On this episode of Chini Ya Maji podcast, CEO and Co-Founder, Pamela Muriuki, shares her entrepreneurial journey and the birth of GiftPesa. Discover how she transformed gifting from a side hustle into a game-changer. Dive into her business model, focused on appreciating the most deserving employees and service providers.
Tune in to listen to this enlightening conversation.
#ChiniYaMajiPodcast #Entrepreneurship #buildingstartups
On this episode of Chini Ya Maji podcast, CEO and Co-Founder, Marvin Tumbo, shares his entrepreneurial journey and the birth of Scale.
Discover how he transformed procurement from a side hustle into a game-changer. Dive into his business model, focused on surfacing the best service providers, building trust and reputation and ensuring equal opportunities and access for all businesses.
Tune in to listen to this enlightening conversation.#ChiniYaMajiPodcast #Entrepreneurship #buildingstartups
In this episode, delve into Kevin Mutiso's captivating journey. From his discovery of Warren Buffet to his deep dive into the world of stocks, we explore his transition from data entry to launching his own startup.
Discover the invaluable lessons learned from his entrepreneurial setback and his bold vision to transform Africa into the most futuristic, modernised continent over the next 50 years, showcasing the immense potential for billion-dollar businesses to address critical societal issues.
You do not want to miss out on this conversation.#AfricanInnovation #StartupJourney #africanentrepreneurs
Peter share his Journey of Innovation and hard work. An inspiring conversation that walks us through how the idea of TWIVA came about and how building a product in a new market is not easy.
Enjoy the Podcast!
Title: Building Middle East and Africa's first Super API for a comprehensive payment solution
Nader started out as a curious young man in the 1990s, intrigued by technology. He decided to pursue engineering in order to build and create solutions.
Through his passion for understanding the tech world, he discovered that knowledge alone is not enough, but knowledge must be paired with practical solutions to have an impact on the market.
With the passion of creating a more seamless payment system, he began his journey of holistic learning, which started with blockchain technology and ended with the birth of Money Hash: a cloud-based payment operating system dedicated to making payments easier.Follow him and our host as they discuss the inception of Money Hash, and the importance of creating solutions for emerging markets as the future of technology.
As a startup founder, Nader also shares his views on culture and the importance of understanding employees to build the right company culture. He argues that understanding the needs of your employees is essential in creating a productive work environment.
This is an eye opening discussion that most certainly requires a pen and paper.
Betting on Solar Energy to Address Climate Change and Impact Lives
Samir Ibrahim grew up in Orlando, Florida. His parents always told him that the opportunities he had were not available to them back home. As a child of immigrants, Ibrahim knew that it was important to use his opportunities to help others.In this episode of our Founders series, host Mark Karake sits down with Ibrahim, Co-Founder & CEO of SunCulture and dives into his journey of how he ended up building SunCulture and involved in climate action.Listen to how his experience living in Florida and schooling at NYU shaped his worldview, how his 10 year plan actually became a 10 months plan, and how he landed on the insight that launched SunCulture along with lessons he learned as a startup founder.'In this episode, Samir shows us how taking our time building a startup isn't actually a bad thing, and he reinforces that every company has a different journey. He also speaks to how he went from being unsure of himself to building a company with 370 people.
This is a must listen!
BOLDNESS CREATES OPPORTUNITY
My father had plans for me but I wasn't keen on that... he wasn't very happy to support me.
For a lot of young Africans this statement isn't new to them. It's not easy chattering your path against your parents' will.
So many questions are already asked to us in the startup world about the description of our work and for a lot of us there's really no easy way to explain.
Yele Oyekola is most certainly not a stranger to this reality however unlike most, he isn't one to back down from his ambition and one word we can use to describe him is decisive. From financing his own studies in the UK against his father's wishes, to getting into fintech in the UN, to working at Carbon and finally co-founding Duplo a B2B buy now pay later product in Nigeria, Yele's story is one of resilience, boldness and absolutely giving zero care to what others think.
"The worst that can happen is you'll get broke, but you'll be fine"
Can we acquire this attitude? Join him and Mark as they delve into how Yele made money through shoe making to pay for his school and his experience learning about fintech from the ground up.
Enjoy.
