I had to bring pip into my Ubuntu Linux VM

sudo apt install python3-pip

Even with Python installed a whole host of packages are needed for pip. These include (non-exhaustively):

• build-essential
• bzip2
• cpp
• cpp-11
• fakeroot
• ...
• zlib1gdev

Just to mention a few.

build-essential is a Debian specific package, consisting of a bunch of useful build tools, to build software from source and create Debian packages.