Founder Diaries Podcast

When we started the strengths test with the business coach we hosted in Seasons 1 & 2, the plan was to do it quickly and move on. It ended up shaping a lot of how I’m moving forward. The test led to a bigger realization: everyone is built differently. Some things come easier to me and some come harder, and knowing that changes how I work, how I lead, and how I decide where to put my energy. In this minisode, I share what that realization looked like in practice and why it matters for founders. Watch to the end to find out what my 5 strengths turned out to be. The takeaway: lean into your strengths and operate from that angle. Don’t force yourself against your own architecture. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝 We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for…

For our final full episode of the season, we sit down with Joan Ogutu, founder of Kids Street, a brand focused on premium baby care products in Kenya.Joan takes us through her journey from the start: her early experience working at Safaricom as an agent, and how her own pregnancy led to the idea for Kids Street when she couldn’t find premium baby care products in Kenya. She walks us through the real cost of setting up their first business location, and how the business grew from baby gear like car seats and strollers into consumables like diapers.We also get into the part of inventory businesses that rarely gets talked about: managing money well when your profit is tied up in stock, and what it means to show a profit on paper without having the cash in hand.This episode also has a deeply personal side. Joan shares, with openness and courage, the story of losing her son during a family vacation, how she has continued to run her business through grief, and how that loss has changed the way she works as a…

Many founders, especially Type A personalities and first-borns (first-born daughters in particular), share a trait that quietly shapes how they run their businesses: hyper-independence, the deeply ingrained belief that “I can do everything myself.”It can look like strength, but in a business, it can do real damage. In this minisode, we explore how hyper-independence shows up in founders and why it can quietly work against you and your team. It feels faster and safer in the moment, but over time it stops your team from learning, growing, and reaching their full potential — because you’re not coaching them, you’re replacing and doing the work for them.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business…

Today's minisode is a little different. We're pulling back the curtain and giving you a raw, unfiltered look at our production set — Yvonne, mid-makeup, answering some of the questions you've been dropping on our socials. No script, no polish — just real answers to the things you've actually been curious about. Grab a seat and enjoy the behind-the-scenes energy. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝 We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.com Our other Season 3 partners are: 🎥 Royal Reel — our audio-visual partners / royalreelph. . 💄 Makeup City — on makeup / makeupcityy. . 👗 HAWI Ready To Wear— on the…

Before Uzapoint, Abraham Mbuthia actually wanted to be a DJ. In this episode, he walks us through how that early dream led him into tech instead, and eventually into building Uzapoint from the ground up, starting with clients paying as little as KES 500, to a business now generating 7-figure revenue across multiple markets. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Uzapoint, which he describes as the operating system for SMEs in Africa — a platform built to help small and medium businesses digitize their operations, access financial services, and use AI to make smarter, more informed decisions. In short: everything a business needs to sell smarter, operate efficiently, and grow with confidence, all in one intelligent platform. In this conversation, Abraham shares his full journey into entrepreneurship, how he thinks through building a distribution strategy that actually works as you scale into new markets, what's changed about how he runs the business as it's grown, and how his team is using Claude to build internal…

Kenyans have an interesting relationship with debt, and this minisode breaks it down into 3 categories ✅Those who've seen debt go badly for someone else and want nothing to do with it ✅Those who know debt could be useful but have no idea how to actually access it ✅Those who understand debt as a tool and use it deliberately to grow their business. This isn't an episode trying to convince you to take on debt. It's a challenge to make sure you have access to credit, even if you never plan to use it — because the point isn't whether you borrow, it's whether you have the option available when an opportunity (or an emergency) presents itself, so whether you're pro-debt, anti-debt, or somewhere in between, this one's about making sure the choice is actually yours to make. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT 🤝 Sarova We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner.…

his minisode was sparked by a conversation with Manish about running digital ads — and it turned into a bigger question that keeps coming up across so many businesses: how do you actually penetrate your market?The instinct for most founders is the same playbook — get influencers, run Facebook and Instagram ads, and hope for conversions. But the businesses that grow faster often think differently about where their return on investment actually comes from. For Craydel, instead of pouring money into ads, their best move was going directly to high schools — because that's exactly where their future clientele already is, before they transition into university. For Hyrox, it's showing up at gyms and partnering with them, because their customers are already fitness people.This minisode is a challenge to think outside the standard marketing playbook: instead of relying purely on digital marketing, figure out exactly where your customer already spends their time, and find ways to meet them there directly.This episode…

