₦airaland Forum

When Nigerian student Oluwapelumi Dada spotted Sam Parr, an entrepreneur and My First Million podcast host, jogging through San Francisco last year, he jumped on his bike, chased Parr down, and pitched him his idea.

This idea is an app that allows students to apply for multiple jobs at once. The pitch, which caught Parr’s attention and later went viral on social media, has been accepted into Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prestigious startup accelerators.

On account of the journey from Lagos to Silicon Valley, Dada’s story is one of grit and belief in possibility. After moving to the United States for university two years ago, he spent much of his time building apps and sharing his progress online.

Last year, he turned down internship offers from Tesla and Dell -two of the world’s top tech firms – to focus full-time on developing his idea, then called One Click Apply.

The app aimed to simplify how students navigated job applications, offering a single platform to apply to multiple opportunities with just one click.

While being unable to afford the summer without a job, Dada took a leap of faith and joined The Residency, a hacker house in San Francisco where young founders live and build startups together.

While there, he convinced fellow Nigerians, David Aladee and Damilola Ajayi, to leave their own pursuits and join him in building what would later become Sorce, described as the ‘Tinder for jobs.’

Their early hustle caught the attention of tech investor Hugo Thieblot and startup collective Founders Inc., who provided the first funding to grow the project. Dada later returned to school, continued refining the app, and officially launched it after graduation.

After missing Y Combinator’s application deadline, the team decided to apply anyway — a decision that would change their lives. Weeks later, Dada received a call from YC’s David Lieb confirming that Sorce had been accepted.

“We got a call that we got in,” Dada wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Dreams do come true.”

This marks a new chapter for African Innovation as with its acceptance into Y Combinator, Sorce joins the ranks of a growing number of African-founded startups making their mark in Silicon Valley.

The app aims to help students and young professionals streamline job applications, which is a pain point for millions worldwide.
For many in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, Dada’s story represents the bold, self-starting attitude driving the next wave of African founders who are competing globally.

The One Click Apply is a website that allows students/job applicants to apply to jobs in one click, with the hope of making the job application process easier for students. One Click Apply helps job applicants not worry about all the repetitive parts of applying for a job.

The end goal is to build the standard for applying to jobs on the internet, so that anyone, anywhere, won’t have to put in the same information on 10 different websites several times.

He hails from Oyo State, in Nigeria. Dada attended Rehoboth Peace Academy, Abuja, for his primary education; Middle School (JSS 1-3) at Salem Academy, Abuja, and the Government Science Secondary School, Abuja (SS1-3).

A student at Huston-Tillotson University from Austin, Texas, representing the Huston-Tillotson University class of 2025, Dada’s tech journey began at the tender age of 11.

He got a full tuition scholarship studying Computer Science at the Huston-Tillotson University and worked as a resident assistant (which gives him free housing).

He said that he got to know about tech at a young age. Temitayo Dada, his mum, brought in a computer when he was young, hence he naturally got an aptitude for computers because he could do a lot of things on it.

Kehinde Dada, his dad, was a graphic designer, whom he learned some graphic designs from. Dada also did some graphic design with Photoshop and CorelDRAW when he was younger.

He started coding late, according to him. However, he learned Java when he was 11, but only for that summer. “I stopped coding when I started secondary (high) school. When I got into SS 2 (11th grade), I started making websites with Wix, and learning HTML until I graduated (from secondary school),” he said in an interview with Africa Interviews.

General Board of Higher Education and Ministry(GBHEM) said in a release that Oluwapelumi Dada is on a mission to bridge the gap between technology and community service.

“With the help of General Board of Higher Education and Ministries Scholarships, Dada is pursuing a degree in computer science while actively giving back to the community that shaped him,” it noted.

GBHEM Scholarships offers financial aid to United Methodist students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees. Every year, an average of $4 million is awarded to help students in the United States and abroad to pursue their dreams through higher education.

“I am deeply honored to receive this scholarship. Your generous support has lightened my financial burden, allowing me to focus more on my studies and professional development,” Dada said.

