Scaling Revenue
Through Intelligent
Systems.
AI implementations that turn operations into revenue engines. Paywall intelligence, voice automation, workflow orchestration. Built to compound positive business outcomes while you scale.
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Margaret A. Ochieng
Nairobi, Kenya
Founder, PlugUp AI
10 years in tech. Engineer turned Product Leader turned AI builder.
A decade shipping software, products, and AI systems. From APIs at Andela to fintech at Kwara, identity at Microsoft, and subscriptions at Nation Media Group. Every role, the same playbook: find the problem, ship the fix, measure the business outcome.
At Kwara, SACCOs ran on paper. I built the mobile platform that put self-service in 50,000+ members' hands during a pandemic. At Nation Media Group, I found the revenue leaks: a paywall hemorrhaging $1,500+/cycle, subscription cannibalization nobody was measuring. Then I audited 5 departments for AI readiness and delivered the strategic roadmap.
Now at PlugUp AI, I build AI systems that do the work: voice agents that recover carts, automation that replaces manual ops, workflows that ship daily. I find where AI becomes a revenue multiplier for your business.
Revenue Intelligence & Paywalls
AI-powered paywalls (Conscent, Piano) that optimize conversion dynamically. Subscription ladders that upsell, not cannibalize. A/B tested.
AI Implementation & Voice Automation
AI voice agents (Retell AI, Vapi) for lead qualification, cart recovery, and customer support. 25+ production workflows with Claude, GPT, n8n, and Make.
Product Operations & Data
Fragmented user data → actionable CDPs. Sign-up flows from 15 steps to 6. M-Pesa direct payments cutting transaction costs by 93%.
Case Studies in Revenue & AI Engineering.
Every project started with a hypothesis, stress-tested against data, delivering measurable outcomes.
AI Voice Retention: 40% Refund Decrease
E-commerce clients losing revenue to buyer's remorse in the 24-72 hour post-purchase window.
Conscent AI: +67% Annual Subscriptions
83% drop-off at first funnel stage. Daily plans dominated. ARPU stuck at 600+.
The PAB Paradox: Plugging a $1,500+/Cycle Leak
Per Article Billing cost 8.35x in downgrades for every dollar gained in upsells.
25+ AI Workflows Shipped
Manual processes across lead qualification, content generation, SEM, and analytics.
NMG AI Audit: Strategic Opportunity Assessment
East Africa's largest media house needed to understand where AI could create value across 5 departments, but had no structured assessment of opportunities, costs, or implementation priorities.
Lipa na M-Pesa: 93% Direct Shift
96% preferred M-Pesa but payments routed through costly 3rd-party gateway.
E-commerce Voice Agents: 41% Cart Recovery
E-commerce brands losing revenue to abandoned carts, spam calls, and slow lead response.
Mtaa Wangu: 1 City to 3
Hyperlocal platform limited to Nakuru. Needed backend infrastructure for expansion.
The Operating System.
Diagnose
Map revenue flow. Find leaks. Quantify the invisible.
Architect
Design paywall logic, data pipelines, upsell triggers, AI workflows.
Ship
Build with engineering. A/B test. Launch production-grade systems.
Compound
Measure. Iterate. Turn wins into recurring revenue engines.
The Build Log.
2016 to 2026. APIs → Product → AI. Every role, the same discipline: find the problem, ship the fix, measure the outcome.
Founder & AI Implementation Partner
PlugUp AIVoice agents, workflow automation, and revenue engineering. AI systems designed to compound business outcomes.
- Deployed AI voice agents for e-commerce clients: 41% cart recovery for a beauty brand ($12K/mo saved), 3.9x speed-to-lead conversion for apparel, 87% spam filtered for jewellery
- Designed AI-powered post-purchase retention using outbound Voice AI. 40% decrease in refund and cancellation requests
- Built 25+ production AI workflows (lead qualification, content gen, SEM bots, summarization, dashboards) using GPT, Claude, Make, n8n
Senior Product Manager
Nation Media GroupEast Africa's largest media house. Owned digital subscriptions, fixed the revenue leaks nobody was measuring, and delivered an independent AI opportunity audit.
- Led Conscent AI paywall integration, driving 67% increase in annual subscriptions
- Identified Per Article Billing revenue leak ($1,500+/cycle) and designed the strategic fix that stopped it
- Championed first-party data capture across NMG touchpoints (Daily Nation, Business Daily, The EastAfrican, ePaper), leading to a unified CDP that enabled subscriber profiling and laid the bedrock for personalized content delivery
- Led Nation.Africa → Daily Nation rebrand across product and content strategy
- Launched Lipa na M-Pesa direct integration: 93% direct payments, $1,700+ saved monthly on transaction fees
- Orchestrated the backend layer for Mtaa Wangu hyperlocal product, architecting the infrastructure to scale from Nairobi to Nakuru and Eldoret
- Redesigned sign-up flow from 15+ steps to 6, lifting registration by 44%
- Conducted independent AI audit: stakeholder interviews across 5 departments, operational mapping, and strategic roadmap with projected ROI
- Drove 25% engagement lift and 18% retention improvement through data-driven experimentation
Technical Program Manager
MicrosoftMicrosoft Identity platform. Feedback loops and knowledge systems that enabled customer self-service at scale.
- Built user feedback loop for Microsoft Identity, translating insights into product enhancements that boosted satisfaction and adoption
- Co-created product knowledge base with Engineering and UX. 95% customer self-onboarding rate
- Coordinated cross-office collaboration across time zones, bridging technical and non-technical teams
Technical Product Manager
Kwara GMBHSaaS fintech for SACCOs. Pivoted from engineering to PM. Built the B2C layer that locked in 50K+ members and made SACCOs sticky, right as the pandemic hit.
- Built the member-facing mobile app (B2C) from scratch. Self-service loans, statements, and savings put control in members' hands and made SACCOs sticky on the platform
- Shipped checker functionality: multi-level loan review, critical for fraud prevention in an industry where accountability is everything
- Built roles & permissions engine: granular access control with full audit trails. No manufactured approvals, no untraceable fraud
- Delivered teller management system. Opening float, auto-reconciliation to vault at end of day
- Built automated dividends allocation: calculates and settles into every member account post-AGM. Members see it in days
- Extended Mambu core banking integration: compliance reporting and the backend infrastructure SACCOs depend on for regulation
- Architected API platform for third-party integrations without platform lock-in
- Onboarded 50,000+ members, driving 40% customer acquisition growth
Software Engineer
AndelaWhere it started. Four years of full-stack engineering across client companies, building APIs and leading teams.
- Built NodeJS RESTful APIs on AWS Lambda + API Gateway with Cognito auth
- Slashed web portal latency by 60% through caching, redirect reduction, and minification
- Led 2 scrum teams (9 engineers): pair programming, code reviews, sprint delivery
- Frontdoor Inc.: led greenfield tech selection, 90%+ test coverage, expanded canduhome.com across US states
- RBI Digital: built analytics tool turning consumer data into business insights, increasing order rates for restaurant brands
- Championed TDD, maintained 80%+ coverage, and implemented CI/CD pipelines across projects