Curious by Default

I’m Eyram Amedzor. For as long as I can remember, I’ve needed to know how things work: the solar system, what’s at the bottom of the ocean, how a plane stays in the air, how money actually moves. As a kid that meant taking apart every electrical or mechanical thing I could get my hands on, usually without a plan for putting it back together. My dad still tells the story of the time I opened up his keyboard just to see how the musical notes were formed.

For a while I wanted to be a pilot, and I read every book on planes and engineering I could find. Then, during a summer break in the early 2000s, my parents dropped me off at a computer resource center, and I watched someone use Microsoft Word for the first time. That was it. I was hooked. I started writing scripts to prank people, finding ways around paywalls and internet café timers just to see if I could, and consistently topping my ICT classes.

Computers weren’t the only thing pulling at me, though. I played musical instruments at churches on Sundays for a bit of money, ran a vegetable farm that supplied local restaurants, sold water and candy at vacation school, and spent other summers at camps, hiking and exploring. I contain multitudes, apparently.

That pattern followed me into university, where I studied computer science, helped launch an IEEE student chapter, and kept doing my usual computer stuff: fixing phones and laptops for people who found me online, running IT for offices, hosting workshops on campus, building software for anyone who needed it, and importing phone and laptop accessories from China to resell. My final year project was an Arduino-based GPS vehicle tracker that could also remotely disable the vehicle.

After graduating, I joined MEST (Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology) as a software entrepreneur. I went in expecting to be the technical co-founder, but quickly realized I was drawn to leading teams and solving the business side of problems too. That’s how I ended up co-founding Jumeni, which started as a field service management platform with a waste management module and eventually became a full waste-tech company. I wrote the first code, then became the CEO: fundraising (I raised $100K in seed funding), finding customers and partners, and filling in every role that needed filling until I could hire for it. I ran Jumeni for seven years. I once thought it might become a unicorn; instead, I learned an enormous amount and eventually decided it was time to move on to what’s next.

That next chapter took me to Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a scholarship to pursue a master’s in computer science at Dalhousie University, where my thesis investigated turnover intentions of immigrant software engineers. Rebuilding a life in a new country meant more than classes. I worked with ShiftKey Labs, volunteered to rebuild the Halifax Cycling Coalition’s website, picked up a few certifications, and took on projects along the way. I’ve also been freelancing on Upwork and Fiverr since my university days, and still do, whenever I find the time.

I still love solving problems, and I’m still figuring out where I want to put down roots long-term. If there’s one thread running through all of this, it’s people: I’m happiest when someone tells me a story about how something I helped with actually made a difference for them. I may never build the unicorn I once imagined, but being part of a team that moves the needle for people, even in a small way, is what keeps me going.