datastake
/datastake1
Disintermediating distant narratives
Landing in Kigali, Rwanda, I was struck by its polished streets and serene atmosphere. Eerily perfect, almost unsettling. I’d actually come to join a group of experts on a mission to trace the origins of conflict minerals in Eastern Congo. The calm before, I assumed, an unchartered storm.
Intrigued, I sat down with him and offered to take on one of his missions to the Congo for free—just to see it firsthand. A few weeks later, I was there, walking into a world I barely understood but knew I had to.
After an underwhelming stint in finance and energy trading, I found myself at Sonar music festival. There, I met a guy bragging about making $20K per trip to the Congo—just to assess “local risk” for mineral buyers. That moment planted the seed for a whole new path.
I had been immersed in a contemporary art thesis on postcolonial representation. Renzo Martens’ Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty shook me: it exposed how international aid, DRC’s top revenue stream, thrived on storytelling over impact. Poverty wasn’t solved—it was exploited.
True innovation starts with a real problem to solve.
In 2011, I landed on a massive, life-defining problem.
In 2011, I landed on a massive, life-defining problem.