The Bulletproof Entrepreneur™

In today’s episode we learn how Suzie Wokabi, the founder of SuzieBeauty, Kenya’s first cosmetic line goes from a humble make-up artist to Africa’s budding beauty titan. Before venturing into the fashion and beauty industry, Suzie received her degree in International Relations in the United States. Upon graduating, she decided to pursue her love for make-up artistry by training at MAC Cosmetics and the Award Studio Make-up School in Los Angeles. After working in the fashion and beauty industry in the United States, she decided to return to her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya in 2007, where she became a highly sought after make-up artist with extensive industry experience ranging from Print Media, Television, Film, Videos, Commercials, Runway, and Bridal. 

While working with her numerous clients, she realized that many dark-skinned women developed unsightly skin reactions, as a result of a combination of the use of counterfeit make-up brands and extended exposure to the unrelenting African sun. Filing the idea to start her own unique make-up line that would alleviate the problems these women faced at the back of her mind. She was inspired to start SuzieBeauty in 2009, when the time came for her to replenish the stock in her make-up kit. She realized that she would need to pay more than three times the retail price of the products in United States. It was at that moment, she decided to launch her own distinctly African beauty products line. It wasn’t until December 2011, that her dream of offering high quality, affordable and bespoke beauty products would be actualized.

Today, SuzieBeauty products can be found online and in retail outlets in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and even in Kampala, Uganda, Addis Ababa, and Cote D’Ivoire, and soon in Nigeria. Oscar Award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o when she wore SuzieBeauty’s Zamba lipstick to her appearance on the Queen Latifah Show and posted it on her social media paid a great compliment to the brand. Suzie has also been featured in various international publications like Italian Vogue L’Uomo magazine, the New York Times and several others. In addition, she has received several accolades and awards from many organizations home and abroad. She is without a doubt one of Africa’s brightest stars.

What you will learn

·       The Big Idea

·      Her inspiration to start the SuzieBeauty cosmetics line

·      How she developed the product

·      Her valuable partnership with her husband

·      How she merged the creative aspects with the business side

·      Where she got the funding to start the company

·      How she manages to keep her products affordable

·      The challenges she faced marketing her brand

·      The competition with foreign brands in Kenya

·      Her current product distributorship and plans for growth

o   Lessons she has learned along the way

·      The company’s performance since inception

·     

Modupe Macaulay is the founder of Capital Square, a pioneering co-working space in Lagos Nigeria. She serendipitously happened upon the co-working industry while reading about the life of a blogger during her studies at the Warwick School in the U.K. After returning to Nigeria, she started a branding agency with a friend but did not feel strongly about it. Meanwhile, she kept  to the co-working idea. She eventually decided to start the company but did not have the funds to make it happen. After spending some time to draft a business plan, profit analysis and feasibility study she pitched the idea to her dad and after much convincing her decided to invest in the business.  Using some creative marketing strategies she was came up with the pricing structure and pitched to potential clients. She then worked assiduously with contractors and artisans to create her vision. No small feat given the challenges of finding qualified artisans and contractors. Today, Capital Square is growing steadily and becoming a quiet force to reckon with in the industry.  

While on a routine business trip, on behalf of the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Northern Nigeria, Mira Mehta observed that there were tremendous amounts of tomatoes wasting away on the side of the highway. Ever inquisitive, she asked around and soon learned that there were several easily mitigated factors that caused the current waste. She also learned that Nigeria was the number one importer of tomato paste in the world (spending over $400 million a year on this product- enough to fill the Empire State building twice).  She then had an idea to create a factory to produce tomato paste domestically in Nigeria. However, the idea remained at the back of her mind for four years until a serendipitous conversation with a friend at the Harvard Business School (HBS) enlightened her that Alhaji Aliko Dangote (the wealthiest man in Africa) was building a tomato paste factory in Nigeria. Feeling that her idea was validated by one of the shrewdest businessmen on the planet, she and her co-founder, Shane Kiernan, decided to pursue this dream. They began extensive research and put a team together for the Social Enterprise Track at the HBS New Venture Competition. The team placed second in the competition, and secured a $25,000 grant to launch the business. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of research, meetings with government officials, visiting potential sites, forging relationships, incorporating in the U.S. and Nigeria, trademarking their brand name “Tomato Jos,” and modifying and testing their business model. Along the way they’ve had to overcome numerous obstacles, and faced difficult and dangerous situations. That notwithstanding, this intrepid duo have also managed to make a lot fans along the way They are currently running a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to raise $50,000 to purchase equipment for their factory.

This is the start of their bulletproof entrepreneurial journey. Donate to their Kickstarter fund and help make “Tomato Jos” a reality.

