About

I'm Mike Oladapo. I build software for how African business actually works, from Lagos.

Most software, and most AI advice, assumes invoices go through accounting software, addresses show up properly on a map, and everyone pays by card. That's not where I work. In Nigeria, a small business sends its invoice as a WhatsApp message and gets paid by bank transfer. Software that ignores that doesn't get used. I build for how business actually happens here, not how it's supposed to happen.

Through Epigrams, the product studio I lead, I've built Brik, invoicing and payments for how Nigerian small businesses actually get paid; Gidabook, rental records and owner reports for property managers whose rent comes in by transfer and whose landlords want proof; Camora, a privacy-first memory app for iPhone and Mac; and Inksong, an AI writing tool. Epigrams started as just me. Now there's a team building with me. I also lead product work at Digismart Ltd, which builds software for businesses and institutions.

The other half of my work comes from the first. I build with AI every day, so I know what it can and can't do from using it, not from headlines. I help business leaders and institutions in Africa work out what's worth doing with it now, what's just noise, and what will matter in a few years. I've done this with companies in fuel distribution, transport, media and education, and I write about it in my essays here.

Longer term, I care most about getting people ready to work with AI. Since 2018 I've helped organise ten business and technology conferences in Lagos, Zanzibar and Doha, from the Super Intelligence Entrepreneurial Conference series to the Global Future Tech Conference. My niece and I started BizTechTeens, a community for Gen Z founders. I think a lot of Africa's next twenty years depends on how quickly our people and institutions learn to use these tools well, and that's where I expect to spend most of my career.

I'm a person of faith, and it shapes how I work. I try to build useful things, deal honestly with people and think long term.

If you want to talk about AI in your organisation, a speaking invitation or one of the products, start on the Work with me page.