Kamil Nabong
Accra, Ghana

I build thesystems thatmake thework work.

Portfolio & Programs LeaderSoftware & Data EngineerVenture Builder
01Operator and builder

Fifteen years turning scattered, manual work into systems that scale, across Africa and beyond.

For fifteen years I have worked at the point where operations meet technology. I have managed venture portfolios and run training programs that reached thousands of young people. I have also written the software, designed the data infrastructure, and built the automation that made those programs possible.

Most organizations have people who can run the work, and people who can build the tools. I have spent my career being both, which means I can design the systems, run the operations, see the problems and ship the fixes.

Kamil Borsu Nabong
02What I do

Portfolio and program leadership

I have managed portfolios of ninety-plus ventures, run milestone-based funding, conducted due diligence, and reported to funders including the Mastercard Foundation. The work is deciding what gets backed, on what evidence, and what happens when a venture misses.

Program operations

I coordinate delivery across Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town, and keep the machinery behind it moving: approvals, procurement, disbursement, and recruitment. Training programs that reached more than three thousand young people ran on that machinery.

Systems and automation

I map how an organization actually works, find where people are losing days to manual effort, and rebuild it as something that scales. At the Kosmos Innovation Center that meant replacing spreadsheets and email threads with a single operating system covering participant data, dashboards, approvals, disbursement, procurement, and recruitment. Airtable recognized me as a power user for the build.

03Skills and experience

What I do, and how long I have been doing it.

Each bar marks the year that work started. All of it is still current.

  • Product and software engineering2011Product and software engineering, since 2011
  • Financial modeling and fundraising2011Financial modeling and fundraising, since 2011
  • SaaS product development2011SaaS product development, since 2011
  • Portfolio management2016Portfolio management, since 2016
  • Deal sourcing and negotiation2016Deal sourcing and negotiation, since 2016
  • Mentoring founders2016Mentoring founders, since 2016
  • Fund operations and reporting2019Fund operations and reporting, since 2019
  • Milestone-based disbursement2019Milestone-based disbursement, since 2019
  • Program design and delivery2019Program design and delivery, since 2019
  • Investment due diligence2019Investment due diligence, since 2019
  • Operating systems on Airtable2019Operating systems on Airtable, since 2019
  • AI and workflow automation2022AI and workflow automation, since 2022
04Where the time goes

How the work splits today.

Six areas I am accountable for. Portfolio and fund operations take the largest share, program delivery next, and the systems and automation work runs underneath all of it. The shape is my own estimate, not a measurement.

  • Portfolio and fund ops: 95 percent
  • Program delivery: 92 percent
  • Investment and finance: 82 percent
  • Systems and data: 90 percent
  • AI and automation: 85 percent
  • Team and partners: 88 percent
Portfolio and fund opsProgram deliveryInvestment and financeSystems and dataAI and automationTeam and partners
90+
Ventures supported
3,000+
People trained
4
African markets
$16M
Funding secured
3
Continents on my software

Built and run across Dropifi, MEST Africa, DAI, Hub and Fund, and the Kosmos Innovation Center.

05Selected work

Seven, across fifteen years.

Four of these I built as software. Three I ran as programs. The numbers are the ones I can stand behind.

4 built as software3 run as programs15 years covered

The operating system

Pan-African venture organization, 2019 to present

6 domains in one systemRecognized Airtable power user

Building an institution

Spin-out from donor-managed program to standalone institution

$16M securedBacked by a global foundation

Hub and Fund

Co-founded, 2019 to 2021

3 continentsMEST, Antler, Seedstars, Stanbic

Dropifi

Co-founded, 2011 to 2016. San Francisco and Accra

First African startup in 500 Startups2013 cohort

A national agritech program

Multi-cohort program, Ghana

3,000+ trained90+ ventures supported

An innovation center

Regional campus in Ghana, with a university makerspace

$3M facility$300K makerspace

Safoa

AI property management platform, built and launched

Ghana and West AfricaServing managers and agents today
06The path
  1. 2011 to 2016Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, DropifiSan Francisco and Accra
  2. 2016 to 2017Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Simple MerchantLondon, working remotely from Ghana. A platform processing fifty thousand transactions a day
  3. 2016 to 2019Venture Partner and Portfolio Manager, MEST AfricaAccra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town
  4. 2019 to 2021Portfolio Manager, DAI International Trade and Development
  5. 2019 to 2021Co-founder and Chief Executive, Hub and Fund
  6. 2019 to nowPortfolio Manager and Program Lead, Kosmos Innovation Center
  7. 2024 to nowFounder and Chief Executive, Sisakili Global LC
07Writing and opinions

Notes from the work.

All writing →

Grants teach the wrong discipline

Grant money trains founders to optimize for reporting. Venture capital asks a harder and more useful question.

The spreadsheet is a decision you keep making

Every manual workaround is a choice renewed daily. Most organizations have stopped noticing they are making it.

AI adoption is not a demo problem

The demo always works. Adoption happens when someone who does not consider themselves technical uses the thing on a Tuesday.

There was no structure to inherit

What it takes to turn a donor-managed project into an institution that can carry its own weight.

08On the map

Where the work has taken me.

Offices and programs, conference stages, and the trips in between. Select a marker for the place, and use the keys to filter.

  • Accra, Ghana — Places I worked
  • Kumasi, Ghana — Places I worked
  • Lagos, Nigeria — Places I worked
  • Nairobi, Kenya — Places I worked
  • Cape Town, South Africa — Places I worked
  • London, United Kingdom — Places I worked
  • San Francisco, United States — Places I worked
  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Conferences
  • Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Conferences
  • Doha, Qatar — Conferences
  • New Delhi, India — Conferences
  • Kigali, Rwanda — Conferences
  • Abidjan, Ivory Coast — Conferences
  • Austin, United States — Visited
  • Amsterdam, Netherlands — Visited
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Visited
  • Casablanca, Morocco — Visited
  • Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Visited
  • Lisbon, Portugal — Visited
09Consulting with me

Sisakili Global LC

A Pan-African AI and automation consultancy. We find where AI actually saves time, build the tooling, and coach the people who will use it. Not demos, and not a 200-page strategy document.

10In the field
On stage, keynote or panel
Program or field work
Workshop or training room
Team or founders
11Contact

If you are building something that needs both an operator and a builder, I would like to hear about it.

nabong04@gmail.comAccra, Ghana