The Wowzi Journey: Connecting The Dots
When you come up with an idea and you talk to the market and you see how it gets translated into a solution, it's magic.Brian Mogeni and his Co-Founders Mike Otieno and Hassan Bashir wanted to connect capacity and opportunity and the greatest insight that came by was that 'People trust People,' The major question was, how could they organize word of mouth? This marked the beginning of Wowzi.Wowzi is a globally leading technology company that enables SMEs, multinationals, creative agencies, research companies and NGOs push brand messages and pull consumer insights from trusted influencers shaping the trends that drive African commerce.Join us on this episode as Brian Mogeni, Co-Founder & CEO takes us back in time and gives us a glimpse into his life growing up and connects it to where he is now. Did you know he wanted to either be a professional footballer, a host on Top Gear or an entrepreneur? Get to see how he connects the dots from his passion for sports to his first job as an intern in Accenture to a critical point in his career at Easy Taxi to how they bootstrapped to build Wowzi.This story perfectly illustrates that all of our experiences serve a purpose and are instrumental in how we turn out presently and in our future!This is the Wowzi Journey, Part 1
THE 'FOUNDER-PROBLEM FIT' APPROACH
The most overlooked aspect by entrepreneurs
"One of my challenges was realizing I didn't need to have just technical skills... As a founder I need to know how to pitch"Idorenyin Obong or as we'd like to call him 'The Writing Techie' found himself in a situation that a lot of founders find themselves before their light bulb moment: A problem without a solution. The process of accessing payment via foreign currencies was a thorn in his flesh and so many other entrepreneurs. His intuition led him to start a company that grew from it's original mission which was to solve the problem in Nigeria but now looks to scale continentally beginning with Kenya.From its original name Aboki Africa to it's new identity Grey, Grey seeks to provide foreign accounts to people in Africa to ease transacting in foreign currencies. This is a story of the famous founder-problem fit. It takes a founder to deeply understand a problem for them to have groundbreaking answers and learn new trades as they forge ahead.
Join him and our host, Mark Karake as they take a walk down memory lane through Idorenyin's founding journey.
Leveraging Tech in the African Logistics Landscape
"It's going to take some time for us to stop comparing ourselves to each other and other countries... and start asking the question of why we didn't do better"Mark Mwangi was never your average student, he never settled, not from his days in high school to his days as a truck driver making ends meet for his fees in City, University of London. He is living proof that a tenacious heart will certainly get you where you want to be.Join him and Mark Karake as he takes us through a journey of resilience, taking up challenges rather than settling to co-founding Amitruck: A digital logistics marketplace that connects clients directly with transporters cutting out expensive middlemen.Get to know how he was able to make the jump from his career as a Senior Investment Manager at Pictet Asset Management in London to moving back to Nairobi to build something more meaningful.From truck driving to investment management to Amitruck, this is a story of audacious goals made possible!
A New Era of Businesses with Social Impact
I think we are entering a new era where businesses can't ignore their social impact ~ Tracey Turner
Growing up, Tracey just like many young people, did not have a clear path for what career she wanted to pursue. She was ambitious and spontaneous and had a stint of wanting to pursue so much including being an astronaut and even a fighter pilot. However, at that time women could not be fighter pilots.Years down the line, Tracey is now a renowned entrepreneur and seasoned business executive with a knack for social impact!Dive into the podcast and get to hear her back story ranging from her passion for entrepreneurship, how she balances her life as a the Founder and Chairperson of Copia Global while being a mother to her three children; and the journey of building Copia including the lessons she learned along the way.
This one is a must-listen as it shows why Africa is ground zero for grit for entrepreneurs!
LET'S TALK INVESTMENT
"We want to turn out one million African investors and we have the capacity to go for such a goal"
Meet Richmond Bassey, the Co-founder and CEO of Bamboo, an investment platform that gives people the tools to build wealth from the ground up through real-time access to the global marketsCatch him and our host Mark Karake as they talk about consumerism in our society, teaching and offering investment opportunities to Africans and a special treat on how he as able to acquire venture capital for his company.An important listen for everyone.
Scaling Fintech in Africa
"The reality in Africa is that if you really want to scale today, you need to run a hybrid strategy, meaning digital and part physical."
~Timothy Nuy
Meet Timothy Nuy, a man who was always intrigued and interested in business in the financial services space. Hear how he started as a call centre agent and moved to African Development Bank to My Bucks to now the Co-Founder and CEO of Finclusion Group. Catch a glimpse of how he aims to transform financial services in Africa through the buy and build strategy of Finclusion Group.
