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MENTOR PROFILE: Achille Arouko
Cossi Achille ‘Mankanjuola’ Arouko Founder & CEO, Bujeti (YC W23) | Lagos, Nigeria | Originally Benin Republic
THE HUMAN
Three names, three people who loved him: Achille (his dad’s choice), Cossi (his mum’s), Mankanjuola (his grandmother’s, means “patience” in Yoruba). At 8, he’d sneak out of school in Benin to spend hours in cybercafés, not gaming, but searching for answers. That curiosity never stopped.
THE JOURNEY
2013: Left Africa for France to study engineering. Got two bachelor’s, two master’s degrees. Built and failed at: Roomlify, HyphenAI (piloted with Etihad Airways), OyaPay. Kept going.
2019: Joined Paystack as Tech Lead. Stayed 3.5 years when he wanted to leave earlier. Why? His mum sacrificed everything for him. His sister had dreams. Family came first.
2022: “Boss, we need to talk.” Left Paystack. Founded Bujeti. Raised pre-seed. Got into Y Combinator (after applying multiple times). Now serving 5,000+ finance professionals across Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast with 4.5x ROI.
THE PHILOSOPHY
“Fall in love with the problem, not the vision. After 6 months, reality hits. If your team doesn’t care about the actual problem, they’ll give up.”
“We assume African customers won’t appreciate quality, so we build ‘good enough.’ But people appreciate quality. Better products take time, money, and patience.”
WHAT HE TEACHES
Engineer to Founder path | Y Combinator prep | Fundraising while employed | When to pivot vs persist | Building for Africa | Remote teams | Balancing family & ambition | Getting back up after failure
WHY HE MENTORS
Because people showed him the way. Because he remembers being the village kid they called “farmer’s son.” Because Africa deserves builders who care.
Self-described: “Not so bad software engineer, Traveler, Reader, Naive, the forever smiling kid from Benin Republic”
Won’t tolerate: Hidden agendas, excuses without action, building “good enough” when great is possible.
I have answers to questions and I want to share them with people with questions. Also get answers to questions I didn’t know I had