Web3bridge at 5 Full Documentary | Ayodeji Awosika on the Web3 Journey and Growth

[Music] the goal is like let's let's train people who can become self sustained enough to think through so many solutions now what do we do bridging from Web Two to web 3 why go far where you can just make it a name then just make we like that's simple like in the last 5 years we've seen guys who have moved from we three with the online program and the onside program and working with very very top companies like is more is not just like a death training program but building like sense of family a community where everyone is valued everyone is appreciated irrespective of uh the background they have and all of those [Music] things one the reason why it was easy for most of these people to work with us is because we are not going to meet program protocol to say yeah come and save us we going to say we have done XY Z I think we believe this can also benefit [Music] you we can't talk about how I began talking about 2017 actually so I came to the blockchain space 2017 and uh I was doing number of community management job and all but 2018 was the year that was that defined everything because I felt like okay education was one of the problem that we have in the entire ecosystem at the time so there was education the part of the users even developers most of developers we had are not like very very good web3 developers at the time because I remember we launched the project in 2018 that crashed and that was like a crazy year so we laun this project 10: p.m. Nigerian time and by 10:30 the project crashed now I manage the community and yeah I was sleeping with the time and I woke up to a messy community and I was like let me quickly test the product myself test was no more and everybody ran away the developers were sleeping because they in different time zone the like every person on the team like miia I was the only one in the community like helping people like balance up and all and that experience Tau me that we need developers to step up then 2019 I was like going around doing few me poops and all of those STS but then I was still working to see how we can like train developers mind you I'm not a developer myself so in 201 during DEFCON 5 I was following defon 5 from AFA and I saw a number of tweet engag a number of them until I came back and I saw you stud on you need to train a Min developer for like oh innocently I just responded the African has the potential and the intelligence like make that number because understanding that so I saw the tweet I saw a number of negative tweets and all my tweet was just like very short like just one sentence of tweet and I got a DM after that tweet just now after the Tweet asking if the proposal has something in my Nigerian boy propos with our head actually there propos actually mind you was propos came up with something education I had the background in education and Hospitality so plan education will be a problem came up with a proposal spoke with a number of persons with my team at the time to see how we can like up curriculum CL go who did design the website of the first program that we target 500 Nigerian de for eum like was a very simple plan get 500 developers into E when that is done what happens next I don't know I don't care but then was a pilot program at the time H the pilot program and boom Pilots was successful because we had a number of persons like the mentors were like topnotch mentors within the country and outside the country from consensus from all then it was funny because by the time consensus announced they wanted to do 500 1 million Dev by the time they set up their team the team had to come learn from 500 Nigerian devs because this was like something that was already happening and they were trying to like fig they were trying to figure out what they were trying to do but then this was like a pilot that was already running so that's how all started I remember I was coming from I was coming from State one of those days and I got to the brid this uh what was the name of this place this bridge when you coming into Los from you already passed through passed beg like and I Reed a call from Clement Clement was it's time to give this the proper name and I I was was I driving not sure I'm driving or but then I remember I was around that time and I told him I said when the time to name this program comes we will know CU I time I never have a name like there was no name I just like Nigerian days was just like what what it was at the time within that week I was hoping to get a name uh I learned back when I was doing my service from a brother who told me that the best place to get a name is to ask God and then I didn't understand but then that time I learned from that experience because my first company was brought a name I got from Genesis I was thinking about it yeah we need to make this have a name and or when done are weing to then just make like that's simple like what do we do bridging from web 2 to web 3 why go far when you can just make it a name and I think I wrote it down at first bridge to ask my wife and like that's a good name ask one or two person like that's very good name that ex what you're doing that's STS the mission was simple get 500 deaths into at time but then prior to that one of the problems we have in Nigeria then like one of the challenges I I see at the time was that most of the developers we had were non Nigerians like they foreigners and we we keep talking about penetration and abortion and all but we can't find adoption until when we get local guys to become developers now two things when these local guys become developers they able to end and they also able to build now the more money they end the more our economy get better also more money they end the more like interest continue to grow so the mission was let's train these developers but apart from training them let's make them into giants into uh people who are self sustained people who can like start up their initiative like the problem in Africa is wide is much now can we brid only soles it it's not possible we train people who are capable enough they can spring off different initiatives that you can see today like like can look at what the GU what um these guys are doing in just with block fuse look at F is doing f look at what is doing blockchain espresso look at um started with r class so like the goal is