Jide Ehimika
Transforming ideas into impact. Always exploring, usually eating.
About me
Hi! I'm Jide (pronounced jee-day), and I build companies that solve problems other people think are impossible.Right now, I'm building BLIA, a platform making it safe to buy property in Africa from anywhere in the world. The problem is millions of people want to invest in African real estate, but there's no safe way to do it. You can't trust the agents, you can't verify the properties, and you're expected to wire money based on WhatsApp screenshots. That's insane. I experienced this myself trying to buy land, watched friends lose money, and decided someone needed to fix it.Before this, I co-founded Noirbnb in 2016, a travel platform for Black travelers. We grew it to 60,000 users across 5 continents before Travel+Leisure acquired us in 2019. That experience taught me something important: when you're building for communities that traditional systems ignore, you can't just copy what works elsewhere. You have to understand how people actually operate.I've spent 15+ years building products in spaces where the infrastructure doesn't exist yet. Government systems, enterprise solutions, emerging markets. The common thread is always the same: find where trust breaks down, then build something that actually works for how people live, not how we wish they'd live.Some people call me Uncle Jide because I have a habit of making complicated things make sense. If you're working on hard problems in places where the usual playbook doesn't apply, I'd enjoy talking to you.
What I do
I build companies that solve trust problems in markets where the usual systems don't work. Right now, that's BLIA, making it possible for diaspora investors to safely buy property in Africa.I'm also running Ecoway Paper, a sustainable packaging company operating in West Africa. Nothing teaches you how things actually work on the ground like running operations there.
What I've done
Built Noirbnb from zero to 60,000 users across five continents. Acquired by Travel+Leisure in 2019.Led product teams that shipped solutions for government institutions and enterprise clients. Work reached millions of users.Spent 15+ years figuring out how to build things that work in places where the infrastructure doesn't exist yet.
Find me
Ready to build something great? Let's connect and turn your ideas into products users love.
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