And that’s when I could finally put what I’ve been feeling into words.

We decided to build a company with direct contact with reality.

To have fifteen investees and their teams in a developing market is to experience more growth than we realistically could have hoped for. It also means experiencing more tragedy.

This quarter hit me harder emotionally than I expected.

With enough people, statistically, you’re going to encounter a tragedy every week. The human condition makes itself known on a daily basis.

Some challenges seem like business problems at first.

A founder’s ego, often required to start a company, grows large enough that they stop seeing the mistakes they’re making.

Two ambitious people drift apart not because they’re different, but because they’re so similar.

A founder contracts cerebral malaria and falls into a coma, which according to Google has a 25% chance of death. We live in a country where malaria still hasn’t been eradicated. Not a typical risk factor for a Silicon Valley startup.

Another founder’s personal struggles begin spilling into the business. At first I framed it as an operational problem. Missed targets. Difficult conversations.

But beneath all of that was something much sadder: a person fighting battles I couldn’t solve for them.

I found myself wondering: could we have done something differently?

My biggest surprise wasn’t any of those situations.

It was how unsurprised our experienced investors were.

One investor said:

“That’s all? You haven’t said anything yet that scares or surprises me.”

Another told me stories from his own company. A top salesperson who left to become a priest. One employee had a baby she didn’t want; another wanted a baby and couldn’t have one.

Made a point of only raising “smart” money, investors who themselves had experience as entrepreneurs. That decision seems to be paying off, even if it means we are raising from a much smaller pool of capital.

For a long time, Kuzana’s mission was simple:

Mint 1,000 more millionaires.

But this quarter made me realize that’s a metric, not a mission.

As they say “once a metric becomes a goal it ceases to be a good metric.”

The mission is something deeper:

Personal transformation through business growth.

There’s something special about the pressures of business. It means being in contact with the real world and over long periods of time, reality does not lie to you.

I can invent theories, philosophies, and essays all day long.

Business doesn’t care.

Reality tells you when your idea is bad.

Reality tells you when your assumptions are wrong.

Reality tells you that a spreadsheet is not the same thing as a human being.

We realized the same principle was true commercially. Our best businesses are the ones closest to the customer.

The business closest to the customer learns the fastest because reality smacks them in the face in five hours, not five months.

We call that Demand Ownership. Read about that here.

Ironically, the Mission insight came from the Kuzana community itself. Conversations with investors, entrepreneurs, and an EOS consultant helped us realize that every customer, entrepreneur, employee, and shareholder is ultimately participating in the same process.

Growth is transformation.

And transformation is not always beautiful.

Sometimes it looks like success.

Sometimes it looks like failure.

Sometimes it looks like grief.

Sometimes it looks like resilience.

For some of our investors, Kuzana is their first angel investment. Every update carries uncertainty.

For others, this is one position among many, but their first investment in Africa.

Either way, everyone involved is taking a step into the unknown. Personal transformation.

That’s why I like a quote from Elon Musk.

When asked about Tesla’s early days, he later reflected that “there was perhaps only a 10% chance it would survive at all.”

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

That’s the best kind of work.

The kind that would not have happened, or would have happened much later, without you.

Because there is something special about staying in direct contact with business reality.

Over long periods of time, business does not lie to you.

or a romantic belief in emerging markets.

We have noticed a pattern in our most successful Bizi:

Demand ownership.

The bizi that own their brand and distribution perform better than ones that pursue huge volumes through low trust intermediaries.

A company that sells through a supermarket might be promised a large and attractive order, but it means low margins, realistically getting paid in 90 days after repeated follow-ups and no contact information for the end consumer.

Compare that to Nyumbani Greens that sells traditional vegetables direct to consumer on Instagram: they get paid cash, make a large margin and know the exact customer to retarget for a repeat purchase and can address any quality concerns directly. Result: 5x growth.

The business closest to the customer learns the fastest because reality smacks them in the face in 5 hours, not 5 months.

