How this all started

Webuye, Kenya, May 2015

It all started in July 2014. David, Eamonn and Rocio were each of them separately wondering about their next career move and thinking along the lines of “I think I am ready to start my own business now”.

After a few emails, conversations and beers in London pubs the three ex-colleagues from a Masters at Imperial College London decided to start a new private enterprise whose vision is to help rural families in East Africa to improve their quality of life.

The last mile problem

Rocio and David have both worked across East Africa towards the shared goal of giving access to electricity to those left in darkness due to lacking infrastructure in the region despite its encouraging economic developments. There was, however, something missing from the work they were doing – this was the knowledge that the vast majority of people in the rural areas have no easy access to the products and services that could improve their lives. And while businesses are busy innovating, often focusing on technological aspects, very few would look at new distribution models. Better lights, electricity, better cook-stoves, better ways to collect and purify water – all these things are all available, but not if you happen to live in a rural area. Distribution is the nut to crack!

  • There is a lack of availability and access to the goods that could save rural families time and money, which could improve their health, and which could improve their quality of life.
  • There is a lack in the rural areas of facilities for families to pay on credit for the things they need to improve daily living conditions – MFIs are narrowly focused on income generation.
  • There is a lack of services to deliver goods to where they need to go, and to maintain them when in place.

Very few are tackling the ‘last mile’ challenge in the rural areas, so products cannot get to those who live an hour’s walk from the nearest town and get stuck in little hardware shop whose owner is busy selling other fast-moving goods. We created Bidhaa Sasa to meet these challenges. We want to make it easy for rural families to get the things which will make their lives better.

The Lean Startup approach

This all sounds like a very ambitious series of problems to be tackled by just three individuals. Fortunately we found inspiration and courage from the Lean Start-up movement that is changing the way we do business today.

We spent some months re-reading Eric Ries’ seminal book and studying Steve Blank and Bob Dorf’s manuals and ended up fully embracing the Customer Development theory. After all, we are trying to serve a very large segment of the population that has traditionally been under-served probably because of a combination of ignorance and fear of the unknown.

We fell in love with Blank’s theory because it is allowing us to follow a structured approach for building a business while finding comfort with the inherit chaos and uncertainty of the venture.

By October 2014 the three old friends had found a common vision and shared inspiration and launched themselves into the unknown: Bidhaa Sasa was created.

Lessons learned

  • Go back to the very beginning and question everything
  • Without a shared vision and total commitment there is no venture

Favourite Steve Blank’s Manifesto line: “If it is not about Passion you are dead the day you opened your doors”