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Every post @slemfowel has shipped.
125 posts. 62 evergreen, 63 daily. Search, filter, click any tile to preview and grab the image or the caption.
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ON AI AND JUNIOR DEVS
AI won't replace junior developers. It'll just make the bad ones slower to become good ones, if they skip the struggle. 🌱
→ /about
ON AI IN FINTECH FRAUD
AI fraud detection is only as good as the fraud patterns it's already seen. Fraud evolves faster than your training data. 🎯
→ /services
ON PROMPT ENGINEERING
Prompt engineering is just requirements gathering with extra steps and a shorter feedback loop. The skill transfers. 🧠
→ /blog
ON AI HYPE CYCLES
Every technology promises to replace engineers. Every technology so far has just changed what engineers do. 🔄
→ /blog
ON AI CODE REVIEW
An AI-generated PR still needs a human who understands the business, not just the syntax. Review it like any other. 🤖
→ /blog
ON PRICING STRATEGY
Underpricing your product doesn't win customers. It wins customers who'll leave the moment you raise the price. 💰
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ON STARTUP ADVISORS
An advisor who only ever agrees with you isn't advising. They're just attending meetings. Recruit dissent. 🗣️
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ON COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Studying your competitor's pricing page teaches you less than talking to the customer who almost chose them instead of you. 🔍
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ON FOUNDER TIME ALLOCATION
If the founder is still doing customer support at 50 employees, something upstream never got hired. Delegate the operational work. 📋
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ON EARLY REVENUE
The first dollar of revenue matters more than the first million in valuation. Revenue is proof. Valuation is opinion. 💵
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ON SOLO FOUNDING
Solo founders move faster on decisions and slower on everything that needs a second opinion. Build an advisor bench. 🧑💼
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ON CUSTOMER SUPPORT AS PRODUCT
Your support team hears the product feedback your roadmap meeting never will. Put them in the room. 🎧
→ /services
ON EQUITY EDUCATION FOUNDERS
An employee who doesn't understand their equity can't value it, and won't fight to keep it valuable. Teach them. 📜
→ /services
ON DUE DILIGENCE
Technical due diligence finds the architecture decisions you made under deadline pressure two years ago. Document the why. 🔍
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ON FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH
The founder who never admits they're struggling is modeling that behavior for everyone they hire. Be honest about the hard parts. 🫂
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ON STORYTELLING FOUNDERS
Data convinces the analytical investor. Story convinces everyone, including the analytical investor. Lead with story. 📖
→ /services
ON CAC AND LTV
If your CAC and LTV live in different spreadsheets, nobody's actually looking at both together. Put them side by side. 📊
→ /blog
ON AFRICA
The next great fintech story is being written in Lagos. Watch the continent. 🌍
→ /about
ON MEETINGS
A meeting with no agenda is an expensive nap. Send an agenda or send it back. 😴
→ /about
ON PAYMENTS
Every failed transaction is a customer you'll never see again. Fix reliability before features. 💸
→ /services
ON FINTECH
Compliance is not the enemy of speed. Ignoring it is. — a CTO who has been audited.
→ /services
ON EQUITY
Equity without vesting is a gift. Vesting without a cliff is naive. Structure the equity. 📜
→ /services
ON DOCS
The best system is documented so well it doesn't need you around. Write the doc. Free the future. 📚
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ON EGO
The best engineers don't care who wrote the fix. They care that it ships. Lose the ego. Keep the outcome. ✨
→ /about
ON WOMEN IN TECH
A team with no women is a team with a blind spot. Fix hiring, not the token. 👩🏾💻
→ /about
ON REMOTE
The best remote engineers over-communicate. The best in-office engineers do too. Hire the habit, not the location. 📡
→ /services
ON PIVOTS
Sunk cost is not a business strategy. Kill the feature. Kill the roadmap. Kill the company if you must. 🪓
→ /blog
ON OBSERVABILITY
If you can't see the system, you don't own the system. Ship observability with feature #1. 🔍
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ON MICROSERVICES
You don't have a microservices problem. You have a boundaries problem. 🧱
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ON PLATFORMS
Build the platform the next 10 engineers will thank you for. That's what senior means. 🏗️
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ON DELEGATION
If you can't leave the office for a week without the team stopping, you don't lead. You're a bottleneck. 🚧
→ /about
ON DEBUGGING
The bug is always in the code you were sure was fine. 🐛 Read the diff again.
