From a friend
I co-built a digital economic zone in Africa. I created spaces where strangers have real conversations. Now I'm in Shenzhen — giving people in 7 days the access that took me months. The product changes. The why stays the same.
If you look at my work, it looks scattered — Google, coliving, community events, a city in Nigeria, now China trips. But there's one thing underneath all of it:
I believe the most important changes in life happen when you're physically in a place you don't know, with people you haven't met yet — and that someone needs to design the conditions for real connection to happen.
At Google and LINE, I designed digital products — and realized the screen isn't enough. So I started designing Slow Spaces: events in San Francisco where strangers sat in groups of four with handmade conversation coasters that asked "When have you worked hard and loved every minute of it?" instead of "What do you do?" I served tea instead of alcohol. I arranged the chairs to face each other. I eliminated every barrier to real conversation.
Then I co-built Itana — Africa's first digital special economic zone. With the co-founders of Andela and Flutterwave. $100M in partnership with Africa Finance Corporation. We weren't just building policy — we were designing the conditions for an entire economy to form. A jurisdiction from scratch, for the digital age.
The biggest lesson from Nigeria? I regret not moving there. I stayed in New York for comfort — dating, sidewalks, gyms. But the deepest trust, the sharpest insights, the relationships that actually mattered — those only came from the days I was physically on the ground. Remote work let me optimize for life. But life felt the most full when life and work fed into each other.
When I sensed the next opportunity in China, I didn't wait. I moved to Shenzhen. Not because China is trendy, but because the same thing I saw in Africa is here: a world being built at extraordinary speed, almost entirely invisible from the outside. And the only way to understand it is to be there.
China's founders and factory owners don't respond to cold outreach. They don't speak English — not the ones making decisions. Campus tours aren't access. The value is meeting decision-makers — people who don't do tours.
I speak Mandarin. I'm physically here. I've spent months building the relationships that make real access possible. And now I want to do what I've always done — design the conditions where strangers learn to trust each other — this time across three cities in seven days.
A living room in San Francisco. A jurisdiction in Nigeria. A week across China. Different scale, different place — same belief: the most transformative moments happen when someone designs the conditions for strangers to trust each other. That's what I do.
What I'm building
I take a small group across three cities to meet the people who actually build China's tech ecosystem. Not tourism — business. Real meetings, real relationships, real follow-ups.
Built for:
Investors & VCs scouting hardware and robotics deal flow
Founders seeking manufacturing partners and factory relationships
Corporate innovation leads exploring Chinese management & partnerships
"She moved to Shenzhen. This sort of high agency behavior is exactly who I like to work with — the outcomes tend to be strong and the projects lead to wins. She does things she says she will do."
Check out the full trip and apply for the first cohort
Copy this page link and send it to them — a warm intro goes further than anything
Forward to a friend or a group chat
Newsletters, WeChat groups, creators, events — anything where the right people are
Occasional updates, no spam. Just what it's like building this from Shenzhen.
You're in ✦