Anne Muhia is an entrepreneur, founder of Winners Arena Africa, and in this episode, she takes us through one of her earliest and most painful business lessons: a butchery story, and how she navigated employee theft at the time. From there, we trace Anne's full journey: from working as a group finance manager, to quitting impromptu, starting her own business, and how motherhood has shaped who she is today — including the ongoing reality of raising a daughter who requires special care while continuing to grow her business.We also get into the mindset shifts that separate founders who scale from founders who stay stuck, then we close with a look at the key numbers every founder should actually be tracking.lA personal note: Anne's journey through motherhood continues alongside her business, as she cares for her daughter who requires special care. If this story moves you, her family has shared a support link below — any contribution would go a long way.🔗 Support here: https://www.mchanga.africa/fundraiser/138250…

Back in Season 1, we talked about McDonald's and how they arrived at the 3 things on their menu. This minisode is a callback to that idea, and a challenge: do you actually know what your 3 things are?Go into your numbers and look at what genuinely brings you the most profit and what you sell the most of. If you had to trim your entire business down to 3 products or services based on demand and profitability, what would they be? And once you know that, ask yourself the harder question: are you actually giving those 3 things enough marketing support? Are you pushing them enough, talking about them enough, presenting them to customers as the solution enough? Are your customers even aware they exist? And how can you maximise more on that because more profit is more money in your pocket, and that's the entire point of being in business. This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER SPOTLIGHT…

This minisode was sparked by an insight from someone who's worked in mergers and acquisitions, reviewing businesses being valued, bought, or sold. It's something that's easy to overlook as a founder: running a separate P&L for each branch of your business, instead of housing everything under one. She shared how a well-known brand runs every single branch like its own separate business, each with its own P&L. That idea alone led me to requesting separate P&Ls for Beauty Square and Sage. If you're running more than one location or branch under a single set of books, this might be the number you've been missing. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝 We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit…

Today's episode looks a little different. We're switching seats — Yvonne is on the guest chair this time, interviewed by Victoria, Founder of Vspa, Thao Tree, and Titii Kenya. If you've ever wanted to know our host a little better, this is your chance. The conversation covers Yvonne's full entrepreneurial journey, building Beauty Square and Sage from the ground up, her journey into motherhood and how it reshaped her relationship with work, the moment that almost made her quit, and what it's actually taken to build a team that runs efficiently without her having to hold everything together herself. This is Yvonne, unfiltered. SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT This episode is sponsored by Faida Elimu Insurance Plan by Jubilee Life Insurance — a plan built to protect your child's education no matter what life brings. It gives you peace of mind knowing your child's education stays funded by Jubilee even if you're no longer around, with the flexibility to save monthly, quarterly, yearly, or as a lump sum, topped up whenever it…

Ever taken a whole weekend off and still felt exhausted? That's usually because rest isn't one-size-fits-all — and most of us are only resting in one dimension while running on empty in the rest. In this minisode, we break down the different types of rest based on where your exhaustion is actually coming from, so you can identify what you really need.✅ Physical rest ✅ Mental rest ✅ Emotional rest ✅ Creative rest ✅ Sensory rest Rest isn't something you earn, it's something you need in order to function and produce your best work. This minisode is a reminder to find the right balance between work and actual, effective rest.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special…

This minisode breaks down a simple, repeatable formula for growing revenue that applies to pretty much any business model.When most founders think about increasing revenue, the instinct is usually: open a new branch, spend more on marketing, hire more staff, or add more products. But there are 3 key drivers that can move revenue without necessarily requiring more input into the business.We also break down how to calculate your customer growth rate, so if you've been assuming growth only comes from spending more, this reframes where to actually look first.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services…

