When I think about finding investors, I also think about the conversations we will have after they back us.

A year later:

  • What would they say about working with me?
  • Would they understand where their money went?
  • Would they understand the progress we had made, what we had learned, and the challenges we were facing?
  • Would they feel that I had taken their belief in me seriously?

Those questions matter to me.

I live in Nigeria. Building a company from here means working through constraints, including distance from many of the people I hope to build relationships with. There are fewer opportunities for someone on the other side of the world to meet me casually or watch how I work over time.

That makes me think carefully about how I make my work visible, explain my decisions, and earn trust.

I want to build relationships that last for years. I want to earn the trust of the people who back me through the way I work and the commitments I keep, so they are willing to listen when I bring them another difficult problem worth solving.

That starts with how I handle the opportunity in front of me.

For me, keeping my word starts with being careful about what I promise. If I say an investment will help us reach a particular milestone, I should be able to explain the work involved, the assumptions behind the plan, and how we will measure progress. I should understand the terms I agree to and take those commitments seriously.

Those commitments should remain visible in how I run the company.

I want to be deliberate about who we hire, what we prioritise, and how we use capital. Each decision should have a clear purpose, with progress we can assess. I will take responsibility for the results, address mistakes early, and act on what we learn, even when that means changing a decision I strongly believed in.

Communication matters just as much when the news is difficult. A delayed product, a customer who walks away, or an assumption that turns out to be wrong should lead to an honest conversation. People who have backed me should have enough information to understand the situation.

Building Merdra will mean developing new ideas and refining our approach as we learn. Research can challenge a plan. Customers can reveal a different problem. When that happens, I want to explain the evidence, discuss the consequences, and agree on any necessary changes to our commitments.

I cannot promise that every decision will work. I'm committed to doing the work, taking responsibility for my decisions, and being truthful about the results.

My focus now is Merdra. I want to build infrastructure that allows medical information to follow a patient across healthcare providers and become useful to the software built around their care.

My vision for Merdra is ambitious. Software is our focus today, and over time I want us to expand into hardware that works with the infrastructure we are building. Getting there will take sustained work. I want us to earn each next step through what we build, learn, and deliver today.

A lasting investor relationship will still require each new idea to stand on its own merits. What I hope carries forward is a clear record of how I work.

Years from now, I would like someone introducing me to be able to say: "He takes his commitments seriously, he tells you what is happening, and he keeps doing the difficult work."

I want to earn that description through the way I build Merdra.