Strategy · Commercial Development · Venture Building
I turn ambiguous business opportunities into structured, executable businesses.
I work from the blank sheet — finding the opportunity, working out the economics, building the commercial and strategic structure, then driving it through to execution.
Strategy. Commercial development. Venture building. Digital execution.
Opportunity
Find the gap or the stalled initiative
Strategy
Decide what actually needs to happen
Economics
Work out whether it makes commercial sense
Build
Bring the product, tech and people together
Execution
Drive it into something that runs
Selected work
Problems I've been brought in to structure.
Hospitality Operating System
Problem — a hospitality client needed a structured operating system spanning day-to-day operations and AI-enabled workflows.
What I did — scoped and priced the engagement, phased across Discovery, Platform, AI and Pilot stages, with milestone payments and human sign-off built in on refunds and discounts.
Lease-to-Own Venture
Problem — work out whether a lease-to-own model was financially viable for heavy equipment operators.
What I did — built the model: a 3-way revenue split and a 49-month repayment structure at 80% utilisation.
Premium Advertising Business
Result — closed Etisalat, Leadway Assurance and Fidelity Bank on premium advertising inventory across three Lagos malls.
Also — built and launched Hotspot Advertising, a new digital-out-of-home and in-mall radio business line, from concept to operational launch.
Akeko
Result — 150+ qualified applicants in the first month for a student loan app built together with a foreign CTO.
Four digital products built from the blank sheet — see Ventures →
Ventures I've built
Built from the blank sheet.
Four products, four distinct business ideas — each taken from concept through business modelling, product development and early testing under Swapplee Technologies.
Zyforix
A Web3 gaming platform with a working token economy, including an in-app purchase layer tested on the live testnet ahead of a planned mainnet launch.
zyforix.comVibeRoute
A performance-based marketing marketplace that pays local businesses on verified sales rather than clicks or impressions, with a 10% lifetime referral commission.
viberoute.appSwapplea
A peer-to-peer swap marketplace with its own in-platform currency.
swapplea.comSafeSpend
A bank-link-free budgeting app that nets upcoming bills and subscriptions against income.
safespend.appI can advise from the boardroom — but I can also build from the blank sheet.
In numbers
What the work above adds up to.
How I work
From ambiguity to execution.
Find the opportunity
Understand the problem, the market, the customer and the commercial opportunity in front of it.
Structure the model
Work out the economics — business model, positioning and commercial structure.
Build the system
Bring together the product, technology, operational and commercial pieces required.
Drive execution
Move from strategy into implementation, testing, iteration and delivery.
Capabilities
Where I add the most value.
Strategy & Commercial Development
Business models, market opportunities, go-to-market, partnerships, commercial structuring and growth strategy.
Venture & Product Building
Taking ideas from concept through business model, product development, testing and launch.
AI & Digital Operating Systems
Agents, automation and digital workflows designed around how an organisation actually works.
Fundraising & Investment Readiness
Business structuring, commercial modelling and positioning a business for investment conversations.
From the boardroom to the build.
I set the commercial terms of an engagement, model the numbers behind it, then build or oversee what's needed to deliver it — without needing a large team around me to get moving.
AI & digital execution
I don't just advise on digital systems. I build them.
AI and automation are part of the broader toolkit I use to turn a business process into a working system. Two examples are live below — try them the way a real inbound message would arrive.
Property Inquiry Agent
- What it does
- Handles inbound property enquiries, qualifies budget and requirements, and sends a structured brief straight to the inbox.
- Why it matters
- The same operating-system thinking applied to a single workflow — an unstructured message turned into something decision-ready.
MT5 EA Setup Agent
- What it does
- Qualifies traders interested in MT5 Expert Advisor setup, gathering requirements, budget and timeline before a human gets involved.
- Why it matters
- The same pattern as the hotel engagement, at a smaller scale — define the workflow, automate the routine part, keep a human at the decision point.
About
19+ years moving between strategy and execution.
Business development, commercial structuring, fundraising and hands-on product delivery — across fintech, marketplace, gaming and, more recently, operating systems for hospitality and other sectors.
As Founder & CEO of Swapplee Technologies Ltd, I've built four digital products from concept, taking responsibility across business modelling, product development and early testing. I also run an advisory practice engaging directly with client stakeholders to structure and price commercial engagements.
I don't sell software. I build custom infrastructure that fits how your business actually works — and I stay until it does.
Writing
Books I've written.
Wealth Creation in the Digital Age: Strategies for Success
Forgotten Giants: Unsung Heroes of Africa's Past
Get in touch
Have a difficult business problem?
If you have an opportunity that needs to be structured, modelled, built or taken from strategy into execution, let's talk.
emmanuel@emmanuelikehi.com · Lagos, Nigeria