"There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality," American author Tony Robbins is famously quoted.
Every entrepreneur knows just how much effort and sacrifice it takes to bring a vision to fruition. It takes a certain level of madness to push through when everything is fighting against you.
For Robert Kamaru, the CEO of Escrow Kenya, the journey of getting his company to the level it is today is anything but a fairytale, but still, he is grateful, taking his wins as they come and making sure he takes every opportunity possible to grow.
His business idea came about in an unusual way, a con he explained to this writer, ignited a drive to find a solution to prevent others from making the same mistake.
Your business inception story is quite interesting, tell me about it...
The idea to launch the service was born out of a personally painful experience when I was conned while buying an iPhone online. I saw a good deal from some guy on one of the buy-and-sell Facebook groups, in which he was selling a high-end iPhone at Ksh40,000. The market value at that time was upwards of Ksh50,000, so this was definitely a good deal.
His personal profile and Facebook page checked out all right. His page posted regularly; his profile had photos of him. There was nothing spooky about him.
So, when we discussed upfront payment and delivery, I was confident that everything would go as planned. I got the rude shock when I could no longer view his profile or page, or contact him, shortly after sending him a cool Ksh40,000. My money was gone!
From that moment I vowed to never trust blindly online. Better yet, I started researching ways to protect other unsuspecting internet users from falling prey to such scammers.
That’s how I came across the escrow concept - common in the real estate market - and adopted it to develop a form of buyer-seller protection for e-commerce transactions over the next two years since the incident. The service was launched in October 2018 and has been up and running to date.
What Does Escrow Kenya do?
Escrow Kenya solves the problem of trust in e-commerce. Because buyers do not want to make payments until they receive the items they buy online, Escrow Kenya acts as a trusted middle party to e-commerce transactions.
The company holds a buyer’s payment, gives the seller the green light to proceed with the delivery and releases the funds to the seller when the buyer confirms receipt. In case of any disputes, the company helps the two parties reach an amicable solution.
What’s a day in the life of a CEO like...
I struggle with adopting the “CEO” title. For a startup, “CEO” is just another fancy term to mean “the person in charge of everything and who should always be on standby to take over any role – including customer support – when things go crazy”.
A typical weekday for me begins at 6 a.m. and ends at midnight. In-between will be a mandatory one-hour morning exercise session, either at the gym or out running on the trail; another mandatory 3 hours of undivided time with family; while the rest of the time is spent ensuring people and systems at Escrow Kenya function in-sync.
What's the best business advice you've received?
That has got to be the Rachleff’s Law of Startup Success. Andy Rachleff, the co-founder of Benchmark Capital and CEO of Wealthfront, says, “The #1 company-killer is lack of market. When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins. When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins. When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.”
What would you do differently business-wise with what you know now as compared to when you started?
I would start sooner and while at it, do things formally right from the onset. There’s no such thing as a perfect business idea and never the perfect time to start a business. The greatest, most efficient products and businesses were built on continuous improvement and adjustment.
Additionally, avoiding formal processes limits the potential of a business.
While such things as registering a business or company, engaging regulators for licensing and observing strict separation of business finance from personal finance can seem like a daunting task, all these formalities prove beneficial in the later stages of a business - such as when seeking financing or funding.
You've never been employed...
The reasons are part chance and part passion. Right from a young age, I always wanted to be a businessperson. My father was a fulltime businessman, well into my early teenage years, before going back to employment. Business income is often unstable, so growing up, we never got used to comfort or any other perks that come with a guaranteed paycheck at the end of the month. I guess I fell in love with this uncertainty.
On the flip side, I did not have any mentors around me, and everyone – my father included – wanted me to study hard, get a good job and live a better life.
So, when I started my first business in college and it turned out to be promising by a stroke of luck, that’s how I began my journey into the world of business and entrepreneurship.
How did appearing on Lion's Den help you in your business?
Being featured on the KCB Lions’ Den was the holy grail that catapulted Escrow Kenya into a brighter future. You see, it is already hard enough that individuals have a hard time trusting each other online; the introduction of a third party to an e-commerce transaction runs the risk of worsening the trust issues where one of the parties does not have prior information about the escrow service provider.
The KCB Lions’ Den feature greatly helped increase awareness and passively added a stamp of credibility to our solution.
While it took us eight months from launch to secure a cumulative total volume of Ksh1M, the growth has been exponential since the show was aired in September 2019.
For instance, we crossed the Ksh5M mark only 3 months later in January 2020 and the Ksh10M mark only three months after in March 2020.
We hit the Ksh1M-a-month mark in February 2020 and doubled that to cross the Ksh2M-a-month mark in March 2020. Additionally, we have partnered with several individual e-commerce stores and digital marketplaces by integrating our escrow service on their websites through API.
This growth is slowly but surely validating our efforts to make the Kenyan e-commerce space safer.
How do you wind down...
I am an outdoorer. If it’s going down outdoors, it goes for me. Outdoor fitness, especially hiking, is close to my hike. Beyond that, I enjoy writing; I will occasionally pen down my thoughts on my blog or Facebook page.
You have a traveling/ fitness company... How did that come about?
Outdoorer.ke is more of a movement than a business. I love the outdoors and I am on a mission to encourage more Kenyans across all ages to embrace outdoor fitness.
Gyms can accommodate only so many people, but the outdoors are unlimited. Being out in the wild allows one an invaluable opportunity to disconnect from technology and connect with self, others and nature. I can hardly wait for the Covid-19 epidemic to be over so that we can be reunited with Mother Nature!
How has Covid-19 affected your business... What strategies have you used to adapt and make sure you are still running?
Talk of a bitter-sweet experience! On the one hand, Covid-19 has caused e-commerce and its enablers to thrive amidst the crisis. Escrow Kenya has, consequently, received increased business both in terms of frequency and volumes.
On the other hand, the travel and hospitality industry has been crippled by the partial lockdown and additional restrictions. Outdoorer.ke has, consequently, experienced a total shutdown since March.
Being an online business, it has been easy transitioning into remote working at Escrow Kenya. Although our offices are closed, the team has continued working – surprisingly, more efficiently – from home.
We have managed to adapt swiftly through two key strategies: ensuring that everyone in the team has good internet access and power backup; and encouraging the team to be versatile in the execution of various duties and roles, to ensure that we meet customer demands as efficiently as possible.
For instance, we have had a spike in chat volumes; therefore, every team member has recently been trained on basic customer support duties to enable them assist the customer support department when there are surges. We just might have to rethink the way we work and do business post-Covid-19 and beyond.
You Parting Shot...
If you are a young entrepreneur like me, it does not matter what stage your business is in right now. The important thing is getting started and always keeping in mind why you started.
