I hope your week has been more about strategic growth and less about staring at oil price tickers with a heavy heart.

With Brent crude pushing $120 and the Strait of Hormuz essentially becoming a global "no-parking zone," it’s easy to feel like the economic ground is shifting beneath us. But there is a massive revelation hiding inside this chaos that most founders miss. For years, the gold standard of business was being "lean" which is optimizing for the lowest costs, the fastest deliveries, and zero inventory. We called this "Just-in-Time" management, but in 2026, we are discovering that being too lean is actually a dangerous form of fragility.

When a single geopolitical flicker 4,000 miles away can rewrite your logistics budget overnight, extreme efficiency stops being an asset and starts being a trap. The hidden truth is that the founders winning right now aren't the ones who found the cheapest path, but the ones who built the most Optionality. In this era of permanent volatility, redundancy is no longer a "wasteful" expense; it is your most valuable asset. If your business depends on a single linear path , whether that’s one supplier, one energy source, or one shipping route—you aren't actually in control. You are just a passenger waiting for the next headline to decide your fate.

The goal for this week is to pivot your mindset from "Just-in-Time" to "Just-in-Case." This means mapping your hidden chokepoints and building a business that doesn't just hope for a peaceful world but thrives on its own internal adaptability. Whether it is shifting to modular supply chains or investing in decentralized infrastructure, the aim is to become anti-fragile. Stability isn't a gift that the market gives you; it is a structural choice you make in your boardroom today. Let’s build the things that stay standing, no matter how loud the world gets.

Let’s get into WO updates.

We often hear about what seems to be an overnight success stories, today we are celebrating a journey of pure, unadulterated grit. I am thrilled to share that one of us, Saheed Akinbile and his startup, Minicor, have officially been accepted into Y Combinator (YC) for the Spring 2026 batch.

But here is the part of the story that every builder in this community needs to hear: Saheed applied to YC seven times. He sat through three different interviews over several years before finally getting that "Yes."

In the startup world, getting into YC is the equivalent of getting into Harvard or Stanford but arguably harder. With an acceptance rate usually hovering around 1% to 2%, it is the ultimate global seal of approval. It’s not just about the funding; it’s about joining the elite lineage that built Airbnb, Stripe, and Coinbase. It is a signal to the world that you are building something with the potential to become a generational giant.

Saheed didn't get in because he had a perfect first try. He got in because he refused to let six "No’s" define the value of his dream. Every application was a refinement. Every failed interview was a lesson. To every founder in this circle currently facing rejection or slow growth: Persistence is a competitive advantage. Most people stop at application three or four. Saheed stopped at seven only because he got in.

Saheed and his team are solving one of the most painful bottlenecks in modern enterprise: Scalable Desktop Automation.

While many tools handle web-based tasks, the real world still runs on legacy desktop apps, Citrix, and complex Windows environments (think healthcare records or accounting software like QuickBooks). Historically, these were a nightmare to automate because if a single button moved or a pop-up appeared, the whole system broke.

Minicor is an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) platform powered by AI "computer-use" agents. Unlike traditional bots, Minicor’s agents are self-healing. If a user interface changes, the agent reflects, adapts, and corrects itself in real-time instead of crashing. It allows companies to trigger complex desktop workflows with a single API call, scaling across thousands of virtual machines without the constant need for manual maintenance.

Saheed found a maintenance killer in a massive, unsexy market and stayed at it until the world's most prestigious accelerator took notice.

Huge congratulations, Saheed! You’ve shown us that the dream doesn't belong to the fastest - it belongs to the one who refuses to leave the race.

Innovation is a lonely road, and wins like this belong to the whole community. Let's rally behind Saheed—follow his journey, and more importantly, head over to his announcement post to like, comment, and celebrate this milestone. It takes a village to scale, and we are his village.

👉 Congratulate Saheed and See the Post Here

In the early days of a startup, there is a romantic notion of the lonely founder building everything from scratch. But if you look at the giants who own the 2026 landscape, you’ll realize that the fastest way to the top isn't building a ladder it’s hitching your wagon to a rocket ship.

Partnerships are the ultimate "Growth Cheat Code." They allow you to "rent" the infrastructure, credibility, and scale that would otherwise take you a decade to build

We see this in how Microsoft’s compute power turned OpenAI’s research into a global powerhouse, and how NVIDIA became the industry’s oxygen by embedding itself into every major cloud provider. Even rivals like Apple and Google, or Shopify and Amazon, trade distribution and logistics to maintain their mutual dominance. The lesson is simple: you don’t need to build the whole mountain from scratch; you just need to find a seat on the right lift.

This isn't just a handshake; it is a massive injection of operational oxygen for startups. Through this collaboration, founders in the Imisi HealthCare network can now access:

By partnering with Spendbase, Imisi HealthCare is removing the two biggest hurdles for early-stage healthtech founders: the cost of computing and the chaos of software management. It allows founders to stop worrying about the bill and start focusing on the cure.