“Attending college is crucial for me to gain the advanced knowledge in computer science that will allow me to innovate and solve complex problems,” Dada added. “Seminary education is also important to deepen my theological understanding and serve my community with informed spiritual leadership.”

He noted that his goal in the next five to 10 years is to completely reinvent what recruiting looks like. “Recruiting today is broken and is desperately begging to be fixed. In terms of recruitment, finding applicants is hard for companies and employers.

“So, there’s a lot of work to be done in making the experience easier on both the employers and applicants. For my life goals, I want to build really cool stuff and create a lot of value for the world.”

Source: https://businessday.ng/news/article/how-a-nigerian-students-bold-hustle-landed-him-in-silicon-valley/

This is worth celebrating.....

More wins to Nigeria

Great kid more wins for you
Keep it up.
On like some people that are specialized in developing India and other countries.

Congratulations to him. More wins.

The United States is God's own country and center of opportunity for all.

Iran, Russia and China will never give blacks such opportunity due to their conservative policies but yet some talk bad of the USA while praising China, Iran & Russia.

This good news can only come from 1 particularly region 🤔

Great exploit young man. You really are a pacesetter in your own league.

Welldone bro, celebrating excellent

So literally linkedln 2.0


where is the fuarking innovation in this


I pity the vc that yaff waste their funds investing in this junk


thanks to him VCs no longer invest long term in genuine startups out there

May God bless his hustle. More winning ahead

Nice one, wish him all the best

tunde1200:
Great kid more wins for you
Keep it up.
On like some people that are specialized in developing India and other countries.

At least they did something.... What have you done to escape that poverty stricken life you live ehn Babatunde....

Great100000:
Source: https://businessday.ng/news/article/how-a-nigerian-students-bold-hustle-landed-him-in-silicon-valley/

“ Last year, he turned down internship offers from Tesla and Dell…”

Then he was looking for a job, then he built a company, then he landed a job!

Oloriburuku

All these yeye LinkedIn lie lie stories.
Las las, if it is even true, it’s just because:
1. He has the right information
2. At the right time

Forget yarns

Charlchuks:
At least they did something.... What have you done to escape that poverty stricken life you live ehn Babatunde....

You don't know me now so how did you come with poverty life.

Am not your mate in any area of life.

So your people's did good by disgracing and soiling the name of the country in India China Senegal and Ghana?

I really still don't get the concept though. Well-done to the young Champ, it takes a lot of tenacity to take it from ideation to implementation stage.

Misleading title, it should be

Nigerian Student living in the USA

Is not like he was a Nigerian student in Nigeria and hustled his way to Silicon valley

He was already in USA which made thing much easier for him

A true successful story
Is a Nigerian student from Nigeria who hustles to gain a spot in Silicon valley.

Now that is a real success story

Congratulations, chap. Silicone valley is indeed the cradle of tech Innovation.


Check my signature, guys. 🙂

Kare omo oduduwa karo Ajirebi . Those ones wey our NEWS INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE PeterObiisathie, Beerfraud dey reports daily from India for drugs should learn from Dada and shun CRIMINALS LIFESTYLE 😒 🤔 😒🤔 .

Yorubastardz:
Misleading title, it should be

Nigerian Student living in the USA

Is not like he was a Nigerian student in Nigeria and hustled his way to Silicon valley

He was already in USA which made thing much easier for him

A true successful story
Is a Nigerian student from Nigeria who hustles to gain a spot in Silicon valley.

Now that is a real success story

Even kemi badenoch is more Nigerian than this guy 😂

It's okay we know 🤗 let us still forcefully claim him as there s so few to claim when it comes to Yoruba and USA 😏

Helinuse:
“ Last year, he turned down internship offers from Tesla and Dell…”

Then he was looking for a job, then he built a company, then he landed a job!

Oloriburuku

All these yeye LinkedIn lie lie stories.
Las las, if it is even true, it’s just because:
1. He has the right information
2. At the right time

Forget yarns

Most importantly, he was at the right place. Location matters than anything else.

