Odun Odubanjo became obsessed with data during his time as a computer engineering student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in southwestern Nigeria. He recalls using J2ME, a technology for developing applications and games on older mobile phones, to build mobile applications for Java-supported phones.
Although he was skilled at programming, he was drawn to understanding how data could be used in real-world scenarios.
Fresh out of university, he cofounded Twinpine, a mobile advertising startup, in 2011. The company eventually evolved into a cloud-based marketing data platform, pulling him deeper into data-driven decision-making.
Still, that passion for working with data didn’t let up. Odubanjo relocated to Toronto, Canada, in 2019 to join Security Compass, a cybersecurity startup, as a Product Innovation lead. But as he gained more experience, he noticed a disconnect in how data was used.
During his one-year stint at Security Compass, Odunbanjo said he found teams relying on spreadsheets to manually piece together insights, struggling to turn information into something usable. Later at Shopify, an e-commerce company, where he worked as a Product Lead for three years, he encountered a more complex version of the same problem: companies had access to data but lacked the clarity needed to act on it.
“It was clear to me that there needed to be tools that would help you really understand your customers and markets, and then use that data to make the right product and market decisions in your business,” he said. “I immediately recognised that there was an opportunity here.”
In May 2022, Odubanjo set out to build Insight7, an AI-powered platform designed to help businesses turn qualitative data—such as interviews and customer conversations—into valuable insights.
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