Most people choose their next job based on availability, money or brand name, which is understandable. I’ve been there, but that is how you get stuck in places that drain you. After 7 years in the blockchain industry, a career that has taken me through growth, consumer, enterprise, ecosystem building, product marketing, and leadership roles, I have learned one clear lesson: the industry or company you work with will determine your career trajectory.
I don’t think any company vision or culture is perfect; you just choose the one that aligns best with your interests, and you have to be extremely honest with yourself
I have worked in environments that pushed me forward and some that slowed me down. I have joined teams where my work had an impact and others where politics buried good ideas. I have been in roles where leaders trusted me and roles where every decision needed five approvals. These experiences taught me what actually matters when picking the next company.
I stumbled into the crypto wagon in 2016 out of curiosity. I was in the trenches trading, flipping ICOs, attending events and meeting people. I figured that this industry will be a hot cake but there was a massive talent deficit; everyone spoke in technical terms and wanted to onboard 1B users. There’s me – I don’t code, I understand the tech, I can communicate and sell it via words, texts and products. I decided I was going to build my career here
Dash
I joined Dash in 2019 as the Head of Product and Merchant Adoption in Lagos after meeting the team lead at one of the events I attended, and he was impressed with the questionnaire I shared to gather data and insights on what I planned to build. He liked my hustle. That job gave me exposure to the local crypto community and companies building in the Nigerian crypto ecosystem. I built my network from that job; I attended a minimum of 2 events per week. The job was daunting, and the pay wasn’t great, but it was my first job, and I learnt so much from it. I was tasked with building out the Dash ecosystem- users paying with Dash and merchants accepting Dash as a means of payment. I had some funny experiences; people thought I was a scammer or something. Crypto wasn’t mainstream yet. This job brought out the salesman in me that I never thought I had. I remember calling a database of 500 online merchants to accept Dash as a means of payment on their platform, I had just 30 secs to impress and sell people, I learnt so much about sales
Kurepay
Kurepay was a digital wallet platform that processed crypto payments and transactions. They were one of the partners we worked with at Dash, and we ran co-marketing campaigns together to drive growth. The CEO heard I left Dash and personally invited me to join his team, pitching his vision – the usual. Here I was a digital marketing manager wearing multiple hats, doubling as a growth, PR & comms, SEO and social media manager, etc. I grew the platform to nearly 50k users and put them on the spot via growth hack, content and media publications.
Somewhere in between, I felt like I had grown and was ready for the big boys. I started applying to global roles. Then Celo came calling. When I left, the CEO told me he had overworked me so much that I had grown very fast. I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or an admission to breaking labour laws, but I enjoyed my time here
Celo
This was my first global role; I was now in the upper leagues. I had an intensive hands-on growth at Celo, learning from my mentor, Jackie Bona. I led interesting initiatives like the stablecoin hotspot research, Project Maggi, Go-to-market strategy for our regional markets in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, co-marketing campaigns with local partners and Valora launch, and so much more. Some of my works set the precedent for the launch of the Celo Africa $10M web3 fund
Celo exposed me to the global corporate world and how to execute marketing on a global scale for products. I’m always grateful for my Celo experience; it paved the road for me. I spent a year at Celo (I documented it why here). Again, Celo taught me so much
Flori Ventures
A VC firm affiliated with Celo reached out to me and wanted me to join them on a part-time basis. After 2 months working with them, I knew that venture capital wasn’t right for me at that stage of my career. I needed to be in the trenches, learning all I can for my future ambition (to build a billion-dollar company someday). They later offered me a full-time role, but I also got an offer from a blockchain enterprise company, and I joined them instead as the marketing lead.
Thresh0ld
I wanted to dive into the B2B side of things and learn more about enterprise products, the sales and marketing process, but man, it’s easily the most questionable place I’ve ever worked….
The signs were there from the start, but I chose to ignore them. The CEO sold me on “black people” needing to control their own money and infrastructure; it was like she read my blog posts on pan-Africanism. She was overly abusive and rude, understandably from investors’ pressure, but she overdid it. There were over 3 people who had previously held my role and been fired. The previous person got sick, I was meant to fill in temporarily, and we would build out the marketing team; instead, she got fired. I was now – marketing lead, graphic designer, sales guy, social media manager and many more, all in one. I had crazy targets to meet, but I couldn’t get any resources to work with, not even premium tools.
