In the Foundality Africa Podcast, we are celebrating African role models. Each episode, we are talking to a different entrepreneur about their story, their company, and their hands-on advice on how to build a startup in Africa.
Art may not be the first sector to think about as an entrepreneur, but art is not just a way to reach a lot of people and to change society, but it can also be a great business. Our guest on this week’s episode, Charlene Chikezie, is the founder and curator of forme feminee art, an art studio in Nigeria which aims to redefine African art of the feminine form.Charlene will tell us, how she brought her business to life and how she came up with her very own business model combining the arts, business, and technology.This episode is also packed with hands-on advice on how to build your support system, how to be a leader, and how to use creative techniques to stay inspired and motivated
Africa is the least industrialized continent in the world and most things that have to be manufactured are imported.Our guest on today’s episode, Mutoba Ngoma, Founder of Tapera industries, is an advocate of industrialization in Africa. He has built a company focused o biodiesel- and soap production in his home country Zambia and has been honored with titles like Forbes 30 under 30.Mutoba will tell us about his journey, his advice about building a manufacturing business in Africa, and why that is so important.
African startups are often confronted with the same standards and expectations as startups in Silicon Valley. But how do African companies react when working under the same circumstances?In today’s episode, we hear from Emmanuel Gbolade, Co-founder and CEO at Temii, a Nigerian communication platform for SME's. Termii was part of the last YC cohort, arguably the most prestigious Accelerator in Silicon Valley. Emmanuel will tell us all about his experiences at YC, his advice for African entrepreneurs, as well as his take on customer retention and why it’s so important.
Entrepreneurship is the future of Africa. This is why this podcast exists and why our guest on today’s show, Kitawa Wemo, founder of MAMA ventures in Kenya, is developing a venture builder for African startups.In this episode, we will hear Kitawa’s journey of becoming an entrepreneur, how she learned to be independent of an early age, and how this independence accompanied her to date. We will also hear Kitawas advice for young female entrepreneurs on how to succeed.
Even though entrepreneurs naturally have built their companies from the ground up, most of them at least had a good education. Our guest on today’s show really started from nothing and co-founded a company that transformed the lives of thousands. This exceptional person is Ricky Rapa Thomson, co-founder of Safeboda, the Ugandan Boda Boda riding app.Ricky will take us on a journey through his childhood to where he is now. He will tell us the importance of relationships and how he built those. Also, we will hear about the process of scaling Safeboda.
Africa is a very unique space to start a business, with its very unique challenges and opportunities. And many people like to compare it to China a few decades ago because it shows what crazy things are possible to create.Harriet Kariuki has studied and lived in different countries around the world, including China. But now, she is a young entrepreneur in her home country Kenya, and therefore, she combines deep knowledge on economies around the world, with very rooted advice on how to start a business in Africa.
We all know the potential of fintech in Africa, but we also know how challenging and sometimes restricting the conditions for new solutions in Africa can be.Our guest on today’s show, Kevin Mutiso, Co-Founders of the Kenyan Fintech Startup alternative circle, isn’t just building a company, he is at the same time trying to evolve the ecosystem of Fintech in Kenya and the whole of Africa.We will talk about his journey of building multiple lending businesses, the FinTech space, and how you can initiate change in your ecosystem through collaboration.
A good education is the ground for a successful life and the basis for a functioning society. New solutions for education are necessary, especially when most people are young and the number of children that need to be schooled is rising every year due to population growth.In today’s episode, I will talk to Penina Kimani, founder of the Kenyan education-tech startup Sproutiy learning. We will hear about her story of becoming an entrepreneur, innovation in the education space, and how she is building structures in her company.
E-commerce is a space, that is, for the majority of Africa, yet to be discovered. Meaning, with more and more Africans being connected to the internet every single day: there is a huge opportunity to fill that gap.Our guest in today's episode is CEO and co-founder of the upcoming Kenyan e-commerce platform sky.garden. You will hear about his story and upbringing, about how you can succeed in African e-commerce and about his take on mastering team building.
Africa needs creative solutions and innovative companies. However, there is not enough informative and inspirational content around African entrepreneurship. That’s why I decided to talk to the most inspiring and experienced African entrepreneurs and to share that with you. Welcome to the Foundality Africa Podcast!Here is what to expect: Real Stories from real entrepreneurs on how they got to where they are now, hands-on advice, and their visions for the future of Africa.The first episode premieres on May 4th, 2020.