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Femi Ayilara is the founder and convener of Thrive in Tech, an annual technology-focused initiative designed to help beginners, career seekers and technology professionals build and advance their careers in the sector.
What started in 2020 as an initiative driven largely by friends who wanted to help people enter the technology space has grown into a community with about 5,000 alumni across different parts of the world.
The sixth edition of Thrive in Tech features a two-day programme, including its maiden hackathon, with 45 teams selected from more than 100 teams that registered. Participants are competing for cash prizes, technology credits, tools and other forms of support.
In this interview, Ayilara speaks on the journey so far, the impact of the programme, its mentorship structure, how it has been funded, the criteria for selecting hackathon participants, plans for its alumni, the role of corporate partners and his views on the opportunities and disruptions that artificial intelligence could bring.
What is Thrive in Tech all about?
Thrive in Tech is an annual event where we bring together great minds in the technology industry. It is designed for beginners, career seekers and tech professionals who are looking to build and improve their careers in technology.
This year, we have a two-day event, starting with the hackathon. The teams are coming together to build, innovate and develop solutions. We give them challenges to work on, and they come up with ideas and solutions around those challenges.
The first prize is N500,000, the second prize is N300,000 and there is N200,000 for the third position. There are also AWS credits. So, when you put everything together, the total value of the prize and support available to each team is over N1 million.
For us, however, it is not just about the money. We want to create an environment where young people can build real solutions, collaborate and demonstrate what they are capable of doing.
This is the sixth edition. How did Thrive in Tech begin?
We started Thrive in Tech after COVID-19. It was born out of the desire to help people get into technology.
I am a product of mentorship myself, and I understand the impact that having somebody who can guide you can make in your career.
So, a group of friends and I came together and started Thrive in Tech in 2020. The idea was to create an avenue where people could get the kind of support, mentorship and exposure that could help them enter the technology space and build sustainable careers.
Over the years, it has continued to grow.
Looking back at the previous editions, what impact would you say Thrive in Tech has made?
The impact has been great. Last year, we had the fifth edition here at this same venue, and we had many young people come together to learn from professionals and receive mentorship.
This year, we have over 500 participants, as well as many people joining us online.
There will be talks, panel sessions and mentorship sessions. Individuals will be able to connect with professionals, have conversations with them, ask questions and receive guidance.
That is essentially what we do at Thrive in Tech: help people get into tech, thrive in tech, grow in tech and achieve their goals.
For us, the most important thing is the impact we are able to make on people’s careers and lives.
The hackathon is new this year. Why did you decide to introduce it now?
Before now, we concentrated significantly on mentorship and training. We have mentorship streams across different areas, and we help people train in IT for free.
The hackathon is another way of giving people the opportunity to move from learning to actually building.
We want people to take the knowledge they have acquired and use it to create something. We want them to think, collaborate, innovate and solve problems. That is why the hackathon is important to us.
Could you tell us more about the mentorship and training aspect of the programme?
We have three-month training sessions that are completely free. Participants are connected with mentors who have at least seven years of experience in their respective fields. We have mentors in areas such as software engineering, product management and cybersecurity.
They are grouped into smaller groups, and the mentors support them throughout the programme.
Some of the people who have gone through our programmes have actually changed careers. We have real success stories from people we have been able to help and guide in their careers.
Some of them are now in different parts of the world.
So, for us, this is not just about organising an event and having people attend. We want to see what happens to people after they have gone through the programme.
Currently, we have around 5,000 alumni, and that number continues to grow.
What are your plans for expanding that network?
Our plan is to expand what we are doing beyond the shores of Nigeria. We are planning to have the first edition of Thrive in Tech in the United Kingdom next year.
That is part of the expansion we are looking at. We believe that the need for mentorship, skills development and access to opportunities in technology is not limited to Nigeria.
We want to continue building the community and reaching more people.
You have been providing these programmes free of charge. How have you been able to sustain them?
Before now, we would say it was self-funded. Myself and a few other friends would come together, pool our resources and support the programme.
But this year, we have partners who have come in to support what we are doing.
We have IPNX, a foremost technology company providing fibre-to-the-home services. We have SoftCloud, an infrastructure company in Nigeria. We also have N8N.
We have CoreID, which is a key partner sponsoring one of the tracks, and we have SoftBridge, which is a digital solutions company.
One of our key supporters is Vesla Group UK, a major technology company in the United Kingdom.
These partnerships are important because programmes like this require resources. When organisations see the value and decide to support what we are doing, it allows us to reach more people and provide better opportunities for participants.
You had more than 100 teams register for the hackathon. How did you select the teams that eventually made it to this stage?