O`rnella Nthambi wears many hats — makeup artist, content creator, beauty educator, and entrepreneur and in this episode, she takes us through the full journey of building Makeup City and Makeup City Academy from a passion project into a business that's sustained her for over a decade.Her very first hustle wasn't in beauty at all. In high school, she sold viazi karai to her fellow students for 10 shillings. After high school, instead of the conventional path into driving or computer packages, she convinced her mum to pay for a short makeup course at Ashley's, a decision that quietly set the direction for everything that followed.We get into the real numbers behind her growth: how she went from charging KES 25,000 for a one-month makeup class to KES 45,000 today, and what it took to actually master pricing along the way. She also walks us through the process of setting up a physical academy space, what she's most intentional about teaching her students, and how she manages finances in a service-based…

There's usually one thing every founder already knows they should be doing to increase revenue and it's usually the thing that keeps getting pushed to "next week." In this minisode, we challenge all founders that instead of juggling 5-6 major tasks a day and touching a hundred things without finishing any of them, pick that one thing you already know needs to happen, and make it the only thing you work on — whether that's dedicating 3-4 hours every morning to it, or making it your single focus until it's done — before moving on to the next task.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at…

A quick follow-up to Minisode 4 ("Great CEOs Are Lazy") — this time breaking down a simple rule for evaluating the players on your team. Every team has three types of players: A, B, and C — but it's not always obvious where each person actually falls.Here's the test: ask yourself, if this person left your business today, what would you do?This one simple question can cut through a lot of the uncertainty founders feel about their team, and make it a lot clearer who's actually driving the business forward.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comOur other Season 3 partners…

This episode carries a little extra meaning for us — Caine Wanjau and DigiTax were our very first sponsors on Founder Diaries, and we're honored they believed in this vision from the start. Watching both DigiTax and this show grow since then has been a full-circle moment. Caine is the Co-Founder and CEO of DigiTax, an electronic invoicing and tax compliance platform built to make tax compliance easier for growing and medium-sized businesses now licensed and operating across four countries: Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, and the UAE. In this episode, we get into what DigiTax actually does, how it started, and the process of getting licensed across multiple markets. Caine shares his professional journey, what it's taken to scale DigiTax across different regions, and how having the right partners can shape your business as a founder. We also dig into some of the sharpest insights he's picked up from working with founders and business owners across different markets. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square…

The one problem that will never fully go away in your business is people. The one asset that will save you is also people. That contradiction is something every founder eventually has to sit with because people come with different stimuli, temperaments, and backgrounds, and what works for managing one person won't work for another.After 7 years in business and a lot of hires — some right, some wrong, this minisode shares the insights learned the hard way, especially around one question a lot of founders avoid: when do you finally let a hire go?This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at…

If there's one number every founder should have top of mind, it's not just revenue — it's your growth rate. In this minisode, we break down why growth rate matters more than most founders realize, and how to actually track it.Here's what we cover:✅ How to calculate your business growth rate✅ Why you should track it both month-to-month and year-over-year✅ What growth rate reveals ✅ What to track beyond business growthThis episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comOur other Season 3 partners are:🎥 Royal Reel — our audio-visual partners / royalreelph. .💄 Makeup City — on makeup /…

Manish earned a place at Delhi School of Economics — one of the most selective universities in the world, admitting less than 1% of applicants. He dropped out in his first semester, knowing it wasn't the right fit, and decided to build his first company instead. Years later, he shares moment that became the starting point for Craydel, Africa's #1 AI-powered study-abroad platform, built to match African students to the universities and courses they're actually built for, using verified data, real counsellors, and a matching engine trained on real student choices.In this episode, we get into Manish's full journey — from finishing his master's, to his first job, to the decision to finally build his own business. We talk about his time in India's education tech scene, the lessons that came from scaling a business into a brand that actually penetrated the market, and how having co-founders compares to building alone. We also dig into where the idea for Craydel came from, how Craydel actually makes money, whether…

