Timilehin Adeoye

Co-Founder & CEO, Lifeprint Labs

Banks and fintechs have spent a decade trying to bank Africa's unbanked adults. That is the wrong entry point.

You cannot build financial identity starting at adulthood; the data doesn't exist. The infrastructure has to be built upstream — before they earn, before they borrow, before they exist to any financial institution.

It has to start at age 4. Inside a classroom.

Lifeprint Labs is doing exactly this.

Reading

The Reading Challenge

Five years of disciplined reading. 287 books. 57,000+ pages. The highest-leverage activity for independent thinking.

287
Books Read
57K+
Pages
60+
Per Year
4.5
Avg Rating
Most Read
7reads

Zero to One

Peter Thiel
6th read in 2026. First read in 2020.
6reads

Same As Ever

Morgan Housel
5 reads in 2025, 1 in 2024.
5reads

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz
4th read in 2025. First read in 2020.
3reads

How to Sell to Nigerians

Akin Alabi
2022, 2023, 2025.
3reads

Blue Ocean Strategy

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
2022, 2025, 2026.
By Year

The Full List

The Body: A Guide For Occupants

Bill Bryson · Anatomy
4.6

Pitch Anything

Oren Klaff · Pitching/Sales
4.9

A CEO For All Seasons

Carolyn Dewar, et al. · Business
3.8

The Communication Book

Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschappeler · Communication
4.5

Experiencing GOD'S Power

Derek Prince · Power
4.7

Ideas, Cheques and Capital

Solomon King · Fundraising
3.6

Revenge Of The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell · Social Psychology
4.2

This Is Marketing

Seth Godin · Marketing
4.5

All Marketers are Liars / Tell Stories

Seth Godin · Marketing
4.8

Building A Story Brand

Donald Miller · Marketing
4.5

Made To Stick

Dan & Chip Heath · Marketing
4.5

The Art Of Spending Money

Morgan Housel · Finance
4.7

Zero To One (6th Reading)

Peter Thiel · Startups
4.8

$100M Money Models

Alex Hormozi · Business
4.3

Traction

Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares · Startups
4.6

Measure What Matters

John Doerr · Business/Management
4.7

What You Do Is Who You Are (2nd Read)

Ben Horowitz · Business/Culture
4.7

Psycho-cybernetics

Maxwell Maltz · Self-Help
4.6

The Unfair Advantage

Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba · Business
4.3

Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith · Economics
4.6

In Search Of Excellence

Tom Peters & Robert Waterman · Business
4.6

Influence

Robert B. Cialdini · Business/Economics
4.6

The Forgotten Era: Nigeria Before British Rule

Max Siollun · History

Clear Thinking

Shane Parrish · Psychology
4.8

Courage is Calling

Ryan Holiday · Stoicism
4.7

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Tim Harford · Economics
4.7

Unscripted

MJ DeMarco · Business
4.6

Sprint

Jake Knapp, et al. · Startups
4.6

Hooked

Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover · Startups
4.5

Essentialism

Greg McKeown · Business/Psychology
4.6

No Rules Rules

Reed Hastings & Eric Meyer · Business
4.5

How to Get Rich

Felix Dennis · Business
4.6

Giants of Enterprise

Richard S. Tedlow · Business Biography
4.6

The Hard Thing About Hard Things (4th Read)

Ben Horowitz · Business
4.8

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Richard Rumelt · Business
4.5

Zero to One

Peter Thiel · Startups
4.8

Same As Ever (3rd Read)

Morgan Housel · Psychology
4.6

Same As Ever (4th Read)

Morgan Housel · Psychology
4.6

Same As Ever (5th Read)