While on a routine business trip, on behalf of the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Northern Nigeria, Mira Mehta observed that there were tremendous amounts of tomatoes wasting away on the side of the highway. Ever inquisitive, she asked around and soon learned that there were several easily mitigated factors that caused the current waste. She also learned that Nigeria was the number one importer of tomato paste in the world (spending over $400 million a year on this product- enough to fill the Empire State building twice).  She then had an idea to create a factory to produce tomato paste domestically in Nigeria. However, the idea remained at the back of her mind for four years until a serendipitous conversation with a friend at the Harvard Business School (HBS) enlightened her that Alhaji Aliko Dangote (the wealthiest man in Africa) was building a tomato paste factory in Nigeria. Feeling that her idea was validated by one of the shrewdest businessmen on the planet, she and her co-founder, Shane Kiernan, decided to pursue this dream. They began extensive research and put a team together for the Social Enterprise Track at the HBS New Venture Competition. The team placed second in the competition, and secured a $25,000 grant to launch the business. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of research, meetings with government officials, visiting potential sites, forging relationships, incorporating in the U.S. and Nigeria, trademarking their brand name “Tomato Jos,” and modifying and testing their business model. Along the way they’ve had to overcome numerous obstacles, and faced difficult and dangerous situations. That notwithstanding, this intrepid duo have also managed to make a lot fans along the way They are currently running a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to raise $50,000 to purchase equipment for their factory.

This is the start of their bulletproof entrepreneurial journey. Donate to their Kickstarter fund and help make “Tomato Jos” a reality.

Do you think it is possible to create 10 million jobs by 2030? Well, today’s guest Kola Masha believes that through Agriculture, Nigeria can create 10 million sustainable jobs to combat the growing unemployment problem in the country. So who is Kola Masha? He is the founder and managing director of Doreo Partners, an impact investing firm that leverages agriculture venture capital to drive youth employment — a critical need in countries such as Nigeria, where half the population is younger than 19 years and youth unemployment exceeds 50 percent. Doreo, invests in early-stage ventures in the agricultural value chain in West Africa, provides strategic advisory services to select clients, including the Gates Foundation and leading global investors in African agriculture. Kola has significant leadership experience on four continents with leading companies such as GE, ABIOMED and Notore Chemicals. At the latter, he was  responsible for raising $130 million in equity and restructuring $360 million in debt at one the region's largest agro-allied firms Notore Foods. A true renaissance man, Kola holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a Master's in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, as a teenager he was the host of a widely syndicated talk show in Nigeria with a record of interviewing 23 guests in one day.

What you will learn

·       Why he returned to Nigeria

·       How he decided to go into the Agriculture sector

·       How his company helps small holder-farmers achieve 5X the yield from their plots

·       How his company has achieved 30X increase in yield over the course of 3 years

·       How his company applies the franchising model similar to McDonalds to Agriculture

·       Talent Management

• • Developing a talented team
    • Look for employees with a willingness to learn

·       The challenges of the business

·       The management style of the company

·       How Doreo Partners developed its current fund strategy

·       Advice for entrepreneurs regarding funding new start-ups

• • Focus on learning

·       How to select a business/life partner

·       Criteria for selecting a good business partner

• •  Seek wise counsel

Key Advice

·       Think of what you can do today to create a job for a young person

Words of wisdom

·       Work hard in your job

·       Learn from both good and bad bosses

·       Push yourself

Contact

www.doreopartners.com

Eran Feinstein is a former airline pilot who felt there was more life had to offer. After much soul searching he decided to eject from the cockpit, and parachute into the land of entrepreneurship. He is the founder of “3G Direct Pay”, a pioneer payment processing company in Eastern and Southern Africa. Eran’s, journey started as a result of a phone call from a company in East Africa that had heard about his skills as a consummate professional Airline industry specifically relating to ecommerce. With little information and a lot of guts, he immediately decides to go to Africa to help set up the ecommerce strategy for the company. Little did he know that phone call would forever change the trajectory of his life. After successfully completing the project, he decides to co-found Enoyaone to help fledgling airlines build their online booking management systems. In the course of running Enoyaone, he observed that the domestic Kenyan market had a huge gap in the Internet and payment technology space.  He subsequently launched 3G Direct Pay to provide online booking systems and credit card payment facilities for Safari enthusiasts from the U.S and Europe. Today, 3G Direct Pay is the leader in the online payment industry in Eastern & Southern Africa with operations in over 5 countries serving customers in a wide variety of industries.

What you will learn

·       How he got into start-ups

• • First start-ups  (Enoyaone Ltd)

·       How he left piloting in Israel to become a technology Entrepreneur in Africa

• • First experience of Africa

·       The Evolution of E-Payments in Kenya

·       Talent Management

• • Lack of trained personnel
    • Initially had to get developers from Israel

·       The challenges of the business

• • Gap in knowledge
    • The merchants and the consumers find it hard to trust e-payments

·       Focus on the travel industry

• • Leading industry when it comes to online payments

·       The management style of the company

• • Work in teams to generate flow of information

·       Funding for 3G  Direct

• • No investors in the last 8 years. Everything was done with personal funds without raising money or using outside investment

