Boardroom Banter

In her early life as a professional, Mimi became increasingly aware of the power that the media had to shape people's lives and narratives. She has spent her years building a career around her unique perspective on how the power of storytelling can be harnessed to share impactful messages. After realizing there was a blanket approach being taken to communicating in Africa, Mimi launched ACG to pro...

College is quite the time! The awfully long study hours, exams, internships, parties, traveling and most importantly- the relationships that we build. The latter is also one of the most difficult things to navigate in our current time, whether platonic, romantic or professional. In this episode, we unpack our experiences building relationships at ALU with students from all across the African conti...

While at the helm of some of Africa's most recognizable companies, Nthabiseng Matshekga has turned her edge for marketing into a tool for change. In this episode, we explore the career and life of Nedbank’s head of group marketing, Nthabi, who walks us through her philosophy around storytelling and its power to connect people to the brands they love. From a deep dive into navigating diversity and...

Today's Founders Friday episode takes a little twist as we look forward to our summer travel plans around the world. We challenge ourselves on how deeply can we connect with our roots back home in Kenya and a wider view of Africa, but with a little twist: backpacking! Literally packing up basic essentials in one bag and setting off on an adventure. Which countries are a must-visit? What would it t...

For many young professionals, either stepping into the career space fresh out of college or deciding whether to leave that entry-level job they've been in for two years, life sometimes appears to hand you grapes expecting you to make lemonade. Without any leverage as a young upstart in the job market, it can seem like the entire world is looking to you to figure everything out without lending a he...

Drawn from the impactful lyrics of American rapper Big Sean’s 2015 song One Man Can Change The World , we discuss what it really means to influence society and create change. We speak about which companies we would buy if given a chance and analyze our own experiences creating value and impact through our own startups, both successful and failed ones. At times there is a lot of pressure to be 'tha...

Leveling the technological playing field is a task that Nelly Cheboi has successfully dedicated herself and her entrepreneurship journey towards. While we often fantasize about the growth of tech in rural Africa, Nelly brings perspective and experience to the work that we need to do to make this a reality practically. From policy reform to education, Nelly sheds light on how we can design a future...

Are you changing with the seasons, or are the seasons changing you? Either way, the founders sit to reflect on the increased pressure to make decisions about our careers, academics, relationships and finances. Some of these are reactions to a world of wild new circumstances, and others are intentional by design. Regardless, we change and in this episode we discuss these internal and external growi...

The music industry in Africa has played an incredible role in our identity as a continent. From all corners, our cultural identities have been shaped by which tunes, rthymns and lyrics speak of our experiences and history within our various communities. Today in the boardroom, we sat down with David Jay, an international DJ from Mauritius who has seen the evolution of his industry over the past 25...

How many times have you given up on something in the past year? Why did you give up on it and how did it make you feel? This week the Founders get together to discuss what they would write about if given a chance to author a book, and as expected, that leads off on a tangent. They discuss the legendary book 'The Alchemist', the key lessons learned about the journey of discovering one’s true purpos...

From a very young age, Carrie Rich wanted to learn about the business of helping people. Sometimes, no matter how big a vision you have to do good in the world, people may not see the value in investing in it until you prove that it works. In today's episode, Carrie Rich recounts her 10-year journey scaling the Global Good Fund and the community that has grown around this mission to create a new g...

For the last seven years, we have invested time, money and enormous energy in mastering our skills and growing our network. Our experiences have taken us to Draper University (Silicon Valley) the Watson Institute (Colorado) and the African Leadership Academy (South Africa). As we sit in our small boardroom at the African Leadership University (Mauritius) we analyse the state of education on the Af...

There is a fundamental disconnect between colleges/ universities and employers in the real world. Academic institutions were never intended to build people with professional skills but were primarily centers of learning & knowledge acquisition. Our guest today, Roshan Paul, noticed this gap in meaningful transitions into the workspace and in response, chose to forego a career in the lucrative...

How can we prove that the gold in our central banks is real? What affects the strength of the money that you currently have in your wallet? Who controls the messages in the media all around us and what is their agenda? In this episode, we share our thoughts on these questions, our views on the current global crisis and the approach that the youth should take in keeping their head above the waves o...

The media is the most powerful entity on earth due to its immense ability to shape public perception. Our guest today, Mr. Simon Cohen, dedicated his business and his life to spreading positive messages of love and hope through his communications agency. Simon walks us through his inspiring journey discovering new teachings of compassion and tolerance, representing the Dalai Lama, Gandhi's grandso...

How does society let men act? How aware are men of their male privilege? In this final part of our Quaternion series, we explore these questions and experiences that have shaped our perception of masculinity over the years. Having grown up in communities that built fragile facades of what it means to be a man, we have each in our own rights challenged the ideologies that this school of thought has...

In this first episode of our special two-part series, we are joined by Jefferson Kangacha and David Kariuki- two incredible young changemakers who together with Yuri and Omina form a boys club known as The Quaternion. Recognized within their social and professional circles as bold and adventurous risk-takers, The Quaternion shares how they challenged conventional approaches to education through th...

How much of our valuable time & attention are we really giving to these popular social media platforms? In this episode, we scrutinize the inner workings of the addictive models of social sites and the concepts of human behavior that they are founded upon. As entrepreneurs and future leaders of industries, will we focus on maximizing the profitability of our companies or consider the social im...

From small scale businessman in Nigeria to a global consultant, and early stage investor, Edison Gbenga walks us through his journey of living out his wildest dreams. When an avid problem solver like himself found failure after failure in his career and startup life, he had to rethink his philosophy and mindset completely. In this episode, we learn more about the mind blowing dynamics of the boomi...

As we navigate life in our 20s, we find that we have a very large social cushion to try different things, fail, learn and repeat. On the other hand, there is a lot of pressure from society to have everything figured out all at once. In this episode, we envision what our lives would look like once we've made it big, become famous and are subject to public scrutiny- but also look back at the childho...

One of the most important 21st Century skills shaping the future of work is Emotional Intelligence. Workspace interactions have evolved over the past two years and according to Genos Certified Emotional Intelligence Coach Derek Bbanga, leading with E.I is instrumental in fostering psychological safety when building strong and committed teams. This awareness of others is just as important as that o...

Conversations on race and identity are inescapable in our current time and contribute to the structuring of various pillars such as diversity and inclusion within communities and organizations. As we settle into the month of February and its celebration of Black History, the Founders recount their experiences navigating their identities as Africans in the different spaces they have stepped into ov...

After a childhood experience of watching her father rush to the aid of car accident victims, Omaima envisioned a future where medics and first-time responders would be equipped with critical tools to aid in saving lives. Her mission was to fight blood shortage in Africa by introducing blood drives that would facilitate providing accurate medical data/diagnosis in emergency cases. In 2020, these ef...

What would you do if you were drafted into the war? The Founders share their thoughts on the current geopolitical climate in the West and how security firms influence public perception. They also take a deep dive into crazy experiences that have shaped their mentorship journeys- from flying to Ghana to redesign education models, botched investments in bouncing castles for neighborhood parties, and...

Packing his bags and moving from a successful career in Guinea to new and unchartered grounds in Kenya, Amadou is no stranger to risk-taking and has built his reputation as one of Africa's most daring innovators. In this episode, he walks us through his experience enduring his first year in a foreign country- backed only by his sheer will, crazy go-big-or-go-home attitude, and vision to leave a fo...