All you need is a vision and a plan

Innocent Morang'a is only 23, yet has managed to sell his business ideas to some of Kenya’s notable CEO’s. PHOTO| DENNIS ONSONGO

What you need to know:

  • By late 2015, the magazine had become a popular platform among young entrepreneurs across Kenyan Universities.
  • With increasing website traffic, Innocent sought the help of nine university students to help run and contribute to the magazine on a voluntary basis.

When Innocent Morang’a pitched his business for funding in Lion’s Den Season 1, a reality show that airs on NTV, he was nervous, but determined not to show it.

He had prepped his pitch for days, and was confident that he would impress the panel enough for one of them to consider investing in his business. He did. One of the panelists, Olive Gachara, editor-in-chief of Couture Africa, was so impressed, she offered to invest Sh3million in Moranga’s business, an online magazine called TheFounder. The 23-year-old third year public relations student at Daystar University was overjoyed. Finally, his entrepreneurship journey was onto a firm start.

Before this breakthrough, Innocent had started a venture that he called Galashia in 2013 - he was 19 then. The content marketing platform collapsed almost as soon as he set it up.

“I partnered with the wrong people, two of whom I considered friends - they ended up running away with my idea and the money I had set aside for the venture, savings from my pocket money,” he says.

Instead of discouraging him, this disappointment did not only brace him for the cut-throat world of business, it also gave birth to his second venture: Founders, a place where one can walk in with an idea and after six months, walk out with an income generating business; a place for founders. Innocent notes that getting a worthwhile venture up and running requires lots of sacrifices.

“You need to work day and night to ensure that you build a solid clientele base, but most important, you need financial and human resources if you are to succeed,” he says of his experience. Today, the 23-year-old boasts of a fast-growing business magazine; TheFounder (www.thefounder.co.ke) whose thematic areas are in-depth insight on starting, running and growing a business. “My main focus at the beginning was not to make money. I wanted to first create awareness of the magazine in Daystar University, and later, beyond,” he says. By late 2015, the magazine had become a popular platform among young entrepreneurs across Kenyan Universities. With increasing website traffic, Innocent sought the help of nine university students to help run and contribute to the magazine on a voluntary basis.

That was then, now he employs a team of six – a graphic designer, a digital editor and assistant editor, events manager, a person to manage the company’s social media pages and person in charge of taking photos and videos. At any given time, there are a couple of interns learning from the experienced team.

FEATURED BIG NAMES

The magazine has featured a number of big names in Kenya and introduced numerous upcoming and promising young entrepreneurs such as Mary Njoki, founder of Glass House PR, Michelle Ntalami of Marini Naturals and Eric Kinoti, founder of Shade Systems East Africa. In 2015, the company came up with The Founders Entrepreneurs Forum, TEFO, an annual event whose vision was to become a platform to motivate and engage young entrepreneurs towards substantial growth for businesses.

“The first TEFO forum in 2015 experience was a success – it was hosted by Vimal Shah, CEO, Bidco Africa, and brought together more than 130 young entrepreneurs and guest speakers such as Trushar Khetia of TRIA Group of companies and Ben Kiruthi, a popular wedding photographer.

 “Selling my idea to these big names took lots of work. I walked from one office to another hoping to get an appointment. I also presented my proposals to various clients and set numerous emails,” Innocent explains. After the forum, to grow the online magazine further, Innocent and his team introduced a weekly edition. All visitors to the website were invited to subscribe to www.founders.co.ke at no fee to get the content first. This increased the website traffic and today, Founders has over 5,000 subscribers.

“TEFO 2016 was even better and bigger than the first one. We had a three-day and two-night camping experience at Machakos Peoples Park, where young entrepreneurs got a chance to interact with seasoned business leaders, share ideas and ask questions. Among the speakers were Vimal Shah, Darshan Chandaria and Linus Gitahi, former Nation Media Group CEO. During this forum, TheFounder went ahead and introduced Founder of The Year Award, FOYA.

 “FOYA exists to recognise young founders developing our nation through entrepreneurship and to also motivate the ones who are yet to start their own businesses,” Innocent explains.

Plans for TheFounder in 2017 include strengthening the products launched last year and to create job opportunities for youths in East Africa.

“The youth should change their mindset from job-seeking to job-creation in their areas of specialisation,” he explains, adding, “If 50 per cent of university graduates graduated with a stable income-generating business, then we would have created more than enough jobs for the remaining 50 per cent,” he argues.

Innocent is an extremely busy but happy and fulfilled young man. He points out that though studying and running an involving business is taxing, since both are important to him, he finds time to give both the attention they deserve.