The Ecosystem Builder's Lies
Across Africa, ecosystem builders are praised for purpose, resilience, sacrifice, and commitment. But passion does not pay rent. Passion does not pay salaries. Passion does not pay transport, internet, staff, reporting costs, legal costs, or emotional debt.
A lie might look like this:
“I told everyone the programme was going well, but I was using my own grocery money to keep it alive.”
The room was full. The pictures looked good. The partners were happy. Founders were posting thank you messages online. But behind the scenes, I was paying for transport, data, food, printing, calls, and follow ups from my own pocket. Everyone saw impact. Nobody saw the debt.
Or like this:
“I told my family this work would open doors, but every month I still had to explain why I had no stable income.”
Outside, people called me a builder. At home, they asked when I would get a real job. That question hurts because you know the work matters, but you also know passion does not answer school fees, rent, groceries, or family expectations. You start defending a dream that is slowly embarrassing you.
Or like this:
“I believed that if I helped enough founders win, someone would eventually remember who helped them get there.”
I showed up for pitch decks, late night calls, investor introductions, programme reports, founder breakdowns, and emergency advice. When the founder won, the ecosystem clapped for the startup. When I needed support, everyone became busy. That is when I learned that being useful is not the same as being valued.
This conversation is not about complaining. It is about naming the realities we have normalised for too long, so that ecosystem building can be treated as serious work, with serious infrastructure, serious support, and serious sustainability.
This is an open online Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Society, ASEB Society conversation where the Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Summit & Awards, ASEB past winners, ecosystem builders, founders, and ecosystem stakeholders confront one of the quietest lies in our field, that passion alone will sustain the people holding the ecosystem together.
EVENT THEME
The Lies We Tell, The Lies We Believe, and The Truth We Have Been Avoiding
SESSION THEME
The Lie That Passion Will Pay the Bills
Event details
Date: Thursday, 2 July 2026
Time: 16:00 to 17:30 Johannesburg
Format: Online
Host: McKevin Ayaba
Presented by: ASEB Society
ASEB Society is Africa’s institutional home for startup ecosystem builders, advancing ecosystem building as a professional practice and infrastructure for African entrepreneurship. It is also the home of the Africa Startup Ecosystem Builders Summit and Awards, ASEB.