like let's let's train people who can become self sustained enough to think through so many solutions now there's no you put an hry man behind an idea like kill because the first thing they looking for food but when move them from so the first thing is get them to be able to sa Su like eat first when they eat they can sa Su they can think and think out of the box and solution conso division is build enough men enough women enough people in Tech space in Africa that can actually like grow the African ecosystem and economy 3 years ago we had this job advance that posted in that two years experience and I was asking myself I said not got to that point yet but then very soon we going to have this number and the last five years we've seen guys who have moved from with Bridge both the online program and the on and working with very very top companies like I've seen guys consens I've seen like that company again like on board like Nami like NE that was a story that was a story that happened last year or early this year one of our developers applied to to in at a company and he applied to in when they saw his rep and order like no no no no you have to come and join us as f f team like so and this internship opportun one the bigest one that people look out in the ecos so for them to look at like no you can't in anymore you have to come on the team it shows that we have trained people I've got so many good news about the people we have trained that I am confident in the results that still coming I would say the discipline we bring to Bri is one team now uh this discipline is actually funny so let me let me let me let let me go back a little bit before to the bridge I had the friend who worked at andela and I took time to understand what andela does how they do their thing and all like I ask him a ton of question get to like understand him then uh coming from someone that attend Living Faith Church I have seen people do like stuff now unfortunately I'm not I'm not as discipl as can be I'm not plan to be as as can be like never but I've seen that there's some things that works and it's it's only full that see things that work and decide to shy away from them so one of the things that is is the the the quality of the mentors that we bring like let's look at the fact that we have also Mentor so that that's one way to look at it also look at De eviction program now thetion program is actually like one thing that I've given so many persons desire to like push forward now all we can't we can't always like sh away from the system we have built being is more is not just like death training program now at least for each Court we have a session with the student we do like counseling therapy and all of those stuff like we have building like sense of family and Comm Community where everyone is valued everyone is appreciated respective of uh the background they have and all of those things and that that are some of the things I've seen worked moving moving on S side just like one one benefit that we had because when we were doing fully remote it was like a lot of TR and work but since we've moved on site having a one-onone with these guys like being available to listen like everyone everyone wants everyone needs listening air and working with people that has like empathy like from cor staff to the kitchen St like everybody has everybody doing what they are supposed to do one of the things that like make the program what it is today we can't go talk about that without talking about it's from the network this gu the network where the first guys that sent that DM back 5 years ago and since then they have been a part of the journey even till now there are people I go back to at time say Okay Al far this is what you have done so far like they have made us accountable understanding that okay this is what we are doing like this is where we are this is where we are at and all that has help yeah polygon was one one partner like give us who who worked with us at some points and uh one of the reason why it was easy for most of these people to work with us is because we are not going to meet progam protocol to say yeah come and save us no we are going to say we have done x y z I think we believe this can also benefit you do you understand like because we have we have sh result one one reason why it was easy for them to work with us because of the results we have shown optimism like trusted us to give us a retro Grant Foundation has been like an amazing friend and partner for like I see you sponsor friend partner so I was in in 2020 to me community and I believe that the community stands for something I believeing whereby everyone has a voice like irrespective of who you are where you from everyone does have a voice this came to at some point and I decided going to double down on Africa fortunately they reached out to me and like I we met some of alumni working with some of them and like partner longterm partnership with you and I was like woo that's not bad and I was much but then through being through to their world L has been like a very very like very amazing partner with yeah B yeah thank thankfully thanksfully you you introdu us to B at some point and was been a good onean very good job trying to like get us into that thing we did a lot of a lot of work a lot of the partnership was a fruitful one and that was a good deal yeah stet was also like one partner one partner sponsor that we had we held a master class for stack net and today I can see that almost 70% of the developers in St from through the bridge directly or indirectly and uh the a drop that they did the match was actually the killer one for us because it not just get our guys to become millionaires you also like giving them a confidence to say yeah I can be this person I want to be so yeah we had had also like Master ear the year which was actually like so cess end adop style to do like a complete master class all across the world which was a good partnership for us then the guys are scroll like those guys came to the US and like so what you guys are doing and decided like work with us fortunately scroll got they employed someone who I had met while he was like I yeah I've been following you for this number of time and I trust you enough to like manage manag that and had very amazing partners partners with them within the African continent a time to say big shout out to yourself has been