Tesh Mbaabu ™
@teshmbaabu
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Serial Tech Entrepreneur | CEO @chpter_co | Co-Founder @marketforcehq & @cloud9wallet | Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 | Adventurer | 🇰🇪 to the 🌍
Nairobi, Kenya
Joined February 2011
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I was yesterday years old when I found out that there was a bear in Kenya 🇰🇪.
He’s called Potap (Russian for bear). He was donated from Moscow, Russia at the age of 4 months in 2003.
You can find him at Ol Jogi wildlife Conservancy, Laikipia.
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0735HRS. 24.08.20. 3.11KGS. Mwaki is here! Baby and Mother are well. Father is still recovering 🍼
#Blessed
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Tech is such a game changer. We have 55k+ people in an X space talking about real issues affecting Kenyans.
Perspective: That’s an entire football stadium! It’s the biggest online political rally ever witnessed in Kenya with non-politicians (including Gen Z) speaking 🤯
Never
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I had the privilege of gaining some wisdom over lunch from Equity Group CEO Dr. James Mwangi on the sidelines of the US-Kenya Business Roadshow in San Francisco.
The gentleman built Equity from technical insolvency to the largest bank in East and Central Africa with over US$10
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Today marks the beginning of a new chapter at
@MarketForcehq
. We just closed a $40M Series A funding round led by
@V8Africa
⛽ and are one step closer to achieving our goal of being the largest B2B commerce & fintech marketplace in Africa. 🚀
Read more:
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Thrilled to share that we have secured a $1.2M Pre-Seed Round! 🌟
The last one year of rebuilding has been absolutely humbling, but very exciting and full of promise. And yet again, this is just the beginning. We have major plans in store for businesses in Africa and beyond, as
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Snippets of my business journey in todays Daily Nation 🗞️
By the 3rd yr in campus
@teshmbaabu
was making millions as a techy.
He told his proffesor dad he wants to quit campo & venture in to businness.
The only Kenyan featured on
@Forbes
30 under 30 2023
Here’s how he raised ksh 5B expanding his bizna to 5 countries
✍🏾
@sindamatiko
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I am grateful to list on
@forbesafrica
among 30 young Africans who choose to write tomorrow’s history today; with relentless focus, stubborn self-belief and unwavering determination.
My gratitude to the
@marketforcehq
team and everyone who continues to share in this journey.
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Today we celebrate 4 years of love and friendship. To many more 🥂
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Same book, new chpter.
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Mad fun & loads of laughter as we caught the rival match last night with the crew.
@Arsenal
did the thing
@LarryMadowo
💪🏽 and
@Benji_Fernandes
na
@georgiendirangu
wamemaliza maoni 😂
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I have been told NO so many times in my life. Guess what I do after? Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat.
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Happy 30th to my lovely wife
@Joy_Thuo_
🤍
I’ve been wearing spectacles for the past 20 years, then today I was forced to buy contact lenses after the waves carried my specs. Nonetheless, it’s been a beautiful day.
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African saying: “when your neighbors house is on fire, get a bucket of water.”
Really appreciate your messages and support - everyone who has come with a bucket of water. Rest assured that we’ll get through this 💪🏽
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Couldn’t agree more. Most African entrepreneurs are driven by necessity rather than real problem solving / innovation.
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I am grateful for the opportunity to share the highs and lows of the founder/CEO job and what we hope for future generations of African founders at the
@HarvardHBS
25th Africa Business Conference alongside
@shollsman
of
@paystack
, Fara of
@okra_HQ
and Sophia of Chari.
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We’re building the operating system for retail distribution in Africa - RejaReja (By
@marketforce360
)
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Over the festive period, I took some time to pen down my thoughts on the state of our business/sector and the African tech ecosystem in 2023, some critical lessons learnt, and my general outlook for 2024 and beyond.
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Elated to be featured in this years list of Top 40 under 40 Men Kenya by
@BD_Africa
alongside my cofounder and friend
@Mesongo
.
Congratulations to all the other honourees - outstanding men engaged in building our nation.
#Top40Under40MenKE
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This one is for Kenya 🇰🇪, East Africa, and the
@MarketForceHQ
family for our collaborative grit in building such an impactful platform.
We bagged 1st place🥇in the People’s Choice Awards and 1st Runners-up in
@africa_heroes
2022.
