Ayoola Brimmo

About Beyond Cubicles

📢 #BeyondCubicles is a weekly LinkedIn series created by Carolina D’Souza, born out of her own experience transitioning from a corporate career to independent consulting. Since its launch in June 2024, the series has evolved into a platform that showcases the inspiring journeys of several founders who have redefined the traditional 9-to-5.

Through authentic narratives, #BeyondCubicles highlights themes of courage, resilience, and purpose. The stories feature individuals from diverse industries—ranging from tech and education to wellness and adventure—who share their experiences of stepping away from conventional roles to pursue passion-driven careers. 

✨ Note: All features in this series are unpaid and shared as a way to honor and amplify real stories of transformation.

“I never expected emotions to hold greater weight in buying decisions than logic,” says Ayoola Brimmo, Ph.D.

 

The lesson took years of building to arrive at.

 

Long before Cycled Technologies AS, founded in 2020, became a full-time pursuit, he built a career spanning hardware development, deep tech, and market expansion, including helping 30+ companies expand into the Middle East.

 

His commitment to sustainable technology earned him a place on MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list in 2020.

 

While building on the side, the turning point came with its first major customer. “The idea stopped feeling like a passion project,” he says. “It gave me the confidence to building it full-time.”

 

Rooted in his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and social commitment, Dr. Ayoola’s work grew from a problem: valuable materials ending in landfills because waste was not segregated at source.

 

That shaped Cycled Technologies AS’ mission to help communities recover value from waste by making sustainable behavior effortless. “The name ‘cycled’ reflects our vision of keeping materials in continuous circulation,” he says.

 

Building the AI-driven recycling and resource recovery systems, he would discover, was the easy part. Selling it was the challenge.

 

“The toughest was the uncertainty at the beginning,” he says. “Deep down, I knew leaving a stable career to build a startup was not the most rational, but I had to trust my instincts.”

 

What carried him through was his connection to the process. “I weirdly enjoyed both highs and lows,” he says.

 

The journey reshaped him to become “far more extroverted,” more willing to ask for help and collaborate.

 

His personal brand, he admits, has not changed dramatically. He still sees himself as the same person. What shifted is the scale and visibility of his commitment. “Maybe people see me as someone more willing to take risks and commit to what I believe in,” he says.

 

Family remained his foundation throughout. “Emotionally, financially, and spiritually, they have been my rock throughout,” he says. His team, there from day one, has been equally central.

 

His advice: “Never take the ‘L’ as a loss, but as a lesson,” he says. “Sometimes the idea is right, but the timing is wrong.”

 

The Nigerian-born engineer who moved to the UAE in 2011 for graduate school says fulfillment is waking up excited to build, learn, and work toward something meaningful.