Executive Interview with Eyong Nelvine (Nel Smith) at Wandaprep
Insights on Software Engineering, Mentorship, and Transitioning to Tech Entrepreneurship
In March 2026, Nfor Nde Nyambi, CEO of NdeTek, sat down with Eyong Nelvine (known online as Nel Smith) at Wandaprep, a coworking space in Great Soppo, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon, for a conversation about his path through software engineering and into tech entrepreneurship.
A Journey Rooted in Mentorship:
Nfor traced his story back to his early days at the College of Technology, University of Buea, where he first learned to build software, and credited much of his early direction to the guidance of Mr. Gwei Michael Wawa, a Cloud Platform Engineer who mentored him during that period. It's a detail Nfor returns to often: the emphasis that technical skill alone rarely gets someone from student developer to founder without someone further along the path pointing the way.
Building NdeTek Papers:
The conversation moved into how NdeTek Papers, the company's first product, went from concept to a platform used by thousands of students, and what that build-out actually looked like from the inside: the technical decisions, the early iterations, and the practical realities of running a product used daily by a real user base.
Advice for Career Changers:
A significant part of the interview focused on people transitioning into tech from other backgrounds, whether as senior professionals switching careers or first-time entrepreneurs. Nfor shared practical, experience-based guidance for that transition, drawing directly from his own path from student developer to startup CEO.
Where to Watch:
The full conversation was published as a LinkedIn video post and cross-posted to TikTok; both are linked below, along with an embedded player for the LinkedIn version.