The Unseen Side of Innovation

I was given a difficult task: to increase the tipping culture in Kenya by building a digital tipping platform. I took up the challenge in July 2021. The journey has had its ups and downs, but it has been rewarding. Seeing the growth in both the business and myself has been a breath of fresh air. It is what I wanted to do. In my last year of university, I knew that I wanted to be an innovator and entrepreneur. I had built a few projects and led my team to win a national competition. However, all of this was not enough. I still felt that I lacked crucial skills needed to build a successful and innovative business. A key example of this lack of skill and expertise was the fact that we won a competition with a product that had no customers. To make it worse, we hadn't even talked to them. We simply built a product that sounded great on paper but would have fallen flat on its face if we went to market.

When I completed university in January 2021, I knew that I had much to learn and sought to find a place where I could learn how to build a successful startup and become an innovator. That's when I stumbled upon Impact Africa Network. I have never looked back.

In this journey, I have experienced what it takes to build a company from 0 to 1. Overall, it has been exciting, but the devil is in the details. There have been late nights and early mornings, excitement and frustration, strong conviction and crippling doubts, simmering triumph and utter dread. In this process, I have been a backend software developer, done market research, won and lost sales, taken customer support calls, built pitch decks, pitched to investors, closed some investors, and lost some. I have hired great people, fired some, and received resignations from others. It seems like a lot, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. I have only done three years of this work. There is more time ahead of us than behind us. We are just seeing the signs of product-market fit and feeling the teething problems of hockey-stick growth. We have customers who love our product and use it every day and we have strategic partnerships forming and growing in strength.

In the midst of all this chaos called building a startup in Africa, one thing is for sure: there is opportunity. However, as Thomas Edison said, "Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work." Make no mistake, it takes time and hard work to build something new. Most days are not fancy and full of roses. In fact, they are a grind that one must plow through. In a sense, one must almost glorify the grind and carry it as a badge of honor. It is the only way to stay sane when everything gets tough. You take a look at the work and remind yourself that it is going to be worth it. Be it 5 to 10 years from now, it will be worth it. It takes an optimist to see the world fall apart around them and still see the world for what it can be and not for what it is. Sometimes you just need to be a mule, stubbornly holding onto a vision that you believe is right, even when things are not in your favour at the time.

I believe that those who continue to strive for good will inevitably be vindicated. History has shown time and time again that the truth always prevails and good will take the day. No matter how long it takes, the people who move forward, no matter how slowly, can move a mountain, sway a nation, enlighten a generation, and change the course of history. When they do so, their essence lives forever in the hearts and minds of the people, the manuscripts and art of theatres, and the culture and norms of a society.