Mastercard Foundation Scholar Nelson Elijah reflects on his Fitzcelerate entrepreneurship programme experience and shares what's next for his social venture, UDO.
The Fitzelerate programme helps students build skills and experience in an increasingly entrepreneurial world.
Participants receive mentorship and training in planning, market research, leadership, teamwork, and pitching, before forming teams (with at least one Fitzwilliam or Hill College member) to submit a business idea that tackles an unmet need.
Submissions are reviewed by Fitzwilliam Fellows and external judges, then selected teams take part in a final pitch event for a chance to win funding.
I’m incredibly proud that my team’s venture, UDO, was this named this year’s runner up.
Guiding African students from school to career
UDO (‘You do’) is an online platform that provides AI-powered, personalised educational guidance for students at any level, from education to careers.
More than an app, it is human capital infrastructure for the world’s fastest-growing youth population, connecting young people with mentors, opportunities, and clear pathways to economic participation.
Continuous improvement over perfection
When I first started building UDO, I began with a different team. They are incredible people, but as time passed and course work stacked up, they had to drop out.
I was caught off guard, but my mentor, Fitwilliam College Bursar Rod Cantrill, calmed me down with his advice and stories.
I had to rebuild a new team and prepare UDO for the pitch in just one week. I quickly teamed up with Oreoluwa Oluwafemi and Ibiang Emmanuel – two close friends from my undergrad days at Covenant University who I had worked with on other projects. Then, thankfully, fellow Mastercard Foundation Scholar Favour Uzoma agreed to join me for the pitch as she was looking to develop her skills.
There was a lot to do. It was intense, chaotic, and exhausting – but somehow, we pulled it off.
What really helped, and changed the way I think, came from a concept in machine learning called gradient descent, which I happened to be studying at the time. Gradient descent is an optimisation algorithm used to improve machine learning models. It’s a series of many steps, with the model making small improvements with each one.
A simple way to picture it is this: you’re standing at the top of a hill, and your goal is to reach the bottom. You can’t see far ahead, so you look at the ground around you and with every step, you simply move downhill until you reach the bottom.
Building a company feels very similar to me. You rarely start from a place of perfection. In fact, you usually start at the top of the hill, a long way from where you want to be, and everything feels like failure.
The concept reminds me that your first attempt won’t be perfect, and it’s a case of taking small, intentional steps to improve.
This removes the fear of imperfection and helps you accept the possibility of failure. Once you’re comfortable with that, very little can stop you. It gives you a starting point, a direction from which you can begin improving.
Second, it gives you confidence in progress. If you keep taking steps downhill by showing up, adjusting, and learning, you will eventually reach the valley. The obstacles along the way stop feeling like threats and start feeling like part of the terrain.
The Fitzcelerate experience has changed the way I approach problems. Instead of chasing perfection, I focus on moving in the right direction, because if you keep moving downhill long enough, you’ll eventually touch success.
Our next small, intentional steps
More than anything, being named a Fitzcelerate runner-up provides validation. It shows that the problem we’re trying to solve resonates with others and that the direction we’re taking has real potential. It also creates momentum, which I believe is critical for sustaining our venture as we move forward.
The £2,500 prize will be instrumental in helping us move from concept into rapid development. Equally valuable is the network of mentors we now have access to through the programme, several of whom have encouraged us to reach out and let them know how they can support us. That kind of guidance and openness is incredibly valuable as we continue building.
UDO is now registered in Nigeria, and we’ll soon begin onboarding our first users from an existing waitlist. At the same time, we’re actively exploring additional fundraising opportunities to accelerate development.
On a personal level, I’m spending a lot of time speaking with EdTech founders and learning from their journeys.
Ultimately, we’ll keep applying the same principle that guided us through the competition: keep iterating, keep improving, and keep building.