The history of the Nigerian developer: from programming on the button phone to work in the startup MIT
In 2012, I was an ordinary kid from a Nigerian village, who only had that dream and a simple phone. Today I am 19 years old, I am an Android developer with more than 50 applications in the portfolio and I work in MIT startup .
It all started with the fact that I was curious how sites are made. Since childhood, I spent a lot of time on the Web - I really liked to download games and read articles on Society Of Robots . I spent weeks saving money to buy an Internet package with 10 megabytes of traffic for 100 naira ($ 0.28); in 2012 they could be stretched for a month.
')
The first step I took was simple: I scored the “how to make a site” query on Google and got millions of results. Not knowing what to choose, I clicked on the first available link - this turned out to be the W3CSchools resource. The article explained that I would first need to learn some languages ​​(HTML and CSS). After making sure that other sources confirm this information, I enrolled in the HTML and CSS course from W3CSchools .
Every day, after school, I opened their website and started classes. At first, the code and explanations seemed to me a complete rubbish, but I persevered to study the materials. If I was completely stuck, I turned to tutorials from other resources - this allowed me to look at the problem from different angles.
In elementary school, it was very hard for me to read and write, I had to practice a lot in order to master them properly. Therefore, this scheme has already taken shape in my head: if I practice, not sparing time, I will sooner or later figure out programming languages.
After a few months of hard work, I learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I have not finished my studies when a friend showed me the film “Social Network”. After looking at it, I fired up with the idea of ​​creating the next hit in this area with my own hands. Thank you, Hollywood!
After a couple of days I found insight. The idea was this: make an improved version of Facebook. At that time, there was still no opportunity to see which friends were online, and indeed the platform was intended to communicate with people you already know in real life. This was my idea of ​​a startup in a million: to create a social network, which will have all that Facebook lacks. “Well, hold on, Mark Zuckerberg,” I thought.
The next few months I spent at work on this social network of the future, into which I stuffed all the functions that only came to my mind. For hosting, I used the free service Wapka.mobi . I naively believed that I would succeed.
When the project was completed, I did what all people without a budget for promotion do: spammed for several days all over the Internet. After a few days of similar marketing, I had a painful collision with reality: I managed to dial only 200 users, and even those I had to constantly beg not to leave the site.
I completely lost heart! So much work - and all for nothing. So I learned two hard but important lessons:
When the project is inspiring, this is certainly good, but you need to be able to recognize in time that you are at an impasse. I fought for a few more months trying to attract more people to the site, but the retention rate was still hanging around zero, and in the end I abandoned the project.
But, as Lewis from the TV series “ On a visit to the Robinsons ” said: “We must always move forward.” In search of inspiration for the next project, I thought about the needs of the local community. This time I wanted to do something that people really needed, for which they were willing to pay.
I had the idea to make a service like Whatsapp for SMS, so that it is easier and cheaper to send messages to several people at once. I discussed this idea with someone and decided to take it to work.
I called the project Xmx Me. It was an application on the J2ME platform. Accordingly, I needed to learn how to write Java code. Looking back, I have to admit that of all that I encountered on my way, this was the most difficult. Some tutorials had to be re-read more than once in order to fully understand what it was about.
Having completed several Java courses, I was ready to begin work. Without getting tired of stuffing one line of code to another, I neatly built a PHP backend, then frontend in HTML and CSS, and finally took up the development of the application in J2ME. The project was gradually implemented.
I wrote all this code not on the laptop, but on a button phone on the J2ME platform.
"Wait, what did you say now?"
Yes, yes, you heard right.
At that time, I still could not write code on the laptop. I simply did not have the money to buy it. Parents wanted to help, but it was difficult for them either: they would have to choose between buying a laptop and paying for school or other necessary expenses.
I had no experience with laptops at all, I only contacted computers at an internet cafe. I remember watching videos about how to work with a computer (left click, dragging and other basic operations), and then went to a cafe and trained.
I was lucky: a relative gave me a Nokia 2690 phone. This phone in the picture above has changed my life, it was on it that I developed my Xmx Me, a non-flying social network and several other projects. With this phone and the desire to succeed, I spent whole hours typing the code on a tiny keyboard. And in another respect, I was lucky: I found an application with which I could compile my J2ME projects . So yes, creating a J2ME application on a J2ME phone is indeed possible.
The SDK devoured a lot of the resource, so when the battery was sitting down, I took the paper with a pen, wrote the code by hand and looked for errors in the syntax. But I have nothing to fear from tasks “on the board” in Java at interviews, with such and such experience!
A few more months - and my product is ready. I managed to convince a friend of the online forum to help me with money to pay for hosting and purchase a large SMS package with a given number of messages.