Want to learn more about the skillset necessary for an effective turnaround model and the complexities of lending in Africa, then this is a must-listen! A true eye-opener to the world of financial services. Enjoy!
Embracing the Disruptive Nature of Entrepreneurship
"Be comfortable with failure. Fail at this, fail at that and keep failing but just make sure that you learn from them"
Eerik was an adventurous young man growing up in Estonia Northern Europe where he tried his hand at everything from lawn mowing to being an infantry team lead even opening a bar before going on to being the Co-Founder & CEO of Planet42 based in South Africa. Join him and Mark as they delve into his journey of discovery in various fields before settling in Planet42 which offers a social inclusive car subscription service. They offer us their experiences with stereotypes which are proven to pull people back from associating on basic level of being human beings. Eerik shows us that a person cannot be one thing but he/she can embrace the changes along the way to find out what they enjoy doing.
Truly, you never know until you try!
Bold Changes: It's Not As Bad As It Sounds
"Many times we step away from giving stuff a try because we think that the fallout is going to be worse than it actually is"Femi Kuti.
Mr Femi Kuti came from being a doctor to an investment banker to finally to an entrepreneur and the founder of Reliance Health: A technology driven health insurance company which is focused on making healthcare in emerging markets affordable and accessible. It takes tenacity to make a major move in terms of careers and Femi proves that it's possible.
Mark speaks to Femi Kuti on the reason behind the change, what inspired the move to combine medicine and entrepreneurship and the importance of quality connections that lead to funding. This is a self evaluating podcast on being brave and we're excited to share it with you.
Have fun!!!
CATEGORY CREATION: AN INSIGHT INTO UNIQUE SOLUTIONS
"If you've been doing something painfully for so long, it becomes a dull ache, eventually you don't realize you have a problem"When Sam Wanjohi started POPOTE INNOVATIONS LIMITED, he's idea was to find a software solution system for his company's payment. Little did he know that this was the birth of a spend management and payables solution that was necessary for so many companies especially with the rise of the pandemic.Join him and Mark as they take a trip through Category creation which is quite evidently uncharted territory for so many founders and entrepreneurs.Enjoy!
Building Africa's Champion for e-commerce
"With a curiosity mindset, there is an endless number of things that you can ultimately discover and potentially create value in," Daniel Yu. Excited to host Daniel Yu, Co-founder and CEO of Sokowatch now rebranding to Wasoko as they announce their &125M series B round of financing (full equity raise) alongside the launch of operations in West Africa.
Join Mark and Daniel as they unpack Sokowatch's journey from near-certain death in 2018 while facing bankruptcy to raising a series B round of financing. What are the war stories that enabled Daniel Yu to get to where he is right now? Get to know what sparks Daniel's dedication to reducing suffering for as many people as possible and how he has evolved as a leader
Why Social Impact Technologies are a Game Changer for Africa
"The best and newest technology is going to be technology around social good," Eldrid Jordaan.
Eldrid Jordaan is marked by one purpose; Serving his people to make things better. Six years down the line, he serves as a connector of government, civil society, private sector and citizens at an unimaginable scale.Join Eldrid and Mark as they explore the journey towards building Gov Chat, a South African citizen engagement platform.
Listen in to the lessons he learnt along the way and what he anticipates for Gov Chat going forward.
Building Africa's Tech Ecosystem
"To invest is human, to exit is divine," Idris Ayodeji Bello
Meet Idris Bello, a man who had a stable career at Chevron Corporation and Exxon Mobil but had an itch for innovation and entrepreneurship. He later moves back with his partners to Lagos, Nigeria and pursues his passion for building an ecosystem of African Founders supported by African Investors and Angels.Get to catch a glimpse of his investment journey from Andela, Flutterwave to the lessons he learnt from the mistakes he made.Want to learn more about investments in Africa then this episode is one for the books!
Challenging the Status Quo: Solve Problems
"If you do something you enjoy, it always pays forward," Adebiyi Aromolaran
Meet Adebiyi Aromolaran, Head of Africa Expansion at Dlocal, an Uruguayan financial technology company; who has vast experience in Africa's fintech and Banking ecosystem spanning over 15 years. Join him and Mark as they take a dive into his journey in financial services, his experience in Flutterwave and his current passion and endeavour.
With Biyi, it's definitely service before self!