Not every profitable business looks exciting on Instagram and this minisode proves it. We asked a question on my TikTok page: what are some unglamorous ways people are making good money? The comments did not disappoint. In this minisode, we highlight some of the most interesting responses, including: ✅ Portable toilet rentals ✅ Selling popcorn ✅ Loan/financing businesses for boda boda riders ✅ Supplying WiFi to local markets These aren't the businesses that make it into glossy founder interviews, but they're solving real problems and making real money; proof that you don't need a flashy idea to build something profitable. If you've been waiting for the "perfect" business idea, this minisode might just change what you're looking for. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝 We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to…

They say there are two things that can quietly shut a business down over time: taxes and calamity. In this minisode, we get into why staying informed about taxes isn't optional it affects your business every single day, whether you're paying attention to it or not. Choosing to ignore it doesn't protect you; it just makes you easier to take advantage of. Here are the tax lessons learned the hard way, the things worth knowing early. If you've been letting your accountant "just handle it" without understanding why, this one's your sign to pay closer attention. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER SPOTLIGHT 🔹 DigiTax — Simplifying tax and invoicing for businesses so you can focus on growth, not paperwork. Learn more: ⁠https://digitax.tech/⁠ | ⁠+254795279403 DigiTax — your tax assistant in your pocket PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝 We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner.…

Some businesses don't just survive they become institutions. In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Rea Song, Marketing and Business Development Director at Misono and son of the founder, to unpack over 30 years of the Misono journey: the story, the lessons, the mishaps, and how a single restaurant became a household name. Daniel takes us back to where it all started — his father's journey through Safari Park, which shaped the chef he would become, and his decision to build a life and a family in Kenya, drawn in by the education system and the opportunity it offered his children. Misono opened its doors in 1995, starting out of a modest rented space on Lenana Road with a limited menu — a location it would call home for 16 years, until 2011.We also get into what's kept Misono consistent for three decades despite chefs coming and going over the years: documented SOPs for every single dish, standardized training, and strict quality control. Plus, Daniel shares his own story growing up under an entrepreneur,…

Paying yourself isn't a luxury it's the entire point of building a business. In this minisode, we break down a founder's toolkit for wealth creation: three things you need in place to protect yourself financially, even as a small business owner.Here's what we cover:✅ Pension ✅ A two-tier emergency fund — one for you personally, one for the business✅ A salary that actually covers your real expenses✅ Why diversification only makes sense once these three foundations are in placeThe goal isn't to work harder for the business, it's to work less and make more money, starting with actually paying yourself.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their…

Every founder hits a funk - the days where motivation disappears and getting anything done feels impossible. In this minisode, we're sharing a personal reboot strategy: three simple things I do every working day to jumpstart out of a slump and back into productivity.None of this requires a complicated morning routine or hours of free time just three small, repeatable habits that compound over time.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comOur other Season 3 partners are:🎥 Royal Reel — our audio-visual partners / royalreelph. .💄 Makeup City — on makeup / makeupcityy. .👗 HAWI…

Today`s episode features Ivy, a business coach who works with founders to build scalable, legacy-ready businesses. Her work is centered on helping founders put the right systems in place, hire the right people, and build something that can grow beyond their own limitations; something they can eventually pass on or sell.Ivy takes us through her own entrepreneurial journey, starting with selling cabbages at 7 years old at a 75% profit margin (a lesson in sales she still carries today), all the way to a salon investment with her husband that flopped teaching her that not every founder should open just any business. In the episode, we also get deep into hiring: simple shifts founders can make in how they hire and manage people, the real cost of a bad hire, and why so many founders hold onto underperforming "day one" employees out of loyalty, even when the gaps are obvious and the business is paying the price.This episode is brought to you by:🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty…

Being busy is not the same as being productive, and this minisode might make you a little uncomfortable. We're reviewing the book Great CEOs Are Lazy, whose core idea is simple but hard to swallow: CEOs aren't paid to be busy, they're paid for the 20% of work that produces 80% of the results. The real job isn't filling your calendar, it's learning to be ruthlessly efficient with the few hours a day that actually move the needle.We have some exciting news at the end of this minisode — stick around for it. And catch the follow-up conversation on how founders should actually be spending their time, coming soon.SPONSOR SPOTLIGHTThis episode is brought to you by:Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special…