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ON MENTORSHIP
The best career advice I ever got: 'Just ask.' Then I asked. And doors opened. 🚪
→ /about
ON SCALE
The system that worked at 10K users will break at 100K. Refactor before the pager wakes you. 📟
→ /services
ON PRODUCT
Time to first transaction. The only fintech KPI that predicts survival. ⏱️
→ /services
ON AFRICA
The next great fintech story is being written in Lagos. Watch the continent. 🌍
→ /about
ON MEETINGS
A meeting with no agenda is an expensive nap. Send an agenda or send it back. 😴
→ /about
ON PAYMENTS
Every failed transaction is a customer you'll never see again. Fix reliability before features. 💸
→ /services
CTO · Fintech Architect · African
The rails behind $2B in African payments were built by teams. I've had the honor of leading a few of them. 🇳🇬 Fractional CTO • Fintech architect • Trainer to 1,000+ young engineers. If you're a founder wondering "hire a CTO or a fractional one?" — DMs are open. 👉 next.anselmfowel.com (link in bio)
→ /about
5 rules for AI in a Nigerian bank
Everyone in Nigerian fintech is talking about AI. Very few are shipping it. Save this before your next board meeting. 🧠 👉 Full playbook on the blog. Link in bio.
→ /blog/how-to-introduce-ai-into-nigeria-39-s-fintech-space-part-1
EFCC · 58 Ponzi firms · 3 red flags
EFCC just flagged 58 fake investment companies in Nigeria. 🚨 Send this to the family group chat before someone loses school fees. 👉 Full checklist on the blog. Link in bio.
→ /blog/efcc-warns-nigerians-against-58-illegal-investment-companies
A letter to the young CTO
To every 27-year-old CTO in Africa reading this at 1am: you're not fake. You're just early. 💙 Full letter to my younger self → link in bio.
→ /blog/common-challenges-faced-by-young-ctos-and-specific-solutions-part-1
Why senior devs bomb interviews
Hot take: senior devs fail interviews more than juniors — because they stopped explaining. Save this before your next interview. 📌 Full post: link in bio.
→ /blog/why-experienced-programmers-fail-coding-interviews
10 red flags in your next dev hire
Hiring managers: screenshot this before your next interview. 🧠 10 signs the CV is lying to you. Drop the number you've seen 👇 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /blog/the-10-signs-of-a-bad-programmer-red-flags-to-watch-out-for
Layoffs test character, not strategy
Layoffs test character, not strategy. 3 things every engineering leader should do in the first 48 hours 👇 (link in bio)
→ /blog/navigating-uncharted-waters-leading-engineering-teams-through-downsizing
3 AI moves every C# dev must know
If you write C# in 2026 and you're not using these 3 AI moves… you're leaving a whole junior dev on the table. 💸 Save for Monday. 👉 Link in bio.
→ /blog/unleashing-the-power-of-ai-in-c-development-a-comprehensive-exploration-in-2024-
Why devs hate Monday standup
POV: it's 9:03am Monday and someone asks "can we go around the room?" 😵💫 Tag the manager who needs this. 👇 Full post: link in bio.
→ /blog/why-developers-hate-monday-standup
Fractional CTO · Q3 open
Fractional CTO slot — Q3 is open. 🇳🇬 If you're pre-Series A, still merging PRs at midnight, and your last audit gave you nightmares — we should talk. DM "CTO" or hit the link in bio.
→ /contact
5 AI code auditors I trust
Every AI code auditor is not built the same. Here are the 5 I actually keep in the stack — and the one you can never replace. 🧠 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /blog/what-code-auditor-should-i-use-as-a-developer-a-deep-dive-into-ai-powered-audito
3 traps young CTOs fall into
Under-40 CTO? These are the 3 traps I fell into so you don't have to. 🪤 Full essay → link in bio.
→ /blog/steps-to-succeed-as-a-young-cto-under-40-in-a-fast-paced-environment
1:1 is a listening meeting
PSA: your 1:1 is not a status meeting. It's a listening meeting. 🎧 Full framework → link in bio.
→ /blog/unveiling-the-untold-narratives-a-deep-dive-into-1-on-1s-from-the-engineering-ma
Going back to IC is a choice
Going back to IC after being an EM isn't a demotion. It's a choice. 💙 Full post → link in bio.
