As folks have continued to shift gazes from traditional jobs like medicine, law and engineering to engagements in content creation, digital marketing, and, more recently, into “Tech”, it appears that the monster of chaos and pressure has survived this evolution. 

This story is about a young man who deferred his medical school admission to pursue his tech dreams, built a product, raised angel investment, got married, and is currently building a product in exile. 

Let’s call him Henry. Henry’s tech journey began at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; from the walls of Alvan Ikoku hostel to long, exhausting hours in the lecture theatres. One thing led to another, and he got to his tipping point. 

You know that one event that changes everything? From grass to grace, direst poverty to dripping wealth, SAPA-choked to celebrity bling, and third world to the first world. Henry entered a new life on the day he deferred his admission. 

According to his sister (let’s call her Amaka), Henry was a bright chap. With 300+ in JAMB, no one could doubt his academic prowess. He was the Elon Musk of his family. 

After deferring his admission, Henry met his Messiah, a Software engineer who at that time got a gig to work for a start-up abroad. And like every Lagos boy, he asked the man to show him the way – a way that led him into Full Stack development.  

(Let’s pause here. We’ll connect the dots in a jiffy😉)

The year is 2021. One female final-year student at the University of Port-Harcourt had just fallen in love with a crypto guru nicknamed ‘Astro’. He was everything she wanted in a man. Dark, tall, and a little pint of Yoruba demon. Astro treated her like a queen, hopping her from flight to flight; they were having the time of their lives. This lover girl was Amaka – Henry’s sister.

Apart from being a crypto genius, Astro was also interested in investing in tech. He told his babe about his intentions, and she introduced him to her brother, Henry. Coincidentally, Henry was working on a “community inclined social media project” at its early stage. Its central idea was to build an app that connects local communities. 

Amaka set up a meeting, her brother was ready and his pitch was perfect. This got him a $20,000 pre-seed investment from Astro for a 30% stake in the company. In between the conversations, Amaka expected to get something off the deal as the facilitator. You know, something to see-front-with; unfortunately, she did not receive a penny even from her brother. 

She was so distraught that she reported Henry to their mother who scolded him harshly. Henry later sent NGN200,000 to the family and apologised. 

Unfortunately, things began to go south. The product he was working on started to show some terrible signs. Rats did not sound like rats, and the birds were not singing. Who sings under a burning roof? 

One major problem Henry had was that he had no team. He never hired anyone, even after raising funds. He was the CEO + CTO + PM + Q&A. He was the alpha and omega of his product. 

At one point, Amaka brought up the idea of hiring a few people to help him build the product, but he did not listen to her. Days morphed into weeks, and weeks into months. Still, he could not come up with his proposed MVP. In the thick of the brewing chaos, Henry crowned his eight-year-old relationship. 

The marriage was a perfect excuse to buy more time from his investors and the distraction he truly needed to clear his mind. According to Amaka, everything appeared fine until Henry took off in mid-April 2022. Several missed calls from his wife alarmed Amaka because up until that time, they had not been on the very best terms.

Have you been in a similar situation as Amaka? What did you do? If you have not, how would you handle this? Please, let us know in the comments section below.

Editor’s Note: Names in this story have been changed to protect the identity of our sources.