It Takes a Village: The Reality of Startup Financing

People hear "friends and family funding" and imagine big checks or inheritance windfalls.

My reality? Countless moments of:

"Chale, I need money for this."

"Chale, can you spare GHS 1,000?"

Again and again.

By the time Nsano pivoted to financial services, we'd worked with Vodafone but hadn't been paid. We'd outgrown our small Busy Internet space.

So, I turned to my friend Ernest for a soft loan of GHS 50,000 to rent our first real office at Asylum Down.

Things got even tighter. Gifty (now my wife) sent me money meant for her upkeep during her master's. I used it for cloud infrastructure and salaries.

Software procurement cycles are brutal. We'd borrow, build, sell, and repay—often to zero—then borrow again before month-end. My business partner Gideon and I endured this loan-to-loan struggle to keep the dream alive.

My mother became our unofficial financier—money for food, salaries, fuel for her car which I borrowed for presentations. She saved the business countless times. Gideon's wife, Mercy, also made sacrifices—her car, money, and patience. Without them, we wouldn't have survived.

Then came the ultimate test.

We went to a banker for a salary bridge loan. Instead, he countered: GHS 100,000 for 20% of the business.

It was huge money then—roughly GHS 2 million today—when no client had paid us a pesewa.

Gideon saw a lifeline. I saw a trap. The offer undervalued us, and I believed our struggle was temporary. I refused.

Gideon fully backed me in choosing conviction over convenience. This was our first investment lesson: any money looks like salvation when you’re desperate. But the wrong partner, terms, or timing can cost you more than temporary relief is worth.

The banker refused the loan because we'd rejected his investment. We hit rock-bottom. Salaries delayed into mid-month—the only time in Nsano's history.

We survived on kindness. Thomas, an older industry colleague, understood our pain and gave us GHS 10,000 monthly for six months.

Most importantly, we had staff who believed in the vision enough to make real sacrifices. Some left companies with plush benefits to join us. At Nsano, just a salary at month's end. No health insurance. No extras. No one renegotiated salary during that period. They believed and sacrificed with us.

Two lessons:

• Know your value. People will exploit desperate entrepreneurs. They know when they're undervaluing you—and will do so if you let them.

• Gratitude matters. We repaid every debt and honoured every hand that helped. Ernest got his loan back tenfold.

Startup financing isn't the glamour of Series A announcements. It's surviving day by day, loan by loan, until clients pay.

We lived on loans and goodwill until clients began to pay—Adehyeman, OISL, Vodafone, PBL, etc.

That is how ecosystems are built: one act of faith at a time.

What carries you through is not capital, but the village that believes with you that the struggle is worth it.

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