Motivation runs out. Systems don't. In this minisode, we talk about consistency not as a personality trait, but as something you can engineer. Borrowing a behavioral strategy from the author of Profit First, we break down "habit sandwiching": stacking a new habit between two things you already do without fail, so there's no room for excuses.If there's a habit you've been trying (and failing) to stick to, this one gives you an actual system to make it work.SPONSOR SPOTLIGHTThis episode is brought to you by:Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comOur other Season 3 partners are:🎥 Royal Reel — our audio-visual…

This week, we're switching things up with a roundtable conversation featuring four incredible founders, each building in a completely different space: 🔹 Val Njoroge — Co-Founder, Africa's Pocket & Panda Towers 🔹 Patricia — Founder, Party Lounges (Furniture & Décor Rental) 🔹 Liz Gitari — Founder, Ogolaw & Wakili Lux | Podcaster, The Green Brief KE 🔹 Waithera Mugo — Founder, [Commercial Law Firm] & Co-Founder, Ithera Africa (Tax Advisory) We got into some of the harder, less-talked-about parts of building a business: the loss of good employees because of leadership missteps in different seasons, and the quieter loss of potential — when someone you've poured into doesn't believe in themselves enough to grow into who you can already see they could be. We also asked the question a lot of founders avoid: do you have an exit strategy? We talk about the advantage (and the trap) of being the face of your brand, why so many of us call our businesses our "babies," and the real difference between registering a business…

We started our businesses to make money but why does profit always feel like an afterthought? In this minisode, we break down key insights from Profit First, and one formula in particular that flips things. SPONSOR SPOTLIGHTThis episode is brought to you by:Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co PARTNER HIGHLIGHT 🤝We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 3 partner. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comOur other Season 3 partners are:🎥 Royal Reel — our audio-visual partnershttps://www.instagram.com/royalreelphotography_?igsh=MWpvaDNqemF2aTh1Yg==💄 Makeup City — on our hosts' makeuphttps://www.instagram.com/makeupcityy?igsh=amZwc2tkdXBpY2lu👗 HAWI — on our hosts'…

Most job descriptions are copy-pasted from Google, and that's exactly why so many hires don't work out. In this minisode, we break down performance-based hiring: a practical, 5-step approach to building your HR process around actual output, not vague titles. Here's what you'll learn: ✅ Why the generic JD is killing your hiring process ✅ How I have used the SMART method to define real, measurable expectations ✅ Why you should never hire alone ✅ The "devil's advocate" step most founders skip ✅ How to assess for the soft skills that don't show up on a resume Plus some hiring drawings from BSK and SAGE's own processes. This episode is brought to you by: 🔹 Beauty Square KE — Your go-to destination for premium, quality beauty essentials. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co Follow Founder Diaries on socials: Instagram / founderdiar. . Tiktok / founder.diari. . Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1CBpdVj... Follow our host on socials: Instagram⁠ / yvonnekanyi. . TikTok⁠ / entrepreneurm. .

Founder Squad, We're back for Season 3!!We're kicking the season off with someone who's redefining what building wealth in Africa looks like. Val Njoroge is the Co-Founder & CEO of Africa's Pocket (a digital investment and financial advisory platform) and Co-Founder of Panda Towers (a real estate passive-income venture).In this episode, Val takes us all the way back to her first brush with entrepreneurship, and how that curiosity eventually led her to Oxford for her MBA. She breaks down how Panda Towers and Africa's Pocket were born, and how she personally built streams of passive income. We also get into the technical side of her business model, the connecting of foreign capital to local opportunities, and the financial mistakes made along the way.If you've ever wondered how to make your money work harder for you, this one's packed with real, practical insight.PARTNER SPOTLIGHT🔹 DigiTax — Simplifying tax and invoicing for businesses so you can focus on growth, not paperwork. Learn more:…

