(So) How's Business?

Luxury weddings look beautiful. Running the business behind them is another story.

Naitore Mugambi, founder of Luxe & Allure Events, joins Alma to talk about the reality of building one of Kenya's luxury events businesses.

She shares the story of losing KES 600,000 of startup capital to theft, raising the money again, navigating the breakup of an early business partnership and eventually building Luxe & Allure with her husband.

They also get into the numbers behind the business: investing millions in tents and equipment, how long it can take to recover that investment, constant reinvestment, losses...

What's the difference between believing in an idea and knowing how to build it?

The founder of Braiding Nairobi found out the hard way. A journalist by training, she came to Nairobi for a National Geographic storytelling fellowship, noticed how many skilled braiders struggled to find clients in a city where nearly every woman pays regularly for her hair, and decided to stay and solve it. Then she spent two years learning that most of her first instincts were wrong.

In this conversation she's refreshingly honest about the parts founders usually hide: launching to silence...

What does it actually take to walk away from a stable government job, twice, for a creative career nobody around you fully believes in?

Neema is a model, content creator, and the owner of Flora by Florence, a Nairobi boutique. But before any of that, she was sitting in a government office feeling something in her go quiet. This episode traces the messy, honest path out: a spa that failed on location, a modeling side hustle that grew from 5,000 shillings a gig to a real income in a matter of months, and a mother who insisted her...

After losing her job while seven months pregnant, Angel Nderitu entered motherhood carrying uncertainty about her finances, her future, and what came next. When her breast milk supply changed unexpectedly after giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic, she began searching for answers through nutrition, traditional foods, herbs, and lactation support.

That personal experience eventually became LactaMama, a Kenyan maternal wellness company supporting mothers through breastfeeding nutrition, education, lactation support, and compassionate postpartum care.

In this episode of So, How’s Business?, Alma Mabachi speaks with Angel about the realities of breastfeeding, building a business while ra...

Shamim Quresh is the founder of Koro Gaia, an African skincare brand built around African botanicals and research for melanated skin. She talks about the realities of manufacturing in Kenya, including 60 to 70% tax on imported inputs, what happened when funding stopped and she shut the business down in 2023, and how third-party manufacturing helped her generate income while rebuilding. She also shares why founders need to ask more questions, even when they feel like “dumb” questions, and her vision for African beauty.

Lorna Joyce has lived several lifetimes in one. She lost her father, her brother, and her mother before she was 18 — and found herself caretaking, surviving, and building from scratch while most people her age were still figuring out what they wanted to be. That foundation of loss, faith, and raw determination is what eventually gave birth to Binti Marvels, one of Kenya's most purpose-led femcare brands.

In this episode, Lorna takes us through all of it: the 100,000 pads she brought in with almost no capital and sold shop-to-shop from a van, the investor who pulled out and fo...

What happens when you come back home and the thing your daughter needs simply doesn't exist?

You build it.

Grace Muritu is the founder of Elite Gymnastics Academy in Nairobi. A former pediatric nurse who returned to Kenya after 12 years in the US and created a competitive gymnastics training facility from scratch. No blueprint. No investors. Just land she was willing to sell and a vision she couldn't let go of.

This week on So, How's Business?, the real story behind Elite Gymnastics. The build, the coaches, the children, and the Olympic dream...

Dr. Faith Wambura Ngunjiri is a certified Impostor Syndrome Informed Coach, Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, and leadership scholar with a Doctorate in Leadership Studies. She spent over two decades as a tenured professor in the United States before burnout, racial bias, and a heart attack brought her home.

In Episode 21, Dr. Faith and Alma go deep on the real cost of imposter syndrome for African women, not just the emotional cost, but the financial one. The promotions we didn't go for. The tenders we didn't apply for. The businesses we kept small. The apartments we gave up without...

Ritu Bahal built a 37-year career in corporate Kenya beforeleaving to solve a problem she'd lived for decades. Her company KPM Tech makes Trackright, a logistics platform that gives trucking businesses real-time visibility across every stage of a delivery. The pitch sounds simple. The problem is massive: 90% of African truckers are non-digitised, and logistics costs account for 40% of what goods cost on Kenyan shelves.

In this conversation, Ritu talks about rising from bookkeeper to CEO, getting fired while pregnant from her first job, an arranged marriage she negotiated on her own terms, and what it's really like...

Melanie Hapisu- Wambugu is the founder and CEO of Digipath Africa, a digital marketing agency based in Kenya. In five years she has built a client list that includes some of Kenya's largest corporations, trained hundreds of business owners and marketers, and figured out how to run a business from Muranga without losing a single client.

