To the ride or dies on this entrepreneurship journey

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When I was “winning”. Senior corporate executive title, top 0.5% earner in the UK, picking up the bill at dinners, treating everyone to drinks — I was surrounded. Encouraged. Gassed up. Celebrated.

Now?

Now that I’m building something that will outlive me. Something that will shift healthcare delivery for millions across Africa.

Now I’m being refined by fire. And from the outside, it doesn’t alwsys look like winning. But looks like pressure. Like risk. Like anxiety. Like a founder with young children, one navigating autism, working her way to closing her first round of institutional capital, to entering three countries in one year and to her company’s first acquisition while her bank balance whispers fear.

Suddenly, it’s quieter.

Many have distanced themselves. Not hostile. Just… absent. Others see me as a sales target. Someone to be milked, not someone to be supported. And to be honest, I’m grateful. Because adversity reveals rank. And because in this season, I have discovered the true generals. The lieutenants. The unsung heroes who showed up, came all the way in and dug deep to hold me up like scaffolding, who make it look like I’m brave all the time.

The ones who send £50 when things are tight, who invest their last £1,000 so we can unlock the next milestone, who listen to my WhatsApp podcasts 🤣 while I process stupid investors and speak out my anger to disable the power it could have over me. The ones who see the fire and say: “What’s a little heat?!”. Who see the fight and say: “Let’s be having it!”

Entrepreneurship is not glamorous. It is war. It is wilderness. It is the lion’s den. It is a fiery furnace. It is the pit before the palace. It is also the place in which you learn the harsh reality that everybody wants to be associated with a winner, but nobody wants the scars.

This part is for all of you who know serious Founders…

If you want your name called on the roster when their victory is public, you must be willing to do the unseen work when it is private.

You must be willing to stay, stand, suffer, build and believe with them when there is no applause.

Because when their round closes — and it will. When the valuation of their company rises — and it will. When the narrative shifts to “overnight success” — as it always does…

The only people they will invite to the table will be the ones who were in the trenches. Not because of revenge. But because loyalty compounds.

If you are building something great, look carefully at who stays when it’s hard. That’s your real cap table. Your real board. Your real tribe. Not those who will be quick to post that years old selfie from a random event on LinkedIn to tell the world how “close” you are.

Behind every visionary people celebrate, there are generals history forgets.

I will not forget mine.

And when the spoils come, they will be shared with those who carried the weight with me.

They know who they are, and I’m grateful

Written by

Isabelle Ugochukwu

Founder & CEO MedTech Solutions | Building Health Data Infrastructure for Africa | Powering Global Health Intelligence | Advancing Global Health with Data

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