·       Advice for entrepreneurs regarding funding new start-ups

• • Start by yourself. You will be much more stabilized, and you will gain more experience

·       Entrepreneurs/ companies that have inspired him  

• • Southwest Airlines
    • Everyone that works with them understands why they are there

§  The vision is shared all across the company

·       The  frustrations of being an entrepreneur

• • Nothing is frustrating, but there are a ton of challenges

·       How he recovered from a  significant personal failure

• • Separating from a business partner
    • Lessons learnt:

§  When you need to take a decision, just do it

§  You need to admit to yourself that you’ve made a mistake

·       Criteria for selecting a good business partner

• •  Seek wise counsel

Key Advice

·       Advice to recent graduates who want to launch a venture:

• • Take some time and go to work with other companies to gain some experience, and then go out by yourself

·       Advice to someone from another country who wants to start a new business in Africa:

• • To understand and know how much they don’t know, and to respect the different mindset in that environment

Words of wisdom

·       Advice to young Eran:

• • Be a bit more patient. Be the old ox, and not the young ox that runs all over.

Contact

Eran Feinstein is a former airline pilot who felt there was more life had to offer. After much soul searching he decided to eject from the cockpit, and parachute into the land of entrepreneurship. He is the founder of “3G Direct Pay”, a pioneer payment processing company in Eastern and Southern Africa. Eran’s, journey started as a result of a phone call from a company in East Africa that had heard about his skills as a consummate professional Airline industry specifically relating to ecommerce. With little information and a lot of guts, he immediately decides to go to Africa to help set up the ecommerce strategy for the company. Little did he know that phone call would forever change the trajectory of his life. After successfully completing the project, he decides to co-found Enoyaone to help fledgling airlines build their online booking management systems. In the course of running Enoyaone, he observed that the domestic Kenyan market had a huge gap in the Internet and payment technology space.  He subsequently launched 3G Direct Pay to provide online booking systems and credit card payment facilities for Safari enthusiasts from the U.S and Europe. Today, 3G Direct Pay is the leader in the online payment industry in Eastern & Southern Africa with operations in over 5 countries serving customers in a wide variety of industries.

What you will learn

·       How he got into start-ups

• • First start-ups  (Enoyaone Ltd)
  
  

·       How he left piloting in Israel to become a technology Entrepreneur in Africa

• • First experience of Africa
  
  

·       The Evolution of E-Payments in Kenya

·       Talent Management

• • Lack of trained personnel
    • Initially had to get developers from Israel
    
    

·       The challenges of the business

• • Gap in knowledge
    • The merchants and the consumers find it hard to trust e-payments
    
    

·       Focus on the travel industry

• • Leading industry when it comes to online payments
  
  

·       The management style of the company

• • Work in teams to generate flow of information
  
  

·       Funding for 3G  Direct

• • No investors in the last 8 years. Everything was done with personal funds without raising money or using outside investment
  
  

·       Advice for entrepreneurs regarding funding new start-ups

• • Start by yourself. You will be much more stabilized, and you will gain more experience
  
  

Mazen Helmy, is the managing director and co-founder of “The District” in Egypt, the country’s first co-working space launched during the Egyptian revolution.The District provides an inspiring workspace (approximately 1000 square meters) for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Forbes magazine recently dubbed him as one of the young entrepreneurs to watch in Africa. Although, Mazen is an engineer by trade, and a professional swimmer who was on the Egyptian national swim team, his passion and vision has led him to speak at various conferences notably TEDx.

In this episode we learn about how a former investment banker and private equity analyst left his high paying job in Paris to follow his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. Christian Ngan, is the CEO and founder of Madlyn Cazalis, a cosmetic and beauty line based out of Cameroon. Prior to founding his company, Christian studied at some of the most prestigious schools in France and worked as an investment banker and private equity expert at companies like Findercod, Quilvest, and Societe Generale. In 2012, he decided to quit his job, and scratch his entrepreneurial itch. With $3,000 in savings, he moved back to Cameroon to launch  Madlyn Cazalis. Today, the company's products can be found  in more than 40 retail outlets in Cameroon,  boasts a growing employee base and is on track to break even by December 2014. Christian, was also featured in the venerable Forbes list of  “30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa 2014.”

Today’s bulletproof entrepreneur, Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, is the co-founder of Wecyclers, a for-profit social enterprise working to help communities reclaim their neighborhoods from unmanaged waste. Bilikiss and her cofounders started Wecyclers in 2012, using low cost cargo bicycles called Wecycles to provide convenient recycling services to households across Nigeria. Before dipping her toes in the entrepreneurial waters, Bilikiss gained valuable business and technology experience at IBM where she worked for 5 years. She then went on to pursue an MBA at MIT, and it was here that she got the inspiration for Wecyclers from one of her classes. Her love for business and passion to contribute to Africa’s development led her to turn this idea into a reality, and she relocated with her family to Nigeria to further this goal. Today, Wecyclers has won numerous awards and accolades in the environmental industry and continues to grow.