Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu

@Forbes #Next1000, 🤙🏽, 🇨🇿& 🇳🇬@dukefuqua, Husband to @tamarazachery, Father of 5, CEO @gofullscale,

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Spent the morning re-watching our pitch deck on mute. If the story works without the audio, the deck works. Mine doesn't, yet. Slide 6 is doing too much. Cutting it tomorrow.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

The "AI ate my engineering team" take is loud. The quieter truth from 6 months of vibecoding: the model is faster than me at execution and slower than me at conviction. I still have to decide what to build, who to call, what to ignore. Typing was never the bottleneck.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Month 6 numbers: 1 paying enterprise customer (Power 5 program), 3 pilot conversations live, 0 employees, ~$0 burn outside subscription costs. The unsexy part is the unsexy part.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

More here!!

https://t.co/aYeDsd4DAa

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Top 26 Founders of 2026 🎖️

Couldn’t have predicted this from where I started. Grateful to @silvialupu @thefoundersquare and to everyone who has been in the trenches with me on FullScale.
Building infrastructure for modern creators. Just getting started.
#TopFounders2026 #FounderIndex #FullScale

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Founders building without a traditional dev team — what's the one tool you'd rip out of your stack and rebuild from scratch with what you know now? I'll go first in replies.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Founder thing nobody warns you about: the day a customer says yes is the day your to-do list triples. Spent today writing onboarding docs for a contract that closed three days ago.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Spent Saturday morning watching my own product run without me babysitting it. Brand bid came in on a creator's archive scene at 7:14am. Approved by 7:23. Money in flow by 7:25. Three months ago I was hand-matching every placement

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Week recap:
— Power 5 program signed (basketball)
— 10 VC outreach, 3 warm replies
— Pitched for a London demo day

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Sent 10 cold VC pitches in one afternoon this week. Three came back warm by Friday. What moved them every time was one sentence tying our market to a deal they'd done in the last 12 months. Portfolio homework beats deck polish, every time. Oh and the tech works.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

We are building the evolution of integration into content. And I'm vibe coding it solo every single effing day.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

Two years of cold outreach for one yes. The Power 5 men's basketball program we signed last week wasn't on a list, didn't reply to the first 14 emails, then said yes the week the product was finally real enough to demo. Patience is just stubbornness with paperwork.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

1/ 6 months ago I started vibecoding Full Scale by myself. Here's what's different about month 6 vs. month 1. 🧵
2/ The product runs in front of customers I don't have to apologize to first. Month 1 every demo started with "I know this looks rough." Month 6 the rough is mostly in places customers don't touch.
3/ The conversations flipped. Month 1 I pitched the idea. Month 6 customers pitch me on what they want next. That switch happened around customer 0.5 — first real signal in, contract not yet signed.
4/ Pace changed. Month 1 I shipped to feel productive. Month 6 I ship to answer a specific question someone asked. Same hours, different game.

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@crushventures — building FullScale, AI marketplace that lets creators monetize their existing catalogs through product placement. Mizzou just signed as flagship NIL deal. Term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Crush's artist roster could be one of the strongest pilot pools we'd ever get to test against. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@mcnamarabrian — FullScale is the AI product placement marketplace at the intersection of entertainment, commerce, and creator content. Mizzou is our flagship NIL deal with VOTA, term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Cosmic's mix is the rare fit — and Cosmic is on the Mizzou Startups investor list, so the Mizzou flagship lands directly. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv — 25 min next week?

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@danielwbreyer Daniel — FullScale is an AI product placement marketplace, with cultural training sets built to scale into Middle East/Nigeria/India creators. Mizzou is our flagship NIL deal, term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Breyer's AI + emerging markets thesis is the fit. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLUw3

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@erichippeau Eric — FullScale moves brand spend off interruptive ads and into creator content placements. AI marketplace, just signed Mizzou as flagship NIL deal. Term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Lerer Hippeau's consumer brand portfolio is the demand-side flywheel. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@VatsaEsha Esha — building FullScale, an AI product placement marketplace turning existing creator video into recurring brand inventory. Mizzou is our flagship NIL deal, term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Mercuri's thesis on the content/data value chain is the exact frame. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv — 25 min next week?

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@nisselson Evan — FullScale is an AI visual scanner that turns creator video into product placement inventory. The cultural training set is the unlock. Mizzou just signed as our flagship NIL deal, term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. LDV is the first call I'd want: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv

[Chilaka Martin Ekechukwu @MartinChilaka]

@AliBHamed
Ali — your YouTube catalog credit work is the closest analog I've seen to what we're building at FullScale: turning creator libraries into recurring brand placement revenue. Just signed Mizzou as flagship NIL deal, term sheet from Mighty Capital, closing the round. Deck: https://t.co/FJhW1yLmGv — open to 25 min next week?