The Ides of March is a fitting time to reflect on betrayal, resilience, and the realities of UK cybersecurity. In the past two weeks, I’ve balanced DSIT’s Cyber Local funding process, chaired the West Midlands Cyber Working Group (WM CWG), led two funding bids, scaled one startup in a brutal funding climate, and booted up a second from scratch. Along the way, I’ve won the Pitch Battle at Cyber Runway Live, launched the UK’s first dedicated universal cyber risk score and comparison site, and tackled everything from weaponised AI threats to Kafka-powered scalability, all while navigating the messy, unpredictable, and often painful journey of building something that lasts.