over. Let us stop spending our energy on virtual keypad fights, be open-minded and get to work. To build a nation that allows more Africans to achieve their potential. That will be the most fulfilling gift of all.
I don’t know what the thirties hold. Tbh, I don’t want to know. Uncertainty is the spice of life. All I wish for is bliss in each present moment of my life experience.
I thank God for the gift of bliss. I thank God for the gift of consciousness. I thank God for the gift of this beautiful planet we find ourselves in. I thank God for the gift of life, the pain and the joy of living. I thank God for the gift of smiles and laughter. For the gift of A, my Queen and rock. For the gift of experiencing love in a way I never thought possible. I thank God for the gift of my siblings and parents. For the gift of a family where love is innate. I miss Showki. For the gift of my soul brothers and sisters. People who I cherish so much for the beautiful connection of our souls, the laughter we share, the curiosities we explore and the bliss that our shared experience brings. For the gift of purpose. For the gift of doing work that leaves me empty daily. For the gift of colleagues turned friends. For the gift of mentors, the ones we’ve met in person and those that other mediums have allowed us to be blessed with. For the gift of friends, communities and networks that bring good things into this world. For the gift of EDM and music in general. For the gift of all the present moments I've had in the past 30 years and the future present moments to come as long as my current experience of life lasts.
I pray for bliss in your heart. I pray for you to feel the universe the way my soul feels it. For you to strive to live in each present moment as much as you can. For you to live life with a sense of humour and expression of your authentic self. I pray for smiles and laughter for you. May the love that fills my heart for you make you shiver down your spine as you read this. Thank you for being the beautiful human that you are. May the universe be with us all.
This was beautiful to read, Francis. Your last decade has been eventful and fulfilling. God bless you.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us. Wish you many more beautiful years ahead Francis. Keep shining ✨️