Chika Uwazie

What is your background?

I have been at the intersection of doing work in Africa and tech for 1the past 10+ years as a technical recruiter and a startup operator. I started off my career at The Whitaker Group, which focused on operations and building partnerships with prominent brands in Africa. A couple of years later, after a few attempts to run a tech business, I became the CEO of Talent Base, a VC-backed startup providing HR software for African organizations. I also am a community builder. I built the second-largest women membership on Clubhouse (Divine Feminine) with 150k people and launched partnerships with Netflix and Oprah Network.

How did you become interested in web3?

In 2017 after exiting from my startup, I was looking for a new venture, and I joined a startup in Lagos working on human sentiment. I started researching and saw that we could pay our users who contributed to our survey questions through cryptocurrency. In Nigeria, the payment system was very complicated and was associated with high fees. I saw cryptocurrency as a vehicle to quickly pay our users with little to no fees and in an efficient manner. This then took me down the rabbit hole of ICOs, and I haven't looked back since. 

What is your role and what do you do?

I am currently a co-founder of The Afropolitan DAO. Our mission is to build a Pan-African Network State to help one billion Africans unleash their maximum potential. I am now focused on bringing on the best talent across Africa to help us reach our milestones. Because our DAO has many moving parts, I am also focused on learning about new WEB3 protocols that we can plug into our DAO to make it a seamless experience for our community. 

How did you approach your web3 job search?

I typically get onboarded into web3 work through networking. I feel it is essential to understand where the majority of web3 operators commune. Twitter is a great way to establish your presence as a thought leader and connect to other people in the space. Start to follow topics on Twitter such as NFT, Bitcoin, and Ethereum to start, and organically you will begin to see who is in the room and who you can connect with. Also, join a Twitter space or clubhouse. I have connected with many people in web3 by just being in the room and sharing my experience

Any tips for people looking to make a similar transition?

Take time to read the foundation of web3 and why it will be transformational for the future. Some recommendations are Odyssey, of course, Bankless podcast, and I really enjoy reading Not So Boring by Packy. I also watched many Youtube videos, but more specifically, Invest Answers is an excellent resource. The more you start to understand the foundations of technology and how it can disrupt so many industries, the more you will see where you can fit in this wild west. 

Web3 can be very overwhelming. I would find one niche in web3 and go very deep. I tried to keep up with NFTs, but a new collection is coming out every day. Instead, I have decided to focus on DAOs and the future of creating one. I feel more confident in my knowledge and can establish my thought leadership in this specific niche. Find out what aligns with your goals and find the community to help you onboard into that space. 

Lastly, do not feel that you are late to web3. We are still in the early ages of this transformation. Very similar to the late 90s when the internet was really taking off. Pace yourself, and do not overcommit to learning everything in one day or even a week. Many of the people you see today, including me, have been learning for years. I believe there is a slight learning curve with web3 because there is a paradigm shift. Once the change takes shape, it's an exciting learning journey to be on.