What do you do when business challenges start feeling personal? How do you know it's finally time to hire? Should every business be built to scale? In this Season 2 finale, we're flipping the script and answering some of the most common questions and dilemmas submitted by our audience. Through honest conversation and lived experience, we explore different ways founders can approach the challenges that come with building a business. This episode isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and giving founders practical frameworks to make more confident decisions. Whether you're just starting out or years into your entrepreneurial journey, you'll likely hear a question you've asked yourself before. Thank you for being part of Season 2. Your support, questions, and conversations have made this journey possible, and we can't wait to keep learning and building together. 🎥 Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss what's coming next. Partner…

One of the biggest barriers to golf is the perception that it's expensive, exclusive, and difficult to access. In Episode 10, we sit down with Kamau Nyabwengi, Founder and CEO of Yen Golf, to unpack his entrepreneurial journey, the business behind golf, and how he has spent over a decade making the sport more accessible to thousands of people. Kamau shares how Yen Golf has worked to reduce golf barriers through an 8-week beginner-friendly program. Participants simply show up in golf attire and are guided through everything from golf equipment and swing fundamentals to course etiquette and tournament participation. No club membership required. No prior experience needed. Just a willingness to learn. 🎥 Subscribe and turn on notifications for more founder stories, business lessons, and entrepreneurial insights. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your…

Hiring your first employee feels exciting. Managing them? That's where many founders discover an entirely different challenge. In this minisode, we will be reflecting on one of the biggest struggles entrepreneurs and managers face: navigating performance issues and having difficult conversations with employees. Many founders start by hiring based on attitude, education, and willingness to learn. But what happens when performance begins to decline? What happens when expectations are no longer being met? For many of us, the challenge isn't identifying the problem, it's addressing it. We notice the small things. We get frustrated. We avoid the conversation. And over time, the gap between expectations and performance continues to grow. Sit put as we draw insights from a framework shared by Alex Hormozi called The Management Diamond, this episode explores a practical and objective way to approach performance conversations without blame, assumptions, or unnecessary conflict. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to…

What happens when the business you've spent years building no longer excites you? In Episode 9, we sit down with Joanna K, founder of Joanna K Cosmetics and one of Kenya's most influential beauty content creators, to unpack her journey from makeup enthusiast to building one of Kenya's leading beauty brands. 💄✨ But this isn't just a business story. It's a conversation about creativity, content creation, entrepreneurship, burnout, reinvention, and learning how to fall back in love with the vision you once had. Joanna shares how she spent nearly two years feeling disconnected from the business she had worked so hard to build because she was exhausted. Whether you're a creator, entrepreneur, founder, or someone trying to build something meaningful, this episode is packed with lessons on business, branding, resilience, and staying the course. ✨ Don't forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for more founder conversations and business insights. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as…

Welcome to Episode 8: Today, Abel Mutua and Judy Nyawira share the journey behind their creative careers, entrepreneurship, and the business lessons that completely changed how they approached the industry 🎬 From humble beginnings, internships, and unconventional jobs to handling multi-million-shilling productions, this episode explores the reality behind building a sustainable creative business. Don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on your notification. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.com When you think DigiTax think tax and e-TIMS simplified. Reach out to DigiTax to make your eTIMS compliance much easier: ⁠https://digitax.tech/⁠ | ⁠+254795279403 DigiTax — your tax assistant in your pocket Sponsor…

Most founders learn money the hard way. Most of us figure it out through pressure, mistakes, survival, and experience. In Minisode 15, we unpack practical money advice for founders from years of building and running businesses; the lessons, mistakes, and financial habits that every entrepreneur should start thinking about early. Because somewhere along the journey of impact, growth, hiring, and scaling… many founders forget the original goal: The business was supposed to make money for you. In this minisode, we discuss: 1. Paying Yourself First 2. Business Savings & Cash Reserves 3. Building Relationships With Your Bank 4. Reviewing Personal Finances and Why it Still Matters 5. Emergency savings, investing, pensions, and creating wealth beyond the business. Don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on notifications for more founder conversations and practical business insights. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to…

