What We Built. What Broke. What’s Next?

10 Lessons From 10 Years of Trying to Build the Impossible.

This December, The Innovation Village turns 10.

But this isn’t a celebration. It’s a field report.

A brutally honest reflection from the trenches of trying to build what didn’t exist, without a roadmap, in a system not designed for builders.

We didn’t have deep pockets or a perfect blueprint.
What we had was belief.
That if we could build the right environment, entrepreneurs in Africa would do the rest.

Over the last decade, we’ve:

• Built platforms, markets, policies, and production spaces.
• Backed thousands of entrepreneurs.
• Partnered with governments, global institutions, and community builders.
• Redefined what an ecosystem could look like.

But here’s what we don’t say enough:

We’ve borrowed to make payroll.
We’ve lost relationships we thought were unbreakable.
We’ve faced burnout, betrayal, and days it felt easier to shut it all down than to keep going.

That’s the part of the journey that never makes it onto a panel, a pitch deck, a presentation.
And yet… we’re still here. Maybe even when we should not.
Because what we’re building isn’t just a business.
It’s a place-based legacy, a platform meant to outlive us and raise the floor for the next generation of builders.

So, for the next 10 weeks, I’ll be sharing:

10 Lessons in 10 Years. Real. Raw. From the frontlines, deep in the trenches. Unfiltered.
Not theory. Not branding. Just the truth.

This is for:

• The builder wondering if it’s meant to feel this hard (it is)
• The funder who truly wants to support transformation (it’s possible)
• The policymaker trying to unlock something better (we need you)

We don’t share these stories enough.
But if we don’t, who will?