When Nigerian student Oluwapelumi Dada spotted Sam Parr, an entrepreneur and My First Million podcast host, jogging through San Francisco last year, he jumped on his bike, chased Parr down, and pitched him his idea.

This idea is an app that allows students to apply for multiple jobs at once. The pitch, which caught Parr’s attention and later went viral on social media, has been accepted into Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prestigious startup accelerators.

On account of the journey from Lagos to Silicon Valley, Dada’s story is one of grit and belief in possibility. After moving to the United States for university two years ago, he spent much of his time building apps and sharing his progress online.

Last year, he turned down internship offers from Tesla and Dell -two of the world’s top tech firms – to focus full-time on developing his idea, then called One Click Apply.

The app aimed to simplify how students navigated job applications, offering a single platform to apply to multiple opportunities with just one click.

While being unable to afford the summer without a job, Dada took a leap of faith and joined The Residency, a hacker house in San Francisco where young founders live and build startups together.

While there, he convinced fellow Nigerians, David Aladee and Damilola Ajayi, to leave their own pursuits and join him in building what would later become Sorce, described as the ‘Tinder for jobs.’

Their early hustle caught the attention of tech investor Hugo Thieblot and startup collective Founders Inc., who provided the first funding to grow the project. Dada later returned to school, continued refining the app, and officially launched it after graduation.

After missing Y Combinator’s application deadline, the team decided to apply anyway — a decision that would change their lives. Weeks later, Dada received a call from YC’s David Lieb confirming that Sorce had been accepted.

“We got a call that we got in,” Dada wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Dreams do come true.”

This marks a new chapter for African Innovation as with its acceptance into Y Combinator, Sorce joins the ranks of a growing number of African-founded startups making their mark in Silicon Valley.

The app aims to help students and young professionals streamline job applications, which is a pain point for millions worldwide.

For many in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, Dada’s story represents the bold, self-starting attitude driving the next wave of African founders who are competing globally.

The One Click Apply is a website that allows students/job applicants to apply to jobs in one click, with the hope of making the job application process easier for students. One Click Apply helps job applicants not worry about all the repetitive parts of applying for a job.

The end goal is to build the standard for applying to jobs on the internet, so that anyone, anywhere, won’t have to put in the same information on 10 different websites several times.

He hails from Oyo State, in Nigeria. Dada attended Rehoboth Peace Academy, Abuja, for his primary education; Middle School (JSS 1-3) at Salem Academy, Abuja, and the Government Science Secondary School, Abuja (SS1-3).

A student at Huston-Tillotson University from Austin, Texas, representing the Huston-Tillotson University class of 2025, Dada’s tech journey began at the tender age of 11.

He got a full tuition scholarship studying Computer Science at the Huston-Tillotson University and worked as a resident assistant (which gives him free housing).

He said that he got to know about tech at a young age. Temitayo Dada, his mum, brought in a computer when he was young, hence he naturally got an aptitude for computers because he could do a lot of things on it.

Kehinde Dada, his dad, was a graphic designer, whom he learned some graphic designs from. Dada also did some graphic design with Photoshop and CorelDRAW when he was younger.

He started coding late, according to him. However, he learned Java when he was 11, but only for that summer. “I stopped coding when I started secondary (high) school. When I got into SS 2 (11th grade), I started making websites with Wix, and learning HTML until I graduated (from secondary school),” he said in an interview with Africa Interviews.

General Board of Higher Education and Ministry(GBHEM) said in a release that Oluwapelumi Dada is on a mission to bridge the gap between technology and community service.

“With the help of General Board of Higher Education and Ministries Scholarships, Dada is pursuing a degree in computer science while actively giving back to the community that shaped him,” it noted.

GBHEM Scholarships offers financial aid to United Methodist students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees. Every year, an average of $4 million is awarded to help students in the United States and abroad to pursue their dreams through higher education.

“I am deeply honored to receive this scholarship. Your generous support has lightened my financial burden, allowing me to focus more on my studies and professional development,” Dada said.

“Attending college is crucial for me to gain the advanced knowledge in computer science that will allow me to innovate and solve complex problems,” Dada added. “Seminary education is also important to deepen my theological understanding and serve my community with informed spiritual leadership.”

He noted that his goal in the next five to 10 years is to completely reinvent what recruiting looks like. “Recruiting today is broken and is desperately begging to be fixed. In terms of recruitment, finding applicants is hard for companies and employers.

“So, there’s a lot of work to be done in making the experience easier on both the employers and applicants. For my life goals, I want to build really cool stuff and create a lot of value for the world.” (Business Day)