The launch was successful - well, at least, better than the first project. We managed to attract the attention of local publications, even one of the most popular bloggers in Kenya wrote about the application. The audience has grown to 5,000 people almost organically.
Things went uphill, every day we were transferred money a couple of times. Since I had no business experience, at this stage I made a number of serious mistakes. In particular:
I began to think about how to sell the project, and with the money to buy a laptop. In complete confusion, I even went across the Internet with an outstretched hand - yes, I was so desperate and lost my shame. Nothing good came of it, I was accused of fraud (this misunderstanding was later resolved). I repeat: I had no experience at all, so I unreasonably behaved in this situation.
After I had to borrow some money to keep the business afloat, I decided it was time to end. Now it seems to me that this was a mistake. I think, having learned a little and having looked narrowly, I could somehow get out. Probably, I just did not believe that my SMS application has a future. But recently I decided to recall the past and found that the product still has enough fans.
I realized that if I want to buy a computer in the near future, I’ll have to try harder. I began to save money, cut spending to the limit and moved to a more unpretentious lifestyle. In addition, I asked my relatives for help and even sold some of my personal belongings in order to collect as much as needed for a laptop.
Still, there was not enough money. Determined to achieve my goal, I found a side job - I decided to make a website to order in order to earn the missing amount. How to make a website on a Nokia phone? It's very simple: get a friend with a hospital on Facebook and get him every evening by asking you to watch your site on your screen and give feedback. It cost me less than daily trips to Internet cafes.
I also used Ideone to the fullest , which allowed me to check if PHP scripts are working before loading them.
And finally, I can buy a laptop. I still remember what happiness it was. This smell of plastic when you unpack a brand new device of not too high quality! Now I could work on any project I wanted and not feel limited by the capabilities of the phone.
Devices based on J2ME were already on the last legs, so over time I switched to Android. Then my knowledge of Java came in handy, I just had to learn some things specific to this platform.
In 2015, I finished school and decided it was time to find a job and help my family. I went to freelancing and became an active participant in local forums and communities, looking for people who needed help in developing Android applications.
I did not have a good portfolio at that time, so sometimes I agreed to make applications even without prepayment, with no guarantees at all. I got burned several times on this, but I did dig projects for a decent portfolio.
I would like to share one piece of advice that I myself would like to hear while I freelance:
I worked with several clients from different parts of Nigeria who liked what I did. In the end, I got a permanent job at a company from the Nigerian city of Lagos, to a client who had already worked remotely before.
Once, looking through the news feed, I read that Dot Learn is looking for a developer on Android. I looked for information about the company and found out that this is a MIT startup working in the field of educational technologies, which I am very enthusiastic about, and in a market that I am well acquainted with. They had an unusual idea: to solve the problem of accessibility of educational online resources with the help of very compact videos - literally 1 megabyte per hour of video.
It was hard to even believe at once in something like that, and I understood that such a format could be the key to accessible education for a huge mass of people.
I very much support the idea of ​​a revolution in the educational system of Africa. I even made a free (with advertising support) PrepUp exam preparation application that reached the final of the West Africa Mobile Awards 2016 contest. I wanted to have a hand in what Dot Learn does.
I re-read the requirements for the candidate and felt that I had a chance. But the impostor syndrome kept me from growing up.
All day long I was tormented with doubts - to send a resume or not to send? But then I realized one simple thing: I have nothing to lose. The worst thing that can happen is they will refuse me. But this is not fatal. Therefore, I took and sent a resume.
Having crossed my fingers, I pumped up and began to review several videos from the courses for developers from MIT . A few days I spent the evening watching videos , where they explained how to solve typical tasks at interviews. Until now, I was hired mostly impressed by the portfort and past work experience, but I didn’t want to be taken by surprise at the interview by offering to write some code on the spot.
In general, in order not to delay the story: after a long preparation, difficult questions, telephone interviews and several projects, I was hired.
I just could not believe my ears. I was in seventh heaven.
Looking back, I can say that it was one of my best decisions. During my work at DotLearn, I grew significantly as an expert and met many wonderful people from MIT, Harvard and other cool places. So far, everything I experienced here was fascinating and great, from a trip to Techcrunch Battlefield (I was late for the flight) until the day when I found out that I can rap (there will be no links).
I know that this is just the beginning. I wrote this story with the idea that perhaps it will inspire someone who is now in the same position as I was five years ago.
Next year I am going to continue studying. I think now I have become more aware of the value of higher education. Of course, it is possible that I am mistaken, but this is the final decision.
It all started with the fact that I was curious how sites are made. Since childhood, I spent a lot of time on the Web - I really liked to download games and read articles on Society Of Robots . I spent weeks saving money to buy an Internet package with 10 megabytes of traffic for 100 naira ($ 0.28); in 2012 they could be stretched for a month.
