“Yes, I moved into the USA in 2005. Maybe not in the manner that is now teasingly termed as Japa,” Success tells me in a chat that I initially thought would be a brief, casual discussion for a few minutes but ended up gearing over an hour. “Yes, because I had a choice job back in Nigeria as someone working with the World Bank.”
The cofounder and entrepreneur shares with me her very story as a young child known for her courage and audacity who one day walked up to her parents (both lecturers in a Nigerian tertiary institution) to request to be renamed and so publicly called SUCCESS.
“I love my name, and it has opened doors beyond my imaginations. Everyone loves success. I begged my parents to be called by it. And, that was it. They accepted, and today, it’s my official name,” she says while explaining how she had stayed motivated through her journey as an entrepreneur in tech, an ecosystem usually dominated by males.
“The goal is to constantly be successful at whatever I do personally or whatever I collaborate with others as a team. We keep tweaking from day one till this moment. And, yes, we are still tweaking.
“A product or startup has the life of its own, and as product founders or managers, we need to constantly iterate and ideate because a good product today may not be good enough for tomorrow.”
Building an AI educator tool as GMind AI that is now used by tenths of thousands of people across the globe, and managing a large talent team spread across continents, must come with a lot of efforts. While she agrees with me, she informs me about her formula to keeping things under efficient coordination.
“Pushing is the word. We keep pushing, Ridwan,” she jovially puts it like a typical Nigerian would express “grit.”
“You know, managing team can be really tedious but when you put all necessary elements together, you won’t have to sweat much. Of course, it’s not easy.
“The early stages when you have to put a team together is the craziest. In fact, be ready to ‘hire-fire, hire-fire’ until you get the right persons. It’s even more strenuous with African talents because we have gaps in internships, mentorships and post-graduate training programmes.
“Many carry certificates, but without the right culture or employability skills,” she echoes a growing sentiment often shared by foreign talent managers.
As I spoke with her that morning, I was intrigued by her openness, cheerfulness and how she carried every word with precision, and even went on to laugh intermittently as shares her story and journey.
I imagined a woman who lived ahead of time, and, rightly, defeated the pandemic in a clean sheet. For a moment, I remember that the COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the global education sector, affecting approximately 1.38 billion children in 191 countries, with nearly 300 million learners in Africa forced out of classrooms for over a year.
While this unprecedented disruption led to significant learning losses, exacerbated by “crash” programs, abridged curricula, and arbitrary class promotions that compromised learners’ acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills; the Success Ojo’s team, on the other hand, were counting their blessings.
So, how does one build an AI tool for teachers and the entire ed-community. Where does the idea come from? The inspiration, and how did her team imagine the extent to which they would grow in the shortest space of time since 2024?
“I think we embody what it means when opportunity meets relentless preparation,” she says with a firm CEO nod and an unwavering smile. She continues, “We didn’t simply glance at the education space and then decide to solve its problems. We are educators ourselves, working and creating for educators. We’ve been immersed in this space, anticipating challenges and tackling them head-on, long before others even noticed.”
“I am a tech trainer and life coach. I have helped over 15,000 people master various tech skills towards a fulfilling career by grooming them at Realztech Institute, a tech skill acquisition academy I co-founded, here, in the US. Through this, I have had the rare opportunity of holding people’s hands and sharing with them tested and trusted success roadmaps.
“This is one thing I enjoy to do as a person. And, not only that, I have built teams and systems around this with pride over the years. I run Gotocourse, an e-learning arm of the academy.
“Just before COVID-19, we automated our processes such that people could take our courses remotely. It was a beautiful thing to see our system run smoothly, with thousands of people plugging into our structure. Less pressure on us. More speed, and exponential reach.
“It was a big deal, and our students welcomed the idea. So, what people needed to acquire through physical presence before our instructors became something we were dispensing virtually.
“What do I mean when I said GMind AI is a product of multiple pivots? We originally built Gotocourse to support Realztech Institute a platform designed by educators, for educators, to power our own teaching, training, and learning programs. But as we refined it, we recognized a bigger opportunity: with its agility and effectiveness, why should it serve only us?