This episode covers a lot of ground. We talk about how she lands large corporate clients through cold outreach, her exact process, step by step. We talk about the year one client accounted for 60% of her revenue and what that anxiety...

Zanelle Wanja just wanted somewhere to go that didn't revolve around alcohol. What she built instead was one of Nairobi's most talked-about social movements.

Nani's Cafe Party started as a free pop-up. 150 unexpected guests showed up. Now it's 11 sold-out editions, major brand sponsors, and a community that keeps growing.

But behind the branding is a founder who hit rock bottom, lost herself, and had to start over. In this episode she gets honest about the kitchen floor moments, the napkin contract, and what it really takes to bet on yourself after you've already failed.

Bonni Mulinge was 6 years old when she decided she was going to fly. By 28 she was a commericial airline captain. By 37, a seizure with no known cause ended her career overnight.  In this conversation, Bonnie talks about what it felt like to go from commanding a Boeing 777 to standing still and figuring out what comes next. She talks about the financial hit, the identity loss, the bender, the pivot, and how Jipe Apparel came out of a conversation over Jaba Juice with a friend. 

This is a story about grief and reinvention. About a woman who flew th...

Akoth Aluoch is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the founder of Triple A Dispute Resolution (Triple ADR) and AkothAluoch Media. She left a stable law firm career to build a boutique ADR practice full-time and a media platform dedicated to humanising law.

In this conversation, she gets into what it really looks like to be in a building season, the businesses she ran on the side while employed, having her first child in third year of university, and why she walked away from a clear path to partnership to build something entirely her...

Dija White is a multidisciplinary creative director and founder of The Block Studio, a brand design, strategy and experiential design company dedicated to spotlighting African talent. She is also part of the team running Village Creative, one of Nairobi's most interesting creative ecosystems.

This conversation goes deep. We talk about what it actually costs to build a creative business, from the 3 million shilling mistake that took three years to pay back, to the client who paid two thirds and disappeared, to the friendships lost over work that went sideways.

Dija is honest about the evolution...

Yasmin started selling cupcakes at 50 bob each from her mother's kitchen at 25, with no formal training, no business plan, and no nozzle. Today, she runs Cake Hearts, one of Kenya's only internationally accredited culinary and hospitality schools, in partnership with BHMS Switzerland.

In this episode, she opens up about building from scratch, navigating a market that doesn't take young women seriously, why she teaches entrepreneurship inside a culinary school, and what it really takes to bring international standards to the Kenyan market.

If you believe that education should transform you, not just certify you, this...

Dr. Becky Omodho shares the unfiltered journey of building joojoostores.com , a Pan-African e-commerce platform connecting African artisans to the world.

From getting conned twice to taking six years to break even, Becky opens up about resilience, systems thinking, privilege, male bias, and motherhood.

This episode challenges the idea of “small business” and explores what it really takes to build big in Africa.

In this episode of So, How’s Business?, Alma Mabachi speaks with certified master coach Wangoy Mongai about why procrastination, self-sabotage, and playing small are often trauma responses, not character flaws.

They explore how fear of being seen, identity shifts, and survival mode shape our behaviour, especially for women in business navigating confidence, visibility, and growth. This conversation breaks down why discipline isn’t the solution, how identity-based habits create consistency, and what it actually takes to break the loop.

If you’ve been delaying the things that matter most, this episode will help you unders...

How do you build a scalable, African-born brand in the middle of a pandemic?

In this episode of "So How’s Business," we sit down with Nanzia, the founder of Roro's, Nairobi’s go-to fast-casual healthy food brand. Nanzia gets incredibly real about her journey, from launching her first salad shop in Dar es Salaam to securing prime real estate in Nairobi’s top malls.

This isn't just about food; it’s a masterclass in resilience, systems thinking, and the "unfiltered" side of scaling a business in an oversaturated market. If you’re a founder, an aspirin...

What really causes businesses to fail , lack of funding, or poor systems?

In this episode of So, How’s Business?, Lucy, founder of a Kenyan manufacturing brand built around purple tea, shares an unfiltered look at the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

We talk about scaling too fast, cash flow traps in retail, the realities of manufacturing in Kenya, and why fundraising can actually make problems worse if done at the wrong time. Lucy also reflects on how a major health crisis reshaped her approach to business, leadership, and growth.

This conversation is fo...

How Self-Awareness and EQ Change Everything for Business Leaders
with Vicki Karuga

Emotional intelligence isn’t a soft skill, it’s a leadership advantage.

In this episode of (So) How’s Business?, host Alma Mabachi speaks with Vicky Karuga, psychometric specialist and EI master trainer, about why self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership and how low emotional intelligence quietly costs businesses through burnout, disengagement, and poor decision-making.

