Why we started the company – Founders story  

Europe was already under growing hiring pressure, especially in technical and engineering roles, as its working-age population declined, and younger professionals increasingly sought more flexible career paths. During and after COVID, Jens-Christian Moller and Lucja Kalkstein; Eryk Remote IT Services Co-founders, saw demand for tech expertise rise across sectors. With companies already nearshoring across Eastern Europe and beyond, they identified an opportunity to act early and position Nigeria, with its strong pool of ambitious young professionals, as the next strategic destination for remote IT services. That vision became the foundation of Eryk Remote IT Services. 

What personally motivated you to co-found the company? 

Before Eryk Remote IT Services had a name, a structure, or a market position, the CEO & Co-founder Akalaka Vony Ogunbanjo had already spent much of her professional life building bridges between Europe and Nigeria. Not abstract bridges. Real ones. The kind built through conversations, partnerships, commercial opportunities, and the patient work of helping businesses on both sides see value in each other. That is what makes her story so compelling. For her, Eryk Remote IT Services did not begin as a random venture she happened to join. It was a natural continuation of work she already cared deeply about. 

When the opportunity came to build Eryk Remote IT Services alongside Jens-Christian Moller and Lucja Kalkstein, the decision, in her words, was immediate. 

“I spent most of my professional career building bridges between Europe and Nigeria, connecting European businesses with Nigerian businesses, showcasing commercial opportunities in Nigeria and fostering a sustainable way for partnerships between European and Nigerian businesses, so when Jens-Christian Moller and Lucja Kalkstein offered me the opportunity to join them in this venture, it was a no-brainer.” 

In the early stages of building the company, what were the biggest uncertainties you faced, and what kept you committed to the vision? 

“The uncertainty that kept me up at night – the biggest one was trust. Not trust within the team – but the market’s willingness to extend trust across the geography we were working in.” 

Eryk Remote IT Services was asking European companies to believe that a technical services company operating out of Lagos could deliver at the level they expected. That was not a small ask. It meant challenging a deeply rooted assumption about where quality lives in the world. In the early days, there were no long proof points to lean on, but there was the idea, the structure being built around it, and the slow discipline of proving it one engagement at a time. 

“The uncertainties didn’t disappear. Some of them are still there. But I stopped waiting for them to resolve before moving forward – because I eventually understood that they never fully do. You build in spite of them. And if the foundation is honest and the work is good, the proof eventually catches up with the vision.” 

What kept her moving was not just confidence in the model alone, but the people behind it: the engineers, specialists, and developers in Lagos, whose problem was not ever Lack of talent t, only access. That is where the founder narrative becomes more than a story about company-building. It becomes a story about visibility, and determination to create access into the global market for people who deserve one. 

“Once you’ve sat across from someone who is genuinely good at what they do, with the potential to be more and watch them struggle to get a fair shot at the global market simply because of where they are born; the work stops feeling optional. It becomes something you feel responsible for.” 

What kind of long-term impact do you hope this company will have for the industry, for customers, and for the people who build their careers here? 

For the industry, she wants Eryk Remote IT Services to be remembered as a first mover, and a company that built differently, back when African tech talent was still too often seen as a risk rather than a resource.  

For customers, the ambition is equally precise: Eryk should become the kind of partner a CTO turns to not only when there is a vacancy, but when there is a strategic engineering resource scaling decision to make.  

And for the people building careers through Eryk?  

This is where her answer cuts deepest: not just in what Eryk can become for itself, but in what it can become for others. Akalaka Vony Ogunbajo(CEO & Co-founder) hopes that Eryk becomes the bridge that gives access to real weight and real meaning. 

“My long-term hope is that Eryk becomes that bridge – a bridge with a reputation. That getting through Eryk’s process means something. That the engineers and specialists who come through here go on to lead teams, ship products, start companies, and bring the next generation up behind them.”