When Ayoola Gbade-Bello took the stage for a pitch competition at the Communitech Startup Bootcamp Showcase event on Jan. 22, 2025, he wasn’t expecting to get emotional. But as he started talking about Kintrace, the storytelling platform he had built, and how he had recorded his father’s voice several months before he died, the weight of the moment overcame him. He broke into tears, overwhelmed by the realization of how much that single recording meant, not just to him, but to the mission behind Kintrace.
“My dad told his own story and for 45 minutes, he told me a really compelling story that transfixed me. I was like, this story you’ve just told me should not die with you. We literally have to find a way to bring it to life.” he said. “My dad was an engineer. His father was a farmer, and the father of that one was a warrior chief,” he said. “For my own kids, I want them to be able to see where their identity lies. You had a great, great ancestor who was a warrior chief, you had one who was a farmer, you’ve got one who was an engineer, and then you have me, an entrepreneur at the University of Waterloo. You could choose to be an astronaut tomorrow.”
Ayo’s passion for preserving family history inspired him to create Kintrace, a digital platform where families can document their own stories. By combining user-generated content with AI-driven storytelling, Kintrace helps bridge generational gaps. But the path to launching it was anything but straightforward.
From an early age, Ayo showed an instinct for business. His late father, an engineer, recognized his talent for drawing and design. By high school, Ayo was already turning his skills into profit by creating custom notebooks for classmates. In university, he took his entrepreneurial spirit further by launching a printing service for merchandise that helped fund his education.
“Entrepreneurship has always been that thing for me,” he says. “By my second year in school, I was already fending for myself. My outfits became so popular that I was able to make sales at two other universities because of what I was doing with my talent. Then I got a job at an advertising firm as an ad director.”
That foundation paved the way for a successful career in advertising, consulting and eventually, technology. The idea for Kintrace took shape when Ayo was running a consulting firm in Nigeria. In 2017, a client asked for a printed family history book, compiled from scattered documents, to share with relatives. A year later, they wanted an updated version. That’s when Ayo realized he had uncovered a bigger opportunity.
“I started researching and found great platforms like Ancestry.com, but when I tried to use it for my own story in a way that was compelling, I couldn’t find my own family and it was like, you don’t exist,” he says. “I’m like, okay, there’s a problem here. Maybe I need to build an African version.”
What started as a simple genealogy project quickly grew into something more. In November 2023, Ayo immigrated to Canada with his wife and two children, ready to explore new opportunities. Soon after arriving, he joined the University of Waterloo’s Master of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MBET) program and became involved with Velocity, further shaping his vision for Kintrace.
Through these experiences, Ayo discovered that tracing family histories was a challenge for families from diverse cultures and backgrounds. More importantly, he realized that his initial assumptions about his platform’s audience and purpose were wrong.
“The Kintrace I started is not the Kintrace today. I had three assumptions that have been proven false,” he said. “The first was that I was building a genealogy platform. The second assumption was that I was building this platform for older generations. The third assumption was that this would only be an African thing.”
After speaking with people from Pakistan, India, and China, Ayo realized that tracing family histories is a global challenge. He was also surprised to find that younger generations, Gen Z and Millennials, are among the most interested in preserving their family stories.
Ayo says accessibility is a key differentiator of Kintrace. Instead of requiring users to learn a new system, Kintrace integrates seamlessly with WhatsApp, where families are already connecting. An AI chatbot guides users with thoughtful prompts about their family’s past so they can build and refine their stories over time.
“We try to make it user-friendly,” Ayo said. “Most people already have family groups on WhatsApp. So we’re not asking them to learn something new. We’re just enhancing what they already do.”
Kintrace also offers families the ability to publish their stories in various formats, from digital archives to printed books, and even video content.
“We’re working with publishing companies and film producers, whoever’s interested in taking some of these stories and making them more compelling,” he said. “For example, some people would love to see their story on the big screen.”
In December 2024, Ayo was one of 23 local founders chosen for the Communitech Startup Bootcamp, a six-week in-person program designed to help new entrepreneurs understand the fundamentals of building a business.
“It was a life-changing experience,” he said. “I was able to network with fellow entrepreneurs. There was something very special about that cohort. There was a communal approach to our problems, so everybody had shared values.”
With a growing waitlist of over 50 families and an ambitious goal to onboard 100 families by the end of 2025, Kintrace is gaining momentum. The next phase involves refining the AI model, securing funding and expanding the platform beyond WhatsApp to a standalone app.
Ayo is also using Kintrace to write his father’s autobiography.
“All the stories people shared after he died, the impact he had, it’s all being compiled. I want the world to know the type of father that raised me,” he said. “As I continue to get used to loss, I know that this is a mission I have to fulfill.”
