John Oseni is a software engineer, a student at UNILAG, and the CEO of Pantech Dynamics, a cloud company building infrastructure for African businesses on physical servers in Africa. His team shipped its first product in August: virtual machines, load balancers and managed Kubernetes clusters. We talked about why he started with cloud, what turned out to be hard, how he fits building around school, and the lesson he learned the hard way.
Chapter 01Meet John Oseni
Startlog: So, who do we have here today?
John Oseni: I'm John Oseni, CEO at Pantech Dynamics. I'm a software engineer too, and I'm also a tech entrepreneur. That's who we have here today.
Chapter 02Pantech Dynamics
Startlog: What are you building at Pantech?
John Oseni: We're building Pantech Dynamics, a cloud infra for African companies. Currently, a lot of African companies keep their data outside Africa. Some keep it in the US, some in Europe, some in different places. But African data is supposed to stay in Africa. That way the latency is shorter, not wider, and you know you own your own data. That's what we're doing.
Chapter 03When it started
Startlog: When did you start building? How long have you been at it?
John Oseni: We've been building this since sometime last year, but we got our first product out a month or two ago, in August.
Chapter 04The product
Startlog: And what product is that?
John Oseni: We worked on VMs, virtual machines, load balancers, managed Kubernetes clusters, all on our physical servers here in Africa.
Chapter 05Why cloud
Startlog: What prompted the idea? Why are you building this?
John Oseni: Because cloud, or anything physical server, is the source. And if the source is cloud, you have to start from the source. Laptops, phones, any technological gadget you see today holds records, and those records are saved somewhere in the cloud. So cloud is the source. That's really what compelled us to build this.
Chapter 06The hardest part
Startlog: What has been the hardest part of building?
John Oseni: I'll say the hardest part is setting up: the infrastructure and everything we currently have. Building itself was easy peasy, because right now we have a lot of builders and it's very easy to build something. But setting up was the hardest part.
Chapter 07Outside of building
Startlog: Apart from building, what else do you do? Are you a student?
John Oseni: I'm everything. I'm a student at UNILAG, while I build. Apart from that, that's really what I do. Tech is just my purpose.
Chapter 08Tech and school
Startlog: How do you balance tech and school?
John Oseni: I got no choice, I just have to balance. I have people that work with me, so I give tasks and delegate them. That way I also have time for myself and for school.
Chapter 09What's next
Startlog: What's the next product you're looking to build in the near future?
John Oseni: I'll still be on this in the near future. In the next decade.
Chapter 10What success means
Startlog: What would you consider success with what you're building now?
John Oseni: Being successful is being profitable. Not just revenue, but being profitable. That's what I describe as being successful. And also being impactful, being able to solve a problem that a lot of people have faced for so long.
Chapter 11One lesson
Startlog: What's the one lesson you've learned so far from building?
John Oseni: I've learned a lot, especially when it comes to legal matters, because I had a very harsh experience there. So my own is: get your stuff right. Make sure you don't joke with black and white. Make sure your ways are straight. Those are the lessons I learned.
Chapter 12Reaching John
Startlog: If people want to reach out to you, how can they get to you?
John Oseni: The best way is probably through someone that knows me. Or by email: johnoseni26@gmail.com. Or my X (Twitter).
Chapter 13Thanks
Startlog: Thank you so much for your time.
John Oseni: Thank you so much, bro.