Tech Trivia with Motunrayo Olaleye, Product and Operations Lead at Gopaddi

The hospitality and travel industry in Africa has largely run on disconnected systems, manual processes, and fragmented tools, making it hard for hotels, travel agencies, and tourism businesses to operate at scale.

Gopaddi Technologies is building an operating system to solve that challenge, and Motunrayo (Mo) Olaleye is one of the people making it work. Mo Olaleye is a Product and Operations professional with seven years of experience spanning venture capital and fintech.

At Gopaddi Technologies, she leads product vision, strategy and growth across her product verticals while also running Platform Operations, where she is responsible for platform stability and delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Before Gopaddi, Mo worked as a Product and Operations Manager at Funema, a venture-building firm, where she built systems and operational structures while driving the digitisation of existing frameworks. She has also worked as a Product Manager at Dukka and Hadi Finance, leading the development of fintech products and serving thousands of users across Africa.

Outside her day job, Mo has built communities and initiatives around technology, finance and talent. She led YellowHub, a personal finance brand that helped over 400 young professionals build better financial habits, and co-founded a tech talent initiative that supported early-stage Product Managers.

She also mentors across tech programmes and speaks at industry events. She is particularly drawn to the 0-to-1 journey and the work of turning a raw idea into something real, structured and scalable.

1. Summarise your mornings in one sentence

I usually start my mornings with devotion, then I plan out my day or adjust previously set plans around work and other things I need to get done.

2. Describe your gadget setup

I have two laptops: a MacBook and a Windows laptop. Then my phone. When I’m working remotely, I’ll usually have one laptop open for work while the other is playing a video or, more often, jazz music in the background. 

For some weird reason, I like having something playing while I work, except when I’m doing deep-thinking work and need complete silence. When I just need to quickly scribble something down, I make use of my notepad. It’s still one of those simple things I find really useful.

3. What tech tools/applications do you use the most for work?

I use quite a few, but Todoist is probably one of my most important ones. I’m very much a systems person, so I use it to plan both my work and personal life. For work, I use Microsoft Teams for communication and team collaboration, Microsoft 365 for my day-to-day productivity, and Figma to collaborate with designers and work through product ideas. AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude have also become a regular part of my workflow, especially for research, brainstorming, structuring ideas, and getting through some of the more repetitive work.

4. What do you do when you need inspiration?

I usually take a break from work. Sometimes that means taking a nap, and other times I’ll watch YouTube videos or podcasts, from Lenny’s Podcast to Afropolitan Podcast, or just random content around tech, product, and entrepreneurship. I also have some really smart tech people as friends, so sometimes I’ll just talk to them and rub minds when I need a fresh perspective or some inspiration.

5. What mobile application can you not do without daily?

Definitely WhatsApp and Todoist. WhatsApp is how I stay connected with my folks. Todoist, on the other hand, is basically my external brain. I tend to remember things or random tasks at the most unexpected times, so I quickly drop them into Todoist before I forget. I use it for both work and personal things, and honestly, if it’s not on my Todoist, there’s a good chance I’ll forget it.

6. What tech solution do you wish someone had created?

I’d probably say an EHR system. Our healthcare system in Nigeria still has a lot of fragmentation, especially when it comes to patient data. When someone moves from one hospital to another, their medical history doesn’t always move with them in a way that is seamless and accessible to the next healthcare provider.

I’ve experienced this personally, both with myself and with a loved one, and it can be frustrating having to repeat medical histories or start the process of piecing information together all over again. We have a number of EMR systems in Nigeria, but I think we need to move closer to true EHR interoperability, where these systems can actually communicate with each other.

7. If you had unlimited time and money, what problem would you solve?

I’m a finance enthusiast, so with unlimited time and money, I’d probably build a configurable Personal Finance Operating System. Something that gives you a complete view of your finances in one place: subscriptions, investments, insurance, short-term savings, expenses, and everything in between.

I actually have a manual system I use to track these things for myself today, but I’d love to see it become a proper digital platform. I know there are different apps that solve some of these problems individually, but I think there’s an opportunity to bring everything together into one personal finance operating system that people can configure around their own financial lives.

8. Which woman in tech inspires you the most?

Honestly, I don’t have just one woman in tech that I’d say inspires me the most. I’m inspired by Black women founders and product professionals who have disrupted their industries and are making a real impact in tech. People like Odunayo Eweniyi, Oluwatobi Otokiti, Confidence Staveley, Ada Nduka Oyom, Yanmo Omoregbe, Peace Itimi, and Adora Nwodo come to mind, among many other brilliant women. I find it inspiring to see women building, leading, and creating their own paths in an industry that is constantly evolving.

9. Which profound statement inspires you the most?

“Clarity comes with movement.” I really believe it’s okay not to have everything figured out from the start. Sometimes, you only gain clarity by taking the next step, learning from it, and continuing to make intentional progress. We’re all figuring things out as we go, so I don’t think you need to have the whole picture from the jump. You just need to keep moving, learning, and adjusting along the way.

10. Whose women in tech trivia would you love to read?

Damilola Olokesusi of Shuttlers. I’d love to know more about her journey, how she built Shuttlers, and some of the experiences that shaped her along the way.

Read also: Meet Precious Eniayekan, the female founder empowering boys in tech