I just developed this idea and website to distribute any product and service throughout Nigeria even in villages within a week. I pitched it to Opay, they were interested but wanted to know how much traffic the site has. I told them it just a new site I've developed to market their cards. They couldn't proceed!!

Congratulations to him. bold move, brave choice.

That said, “living in USA” vs “hustling from Nigeria to USA” are very different games.

Doesn’t take away from his win, but framing matters, it shifts what people believe is possible under different circumstances. Either way, more power, more wins.

JASONjnr:
This is worth celebrating.....

More wins to Nigeria

It's worth celebrating.
It's laudable.

Bravo boy!! Nigeria is proud of you. This are the kind of news our kids needs to know and not "Get rich or die trying" stories.

musicwriter:
Most importantly, he was at the right place. Location matters than anything else.

I just developed this idea and website to distribute any product and service throughout Nigeria even in villages within a week. I pitched it to Opay, they were interested but wanted to know how much traffic the site has. I told them it just a new site I've developed to market their cards. They couldn't proceed!!

Try other companies while trying to refine your idea, the best will come success comes after many failures, so don't be discouraged, let us know when you succeed so we can equally celebrate you
Wishing you the very best

Location matters in life. If he was in Nigeria, he would've been battling hunger, power blackout, ASUU strike, inflation, terrorism, kidnapping, unemployment and so on. Tinubu is a fraudster.

When you live in an enabling environment even a regular Joe would seem like a genius, most Nigerians would flourish even better given same privileges, trying to make it while suffering from the disease called Nigeria is the biggest challenge one could face in this life.

surgical:
Try other companies while trying to refine your idea, the best will come success comes after many failures, so don't be discouraged, let us know when you succeed so we can equally celebrate you
Wishing you the very best

Thanks for your support. I appreciate.
What I really asked of them was to help in the initial promotion of the site, then get free advertisement in turn on the site. That's why they wanted to know what the traffic on the site was like.
I am working on it and will promote it alone. I have a marketing company and actually used to run adverts on Cool FM and Wazobia FM back in the days. So, it's not as if I must partner with a company, rather I am just low on cash at the moment. But as I said, I am working on it

Bwanasaraw:
Congratulations to him. More wins.

The United States is God's own country and center of opportunity for all.

Iran, Russia and China will never give blacks such opportunity due to their conservative policies but yet some talk bad of the USA while praising China, Iran & Russia.

Stop posting what you are ignorant about.
There are wonderful Young Africans doing exceptionally well in the region you mentioned.

Kudos to him.
The sky is his limit

tunde1200:
Great kid more wins for you
Keep it up.
On like some people that are specialized in developing India and other countries.

After they have developed India and other countries, they will now come back and buy up all your ancestral lands and properties in it.
Now the joke is on who?

Kaczynski:
So literally linkedln 2.0


where is the fuarking innovation in this


I pity the vc that yaff waste their funds investing in this junk


thanks to him VCs no longer invest long term in genuine startups out there

You're just a hater, you think YC combinator is a joke of a platform?? Think again you're not a player in the field of programming and software development..

Before yc combinator will even think of accepting your application it shows your ideas is truly innovative.. They got hundreds of thousands of applicants but only pick just few 5-10 are acceptable each batch.. And yet you downplay this promising dude achievement, it might look cheap on paper but it's the best news to come out of Nigeria this year..

He's now having a $500k investment into this app, now watch it goes up, by the way I'm sure it's not for Nigerians who can't afford simple subscribing fee.. What do you know go live your life on cheap Facebook that's where lots like you belong bro.. Not with the wise and innovative guys.

musicwriter:
Most importantly, he was at the right place. Location matters than anything else.

I just developed this idea and website to distribute any product and service throughout Nigeria even in villages within a week. I pitched it to Opay, they were interested but wanted to know how much traffic the site has. I told them it just a new site I've developed to market their cards. They couldn't proceed!!

How were you planning to distribute these products/services, it sounds like a great idea but it's looking just like an idea on "paper"

Do you have logistics bikes/rides?. I think the problem is logistics but if your logistics is in place, you'll get a good offer from other companies in no time at all.

Keep going chief 💪