→ /blog/navigating-the-complex-transition-from-engineering-manager-to-individual-contrib
Agile isn't broken. Your standup is.
Agile isn't broken. Your 30-minute Monday standup is. 🔥 Full rant → link in bio.
→ /blog/the-evolution-of-agile-addressing-developer-concerns-and-embracing-growth
10 C# patterns I use weekly
10 C# patterns I actually use every week. Save this before your next .NET refactor. 🧠 Full code examples → link in bio.
→ /blog/10-essential-patterns-for-c-and-net-programmers-with-examples
Text analytics in 40 lines of C#
Sentiment on 10 million reviews in 41 seconds? Yes, in C#. Full guide → link in bio.
→ /blog/how-to-build-text-analytics-using-azure-cognitive-services-and-c
AI moves I teach every dev
3 AI moves I teach every dev in my workshops. Steal them. 🚀 DM "TRAIN" for the deck.
→ /contact
AI writes code. You write context.
AI writes code. Only you write context. 🧠 Full essay → link in bio.
→ /blog/why-ai-may-never-take-your-job-as-a-programmer
5 mistakes junior backends make
5 mistakes I see every junior backend make. Screenshot. Ship. 📌 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /blog/why-you-would-fail-as-a-backend-developer
C# in 2026 · 5 reasons
Would I still pick C# in 2026? Yes — and here are the 5 reasons. 🎯 Full post → link in bio.
→ /blog/why-c-over-java-part-1
To the junior dev at 3am
To the junior dev debugging at 3am: you're not slow. You're early. 💙 Every senior you admire has been where you are.
→ /blog/the-struggles-of-a-junior-software-developer
Running 4 fintech projects at once
How I run 4 fintech projects at once without burning out. 4 rules. 🔥 Full framework → link in bio.
→ /blog/how-to-handle-multiple-projects-as-a-software-engineering-manager
Great dev ≠ Great manager
Being a great dev doesn't make you a great manager. They're not the same skill. 👀 Full post → link in bio.
→ /blog/from-software-engineer-to-software-engineering-manager
14 years. 5 markets. Zero regrets.
14 years. 5 African markets. Zero regrets. 🇳🇬 Thanks to every founder, engineer, and regulator who trusted me with the receipts. Onward. 🚀
→ /about
1000+ engineers trained
1,000+ engineers trained. 4.9★ avg. Your team next? 🚀 DM "TRAIN" or hit the link in bio.
→ /contact
Fintech · Bank-grade in 90 days
Bank-grade fintech in 90 days, not 9 months. Here's the stack. 🏗️ DM "BUILD" for the plan.
→ /contact
They said 12 months. We shipped in 6.
"MPGS integration will take 12 months." We shipped in 6. Some things aren't hard — they're just under-managed. 💪 Full case study → link in bio.
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$500B+ moves through Africa a year
$500B+ moves through Africa's payment rails every year. And we are still just getting started. 🌍 Full thesis → link in bio.
→ /about
Fractional CTO · Q4 opens
Fractional CTO — Q4 slot opens soon. 1 seat only. 🇳🇬 If you're a pre-Series-A fintech founder, DM "Q4" before it goes.
→ /contact
5 KYC layers every Nigerian fintech ships
Every Nigerian fintech that survives ships these 5 KYC layers in month 1. Save this. 📌 Full stack → link in bio.
→ /services
The one number that predicts survival
1 number predicts if your fintech survives 12 months. It's not what you think. 👀 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /services
5 African remittance corridors printing money
5 remittance corridors printing money across Africa right now. 🌍 Founders, screenshot. Full breakdown → link in bio.
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What I open first every morning
What a CTO actually opens at 9am. My 4-tab ritual. ☕ Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /about
The one slide every board reads
The one slide every board actually reads: Cost. Uptime. Roadmap. Everything else is decoration. 📊 Full essay → link in bio.
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5 rules to price a payment gateway
How to price a payment gateway without going broke. 5 rules 👇 Full model → link in bio.
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Time to first transaction · the only KPI
Time to first transaction. The only fintech KPI that predicts survival. ⏱️ Full essay → link in bio.
→ /services
Legacy → AWS in 90 days · zero downtime
Legacy → AWS in 90 days. Zero customer downtime. Full runbook. 🚀 DM "MIGRATE" for the template.
