Chisepo Chirwa
Interview with Chisepo Chirwa
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, BOSSO
Lives in: Lusaka, Zambia
Chisepo Chirwa is the co-founder and CEO of Bosso, an e-commerce platform for constructing supplies in Zambia. Established in 2022, the corporate just lately secured $400,000 in pre-seed funding from traders, together with Launch Africa Ventures and Renew Capital. We requested Chirwa about his entrepreneurial journey and why he sees potential within the building sector.
Not new to enterprise
Bosso is just not Chirwa’s first enterprise.
His earlier enterprise was ZPOS, a listing administration system for casual retailers. He began it in response to the challenges his mom confronted in operating her grocery and material shops, from theft to bookkeeping inefficiencies.
The corporate signed up over 2,000 companies earlier than Chirwa exited after six years. He notes that his ZPOS co-founder is now the CEO and continues to drive the corporate.
The pondering behind Bosso
The concept for Bosso got here to Chirwa after he discovered concerning the housing disaster in Zambia. As a consequence of urbanisation, there’s a vital scarcity of inexpensive housing, which has led to the proliferation of casual settlements. (Learn extra: Zambia real estate – Five trends and opportunities unveiled)
“I began excited about how we are able to use technology to resolve a few of these points round housing,” Chirwa explains. “I used to be chatting with my buddy, who’s my co-founder at this firm, Salwa. He constructed a few homes right here in Zambia when he got here again from the USA … It culminated in me getting up and saying, ‘Let me begin with the availability chain for constructing supplies in order that the person residence builders that purchase from these small {hardware} shops should purchase at higher costs’.”
Chirwa factors out that entry to inexpensive and high quality constructing supplies is especially missing in rural areas.
The corporate generates income by three channels: product markups, supply charges, and its FlexiPay credit score answer.
Bosso Flexipay was launched in response to the monetary constraints a lot of its clients face in buying constructing supplies. As soon as the preliminary cost is made to order the merchandise, clients full the remaining funds as per the agreed schedule, after which the supplies are delivered. “One of many issues that daunts individuals from even beginning is the sheer price of constructing altogether. However should you can break it down into small funds, I feel it begins turning into conceivable for them to undertake such initiatives,” Chirwa says.
From offline to on-line
When Bosso began, the enterprise wasn’t even on-line. Chirwa adopted Y Combinator’s ‘do things that don’t scale’ approach, which inspires startups to carry out duties manually to realize a deep understanding of their clients’ wants and get their ventures off the bottom. Beginning with offline operations and direct buyer interactions, Bosso constructed belief and understood their wants, after which constructed know-how on prime of that.
As Bosso gained the belief of its clients, they started putting orders by cellphone calls and WhatsApp messages. The corporate then transitioned these clients to purchase on-line. “I feel it’s about strolling along with your clients … We helped transfer our clients from not trusting us in any respect to purchasing from us over the cellphone and now we’re efficiently shifting them from shopping for over the cellphone to purchasing on the platform,” Chirwa says.
Zambia as a blueprint
Some worldwide traders have been hesitant to again Bosso as a result of they deemed Zambia’s market too small. The nation has a inhabitants of about 21 million. Nonetheless, Chirwa believes that Zambia’s market dynamics are consultant of nearly all of African nations, that are extra much like Zambia than to the continent’s ‘massive 4’ markets — Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria. “Most of Africa is definitely like Zambia. So that you need to remedy for Zambia after which shortly replicate that in different small markets much like Zambia,” he says.