Bellfeeds takes demand ownership one step further: community. They own the Pig Farmer Facebook groups for the pig farming counties of Kenya. Somehow they built a moat in the “boring” business of pig feed—because who is going to prefer the 2nd best pig farming group of Meru? 4x growth in 18 months and $8k monthly net profit. Cash sales, full margin, demand ownership.

Consider NAWIRI, micro-customized women’s fashion. They sell high end items that are tailored in 10 minutes to uniquely fit each woman’s body, because women don’t come in just 3 sizes like a rice cooker. They sell direct to consumer but also have Women’s Circle workshops on what it means to be a modern woman—attendees are inspired and tend to make big purchases after the Circles. 1.8x in 3 months. Customers identify with the brand and call themselves “NAWIRI BABES.” Not only do they get advance payment, but there is a waitlist for both the Women’s Circle and the clothes.

Commodity -> Direct2Consumer -> Community -> Identity

Demand ownership is our new criteria for batch 4.

Many companies apply to Kuzana with broken, commodity business models (see our linkedin post with 8,000+ views here). They need capital because they are being abused by buyers who take 14-180 days to pay, treating them like a free bank loan. These entrepreneurs come to us excited “We just got a Purchase Order from a big supermarket. If we just get working capital we will be set!” Unfortunately, their working capital needs will scale even faster than their sales as the big supermarket bullies them with delayed payments. We realized that unless a company has a direct path to obtaining Demand Ownership, we won’t invest.

We are now receiving applicants for the next batch. We have more wisdom, a higher bar, better selection, a stronger brand, and more personal transformation than we did six months ago.

We have 195 applicants with revenue over ksh400,000 monthly (our new raised bar for consideration). Only 7 investment spots are available.

And so, I invite you to continue this journey with us.

I’m hosting a LIVE session today Sunday.

I’d love for you to join.

Click here to join

Like a bottle, every business has ONE bottleneck.

And the bottleneck is always at the top:

🫵 YOU.

And that’s good news.

Because you’re the only person you can 100% change.

I’m hosting an AMA at 5pm EAT today (sunday).

The goal: UnBlock your business this week. Together.

Click to sign up and be notified when we go LIVE!

Click here to join

Bring any question you have about your business. We will help you unblock it.

Sunday May 24, 5pm EAT

yours,

Kyle

See all the photos here.

Feedback from our investors:

“inspiring”

“Logistics is flawless, the quality is A1”

“Feeling grateful to be somehow related to Kuzana 💪🏾”

“I’m so struck by the fact that the room is mostly Kenyan. Which is not the case for many accelerators in this city”

See what you missed by watching the video below 👇

Guest Speaker: Kris Senanu

From his LinkedIn is very appropriate:

His slides here for those who asked.

Kris now invests in public companies. One day we intend for Kuzana (and its bizi) to be public companies that are investment ready and scalable, that Kris and his friends can feel comfortable investing in.

Financials

Since we will be public one day, might as well share financials now, which we did at the event

The Assets and Revenue come from the underlying bizi, which have shown remarkable growth:

The growth has been amazing! So maybe you want to…

Get involved

• BIG ask: Referrals.

  • Nearly all bizi are intro’d by people like YOU!

  • Get up to Ksh50k referral bonus with your personalized referral link 👉here

• Ko-founders/partners - growing our team

  • HNWI networker

  • Education platform (FinanceForFounders)

  • Software Dev - Automations, efficiency, automated coaching

• Kuzana Ko-working with cafe in NBO

• Partners: Ops, Sales, Coach, etc
  (must have previous experience managing profitable P&L with regional context)

Apply for batch4🎉

There will be 5 tracks:

1. Agri-Processing & Manufacturing

2. Logistics & Export

3. Retail & Direct2Consumer

4. Cosmetics&Fashion

5. Fintech and Other

Apply here

Eligible entrepreneurs:

• >Ksh400k monthly revenue

• Growth Mindset: building a 100x bigger business requires one to become a 100x bigger person

• Take FinanceForFounders class

The FinanceForFounders class answers 👇

Many entrepreneurs don’t know how to value their business, so it’s hard to invest. Valuation requires knowing your revenue, profit and growth rate.