Imisi HealthCare is proving that being a community leader means more than just networking , it means building the bridges that help everyone else cross the chasm faster.

🤝 Show Some Support:
Let’s celebrate this strategic win for the ecosystem. Head over to the announcement, see how you can benefit, and show Imisi HealthCare some WO love.

👉 See the Full Partnership Announcement Here

Most founders spend months polishing a great idea, believing it’s the golden ticket to an angel check. But there is a hard truth hitting the market in 2026: angels don’t invest in ideas anymore. They invest in signals , specific markers of traction and founder DNA that most builders don’t even realize they are sending. Over the last 18 months, the landscape has shifted toward fewer checks and much higher filters, meaning many founders are still pitching using a playbook that became obsolete two years ago.

On March 16, Uche Aniche is bringing Steve Adelman to the ASVLP Masterclass to pull back the curtain on how investors actually think today. This isn't a theoretical lecture; it’s a breakdown of why only one out of 200 decks gets a second look and the specific cold outreach mistakes that kill a raise before it starts. Steve will be sharing exactly how he would navigate a pre-seed round in this current economy, including the founder traits he used to overvalue and the ones he now considers non-negotiable. If you are building or planning to raise, this conversation could save you months of expensive mistakes.

In a market where capital is selective, your ability to project the right signal is more important than your ability to build a slide deck. Don't go into your next pitch using 2024 assumptions.

Seats for this Masterclass are limited. If you want to join the conversation and level up your fundraising strategy, head over to Uche’s announcement and comment "Masterclass" to receive your invite.

👉 Join the Masterclass Discussion Here

There is a point in every high-achiever’s career where technical excellence stops being the tool that takes you higher. To move from a top-tier executor to a generational architect, you have to stop simply managing tasks and start designing strategy.

The problem is that you cannot build that version of yourself while submerged in the noise of daily operations. This is the core of the Retreat for Young Execs - a strategic pit stop designed for leaders ready to sharpen their edge and return with a clarity that their peers lack. In a high-pressure economy, stepping back to recalibrate isn't a luxury; it’s a competitive advantage.

What You Will Gain: You will walk away with a sharper mindset for managing pressure and a practical productivity system to organize your work and prioritize what actually moves the needle. You'll also gain clear insight into how AI is specifically impacting your role and a mentoring roadmap to accelerate your growth. Most importantly, you will leave with defined personal commitments to turn these insights into immediate action.

The Facilitators

The retreat brings together a heavy-hitting lineup of industry veterans and leadership experts, including:

👉 Register for the Retreat Here

We have a quick question for the builders in this circle: How long has your software or tech idea been sitting at "almost ready"? For many, the answer isn’t weeks , it’s months or even a year of over-researching and vibe-coding through YouTube tutorials.

The hard truth of 2026 is that the real danger to your startup isn't the complexity of the technology; it’s the stagnation of the founder. While you are perfecting your research, someone else is likely building your concept. If you are a non-technical founder, you don't need to spend the next 12 months becoming a developer , you need a clear, executable plan to get your product into the hands of users.

The SaaS Launchpad was created by E3 Digital to act as that exact catalyst. This isn't just another theoretical course; it is a structured program designed to take you from a stalled idea to a launched business in four focused weeks.

What to Expect: The program focuses on high-velocity execution. You will work through a rigorous process to validate your idea, followed by the delivery of a live product and a working Go-To-Market (GTM) system. By taking the heavy lifting of the initial build off your plate, the Launchpad allows you to focus on your actual job: leading and scaling.

Precision is important, but in the software world, momentum is a superpower. If you are ready to stop overthinking and start launching, this is your signal.

👉 Join the SaaS Launchpad Here

This week, we have curated over $35M+ in combined funding, grants, and scaling resources. Below is the updated list, reordered by the closest deadline to ensure you don’t miss out on these critical windows.

WO Weekend Binge

Whether you were in the front row or missed the chance to be in the room, the Josh Leadership Founders Roundtable in Lagos is essential viewing. This wasn’t just an event; it was a high-stakes gathering where serious builders stripped away the "founder theater" to deal with the hard math of scaling in 2026.

For those who couldn't make it: This is your chance to stop watching from the sidelines. You missed the raw energy, but you can still capture the strategic blueprint shared by those leading the charge. This video is your "Growth Cheat Code" to catch up on the insights that are already shaping the next move for Lagos’ top founders.

For those who were in the room: You know how fast the insights were flying. This is your opportunity to pause, rewind, and truly bake those lessons into your strategy. Relive the "aha" moments, catch the nuances you might have missed during networking, and sharpen the notes you took.

What you’ll unpack in this session:

The Roundtable is about sharpening one another so we can all move faster. Whether you're watching for the first time or the fifth, spend some time with this over the weekend to calibrate your internal compass.

👉 Watch the Lagos Founders Roundtable

👉 Catch the Afternoon Hangout Session Here