Back-to-back meetings, Constant notifications, Supplier issues, Endless tasks, New ideas every hour 👀 And somehow… at the end of the day, it still feels like you’re not moving the business forward. In Minisode 14, we unpack the powerful concept of Signal vs Noise inspired by Steve Jobs’ return to Apple in 1997 and how it helped transform the company. In this minisode, we explore: The origin of Signal vs Noise from information theory Why founders choose noise The “founder signal problem” Practical ways to identify signal in your business How to structure your day around signal 👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on notifications for more founder conversations and business insights. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at…

As founders, every day we discover another thing the business needs.Another task, another responsibility, another thing added to our plate. But what if the answer isn’t working harder but building systems? In Minisode 13, we unpack the importance of systemizing your business, delegating, and creating workflows that allow consistency without everything depending on you. The goal isn’t to become the person who does everything but to build a business that can function even when you step away. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.com Sponsor highlight; This podcast is proudly sponsored by Beauty Square Ke and Sage Sknn. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co and use the code FOUNDER10 for some coins off. Follow…

In Episode 7, we sit down with Susan Wanjiku, founder of The Legacy Hub, a platform focused on making financial literacy simple, accessible, and personalized. From growing up in poverty, accumulating over 1 million in debt, losing her job during restructuring, surviving through online writing, and eventually building a personal finance coaching business. Susan shares a deeply honest story about money, survival, self-worth, and business. You can interact/reach out to The Legacy Hub KE on thelegacyhub.co.ke Don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on notifications for more founder stories. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.com When you think DigiTax think tax and e-TIMS simplified. Reach out to DigiTax to make…

One determined woman, Four products, One counter, and a Relentless belief in herself. In Minisode 12, we unpack the incredible backstory behind Estée Lauder, the founder who built one of the world’s most iconic beauty companies starting from her kitchen. Before the global brand, before luxury counters and worldwide recognition, she was mixing creams, going door-to-door, giving free samples, demonstrating products herself, and convincing women to believe in her vision. What made her different wasn’t just the product, It was her mindset. In this minisode, we explore: How Estée Lauder learned formulation and skincare education Why founder-led selling became her superpower The strategy behind product demonstrations & free samples How she generated demand before retailers believed in her Why premium positioning matters even in the early stages The famous “gift with purchase” strategy she pioneered. I hope you can learn some key lessons from her story, enjoy and don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on…

What does it actually take to build a successful coaching business? In Episode 6, we sit down with John Paul Nyiha, an online fitness and dietary coach who has spent over 9 years building a coaching business tailored specifically for Kenyan women. This conversation goes beyond fitness, we unpack the business side of coaching: the inception, positioning, pricing, client acquisition, and the mindset behind building a sustainable coaching brand. Coach J.P shares how his journey started from a deeply personal place, wanting to change how he looked and eventually helping his mum and how this experience pushed him to develop a coaching philosophy that challenged conventional fitness culture and eventually shaped the business he runs today. In this episode, we explore: The inception behind becoming a fitness coach Why he chose to focus specifically on women The business side of coaching Starting with free coaching and scaling to premium programs Why simplicity became the core of his coaching model If you’ve ever…

In today`s minisode, we break down the story of how two brothers transformed a simple drive-in restaurant into one of the most scalable business models in the world—by doing something radical. In 1948, Richard and Maurice McDonald shut down their restaurant, simplified their menu, and rebuilt their entire operation around speed, consistency, and repeatability. The result? The Speedee Service System—a kitchen designed like an assembly line that could produce the same meal, the same way, every single time. Later, Ray Kroc saw the power of this system and scaled it into what we now know as the McDonald’s Corporation.In this minisode, we explore:How McDonald’s went from a drive-in to a global systemWhy simplifying their menu changed everythingThe birth of repeatable, standardized operationsWhy you can only scale processes - not chaosDon’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on notificationsPartner Spotlight;We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful…