The expectations didn’t match the resources provided, + the culture was toxic as shit, my common sense was once questioned because I recommended another design for the sales deck…I resigned a few months later. The enterprise experience was great for my resume and skills but it cost me a lot in mental and physical health
Seedify Fund
This was the shortest stint ever, I don’t even mention I worked there on my resume. The team was good, the pay for good, and they offered me good incentives to join, including a $20k token plan to be vested in 6 months. I joined as a growth marketer, and I was still in my onboarding process in the 1st month when the entire crypto market tanked. Their treasury took a massive hit, and half the team was laid off including myself
CoreDAO
After taking about a year break to build my own company, Gateway App – a Web3 gaming platform. CoreDAO, a Bitcoin-aligned EVM-compatible L1, reached out to me, we had a couple of calls and they gave me a role to lead their African ecosystem.
I did my best work yet at Core relative to the amount of resources I had access to. At Core, I
- Launched a $5M Core Africa Ecosystem Fund to support the local initiatives in key African markets, we had over 40+ Media coverage and 500+ applications
- Grew the community to over 30,000 new retail members and over 500 active developers
- Onboarded over 100+ apps on the network
- Onboarded 10+ high value VCs into our ventures network including DCG, Unicorn growth capital, CVC etc
- Led listing campaigns with partners like roqqu where we had over $2M in trade volume
- Led co-marketing with local partners and provided marketing support (product & lifecycle marketing)
- Directly involved in high level strategy and ecosystem directions
I enjoyed my time at Core, it was great, the pay was decent and I had a decent RTU plan of about $50k to be vested in 4 years. I did an amazing job and the community loved me, so much so I still get messages saying they miss my leadership in the ecosystem. I had so many wins here
My only concern with Core somewhere in between was that the business & revenue model was confusing; it wasn’t clear how Core was going to sustain itself if the bear market hit. It appeared that the Bitcoin staking yield came at the expense of the Core token holders. I had a call with leadership, but I got vague answers. This isn’t an issue particular to Core only, most L1s, L2s barely generate revenue but I had more expectations from the team
I spent almost 2 years at Core and I sharpened my BD & leadership skills there
Core taught me about carefully choosing my next career move. The organisation I’ll be joining needs to have a clear path on revenue generation or I risk being laid off if the market conditions tanks
Lessons
Looking back at these roles, there are patterns. Some places accelerated me, others drained me. Some rewarded competence, others punished independent thinking. Some were aligned with where the market was going, others were busy building castles on sand.
Here are the lessons that stand out.
- If the team or leadership does not understand the market you operate in, you will always be proving yourself instead of building. Celo worked for me because they respected African markets as real growth engines. Thresh0ld was shaky because leadership was disconnected from reality.
- Culture is not a slogan. It shows up in how decisions are made, how failures are handled and whether people tell the truth. You cannot thrive in a place where politics outweighs outcomes. My Celo exit taught me that performance alone is not enough. Visibility and alignment matter.
- A company without a revenue model is a time bomb. CoreDAO was one of the best environments I worked in, but the blurred revenue story became a risk signal. It shaped how I now evaluate opportunities. Passion is nice, but runway and business models are vital.
- Tough experiences still pay you. My stint at Thresh0ld was brutal, but it gave me enterprise literacy. The Seedify situation reminded me that timing and treasury health matter no matter how good the role looks.
- The best companies accelerate who you already are. CoreDAO multiplied my ecosystem skills. Dash unlocked the salesman in me. Celo elevated my global execution capabilities. The wrong companies forced me into roles that diluted my strength.
- You outgrow places even if they were once perfect for you. Staying too long in a misaligned environment is career decay disguised as loyalty.
- Negotiate for a great compensation package – Base salary, PTOs, equity, RTUs etc. This is particularly important for the blockchain industry. The industry is highly experimental, job security is not guaranteed here, make sure you get paid for the risks you take in working in the industry especially if you’re excellent at what you do
So, what matters when picking your next company?
Clarity of vision. Actual speed, not televised hustle. Leadership that respects competence. Alignment between what the market needs and what you know how to do. A revenue engine that can survive market cycles. A culture where smart people get things done instead of defending their ego.
Personally, I am looking at verticals like Stablecoins, Payments, RWA, Gaming, and Degen (gambling-esque products like memecoins, prediction markets, sports betting etc) because those match my strengths and my view of where value will actually accrue in the next 10 years.
The right company compounds you. The wrong one extracts you.
After 7 years of experimenting across consumer, enterprise, growth, and ecosystem work, these are my lessons