Morgan Housel · Psychology
4.6

The State of Africa

Martin Meredith · History
4.8

Nigeria's Soldiers of Fortune

Max Siollun · History
4.6

The Prosperity Paradox

Christensen, Ojomo & Dillon · Developmental Economics
4.7

Why We Sleep

Matthew Walker · Sleep
4.6

Grit

Angela Duckworth · Psychology
4.8

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson · Business
4.8

Trillion Dollar Coach

Schmidt, Rosenberg & Eagle · Business Leadership
4.8

Factfulness

Hans Rosling, et al. · Developmental Economics
4.5

Blue Ocean Strategy

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne · Business
4.4

How to Sell to Nigerians

Akin Alabi · Sales
4.5

Grit

Angela Duckworth · Psychology
4.8

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson · Business
4.8

Same As Ever

Morgan Housel · Finance/Investing
4.7

Discipline is Destiny

Ryan Holiday · Stoicism
4.6

The Art of Thinking Clearly

Rolf Dobelli · Psychology
4.6

Seeing What Others Don't

Gary Klein · Psychology
4.6

Advanced Selling Strategies

Brian Tracy · Sales
4.7

What You Do Is Who You Are

Ben Horowitz · Business
4.7

Never Split the Difference

Chris Voss & Tahl Raz · Negotiation
4.6

The Fail Safe Startup

Tom Eisenmann · Startup
4.6

The Art of the Start

Guy Kawasaki · Startup
4.5

80/20 Sales and Marketing

Perry Marshall · Sales/Marketing
4.6

Contagious

Jonah Berger · Marketing
4.5

Republic

Plato · Philosophy
4.5

Talk Like TED

Carmine Gallo · Public Speaking
4.5

How to Think Like a Philosopher

Peter Cave · Philosophy
4.3

How Europe Undeveloped Africa

Walter Rodney · History/Geopolitics
4.3

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

John Perkins · History/Geopolitics
4.2

How to Think Politically

Graeme Garrard & James Murphy · Politics
4.2

How to Think Like an Economist

Robie Mochrie · Economics
4.2

Business at the Speed of Thought

Bill Gates · Business
4.5

GOD: An Anatomy

Francisca Stavrakopoulou · Religious History
4.5

Zero to One

Peter Thiel · Startups
4.5

Deep Work

Cal Newport · Productivity
4.6

Homo Deus

Yuval Noah Harari · Popular Science
4.2

Freakonomics

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner · Economics
4.6

Talking to Strangers

Malcolm Gladwell · Non-fiction
4.6

The Culture Code

Daniel Coyle · Business Psychology
4.2

The End of Poverty

Jeffrey Sachs · Politics/Economics
4.5

How Democracies Die

Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt · Politics
4.2

The Way of The Wolf

Jordan Belfort · Sales
4.3

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius · Philosophy
4.0

Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe · Fiction
4.5

There Was a Country

Chinua Achebe · History
4.5

Africa Rise and Shine

Jim Ovia · Business
3.8

Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala · Politics
4.6

The Bomber Mafia

Malcolm Gladwell · War History
4.5

How to Talk to Anyone

Leil Lowndes · Relationships
4.5

Unleash

Topsy Kola-Oyeneyin · Personal Development
4.5

How to Sell to Nigerians

Akin Alabi · Sales/Marketing
3.9

Small Business, Big Money

Akin Alabi · Sales/Marketing
3.9

The Hard Thing About Hard Things (3rd Read)

Ben Horowitz · Business

The Bezos Letters

Steve Anderson · Business

Why Nations Fail

D. Acemoglu & J.A. Robinson · Politics/History

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson · Biography

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari · History

Beyond Order

Jordan Peterson · Personal Development

Sell Like Crazy

Sabri Suby · Business/Sales

Steal Like An Artist

Austin Kleon · Productivity

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

Eric Jorgenson · Business

Blue Ocean Strategy

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne · Business

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell · Psychology

What Britain Did to Nigeria

Max Siollun · History

Small Business Big Money

Akin Alabi · Business

The Founders

Jimmy Soni · Technology/Business

How to Lead

David M. Rubenstein · Business

John D. Rockefeller: The Original Titan

J.R. MacGregor · Business Biography

What the Dogs Saw

Malcolm Gladwell · Non-fiction

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

John Gray · Relationship

The 5 Love Languages

Gary Chapman · Relationship
By Category
Business
38
Spiritual
21
Psychology
17
Sales
15
Relationships
13
Personal Dev
9
Leadership
7
History
6
Startups
6
Marketing
6
Finance
6
Philosophy
5
Politics
4
Fiction
4
Writing

Thoughts

Long-form essays and short-form observations on technology, economics, and human potential.

Long Form
Framework / Philosophy

Variables Thinking: A Tool for Navigating Complexities

How I developed a cognitive framework for dissecting complex problems into their constituent variables — inspired by pattern recognition, the Pareto principle, and startup MVP thinking. From pricing strategies to trust mechanics, variables thinking is the lens I use to unravel almost everything.

August 2023 · 3 min read
Economic Philosophy

Too Good: An African Dilemma, an Extreme to Avoid

An exploration of African communalism (Ubuntu) as a potential limiting factor in building global enterprises. Why the "necessary evil" of concentrated economic power — and the willingness to make tough, individualistic decisions — may be what Africa needs to produce economic supergiants. Co-authored with Amanda Filtane (South Africa).

Conceptual Paper · Co-authored
Short Form
T
Timilehin Adeoye @btn1bya
Building in Africa requires a different kind of patience. The infrastructure gaps that Silicon Valley takes for granted are the same gaps that create moats for those willing to do the hard work of laying pipes.
Jul 2026
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T
Timilehin Adeoye @btn1bya
The best founders I know are not optimists or pessimists. They are structuralists — they see the world as a set of variables that can be rearranged, not as a story that unfolds according to mood.
Jul 2026
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T
Timilehin Adeoye @btn1bya
Every time I read a book for the second time, I am reading a different book. The text hasn't changed. I have.
Jul 2026
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🎙️

Out of the Office Podcast

We Are Out of Office

A conversation about building Lifeprint Labs and the journey of a founder in the African tech ecosystem.