Founder Diaries Podcast

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 cha...

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 ba...

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. B...

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 cr...

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....

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 sc...

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 Si...

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 mo...

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 th...

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, demons...

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...

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 Syste...

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...

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 convers...

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 weari...

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, sh...

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 mark...

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 me...

In today’s episode, we explore the power of founder-led brands and what it really means to build through founder-led marketing. More than just visibility, founder-led marketing is about becoming the primary channel for trust, storytelling, authority, and distribution. It’s strategic, intentional, and deeply human. If you’re building a brand, this episode will challenge you to step forward not just...

In today`s episode, we feature Lynn Ngugi (commonly knows as Miss Turu), who is a well celebrated Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and founder of ANO Advocates LLP as she takes us through her journey of becoming a lawyer, transitioning from a well paying job into building businesses that are thriving in the market. Partner Spotlight;We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner o...

This episode is a follow-up on Minisode 4, where we go deeper into what it really takes to build systems that support growth, not just survival. We break down the power of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), the franchise mindset, and scaling properly and how small consistent structures allow a business to scale. Partner Spotlight; We’re honored to have Sarova Hotels as our Season 2 partner on F...

In this episode, we unpack key insights from  The E-Myth Revisited  by Michael E. Gerber—and the hard truth about what’s really holding most businesses back. The difference between  working  in  your business  and  working  on  your business . Most small businesses don’t fail because the owner lacks skill but because the owner never stops being the  technician . Technical skills may generate incom...

Did you know that the Melvin Marsh company didn’t start as a tea brand—it started by solving a practical everyday problem through Kenya’s first free-flowing salt? In today`s episode, we sit down with the Founder & CEO of Melvin Marsh International as she shares her journey into building this well celebrated tea brand that has become a household name across boarders. Partner Spotlight; We’re ho...

According to Rory Sutherland, (a well-known behavioral science expert at Ogilvy in the U.K), human beings don't buy things for purely logical or practical reasons. Instead, their decisions are driven by subconscious desires, emotional triggers, and perceived meaning. In this episode, we’ll be unpacking the real reason VS the practical reason behind consumer behaviour, exploring what truly infl...

Imagine having a phone that doesn`t force you to be on your screens all day but you still get your notifications on time. In this episode, we talk about an entrepreneur called Kat Goetze who invented a bluetooth landline phone that is able to connect to your smartphone, which means if your phone rings, the landline rings. The phone was designed to help users reduce screen time by allowing them to...