When is the right time to start paying yourself as a founder, and how much should you actually take home? 🤔 A lot of businesses are started with one goal: to make money for you. But somewhere along the way, many founders end up underpaying themselves… or not paying themselves at all. In this episode, we break down the reality of founder compensation and why paying yourself isn’t optional - It’s a core principle of building a sustainable business.Because if your business can pay everyone and everything else… why not you? In this episode, we cover: 1. When to Start Paying Yourself 2. The 3 key stages of business 3. Smart Compensation StructureKey Insight: If you’re not paying yourself, your business isn’t giving you a true picture of what it actually costs to run...And that? Can cost you more in the long run. 👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe & turn on notifications for more real conversations around business, money, and growth. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on…

What if everything you thought about profit, business, and your personal value… was wrong? 👀 In Episode 5, we sit down with Mr. Waithaka Gatumia, a financial literacy coach, who breaks down the realities of business, money, and what it truly means to build wealth. From transitioning out of Media & Communications into financial education, to helping people grow sustainable wealth, this conversation is packed with hard truths and practical wisdom every entrepreneur (and self-employed individual) needs to hear. The difference between being self-employed vs an entrepreneurWhy profit is NOT your money 💸The real aim of every business (and why many get it wrong)Why labour is a cost (yes, even yours!)Understanding your true value beyond your businessAnd the story of how Mr. Waithaka ended up spending dollars in just two weeks 😂 Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit…

Why are so many founders determined to use their own money to build businesses? 🤔In this Minisode, we unpack the deeply rooted mindset behind self-funding and bootstrapping, especially among Kenyan founders, and ask the uncomfortable question:Is it always bravery… or sometimes fear and lack of awareness? From selling personal assets, borrowing from chamas, and taking high-interest loans, to wearing burnout like a badge of honor - this episode challenges the narrative many founders have grown up believing.Partner Spotlight;We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.comSponsor highlight;This podcast is proudly sponsored by Beauty Square Ke and Sage Sknn. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co and use the code FOUNDER10 for some coins…

In this episode of Founder Diaries, we sit down with a creative entrepreneur, Tara Nicole as she shares her journey of building, evolving, and reinventing herself across multiple creative industries.From painting on t-shirts and shoes, to diving into food photography for brands, to creating props and drops —Tara’s story is one of constant evolution, bold pivots, and following curiosity.Today, she’s shares her journey as a vibe curator, running a mobile cocktail experience that blends creativity, experience, and lifestyle.This conversation goes beyond just business, it will remind you that it is okay to start before you feel ready and that every version of you is part of the journey.Partner Spotlight;We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at…

Opening a new branch sounds like growth but it can quickly become pressure if you’re not fully prepared.In this minisode, we’re unpacking the real conversations every entrepreneur needs to have before expanding, because having cash flow doesn’t always mean you have overflow, and that distinction can make or break your next move.We get into:Why data matters more than hype; Understanding your market, order volumes, and the people in that areaThe hidden costs most people overlook (equipment, systems, WiFi, hiring, legal, and more)The importance of vetting—why you should always ask for past work, long-term results, and real client feedback before bringing people on boardThe operational truth—whether your business is actually built to sustain another branchIf you’ve been thinking about scaling, this is your reality check. Subscribe and turn on notifications. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable…

Sage Skin officially turned 1 last month and in this episode I get to share some financial decisions that almost cost me the business and how we've managed to pivot since then. Partner Spotlight;We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on Founder Diaries. From creating beautiful spaces to curating unforgettable experiences, Sarova is the best fit for your staycation, business meeting or that special celebration. Visit their website to check out their facilities and services at www.sarovahotels.com Sponsor highlight; This podcast is proudly sponsored by Beauty Square Ke and Sage Sknn. Visit and patronize at beautysquareke.co and use the code FOUNDER10 for some coins off. Follow Founder Diaries on socials: Instagram / founderdiar. Tiktok / founder.diari. Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1CBpdVj... Follow our host on socials: Instagram⁠ https://www.instagram.com/yvonnekanyi... TikTok⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@entrepreneurm...