The Geek Circle The Voice of Africa’s Tech Community
It started with a casual offer between friends.
Nengi Sagbe, a medical student and product designer, had run out of practice questions while prepping for exams. Sitting across from her was Richard Eradiri, a software engineer who’d spent five years building apps for Nigerian banks but was itching to create something of his own.
“I could just build something for you over the weekend,” Richard said.
That simple suggestion in late 2022 became AI Examiner—a platform now serving thousands of students across Nigeria, the US, UK, and beyond.
The Accidental Founders
Neither of them planned to become founders. Nengi had taught herself product design during COVID while juggling medical school. “Becoming a founder just never occurred to me,” she laughs. “I was a newbie wanting to learn basic tech stuff. It just happened overnight, really.”
Richard was already tired of the nine-to-five life despite his solid resume—Zenith Bank, First Bank, multiple SaaS products. When Nengi’s problem came up, it felt like the perfect side project. “It wasn’t like I picked this as the idea,” he says. “It was just, let me build this and see what happens.”
The first version? Embarrassingly simple. Just a basic form. No login, no fancy features. But Nengi used it and loved it.
The User from Dubai
Richard posted about it on LinkedIn, not expecting much. Then a stranger from Dubai found the post and started using the tool. He became their unofficial product manager, constantly requesting features and giving feedback.
“That’s when we realized maybe other people want this too,” Richard recalls.
But when Richard added user authentication, complaints flooded in. The login was too complicated. The interface was clunky. He turned to Nengi: “Please help me redesign this.”
Her solution was brilliant in its simplicity. Instead of a traditional dashboard, users would immediately see a prompt to upload their study materials. No confusion. No wandering around. Just one clear action.
“That was one of our best early decisions,” Richard says. “Users stayed engaged because they knew exactly what to do.”
When they shipped requested features within a day or two, students couldn’t believe it. “They actually did it!” became the buzz in group chats. Word spread fast.
Watching Students Study (and Building Better Tools)
As they observed how students actually used the platform, they noticed something interesting. Students were copying chunks of text from their notes, pasting them into ChatGPT, asking it to simplify, then repeating. Over and over. Page after page.
“It’s not very effective when you have to keep copying, pasting, prompting,” Richard explains.
That observation led to Easy Read—one click transforms an entire document into simpler language. No copying. No pasting. Done.
But there were challenges. Early versions were slow (generating 20 questions took 6-8 minutes) and sometimes inaccurate. Yet students kept using it. So Richard and Nengi optimized relentlessly—implementing better AI techniques until they cut generation time to 20-30 seconds with medical-grade accuracy.
When a student messaged saying Easy Read helped her get a distinction on her exams, they knew they’d built something real.
When Your Phone Rings at 2 AM
They put their phone numbers on the website—an unconventional move that meant when servers crashed, their phones lit up.
“I have an exam in two days. Please. I really need this,” panicked students would say.
Those calls transformed spreadsheet rows into real people with real stakes. It kept Richard and Nengi honest about who they were building for.
The Hard Lessons
For Nengi, being outside Lagos felt isolating. “You’re just far away from information and the people,” she says. She took buses across Nigeria to tech conferences just to meet people and learn.
Breaking into tech without connections was tough. “If you’re not recommended, it’s way harder, especially as a beginner.”
Then came the investor reality check. They had thousands of happy users and glowing testimonials, but investors wanted different things.
“They wanted revenue. They wanted shiny numbers on paper,” Nengi reflects. “We had no idea about that stuff.”
It’s a lesson they’re still digesting as they prep for 2026 fundraising. But would they change their approach?
“Honestly, no,” Richard says. “Talking to users every day and building what they asked for created something people genuinely love. That word-of-mouth growth beat any marketing we could’ve done.”
Going Global, Staying Real
Today, AI Examiner has expanded beyond Nigeria. Their third co-founder, Duke Miller, represents them at US universities like the University of Maryland, Baltimore. They’ve got paying customers in the US and UK and were featured by Techpoint Africa as one of the standout African AI products of 2025.
When institutions—medical schools in Ghana, major Nigerian churches—reached out early wanting partnerships, Richard and Nengi made a gutsy call: focus on students first.
“We knew if we divided our attention to institutions, something would suffer,” Richard explains. “We wanted students to actually love using this.”
Now with that foundation solid, they’re ready to explore institutional partnerships in 2026.
What AI Examiner offers today:
- Easy Read – Simplifies complex materials instantly
- Practice Tests – Customizable MCQs from your uploads
- Summaries – Quick key point overviews
- Related Videos – Curated content for extra context
- Interactive Help – Highlight text to simplify or define terms
- Smart Feedback – Detailed explanations for wrong answers
Advice for Aspiring Builders
“Just start,” Nengi says firmly. “What works for me might not work for you. But in two months of starting, you could be teaching me something I don’t know. Just start.”
Richard adds an engineer’s perspective: “Don’t aim for perfection. Don’t write code without understanding what users want. Engineers love building complex, fancy things. Users don’t care about that. They care if it solves their problem.”
What Keeps Them Going
In Africa’s tech ecosystem, they see both potential and gaps. “We need more support for young founders,” Richard says. “More communities. Investors taking more bets on people.”
“Nobody wants to listen when you have just 100 users,” Nengi adds. “We struggled with that.”
But motivation isn’t the problem anymore. “You don’t really need motivation,” Richard laughs. “If the product goes down, you hear about it immediately. People are depending on it.”
Those voices—students celebrating exam victories, panicked calls before big tests, thank-you messages—that’s what drives them.
The Weekend That Changed Everything
AI Examiner proves something important: African founders can build global solutions from local problems. Student needs are universal. And sometimes the best products start not with grand plans but with a friend saying, “I could build that for you.”
As they head into 2026 with fundraising plans, African expansion, and continued innovation, Richard, Nengi, and Duke are realistic about what’s ahead. They’re building where support is scarce, competing where AI tools multiply daily, and balancing user love with investor expectations.
But they’ve got something powerful: a product that genuinely helps students, built by people who lived the problem themselves.
That weekend project has come far. And they’re just getting started.
Try AI Examiner at aiexaminer.app – Upload your study materials (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, images) and transform them into practice tests and easy-to-read formats.
About the Founders:
Richard Eradiri – Co-founder & CEO. Zoology grad from University of Ibadan turned software engineer. Built apps for major banks before creating AI Examiner.
Nengi Sagbe – Co-founder & Product Designer. Medical student who learned design during COVID. Brings user empathy and design expertise to the platform.
Duke Miller – Co-founder, US-based. Leading AI Examiner’s expansion into American universities and global markets.
