About
Technology leader, builder, and writer.
Pronounced Ah Boo Ko Nay. The accent on the é in Koné carries the “nay” sound, the way it’s said in Côte d’Ivoire and across francophone West Africa.
I’m Abou Koné. I have worked in software since 2004, first as a front-end engineer and architect, then as an engineering manager and technology leader. Today I am CTO at Pacify, where I work across product, engineering, and the systems that support reliable delivery.
Before Pacify, I worked at Clockwise, ShopRunner, IDDataWeb, DDC, CACI, IMMUNIO, and Millennial Media. Those roles covered product engineering, front-end platforms, distributed teams, and engineering management. Earlier in my career, I also completed independent work and federal government technology contracts.
West African technology work
I co-founded AKIL Technologies in Abidjan in 2016 and served as its CTO. I led architecture and an engineering team building enterprise software for clients in Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, and France.
In 2018, I founded Code d’Ivoire, a developer community created for people building software in Côte d’Ivoire. The community published technical tutorials, organized online sessions, and produced annual State of the Code surveys to document how Ivorian developers learn and work.
I have also advised organizations in the region. For Orange Sénégal, I led an architecture study for NeSSICo, its commercial information system for postpaid services, and outlined a more modular path forward with its business and technical teams. Earlier community work included Coders4Africa and Gebeya. Today I maintain 100Kode, co-host TecPatri, and continue selected software and writing projects.
I publish essays on Medium, longer-form on Substack, shorter technical posts on dev.to, and operator-audience articles on LinkedIn. Recent pieces are surfaced on /writing/.
Mentoring
I make time for practical conversations about careers, code reviews, and architecture when my schedule allows. The mentoring is informal and free. Contact me with enough context to understand the question.
How I work
- Stay close to implementation and product decisions.
- Use AI-assisted development tools as part of the daily engineering workflow.
- Prefer legible systems and clear responsibilities.
- Work in English and French across North American and West African contexts.
Currently
See the Now page for a current view of my professional work, learning, writing, mentoring, and existing commitments.