FinancesForFounders is 6 classes. Online. Includes:

• What’s your business worth?

• Should I spend more on Ads?

• Can I afford a loan?

Ksh10k investment

Readers of the Kuzana newsletter get a 25% discount. Or use referral code “event”

FinanceForFounders Signup

Let’s mint 1,000 more millionaire$ 🎉

➡️ Forward to a friend who loves this mission!

yours,

Felicity, Carol and Kyle

12 weeks ago we took a bet. On 5 companies.

Animal feed. Women’s Fashion. Potatoes. Eggs. Interior Design.

Join the streaming link below.

https://youtube.com/live/dq7Oc-cjP6U

In-person🤝 and Streaming📺 on YouTube.

In person includes: food, drinks, professional headshots, serious investors and entrepreneurs ⬇️

Sign up here

Agenda

5:00pm - doors open

event starts promptly👇
7:00pm - 📈 What makes Kuzana Special? -Founder Kyle's intro
7:15pm - 😇🙃Batch3 share their successes and failures
8:00pm - 🏆 live game show. Test your startup knowledge and WIN prizes
8:15pm - SPECIAL GUEST
8:25pm - 🚀 Conclusion: what does it take to join Kuzana for Education and Investment? Batch4 applications launch
8:30pm - Networking + Music 🎸
10:00pm - Event closes kabisa

• Farmers throwing away mangoes because they can’t export in time.

• Great companies staying small because universities don’t teach how to actually run a business.

• Capital sitting in Index Funds/Bonds earning 5-10% while businesses in Kenya could be growing at 100%…

…if they had the capital

Does that bother you too?

Good.

Come see what we’re building.

Join us for the Kuzana Batch 3 Finale.

In the last 12 months, we’ve made 15 equity investments into Kenyan companies.
More than any other investor we know.

Batch3 Bizi:

• NAWIRI micro customized women’s fashion

• ADIA ingredient optimized cow feed

• SAINT BOSS interior design with a twist

• FOKE ready-to-cook potatoes

• LUSOI HILL FARM eggs, super fresh
  

I want you to join us to Celebrate. In Person, Nairobi Street Kitchen. Ksh4k per ticket that includes:

1. Food

2. 2 drinks

3. Professional headshots

4. Event (gonna be fun)

5. Meet serious investors and entrepreneurs

Join In Person

Also available streaming on YouTube for free.

Sign Up for Streaming

Yours, always,

Kyle
General Partner
Kuzana.co
Mint 1,000 more millionaire$

If you had to guess which investor made the most equity investments in Kenya in 2025…
You’d probably name one of the usual suspects.

But surprise…

it looks like Kuzana made more equity investments in Kenyan companies this year.

We made 10 equity investments in Kenyan companies this year.
And not into fancy Delaware holdcos or shiny pitch-deck dreams —
we’re backing real companies with real profits. “Boring” companies that actually make money.

They might not win “Innovation of the Year,”
but their customers love them so much, they’re growing like bananas 🍌.

Batch 2 was a blast.
And we’re wrapping it up with a celebration —
Tuesday at 7pm (Kenya time).

👉 click to Join the live broadcast online [Google Meet: meet.google.com/jwe-rays-bim 7pm Kenya time]

or
🎟️ If you’re in Nairobi, grab one of the few in-person tickets left—just email me.

We’re on a mission to make Kuzana the best investment experience you’ve ever had.
Remember that first Uber ride — when it just worked and felt like magic?
That’s the energy we’re bringing to investing in Africa. And this event is a big part of that.

I’d be so happy if you could join us.

I was a guest on Startup Evangelist podcast in Kenya. Its the best overview of the journey to build Kuzana that we have created so far.