At some point, we were actually oversubscribed because people were writing to us and asking to be part of the hackathon.
The initial registration itself was the first screening process, because we had to work with a particular number of teams. Eventually, we selected 45 teams to compete and innovate here.
What are you looking out for from the 45 teams?
The expectation is for people to collaborate. The world is changing, and we are in the era of artificial intelligence. Collaboration is very important.
We want teams to interact. We want people to build and innovate.
We also have big enterprises here today that are ready to adopt technologies built by these young minds.
So, I expect good results. I expect innovation. I expect to see people build things that have practical value.
Most importantly, I expect to see a much more confident set of people who are ready to take Nigeria and make Nigeria get its rightful place in the technology world.
With 45 teams in the finale, how many winners should people expect?
We expect 45 winners in the sense that everyone who has made it to this stage has already achieved something.
But, officially, three teams will come out tops and receive the major prizes.
There is the first prize of N500,000, the second prize of N300,000 and the third prize of N200,000.
But there are also prizes and benefits for all 45 teams.
They are going away with vouchers and tools that can help their businesses. They are also going away with innovative ideas that could potentially change their stories.
One of our partners is providing free hosting, which means they can deploy their solutions and continue to innovate at no cost.
Hosting takes a significant chunk of infrastructure costs, especially in this AI period, so getting that kind of support for free is valuable to the teams.
Beyond the prizes, what do you want participants to gain from the hackathon?
We want them to gain confidence, experience and exposure. We want them to be able to build something and say, ‘I created this.’ We also want organisations to look at what they have created and see value in it.
Traditional hackathons usually involve giving participants tracks and challenges to solve. But we are coming from the innovation angle, which is what is happening globally today.
We want people to build, think outside the box and create.
Then, beyond creating those solutions, we want to help them leverage what they have built.
So, everybody here today is a winner.
Of course, we have selection criteria around quality, innovation and how they are able to iterate very quickly. But every one of them that got to this stage is actually a winner.
You have spoken about supporting participants after the programme. How does that follow-up work?
We have a mentorship track, and that is one of the key areas where we build our alumni.
We help them get into tech and we follow up with them.
Some of them are testimonies today. Some of them are participants in our programmes, while some have become part of the backend support team helping us to organise these programmes.
They see the value that Thrive in Tech brings and they join our network. So, yes, we check on them and provide support.
We have an office that supports these people to help them get the results they need.
We also have an open-door policy where people can write to us and discuss their challenges with us as they grow in their careers.
So, there are different ways through which we continue to engage with them.
Will the same follow-up support apply to the winners and participants in this year’s hackathon?
Definitely. For example, CoreID has a track, and they intend to adopt all the people who compete in their track.
So, beyond the prize money, we want to be able to support the teams.
We want organisations to see value in what they have built. It is important that participants do not simply come here, compete, collect a prize and leave. We want to create opportunities where what they have built can potentially become something bigger.
Artificial intelligence is now changing the technology ecosystem. What is your view of AI?
Just like every other wave, the AI wave will bring changes. A lot of what we do will change, and a whole lot of opportunities will also be created.
So, it is our choice as Africans to take our place, the right place, to build and innovate.
We are saying today that we are building for impact.
For example, we leverage AI to build very quickly, to iterate very quickly and to make development happen faster.
There are eight tracks today, and people are coming up with brilliant ideas across areas such as agri-tech and healthcare.
I have seen some of the ideas people are pitching today, and they are mind-blowing. About 95 per cent of them leverage AI. That tells you something about the direction in which technology is moving.
Some people are worried that AI will disrupt jobs and the technology ecosystem. Should people be concerned?
AI will definitely bring changes. That is the reality. But we should also look at the opportunities.
We can use AI for good. We can use AI to build. We can use AI to innovate.
We can use AI to change our story as individuals and as a people. The important thing is that we should not simply sit down and watch the AI wave happen. We need to participate.
As Africans, we need to build. We need to innovate. We need to create solutions that address our own problems and also have relevance globally. That is what we are trying to demonstrate through Thrive in Tech.
Finally, what would success look like for this sixth edition?
Success for us is seeing people build, innovate and collaborate. It is seeing young people become more confident in their abilities. It is seeing organisations identify solutions that can be adopted.
It is seeing participants leave here with tools, opportunities, networks and knowledge that can help them move forward.
Ultimately, our goal remains the same: to help people get into tech, thrive in tech, grow in tech and achieve their goals.
And as we expand beyond Nigeria, we want to continue building a community of people who are not just consumers of technology but people who are creating solutions and contributing to the global technology ecosystem.
