About
More than a
job description
Software engineer, product architect, and co-founder based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. I build products at App Guts, work in the oil and gas industry, and have performed as a saxophonist under the name Jimmy Sampson since 2010. All three require the same thing: precision, commitment, and showing up.
The story
Around 2010 I wrote my first lines of code — Java — then set it aside. I came back properly in 2020 and moved fast. I founded Alprosel Tech, a web development services business, and started shipping real products. By 2024 the model had run its course: services businesses don't scale the way I wanted to build. I dissolved Alprosel Tech and came on as co-founder at App Guts.
App Guts is a SaaS company, not a dev shop. The pivot was deliberate. I'd spent enough time building for other people's visions. EventsKona — a smart event ticketing and discovery platform for the Nigerian market — is the first product out of App Guts. It launched in April 2026. More products are in development.
Alongside software, I work as a field engineer in oil and gas. It's a slower, heavier world where a failed system has real consequences — not a sprint retrospective. Operating in that environment permanently shaped how I think about reliability and what it means to build something that holds.
Music runs parallel to all of it. I've been performing as Jimmy Sampson on the saxophone since 2010 — the same year the first line of code was written. It's not a hobby. It's a discipline.
Ịmọyin Sampson · Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Principles
What I actually believe
Startups are not solved by code.
Most startup failures are distribution failures, not engineering ones. Building the right thing matters more than building it elegantly. I won't let a client optimise the wrong thing just because I'm good at the engineering part.
Communication is the hardest engineering problem.
I've seen it in the field. Not a technical failure — just someone assuming someone else already knew, and suddenly you're dealing with something that didn't have to happen. That's why toolbox talks exist: a few minutes of shared, deliberate clarity before work starts. Software teams aren't so different. The best-written code in a broken organisation will still fail. The clearest architecture won't survive a team that doesn't share a mental model. Most founders underestimate this part.
Africa deserves world-class products.
Not software re-skinned for Nigeria after being designed for London. Products built from a genuine understanding of how Africans actually live and work. EventsKona is one answer. More are coming.
Want to explore a conversation?
Reach out — no agenda required.