“That insight led to our first major pivot: we white-labeled Gotocourse, enabling schools and organizations to deploy the platform as their own with ease.
“As an early user, I knew firsthand how well it worked and so did the clients who adopted it. When we pitched it to organizations, they quickly saw how it helped them automate processes and improve learning outcomes while saving time and costs.
“Then came 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the world. While many businesses struggled, Gotocourse became an essential solution that allowed institutions and companies to continue delivering education online.
“Our clients’ operations remained resilient, protected from the shocks of the pandemic. In fact, demand for Gotocourse accelerated as institutions urgently sought digital solutions.
“By 2021, we officially established Gotocourse as a standalone brand, and today, over 2,000 institutions use Gotocourse to deliver flexible, high-quality education globally.
“But there was more we could do. Since 2022, AI had been embedded into Gotocourse, enhancing the learning experience for those on the platform. Yet access to this AI capability was limited teachers could only benefit if their schools were using Gotocourse.
“So we made a second decisive pivot: we launched GMind AI as a standalone platform, designed to democratize access to AI-powered learning tools for all teachers and learners, everywhere regardless of where they are or whether they’ve used AI before.
“At the heart of this journey is our unwavering belief: AI is for everyone. With GMind AI, we’re giving every teacher and learner access to intuitive, productivity-boosting tools that make learning smarter, faster, and more impactful.
“We’re not just building platforms; we’re creating opportunities for educators and learners to thrive in an AI-driven world and we invite you to be part of this transformation.”
With a PhD in Human Capital Management, and her strides playing in an edtech space with grit and excellence; the serial entrepreneur, however, reveals she has had to transition across multiple fields —from her profession as a social worker at the World Bank back in Nigeria to studying nursing in the US, and then taking on a career in audit and cybersecurity compliance before her current entrepreneurial pursuits that already earned her Top IT Personality Award in North America in both 2023 and 2024.
“I have not always been what I am today, all along. I have a very unique story. Just like I had to change my name growing up, I have also had to transition from one career to the other.
“When I first moved to the US, it was the era where everyone was encouraged to study nursing. And, with my background as a social worker, it made sense. So, I did. But, I soon realised I wasn’t made for the space beyond graduating with the degree, despite how admirable the profession was and still is to me.
“straight up, I enrolled for cybersecurity training. I concentrated on audit and compliance. And, upon completion of my course, I had about 5 jobs on the line chasing me.
“From there, I rose through the ranks to managerial positions. Way back from KPMG, to GEICO, GE Healthcare, PwC, and Zachsam. Today, nearly 20 years later, I have over 20 certifications to my name, including PMP, CISSP, CISA, CISM, and CDPSE.
“So, for me, it is beyond training others and getting paid for doing so. It’s about fulfilment in every sense of it. I feel happy to walk someone through the tracks I once followed graciously,” the GMind AI co-founder submitted as though she was closing off on a TEDx speech.
And, not forgetting to ask, I picked her brain on what’s next. Usually, when I interview high-profile personalities like this, founders especially, they often have something exciting for their users or the general public to look forward to as future milestones. For Success and her co-founder, beyond progressively scaling their product, it is also about the “next pivot.”
“Our industry is relatively volatile, Ridwan. You don’t wait. By the way, we have just launched the AI Voice tutor called Study pal and a virtual learning system including a live class feature on GMind. We want everyone to go try it out.
“Already, we are proud that our Generative AI tool is more responsive, more intuitive and more original compared to the competition. It’s a lot of work for the team, and we will continue to ensure we stay ahead of others.
“My co-founder and I are highly innovative in thinking. So, to your question on what next, the next big opportunity may just be this evening, and for certainty, we won’t hesitate to pivot again.”
Also Read: How Africa’s GMind AI is Shaping the Future of Learning with AI-powered Voice Tutor
TAUSIF MALIK: The Indian-American prince solving America’s age-long expensive education problem leveraging technology
