15 years building.
From Conakry to everywhere.
Software engineer & founder. I build systems that matter — from Guinea and New York to platforms that move millions.
Two companies from Guinea: Kalinko Labs (software) and Kalinko Store (laptops for students at 40-60% below market). Before that, loan platforms for a NYC fintech and analytics tools for an asset manager.
It started in 2011 in a room in Conakry with unreliable power. First website was terrible — but watching something built become accessible to anyone, anywhere changed everything.
"I design systems anyone can debug at 2 AM with a phone hotspot. I've been that person, fixing production on mobile data in Conakry."
Making quality technology accessible in Guinea. We’ve put 500+ laptops in students’ hands at 40-60% below traditional retail prices.
How it works:
- Direct sourcing: Certified refurbished and new devices from the United States
- Quality guarantee: Every device tested and certified, 3-month warranty
- Real support: Free Windows and Office training, 24/7 support in local languages
- Who we serve: Students, schools, businesses, and government agencies across Guinea
Built and led the technical architecture of a 16+ application fintech ecosystem that processed 200M+ leads, originated 350K+ loans, and enabled over $600M in fundings — operating under strict regulatory constraints. Served as principal technical owner for six front-line production services, from startup through acquisition by TBO Bank.
What I Built:
- Full loan lifecycle platform: Automated underwriting that transformed days of processing into minutes, with a modern loan application journey, customer portal for loan servicing, and collection system for defaulted loans.
- 16+ applications & microservices: Origination APIs, servicing API (94 models, 318 migrations, 117 controllers), customer portals (Vue 2 & 3), admin dashboard, amortization engine, data proxy, document conversion service, and bidding system.
- 10+ third-party integrations: Clarity/Experian and TransUnion (credit scoring), DocuSign (e-signatures), Onfido (identity verification), LoanPro (loan management), Finicity (bank verification), Twilio (SMS), Zendesk (support), AWS (S3, Lambda, SES).
- Banking-grade security & compliance: PII encryption (CipherSweet/AES), 2FA, RBAC, OFAC screening, FinCEN reporting (AML), TCPA compliance, and consent management.
- Multi-brand architecture: Private-label platform with tenant isolation supporting multiple lending brands.
- Engineering leadership: Org-level authority over CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, testing strategy, and code standards across all services. Introduced ephemeral test environments cutting acceptance testing time by ~50%.
- AI adoption & mentoring: Spearheaded AI-assisted development workflows and mentored developers daily.
Outcome
Hyphen merged with TBO Bank in 2024. The platform I built is still processing loans today.
Built and modernized the entire information system for a real estate development company that builds single-tenant buildings for major brands (Burger King, Popeyes, Taco Bell, Sonic, Slim Chickens) across the United States. Responsible for the complete digital transformation of their systems and work processes over 8+ years.
What I Built:
- Full development lifecycle platform: From site selection through construction completion — a comprehensive system managing the entire real estate development pipeline.
- 6+ applications: Partner portal (Vue 3/Quasar), Popeyes US operations tool, notes management system, AIF tracker, legacy portal (CodeIgniter), and remodeling portal.
- Construction finance system: Draw/requisition management, invoicing, pay apps, hierarchical budget tracking with sub-groups and line items, CSV import/export for payments and cleared checks.
- Multi-tenant partner portal: Vue 3/Quasar dashboards with ag-Grid enterprise data grids, ApexCharts visualizations, and granular access control per partner and user.
- Enterprise reporting & analytics: KPI tracking with historical snapshots, budget summaries, construction progress, project pipeline metrics, milestone tracking, and partner-specific report views.
- Full-stack modernization: Migrated from CodeIgniter 3/jQuery to Laravel 9/10 with Vue 2/3 frontends, transforming a monolithic architecture into a modular API-driven platform.
- Automated reporting: Replaced 8+ hours/week of manual Excel work with custom dashboards that pull data and generate reports automatically.
Scale
Platform of ~74 models and ~71 controllers (legacy) plus a modern modular Laravel API with dedicated modules for reporting and document templating. AWS S3 integration for document management, PDF generation, and cloud storage.
Outcome
These tools are still in production, used daily by the firm’s analysts, partners, and decision-makers across the United States.
Founded in 2014, Kalinko Labs helps companies automate the workflows that eat up their time and ship the software they can’t build in-house.
What we do:
- Process automation: We turn 3-hour manual workflows into 3-minute automated ones
- Custom software: Web and mobile apps built to spec, not from templates
- Technical rescue: We inherit the codebases other agencies won’t touch
- Embedded engineering: Senior developers who join your team and transfer knowledge
Based in Guinea, working with companies globally.
Trail running outside Conakry most mornings. Paddleboard when I can. Reading without a plan — last month a history of Standard Oil, this month a sci-fi novel about generation ships.
"I want to understand how things actually work."