')
The first step I took was simple: I scored the “how to make a site” query on Google and got millions of results. Not knowing what to choose, I clicked on the first available link - this turned out to be the W3CSchools resource. The article explained that I would first need to learn some languages ​​(HTML and CSS). After making sure that other sources confirm this information, I enrolled in the HTML and CSS course from W3CSchools .
Every day, after school, I opened their website and started classes. At first, the code and explanations seemed to me a complete rubbish, but I persevered to study the materials. If I was completely stuck, I turned to tutorials from other resources - this allowed me to look at the problem from different angles.
In elementary school, it was very hard for me to read and write, I had to practice a lot in order to master them properly. Therefore, this scheme has already taken shape in my head: if I practice, not sparing time, I will sooner or later figure out programming languages.
After a few months of hard work, I learned the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I have not finished my studies when a friend showed me the film “Social Network”. After looking at it, I fired up with the idea of ​​creating the next hit in this area with my own hands. Thank you, Hollywood!
After a couple of days I found insight. The idea was this: make an improved version of Facebook. At that time, there was still no opportunity to see which friends were online, and indeed the platform was intended to communicate with people you already know in real life. This was my idea of ​​a startup in a million: to create a social network, which will have all that Facebook lacks. “Well, hold on, Mark Zuckerberg,” I thought.
The next few months I spent at work on this social network of the future, into which I stuffed all the functions that only came to my mind. For hosting, I used the free service Wapka.mobi . I naively believed that I would succeed.
When the project was completed, I did what all people without a budget for promotion do: spammed for several days all over the Internet. After a few days of similar marketing, I had a painful collision with reality: I managed to dial only 200 users, and even those I had to constantly beg not to leave the site.
I completely lost heart! So much work - and all for nothing. So I learned two hard but important lessons:
- All new platforms face the challenge of eggs and chicken .
- I wanted to create something that, in my opinion, was needed by people, but in the end it turned out to be just a stupid set of functions .
When the project is inspiring, this is certainly good, but you need to be able to recognize in time that you are at an impasse. I fought for a few more months trying to attract more people to the site, but the retention rate was still hanging around zero, and in the end I abandoned the project.
But, as Lewis from the TV series “ On a visit to the Robinsons ” said: “We must always move forward.” In search of inspiration for the next project, I thought about the needs of the local community. This time I wanted to do something that people really needed, for which they were willing to pay.
I had the idea to make a service like Whatsapp for SMS, so that it is easier and cheaper to send messages to several people at once. I discussed this idea with someone and decided to take it to work.
I called the project Xmx Me. It was an application on the J2ME platform. Accordingly, I needed to learn how to write Java code. Looking back, I have to admit that of all that I encountered on my way, this was the most difficult. Some tutorials had to be re-read more than once in order to fully understand what it was about.
Having completed several Java courses, I was ready to begin work. Without getting tired of stuffing one line of code to another, I neatly built a PHP backend, then frontend in HTML and CSS, and finally took up the development of the application in J2ME. The project was gradually implemented.
I wrote all this code not on the laptop, but on a button phone on the J2ME platform.
"Wait, what did you say now?"
Yes, yes, you heard right.
How it was
At that time, I still could not write code on the laptop. I simply did not have the money to buy it. Parents wanted to help, but it was difficult for them either: they would have to choose between buying a laptop and paying for school or other necessary expenses.
I had no experience with laptops at all, I only contacted computers at an internet cafe. I remember watching videos about how to work with a computer (left click, dragging and other basic operations), and then went to a cafe and trained.
I was lucky: a relative gave me a Nokia 2690 phone. This phone in the picture above has changed my life, it was on it that I developed my Xmx Me, a non-flying social network and several other projects. With this phone and the desire to succeed, I spent whole hours typing the code on a tiny keyboard. And in another respect, I was lucky: I found an application with which I could compile my J2ME projects . So yes, creating a J2ME application on a J2ME phone is indeed possible.
The SDK devoured a lot of the resource, so when the battery was sitting down, I took the paper with a pen, wrote the code by hand and looked for errors in the syntax. But I have nothing to fear from tasks “on the board” in Java at interviews, with such and such experience!
Launching SMS Bulk Application
A few more months - and my product is ready. I managed to convince a friend of the online forum to help me with money to pay for hosting and purchase a large SMS package with a given number of messages.
The launch was successful - well, at least, better than the first project. We managed to attract the attention of local publications, even one of the most popular bloggers in Kenya wrote about the application. The audience has grown to 5,000 people almost organically.