#ItsAfricanTime
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Entrepreneurship is putting your face out there everyday for people to slap 😄
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Founders first deal with figuring out product-market fit among many other things. Then deal with rejection fundraising, then keyboard warriors follow to discuss your business strategy or lack thereof. 🤦🏽♂️
Founders, keep your head high! This journey is not for the faint hearted.
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Happy birthday to my amazing wifey, here’s to celebrating you today and always 🎉
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As is custom, we held our 2022
@MarketForceHQ
End of Year Africa Townhall to reflect on our progress, celebrate and recognise top performers.
The virtual event presented an opportunity for all 700+ team members to join from the 5 operational markets and beyond.
Thread 🧵:
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Today I embark on the last year of my 20’s. Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I’m planning to decide what matters most to me, and do it - decide who matters most to me, and spend time with them - and decide to be happy, and be.
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七転び八起き (nana korobi ya oki)
Translation: “Fall seven times, get up eight.”
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If there is one skill that stands out about great CEOs, it’s the ability to focus and make the best move when there are no good moves. It’s the moments where you feel most like hiding or dying that you can make the biggest difference as a CEO.
#TheHardThingAboutHardThings
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Such an honor being a guest lecturer at
@Stanford
MS&E 272 Entrepreneurship without Borders class.
Thank you very much for the invite Professor Chuck Eesley and Vimbayi Kajese. That was fun!
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Our
@USAmbKenya
Meg Whitman is overworking, with tech at heart.
Welcoming President
@WilliamsRuto
to Silicon Valley.
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Pitch-side tour of my favorite football club
@Arsenal
alongside the legendary
@patorankingfire
🇳🇬 and my tech bro
@Benji_Fernandes
🇹🇿, courtesy of
@visitrwanda_now
🇷🇼. Africa to the world 🇰🇪🌍
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Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
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Dear founder, pressure is a privilege.
Let it bring out the side of you that you didn’t even know existed.
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We recently clocked 750K+ orders fulfilled since launch, with steady growth, stronger fundamentals and happier merchants. Team
@MarketForceHQ
is pumped, let's hit 1 million 🚀
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Three decades in the making! 🌟
Reaching 30 feels like an upgrade after years of flying economy. There’s an intrinsic shift from self-consciousness to self-awareness.
Full of gratitude for the memories created, opportunities taken, challenges faced, mistakes made, but most
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Market research is overrated.
I am a huge believer in market creation - meaning ‘technology push’ rather than ‘market pull’ when innovating.
I believe that customers most often don’t really know what they want (because they don’t know what is possible).
Consumers when
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Advise any 1st time founder wish they had:
It’s not the product that leads to success.
It’s the ability to make and sell the product efficiently.
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Egypt moves up to first, Kenya jumps in, Nigeria + Ethiopia bounce out and Rwanda pushes up to 4th 🧐
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Our President
@WilliamsRuto
pitching to more than 200 investors interested in investing in Kenya’s tech industry at the US-Kenya Business Roadshow in San Francisco, California.
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Build your ‘get shit done’ muscle.
Nothing matters more than this. Nothing.
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If you’re a fish, it’s hard to see the water you’re swimming in. Best to talk to other fish that have swam different waters in different seasons to understand your water now.
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Raising our $40M Series A, thoughts on the economic situation and how to come out stronger.
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They ask me how and why I keep going?
The mission is too important and I’m just allergic to giving up.
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Any East African startups who got to YC interview stage? Happy to make some time for a mock interview over the next 2 days 🇰🇪 🇺🇬 🇹🇿
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I share with great humility that I have been recognised as a laureate in the prestigious
@instchoiseul
Top 200 List 2022.
(Full List: )
I would like to specially thank the
@MarketForceHQ
team for their support to make this happen.
#ChoiseulTop100
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Apparently you are 30% smarter when you are in a positive state of mind and 30% dumber in a negative state of mind.
Smile more. Have more optimism. You got a higher chance of figuring it out.
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Our active merchant base has grown 3x, and average basket value by 1.5x in the last 3 months 🚀🚀🚀
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Top-line is vanity.
Bottom-line is sanity.
Cash-flow is reality.
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Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you, but to help you realize your hidden potential and power. Let difficulties know that you too are difficult.
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True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
#RejectFinanceBill2024
#TechiesAgainstFinanceBill2024
#StartUps4Kenya
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Gen Z have granted you all a day off on Tuesday 🙆🏽♂️
The
@chpter_co
management complies because 90% of our team is Gen Z. We do it for a better future! 🇰🇪
#REJECTFINANCEBILL2024
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Nobody climbs a mountain to get to the middle.