→ /contact
PCI-DSS Level 1 · 6 months · 5 markets
PCI-DSS Level 1. 6 months. 5 African markets. 0 findings. This is the badge that unlocks banks. 🔒
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5 signs you don’t need a CTO yet
5 signs you don't actually need a CTO yet. Founders, save this before you overspend. 💰 Full essay → link in bio.
→ /contact
Naija dev salaries 2026 · honest numbers
Naija dev salaries in 2026. Honest numbers. 🇳🇬 Screenshot before your next raise. 💰 Full breakdown → link in bio.
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Diaspora → Lagos · why I came home
Lagos is where the fintech decade happens. Not London. Not Delaware. 🇳🇬 Full essay → link in bio.
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5 questions I ask every CTO candidate
5 interview questions I ask every CTO candidate. Founders, use these. 🎯 Full script → link in bio.
→ /contact
5 things I stopped doing as CTO
5 things I stopped doing when I became CTO. Every one bought back a full workday. ⏳ Full list → link in bio.
→ /about
Founders · your first engineering hire
First engineering hire? Ask these 5 questions BEFORE you post the job. 🧠 Full guide → link in bio.
→ /services
AWS bill · 3 fintech money pits
Your AWS bill has 3 hidden money pits. Every fintech I audit has at least one. 💸 Free audit template → DM "AWS".
→ /contact
5 numbers African Series A investors check
5 numbers African Series A investors actually check. Founders, memorize these before your next pitch. 📊 Full deck → link in bio.
→ /publications
Does a senior engineer still code?
Debate settled: does a senior engineer still code? 👇 Full essay → link in bio.
→ /about
Keynote · Lagos Fintech Week
See you on stage. 🎤 Lagos Fintech Week · Nov 12 · Topic: AI in African payments. DM "STAGE" for VIP tickets.
→ /experience
Client testimonial · 6 months vs 12
"Anselm shipped in 6 months what our vendor quoted 12 for." — Fintech client, 2025 🙏 Full case study → link in bio.
→ /testimonials
3 books every CTO in Africa needs
3 books every CTO in Africa should own. Book 1 is non-negotiable. 📚 Full 10-book list → link in bio.
→ /publications
CTO Digest · every Sunday
CTO Digest. Every Sunday. 1 essay for CTOs. 1 senior job. 1 fintech news pick. Free forever. 📩 DM "DIGEST".
→ /contact
New podcast episode · Fintech Africa Pod
New pod episode dropped. 🎙️ MPGS at 200K merchants. Building African neobanks. What the CBN gets right. DM "POD" for the link.
→ /publications
3 DM questions I got this week
3 questions my DMs got this week. Answers below 👇 Full breakdown → link in bio. 1. When do I hire a CTO? 2. AWS vs Azure for a Nigerian fintech? 3. Structuring equity for engineers?
→ /contact
Thank you · community shout-out
Thank you, Africa. 🙏🇳🇬🇰🇪🇬🇭🇿🇦 14 years. 5 markets. 1000+ engineers. The best is still ahead. ✨
→ /about
Founder · Your first 3 fintech hires
Fintech founders: your first 3 hires decide the next 3 years. Get this wrong, no engineering rescue can save you. 📌 👉 Full guide → link in bio.
→ /services
5 bets I’m making on the 2027 stack
The 2027 stack is quietly forming. Here are 5 bets I’m making today. 🧠 👉 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /blog
5 hidden fees in African cross-border
5 hidden fees you’ll pay on every African cross-border payment. Save this before you price your remit product. 🚨 👉 Full breakdown → link in bio.
→ /services
Postgres > Kubernetes at pre-Series-A
Pre-Series-A fintech? Postgres will out-ship your Kubernetes cluster. Every time. Fight me. 🔥 👉 Full essay → link in bio.
→ /blog
Fractional CTO · Q1 2027 open
Fractional CTO — Q1 2027 slot opens. One seat only. 🇳🇬 If your fintech is scaling engineering pain, DM "Q1" now.
→ /contact
When coding is no longer your path
When coding is no longer your path, the path is still yours. 💙 A quiet essay on the EM → next-chapter move. 👉 Read on the blog — link in bio.
→ /blog/when-coding-may-no-longer-be-your-path-navigating-the-transition-from-engineerin