Things went uphill, every day we were transferred money a couple of times. Since I had no business experience, at this stage I made a number of serious mistakes. In particular:
- In Nigeria, there is no easy way to charge users. Not everyone has a bank card. Therefore, I allowed people to throw money from a mobile phone account. The problem is that I could not cash my balance. I had to contact providers that returned a ridiculous percentage to me.
- I very vaguely imagined how to manage my own business in general. There was practically no accounting of funds. I did not even know what I was losing money on, did not take into account overhead, did not pay attention to details.
I began to think about how to sell the project, and with the money to buy a laptop. In complete confusion, I even went across the Internet with an outstretched hand - yes, I was so desperate and lost my shame. Nothing good came of it, I was accused of fraud (this misunderstanding was later resolved). I repeat: I had no experience at all, so I unreasonably behaved in this situation.
After I had to borrow some money to keep the business afloat, I decided it was time to end. Now it seems to me that this was a mistake. I think, having learned a little and having looked narrowly, I could somehow get out. Probably, I just did not believe that my SMS application has a future. But recently I decided to recall the past and found that the product still has enough fans.
What did it all teach me
I realized that if I want to buy a computer in the near future, I’ll have to try harder. I began to save money, cut spending to the limit and moved to a more unpretentious lifestyle. In addition, I asked my relatives for help and even sold some of my personal belongings in order to collect as much as needed for a laptop.
Still, there was not enough money. Determined to achieve my goal, I found a side job - I decided to make a website to order in order to earn the missing amount. How to make a website on a Nokia phone? It's very simple: get a friend with a hospital on Facebook and get him every evening by asking you to watch your site on your screen and give feedback. It cost me less than daily trips to Internet cafes.
I also used Ideone to the fullest , which allowed me to check if PHP scripts are working before loading them.
And finally, I can buy a laptop. I still remember what happiness it was. This smell of plastic when you unpack a brand new device of not too high quality! Now I could work on any project I wanted and not feel limited by the capabilities of the phone.
Devices based on J2ME were already on the last legs, so over time I switched to Android. Then my knowledge of Java came in handy, I just had to learn some things specific to this platform.
In 2015, I finished school and decided it was time to find a job and help my family. I went to freelancing and became an active participant in local forums and communities, looking for people who needed help in developing Android applications.
I did not have a good portfolio at that time, so sometimes I agreed to make applications even without prepayment, with no guarantees at all. I got burned several times on this, but I did dig projects for a decent portfolio.
I would like to share one piece of advice that I myself would like to hear while I freelance:
Do not tear apart. If you take on too many obligations, your health, family, and customers will suffer from this.
I worked with several clients from different parts of Nigeria who liked what I did. In the end, I got a permanent job at a company from the Nigerian city of Lagos, to a client who had already worked remotely before.
Once, looking through the news feed, I read that Dot Learn is looking for a developer on Android. I looked for information about the company and found out that this is a MIT startup working in the field of educational technologies, which I am very enthusiastic about, and in a market that I am well acquainted with. They had an unusual idea: to solve the problem of accessibility of educational online resources with the help of very compact videos - literally 1 megabyte per hour of video.
It was hard to even believe at once in something like that, and I understood that such a format could be the key to accessible education for a huge mass of people.
I very much support the idea of ​​a revolution in the educational system of Africa. I even made a free (with advertising support) PrepUp exam preparation application that reached the final of the West Africa Mobile Awards 2016 contest. I wanted to have a hand in what Dot Learn does.
I re-read the requirements for the candidate and felt that I had a chance. But the impostor syndrome kept me from growing up.
All day long I was tormented with doubts - to send a resume or not to send? But then I realized one simple thing: I have nothing to lose. The worst thing that can happen is they will refuse me. But this is not fatal. Therefore, I took and sent a resume.
Having crossed my fingers, I pumped up and began to review several videos from the courses for developers from MIT . A few days I spent the evening watching videos , where they explained how to solve typical tasks at interviews. Until now, I was hired mostly impressed by the portfort and past work experience, but I didn’t want to be taken by surprise at the interview by offering to write some code on the spot.
In general, in order not to delay the story: after a long preparation, difficult questions, telephone interviews and several projects, I was hired.
I just could not believe my ears. I was in seventh heaven.
Looking back, I can say that it was one of my best decisions. During my work at DotLearn, I grew significantly as an expert and met many wonderful people from MIT, Harvard and other cool places. So far, everything I experienced here was fascinating and great, from a trip to Techcrunch Battlefield (I was late for the flight) until the day when I found out that I can rap (there will be no links).
Finally
I know that this is just the beginning. I wrote this story with the idea that perhaps it will inspire someone who is now in the same position as I was five years ago.
Next year I am going to continue studying. I think now I have become more aware of the value of higher education. Of course, it is possible that I am mistaken, but this is the final decision.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/345232/
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