A medical student decided to pause his career ambitions in 2017 at one of the country’s leading universities and start a successful company.
Sidney Rema, a fifth-year medical student at the time, shifted focus to start his first tech company -Kuza labs. Currently, it has employed 21 workers with substantive revenue in the country and has supported many startups.
He had one year left to become a professional doctor when he made the decision. He was now marching on unfamiliar territory as a young person in the business world.
For many of his peers at that time, their focus was mainly on employment right after university. At a time when the country’s unemployment were surging.
"I was a medical student at the University of Nairobi. I paused my career when I was a fifth-year student just to focus on opportunities that were coming up at the time. Since my second year, I have been learning Information Technology on YouTube,” Rema stated.
However, his journey to becoming an innovator and financially independent did not begin in his fifth year but in his second year when he started to learn coding on YouTube.
Having a team of 17 developers, he and his friend created a networking site that had social, educational, and professional levels.
The networking site dubbed VoSpine was highly publicized by the University Press and praised for gaining 1,500 users one month after launching.
“Prominent people have already joined the platform, including Equity Bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi, and Pepe Minambo, a renowned international motivational speaker,” read part of the publication.
After five years since pausing his studies, the 26-year old has two successful companies under his name. Patika limited is his latest startup that tries to transform micro and small African enterprises with digital infrastructure.
“Tools as simple as YouTube have been able to change my career around IT and consultancy. I have been able to consult for two big firms leading the strategy teams without having papers,” Rema narrated.
He urged young people to seize online opportunities by learning skills on digital tools. He pointed out that individuals can gain employment without papers as most employers have no degrees or certificates.