We talked about:

• how to predict the future (how it won’t be different)

• where the Kuzana idea came from

• how investors put on their trousers 👖 before their underwear 🩲

and many more secrets

On Spotify for those who prefer:

Maybe... But there are a few things I think he is missing.

First some background…

We had our final event for Kuzana batch1. What a great event!

Thanks everyone.

We wanted the bizi (investees) to grow. But we didn’t expect THIS much growth. All the bizi doubled revenue in just 4 months.

We also had a lot of fun. The Kahoot startup Trivia game was a hit, and the winners celebrated their victory…

Kuzana batch1 led to our first national TV appearance where two bizi CEOs and I were on the national TV station for an hour for BizCheck program.

Based on the strong results of batch1, we launched the applications for batch2 with the final deadline May 31st. Apply here.

After batch 1, my key takeaway was that money alone is not enough: many companies that raised $10m or $100m in Kenya have gone under. I have raised $20m for companies in Africa, but ultimately, was all that money used well? A lot was for satisfying donor demands and reporting. Moreover, when you raise a lot of money, it wants to be spent. Investors just spent 2 years developing a plan; if you come back in a week with a different direction it becomes hard to turn the ship—even if that’s what needs to be done. Companies lose their nimbleness and “stick to the script.”

So, how did all the Kuzana bizi double their revenue in just 4 months?

It’s hard for Kuzana to take any credit for the phenomenal growth. We invested very little money. And most of that money came at the end of the program, not the beginning. As cheesy as it sounds… community!

In running the first 12 week batch, we realized 3 things are more important than money:

1. Focus

2. Professionalization

3. Community

Focus

The cheetah that chases 2 gazelle catches none.

As entrepreneurs, we tend to have 27 new business ideas before breakfast. Many of them might actually work. But if we try all of them none will work.

Did you know entrepreneurs have 4x the incidence of ADHD compared to the general populace? It’s a blessing and a curse. In the beginning, it's important to try lots of different things and not get too hung up on one crazy idea.

But there comes a time we have to FOCUS or wander forever in the wilderness.

At Kuzana, we ask founders every week what their ONE THING is. This mirrors how Peter Thiel gave every employee ONE THING to do at PayPal. If it’s not a founder's one thing, is it really worth talking about? There always is ONE bottleneck in any business, usually something the founder is avoiding.

Focus is simple: just cut everything that not related to driving the main business. It’s like a breath of fresh air for founders.

Professionalization

Imagine you’re on the beach in Diani. How long will it be before you get an emergency phone call from your team? Then you’re on the phone, back in the hotel, sorting out the issue and your vacation is ruined.

What got you here won’t get you there.

You can dodge paying the taxman while you’re small but once you start to succeed KRA will come knocking, my friend. And we don’t want to invest in CEOs who go to jail.

We provide 12 months of free accounting. Entrepreneurs can finally steer their ship with a map. As investors we get accounts done by the 5th of each month, which I doubt any other investor can claim.

Community

Perhaps most importantly, as entrepreneurs, we want to be independent, but as humans, we crave connection. We cannot share our problems with our employees, customers or suppliers. We can only share our problems with our spouse so many times before we start to create new problems.

You’re the average of your 5 closest friends, the saying goes.

What if those friends were other successful entrepreneurs? Who motivated you? Believed in you, shared their problems and solved your problems too.

“When you put ambitious people together, they bloom like dying plants given water.” Paul Graham, YCombinator co founder

So why did Shaun think Kuzana is a mistake (real decamillionaire investor acquaintance, fake name)? He is a serial entrepreneur from the US who had invested in impact business in Tanzania.

• “You’ll never reach your goal of becoming a decamillionaire”

• “Africa, lol, wrong market”

• “Your wife will leave you. There’s no honor in being poor.”

• “You need control.”

Here are some of the mistakes I think he made:

• Tanzania is a much less mature market than Kenya. You can’t easily get money out of TZ, whereas I have moved money in and out of Kenya with ease.