Vicki shares her journey from architecture to psychometrics, explains what emotional intelligence really means (beyond buzzwords), and why founders and leaders must do the inner...

What happens when you try to build a business in a system that doesn’t always make the rules clear?

In this episode of So, How’s Business?, Alma sits down with Eunice Migwi, founder of Her Legacy, for a candid conversation about tax compliance, entrepreneurship, and what it really takes to build a sustainable business in Kenya and similar emerging markets.

Eunice shares how she turned her expertise in tax, accounting, and finance into a business after closing a previous venture, and why starting over forced her to rethink systems, pricing, partnerships, and long-term visi...

In this grounding and deeply honest conversation, Alma sits down with Debra Ouma-Weya, women’s leadership champion and founder of Positive Circles, a women-centred community built to support growth, connection, and self-advocacy across different seasons of life.

The conversation opens with an important discussion on menopause and perimenopause, why these transitions are often misunderstood, how they can affect women physically, mentally, and professionally, and why women need better awareness, language, and support around their health. From there, the conversation widens into leadership, mentorship, community-building, and what it takes to create spaces where women can grow without competition or...

In this grounding and deeply honest conversation, Alma sits down with AnnRita Njiru-Mugo, business strategist, ecosystem builder, and soon-to-be certified coach, whose career has spanned academia, entrepreneurship, climate impact, and supporting African women founders.

From lecturing at Strathmore University at just 22, to co-founding an EdTech startup during COVID, to coaching and mentoring founders across Africa, AnnRita breaks down what resilience really looks like for African women in business.

They explore:

What resilience actually means in entrepreneurship

How mindset shapes confidence, fundraising, and leadership

Burnout, boundaries, and building systems that...

At just 26, Grace Kimaru swapped her gumboots for grit and walked straight into a male-dominated hardware industry in Dandora, Nairobi — with no experience, no blueprint, and a whole lot of audacity.

In this episode of (So) How’s Business?, we unpack the real story behind the viral video where Grace celebrates her first-ever sale, and why that tiny moment meant everything after days of zero customers.

Grace and Alma dive into:

How a simple WhatsApp status turned into a viral TikTok moment

The emotional rollercoaster of starting a female-led hardware business in A...

Linda Muriuki, financial literacy educator and founder of Finance4Families, breaks down the real building blocks of generational wealth: money habits at home, family business systems, intentional conversations, and financial protection planning. No theory, just lived experience, cultural honesty, and practical strategy Kenyan families actually need.

In this deeply moving episode, Priscilla opens up about her journey through years of loss, grief, and rediscovering self-worth. After losing a baby and experiencing multiple miscarriages, she found herself questioning everything, her body, her faith, and her place in the world.But through that pain came purpose. While training to become a mindset coach, pregnant with her son after seven years of heartbreak, Priscilla began to rebuild her sense of worth from the inside out.Today, as a mother and coach, she helps others navigate their own insecurities and healing journeys with compassion and courage. Her story is...

In this deeply inspiring episode, Mercy Achieng shares how her early life in Kibera shaped her purpose and fuelled her mission to create lasting impact.From watching her parents rise from poverty through grit and grace, she learned the true meaning of resilience. Today, she’s channeling that lesson into building a business that serves those who need it most.Her story is a reminder that perspective changes everything: what we see as challenges, others turn into purpose.https://etsirbellascholarship.org/https://www.instagram.com/etsirbelladesigns?igsh=dnc0ZzJkOW94ZGxrTo support Etsirbella Scholarship Fund, send to:Paybill 247247Account 538070

What does it really take to build a proudly Kenyan brand in an industry dominated by foreign ownership?In this episode of (So) How’s Business?, host Alma Mabachi sits down with Jennifer Odera, founder of T&Co, a premium tea brand on a mission to bring Kenyan tea ownership back home.Jennifer opens up about her journey from idea to execution—how she started T&Co, the hurdles she’s faces raising funds as a woman entrepreneur, and why value addition isn’t just good business—it’s an act of reclaiming Africa’s story.

For more real, unf...

No one prepares you for how personal building a business can get. The highs, the heartbreaks, and the moments you wonder if it’s all worth it.

For African women, it runs even deeper. We’re building dreams while raising families, managing expectations, and learning to thrive in the mess

Hosted by Alma Mabachi, So, How’s Business? is a raw, unfiltered podcast spotlighting the untold stories of African women entrepreneurs. Their pivots, failures, comebacks, and lessons from the messy middle of building something real.

Every week, Alma sits down with bold, brilliant women...