an amazing friend amazing brother because he like pointed us to a number of persons like how you guys need to meet I you met someone who came from China was like the first time I heard about was when this person came from Hong Kong toos and he came back I like you guys all all of you have to go toos and meet Bri like so I've never been to before but then someone talking about in Hong Kong and that's that's a big deal yeah y bosi from on board uh Eric Anan and P from a this guys are amazing I met them sometimes year year almost like two years ago now and it's been an amazing time like learning from them seeing their result because I believe that we can't do it alone I also believe that the more we see people are doing something that we do the more we can like learn from them to see how we can like make things better like those guys are very amazing guys and we've had lot of lot of amazing Partners I might not be able to mention at this point but then one of the things I see that draw them to us is the value that we offer I believe that we are not the one doing the connection our job is to train these guys um get them to become better developers and better humans and uh believe that for each time one of the developers go out like we tell them they ambassadors of bridge and for each time they go out they become like the point for others to also get into the eem our job is to actually train but then we train them to become better train them to be able to like understand how to look for job also for all of these things by themselves because training them means that no matter where they find themselves they can actually survive on their own so we have done our job well and we need to give close to the Alum who kept opening doors for others and helping them walk through and holding the door so our job is to train the group of people who also like Contin like help and open doors for others also at first I believe that one of the first problem we had as Nigerians first was Integrity issue like uh Niger are not bad but then some persons might have SW our name of Ming good with so like if your first point of call is some person like ah this SP our name so when we came I remember I had this Ugandan friend who told me uh let me let me make let me make ugand like are this guys are not going to give you money because there was a program I was part of these guys collected money and they never delivered anything they were just traveling around around from Uganda Africa and back to Nigeria and nothing happened so they're not going to give you money so at first I discover that one of the we need to solve is an Integrity problem where can we be trusted so one of the first thing we did consciously we had that point of trust we are not perfect but then to give us funds to do ABC we have cautiously moved from ABCD because we believe that that's one way where you can keep coming back and will not just affect us will affect everyone with st because now instead of having multiple people like oh we don't trust this now you can say oh we trust we bridge then we can transfer the same trust to the next person and we have seen that play all that time so ad do one way I believe has done very good enough and also the developers with train quality of developers with train as something that is like Rich enough for everyone to want to come work with if someone had told me 5 years ago that grown this big but I've argued because my intention was just to have a program like honestly because the more the more the more you make an organized ecosyst company the more trouble and edic you have so in fact 5 years we've achieved this much I believe that in another 5 years I see us becoming like like the first stop shop for developers not just for training we might become become an informal Technical University uh I didn't know how that will play out here but then I um so understanding what we have achiev in Last 5 Years I'm just like hoping to continue to show up every day and see where the next years lead us the best way to start saying thank you to say thank you to everyone that believed in what we have achieved like I wish I could mention the name of all the first mentors that we had like I was not I was like I was in tech like tech tech fully like I technical person we started and these guys believed in what we I believed in division like of them got scared like are you going to start something like sh Bush and I not to say yeah we do do this and want say thank you to my wife like that's the one person I've seen me in my L of L like when things no going to scale this through and yeah my boys have been amazing to like they made they made this work easy thank you to all all the team members like the present the past because each of them each of them had brought in one value to the company at each time that they were in like uh the guys that we have worked with were amazing guys guys we working with now amazing guys like they have made the work like easier like I remember not two three years ago I was in Char of everything I was Char of content snapping picture uh paying salaries doing this one that that that but then at least it's been it's been a a lot relaxed now so thank you to the team uh one to say thank you to all the Alum like all of them because there one thing I used to see when they leaving like benefits your benefiting nice because somebody did the did the work somebody didn't SPO the name so if you hold up the name to open doors for others and today I've seen a lot of them opening doors for themselves now not just opening like opening the door holding make sure fully in and that's one way I say thank you to them like some of them also like s we know we are struggling with this take this money take like good deal like thank you very much the entire I say thank you it's been an amazing 5 years and uh presently I'm still like very surprised to see this level of results that we've achieved in 5 years if I'm to say anything I will say we achieve in 10 years but then this is 5 years uh happy anniversary to we Bridge the staffs the team happy anniversary to them happy annivers to Alum have part of the journey with us anniversary to the partners who have been there all through the Journey have to myself at least I have to say out to myself then as family through the bridge we say happy anniversary everybody thank you very much God bless you [Music] [Applause]