2025: The Year That Almost Broke Me, And Made Me Stronger

2025: The Year That Almost Broke Me, And Made Me Stronger

To be honest, I'm grateful for 2025, but I wouldn't want to relive it.

To put things in perspective, I shed 7 kg this year.

Not because I intended to.

My strategy for losing weight was stress.

Above all, though, I am thankful to Adonia for keeping me alive and for always being there when I needed Him, sometimes at the last minute.

The Year Was Soft at First... Then reality set in.

2025 started off slowly and smoothly.

Cybite Academy Limited gained its independence. We felt like we were doing "big-boy moves" for the first time.

Unilag is three minutes away from the office.

We furnished the room.

Promotions for a new cohort started.

The first cohort was almost sold out. Everything appeared fine. I was looking forward to the future.

Then came March and April.

Things began to fall apart.

I hold my Cybite co-founders accountable for their carelessness.

I also hold myself responsible for improperly organizing the terms of the first cohort.

We suffered significant financial losses.

Cash flow became constrained.

Money was being wasted on marketing.

We were being choked by operational costs.

The economy continued to deteriorate, with prices going up weekly.

The last blow?

A much bigger brand moved into the same building.

They had more than twenty locations. larger pockets. greater leverage.

In order to remain competitive, we had to lower our prices.

It was effective, but at a price.

In order to survive, we were losing more money.

Returning to the Drawing Board

I began preparing to relaunch my e-commerce business, which I had lost to a hack in August 2023, by early March 2025.

However, I was certain that I couldn't repeat the process in the same manner.

B2C was insufficient on its own. I required an alternative strategy.

Returning to my idea book, I recalled Pinduoduo, a Chinese company that transformed traditional markets into a tech behemoth that I had studied in early 2023.

They combined orders from various people.

permitted people to purchase smaller units.

After that, everything was combined and sold at wholesale prices.

I couldn't shake that thought.

Because the truth is:

Food isn’t expensive; food is inexpensive because there are too many middlemen involved.

How Grup Found Its Team

I originally wanted to launch in November, around Black Friday.
But waiting felt dangerous.

I needed a team fast.

That was the hardest part.

One day, while trying to fix a system issue for my Cybite students, I went to a computer shop. After dropping my laptop, I wanted to leave immediately.

But something told me to stay.

A few minutes later, a tall, fair guy walked in. He started asking me questions. I wasn’t in the mood my mind was heavy. Funding. Team. Execution.

Eventually, we talked.

That was Michael.

We clicked instantly. Same interests. Same curiosity. I told him about the idea. We exchanged numbers.

A week later, he called me at midnight.

That’s when I knew he saw the vision too.

The Pieces Slowly Came Together

We hit another roadblock: no backend engineer.

April passed.
No code.
No progress.
Everything paused.

Then in June, I messaged a senior from my secondary school who was studying at Unilag. I told him how hard it was to find a backend dev.

He dropped a message in his department group chat.

That night, I got seven requests.

I chose one.

Funny enough, he shares my name.
We connected instantly.
Same vision. Same hunger.

That changed everything.

From Concept to Business

After meeting Ugo in June, I realized that marketing was the missing component.

Someone with people-moving skills was what we needed.

That individual was MP, a former Cybite student of mine.

I trusted his motion.

The founding team was assembled by July.

Grup Limited was incorporated.

The word group is where the name "Grup" originated.

We eliminated the letter "o" to make it short, straightforward, pronounceable, and memorable.

The website went live on September 1st.

Four weeks.

Software that is prepared for enterprises.

It still blows my mind.

Where We Are Now

Today, Grup has clarity.

The team has grown to 6 people.
Everyone is pulling their weight.
And I respect that deeply.

We’ve grown to 60 real users.
We’ve done over ₦1.2M in sales between September and December.

And we can do much more.

What 2025 Taught Me

2025 taught me operations.
It forced me to grow fast.
It humbled me.

I’m grateful for that growth.

Looking Ahead to 2026

In 2026, Grup will focus heavily on:

• Marketing

• Customer experience

• Speed and quality

We’re launching a new feature that allows people to get groceries and fresh food items in 10–40 minutes.

Fresh. Affordable. Convenient.

We started with nothing but an idea.
Today, we’re a team of six people who genuinely want to see this company win.

In 2026, we’re hitting 100,000 users.

You’ll be surprised how it happens but it will.

My slogan for 2026:

Great Things Are Happening. (GTAH)