• His “Impact” business sold expensive solar to low income people. We buy from low-income people, providing employment, and sell to rich Nairobians or those in Europe and the Middle East with greater purchasing power. They were trying to squeeze water out of a rock; we are catching rain with as many buckets as we can find.

• There is a Carrot and a Stick for control. They focus on the stick. But we focus on the carrot—strong communities you wouldn’t want to screw over.

If I ask you which country has a stronger sense of community, Kenya or the US, I don’t have to answer for you to know. And yet we force the American way of doing things on a very different culture. Why not leverage Kenya's existing strengths?

Share this with a friend. Think about how you heard of Kuzana—it was probably through a friend. Pay it forward and send this email to a friend—it would mean the world 🌍 to me, and might change their life too.

If you are an entrepreneur, investor or ecosystem player, join the best SME WhatsApp community here.

The kuzana program keeps rolling! Steep learning curve. Our investees are growing their revenues at 30% MoM which is pretty incredible!

Ask: please forward this update to someone you feel would benefit like potential applicants or partners/investors.

After receiving 140 applications, we have a unique data set on early stage “real” business in Kenya. Why not share?

28 day Avg Cash Conversion Cycle

Some had long cycles, particularly in primary agriculture (that is, the people who do the growing). That is part of the reason we prefer agri processing as the CCC is shorter and typically has less risk that primary agriculture.

Of note, no company had a negative CCC. Hopefully, we find negative CCC companies in the future.

92% of applicants were profitable

This underscores that the agriprocessing sector tends to have naturally profitable businesses, rather than the tech sector.

However, likely two of our first 5 bizi (investments) were not profitable in 2024, so we tended to go for companies with more potential than steady financials.

~35% of applicants were in our revenue “sweet spot”

Our sweet spot is $20k-$800k annual revenue.

Meanwhile about 5% were too big and 60% were too small. It feels like our targeting was good.

Focusing on Applicants in the sweet spot for a moment

Within our target revenue range, the median company had

• grown 33% YoY

• $90k annual revenue

• $8k in unpaid receivables

• $16k debt

• $160k fund raising target next 12 months

This highlights the growth in the sector, that we didn’t receive failing companies.

The bizi tended to have higher revenue than the median, higher growth rate, but lower fundraising targets. A general rule of thumb is that companies in this sector can raise as much capital in one year as they had in revenue the previous year; therefore applicants tended to have fundraising targets almost 2x higher than they could optimistically achieve.

Fundraising was the most mentioned request for mentorship

Already one bizi was able to raise $60k based on our introduction and two more are likely to receive a similar amount.

Of note, one bizi who was particularly eager for the sales&marketing training has increased their revenue 60% for the two months since receiving investment.

Quickbooks is King

Despite its prevalence in the applicant pool, no bizi uses quickbooks.

Surprisingly, Zoho was 3.5x more popular among applicants than the similar Odoo platform. This difference is statistically significant.

Therefore we dropped Odoo and quickbooks training partnership plans.

~70% applicants founded in last 5 years

95% registered in Kenya

We only invested in companies based in Kenya so this tells me applicants were well aware of the requirements and few wasted time applying that were not eligible.

We received feedback that our application process was quick and painless (presumably those who find it painful didn’t tell us)

Summary

We received 140 applications and the questions evolved over the course of the process so we don’t have all data for each company.

The data suggests our applicant pool composition was not significantly different than expected, aside from the high usage of Zoho. This sets a baseline going forward.

To receive 2x as many investable applicants we may need to get 2x as many total applications which would push the applicant target for batch2 to 280.

Practically though, I’m glad that we did not make 7 investments in batch1 as we had much to learn, and it would’ve been logistically difficult.

Ask: please forward our update emails to whoever you feel would benefit, potential applicants or potential partners/investors for us.

If you have any feedback and comments please do share with me.

Yours,

Kyle and team