When I looked back on the past 12 months we’ve built Intelli for.
It made a lot of sense why I had to have a support system with me. And a support system isn't necessarily the people(individuals who promise and tell you how they are available and there for you) the real support system is made up of folks who show up consistently on days when situations demand. These people don't peddle words or promises. They show up with fervrour and do what needs to be done.
We received funding from an accelerator. That money(investment decision was made in September 2024) and fast forward we chose a path of incorporation that had us wait for a good solid 5 months( we received our incorporation certificate in January 2025) after that the battle for the EIN began. If we had a US citizen as a cofounder these are things that could have been done instantly: talk of the power of a SSN. I have been reminded profoundly of how different worldly systems treat anyone who’s not of their system or one considered to be from a lower grade of a country.
Like a colleague always says "We are treated like second class citizens". While I'm not one to ascribe to this train of thought or to think of myself as a second class (or any class) citizen for I come from above, I certainly have felt the impact of this thinking and notion in policy.
My mandate today isn’t to whine but rather to emphasise and impart key lessons that have been very important and crucial to keeping me together throughout these tribulations and challenges that shouldn’t have occured in the first place.
Deter you’ll not incur any costs:
This is the same principle used by the USA in war, whenever you spot a potential threat or problem that might arise from taking a certain path or making a certain decision, it’s best to avert that from happening by outright taking another route or measures that prevent what you anticipate to occur from happening.
By so doing you do what's called nipping a problem in the bud. For our instance our incorporation should have come through way quicker if we had used a platform and structure which was already established and well trusted. This would enable us to move smoothly through creating bank accounts and all related processes post incorporation wouldn't be so painful to us and affect our plans and operations. We would have saved 6+ months burnt away moving and doing business like a self funded startup yet we are VC backed and the money ought to give us the time advantage.
It’s a marathon not a race:
Plan wisely and move strategically. When you observe Usain bolt or any 100M race sprinter run and at the same time compare their style, speed, cadence and rhythm with a long distance runner like Eliud Kipchoge who does marathons of 2500~5000M you learn the difference between calculated energy expenditure.
A startup typically takes 10-15 years to take off the ground and become something, that's if it survived the first 3 years of infancy. For us it's not yet even the 1 year mark so we have a long way to go. This thinking has been ingrained in me and I constantly are awakened to this consciousness to be a little bit more patient with processes and how they pan out because in the grand scheme of things the macro picture looks elegant and grand. The pain and suffering experienced in the 5-6 months is nothing compared to the eternal glory to be enjoyed when we turn 15, 20, 40, 100 etc.
So how we plan our marketing campaigns, branding, product development, and delivery is all with this marathon mindset. If we don't die in the next 10 years we are going to build a unicorn, and even if we die we shall have built a framework and system that can survive the impact of time itself.
No one is coming to save you:
There’s nothing that is sobering to the mind like knowing that no help is coming from outside. All the help you will ever need is inside you. You just need to dig deeper to find it.
Knowing that we we're stranded on a startup island in rough seas of bills from ISPs, server hosting companies and many other things kind of sobered me up to start looking for solutions within and top looking outward( to the portfolio and our PoC) This triggered a mindset of there's no impossibility within me, as long as I can think of it, I'll do it. I'll need to take time to study hard and burn the midnight oil but when I pay the price in full I'll finally get to do what I set my mind to. Our product has grown tremendously and so has the team grown with it too.
We are all better Software Engineers than we were a year ago. And that's a testament to knowing that there's no outside help coming. Ofcourse this doesn't actually mean that you cut off everyone. If they do come through and genuinely offer help do accept it humbly and keep it moving.
Keep it together your mind needs you in one piece. Your spirit man has a lot of answers but most of the times the processing part of you(your mind) is confounded either by external stimuli and thus cannot listen or heed to the answers from within or is unable to understand the language he(the inner man) uses and thus in computer science terms the mind cannot compile the machine language the spirit speaks into high level human readable programming languages that are easily understandable by and articulated to another man. So we have to switch off the external stimuli to sort the first problem and then learn by either trial and error or divine enablement to speak the language that the spirit speaks with our mind. This way we get answers to the hardest questions we've asked ourselves.
Do hard things first
Over the course of now 10 months I've been building our product. I haven't gotten a single ounce of pleasure out of staving off or delaying to do a hard thing (translated into something that requires a lot of brain power, focus and time investment)
Most of the times we get dopamine heights from one-shotting tasks, those tasks that get done so easily without even thinking so hard about it or lifting a finger. These tasks are good but unfortunately they don't add to our growth neither do they benefit us or our stakeholders in the long run.
It is only from doing hard things that I have come to learn a lot, I have also come to appreciate what I thought my limits were, surpassed them and as a result becomes better as a SWE.
It is while doing hard things that I got epiphanies on how to do other things simpler and in more straightforward ways because I spent time to think about how efficient a process could be made or jow much more lag we could squeeze out of an API call so the user has a smooth experience interacting with our product.
Those days when I look at my task board and it's a hard task I know greater days lie ahead of the constant persistent errors and poring through documentation and stack overflow thread to arguing with AI in my IDE.
Do hard things, for that's what greatness is called to do.
Travel lean/light, Go together.
Finally, this principle will keep you as light as possible; for anyone going on a marathon or a long distance flight travelling light/lean might seem counterintuitive since the journey is gonna be long and thus you need to prepare for it with rations and food and everything that you need.
However you'll be reinforced with the second part of the statement; go together. Hikers on a mountain trail can survive better when huddled together for warmth and protection from the elements and wild animals better than hikers who travel solo however much well prepared they are.
Having wonderful partners in your teammates is an essential block for you to achieve this. Make sure everyone has a piece of the rope they are holding such that if one of you slips the others can feel it and uphold them.
Doing this in turns will ensure your energy is preserved and will enable all of you to make it through the long tedious journey. Sometimes it's a simple wire transfer, a word of encouragement, a praise, a hug, a pat on the shoulder, a video call, and it'll go a long way to push your cofounder out of that corner the world has boxed them into back into the main game.
Going together also means no pointing fingers. It's very easy to shift blame (trust me it's very tempting) to find someone to blame for all the things that are not working as expected but kindly acknowledge the problems and find solutions for them rather than allocating blame to who or what is causing these problems. Ofcourse if ever in doubt about how to solve problems refer to principle 1. There you go folks.
That's what I've gleaned from my experience I hope it helps you too. Stay empirical, stay based, stay level headed. Have the faith of God.