Whatever mountain you’re climbing, keep going till you get to the top.
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Well deserved
@PaulNKimani
,
@kibigo
and team
@Workpayhq
on your $5M Series A. The only way is up! 🚀
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In 2022, we (
@MarketForceHQ
) have been going wider and deeper on many fronts. We hit 200k merchants in April, but what’s even more interesting:
Jan - Dec 2021 (12 months): 100k+ Merchants 🇰🇪 🇳🇬
Jan - Apr 2022 (4 months): 200k+ Merchants 🇰🇪 🇳🇬 🇺🇬 🇷🇼 🇹🇿
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Then we visited
@PurpinkGifts
at their HQ in Nairobi. Anyone keen to hear from the founder about how they built the
#1
Gifting platform in East Africa?
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TOMORROW’S TITANS: HEART 💜 & HUSTLE 💪🏽
In a world where ‘nepotism babies’ have become commonplace and uninspired, the notion of ‘self-made’ is acquiring new meaning and respect.
Grab your digital copy today ~
@forbesafrica
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Stoic: someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
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My 15 yo brother set up this restaurant in 2020. Super proud of him!
It’s called Narava - in Ngong Town.
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It’s better to make friends in business than to do business with friends.
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Do not ever let the money you have/don’t have in your pocket define you.
You are bigger than your current successes/problems.
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Gen Z are clear that a culture of corruption should be rejected, not amended.
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#TechiesAgainstFinanceBill2024
and
#Startups4Kenya
will be there!
We call on everyone to come out, and join the nation-wide strike tomorrow. Gen Z are granting all hardworking Kenyans a day off.
#RejectFinanceBill2024
#TotalShutDownKenya
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It was a pleasure to host the
@forbesafrica
team and share more about the ICT sector in Kenya and our involvement as
@MarketForceHQ
in anticipation of the Kenya Special Edition release early next year.
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Back at my alma mater, for the
@uonbi
(University of Nairobi) 7th edition of Nairobi Innovation Week (
@InnovationNIW
), where I joined a panel discussion on “the DNA of an innovator”.
This experience took me back to the 1st edition of NIW that happened in 2015. I was a 4th year
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Always great to share experiences and learn from fellow entrepreneurs like Daniel Yu of Sokowatch. Makes the founder journey less lonely.
#Retail
#Distribution
#Tech
#Africa
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We'll know we are getting somewhere when a venture-backed startup shutting down isn't big news.
In fact, the sooner they die, the better. We need to learn from it but no need to keep stigmatizing failure and then waste time for everyone involved.
By definition, a venture is a
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Last week was amazing; explored 5 towns for expansion, drove 1100+ kms, did 40 online and in-person meetings - scaling hard!!
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Here’s a snippet of a
@MarketForce360
feature by
@TheEconomist
last year. Exciting to be a part of the revolution within the retail distribution space in the continent, beginning in my home country, Kenya 🇰🇪(Silicon Savannah).
#Technology
#Disruption
#Retail
#Fintech
#RejaReja
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Nothing gives us more pleasure than a happy customer 😃
📍 Lagos, Nigeria
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Your ability to succeed is directly proportional to your ability to solve problems.
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Engaging conversations with these gentlemen, focused on ways to develop the African entrepreneurial ecosystem further.
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Watu wa ManU, I met low budget B. Fernandes today pale Dar 😆
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YC (
@ycombinator
) East Africa Mafia. All making something people want (Building a business/product that customers want).
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Excited about this partnership with the
@Cellulant
team to drive financial inclusion for the next 1 million merchants in Africa.
Thanks for the feature
@ycombinator
and
@TechCrunch
- it’s just the beginning 🚀
Kenyan B2B retail and financial services distribution startup
@MarketForce360
(S20) partners with
@Cellulant
to expand in five new markets across Africa and grow its retailer ‘super app’ — congrats to the team on the milestone!
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My greatest lesson as an entrepreneur so far is to face big challenges with boldness.
Here’s 2 ways to do that:
1. Acknowledge obstacles as soon as possible and never hide - even in your darkest moments. Don’t wish to disappear, only you can solve your problems. The sooner
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I had the pleasure of joining our Harambeans Chairman to welcome Silicon Valley royalty, Meg Whitman, as the new
@USAmbKenya
to Kenya at this inflection point in Africa's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Karibu Kenya Ambassador Whitman. Silicon Savannah HQ is excited to have you! 🇰🇪
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