Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: The journey so far: Hilda Moraa, CEO, Pezesha

Mon Oct 15 07:55:28 CAT 2018

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

Hilda Moraa is the Kenya-based founder and CEO of Pezesha, a peer-to-peer
micro-lending marketplace for Africa that provides access to affordable
financial services and credit scores to low-income borrowers. Moraa
previously founded Weza Tele, which in 2015 became one of the first African
tech startups to be acquired by another business.

1. Tell us about one of the toughest situations you’ve found yourself in as
a business owner.

Although I never used to believe in the expression: “Hire slow, fire fast”,
it is one whose message really hit home for me recently.

Earlier this year, I suddenly realised that I had recruited for data roles
too early, at a time when our product wasn’t clearly defined, and when we
had insufficient data to guide us forward. I hadn’t thought enough about the
gaps, needs and capacity projections for the subsequent months as the
business was set to grow.

Sadly, 14 months into the journey I had to let the people in those roles
go. Despite their talent, their skills were not relevant to the stage the
business was in. It was a tough call, over which I lost plenty of sleep, and
the process of restructuring and re-strategising was incredibly draining.

Nonetheless, looking back, although this was a difficult decision to have
to make, it was the right thing do for the company. Having learned from this
experience, we are now streamlining our human resource processes, leveraging
on data from our ongoing pivots to help ensure we hire the right talent at
the right time.

2. Which business achievement are you most proud of?

 The fact that, at the same time as we achieved substantial growth at
Pezesha, we have maintained our working culture and the clarity of our
vision.

In just 18 months of operation, we have seen 50% customer growth month on
month. This is proof that our mission – empowering micro, small and medium
enterprises in Africa with affordable financial servicesthat they can use in
a responsible and purposeful way – is possible. This gives us the motivation
to keep doing what we are doing.

Making an impact in this way is at the heart of what we do. We are trying
to bring sanity and security to the lending space, and staying true to the
reasons I started this business is something I intend to upkeep for as long
as we exist.

3. Describe your greatest weakness as an entrepreneur.

My biggest strength is also my biggest weakness: Focus.

I am constantly generating new ideas about how to improve things, many of
which are exciting to me. The flip side is that my attention can easily be
stolen by entertaining one of these ideas before the time is right. The
challenge, therefore, is to balance this creative spirit with the focus
required to concentrate on the here and now, and on the priorities we have
set for ourselves as a business.

A data-driven approach is the key to nurturing this focus. It is imperative
for maintaining a consistent direction. As we continue to grow, the data we
assimilate helps to guide our strategy, ensuring it is aligned with our
milestones.

4. Which popular entrepreneurial advice do you disagree with?

“Just scale as fast as you can, don’t think about the profitability path.”

It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to have their business grow and scale. But,
sometimes, running faster does not mean you will finish the race first.
There is a healthy tension between growth, scale and profitability, and I
believe striking the balance will drive long-term startup success.

“Scaling prematurely, for the sake of making investors happy, is like
putting a rocket engine on the back of a car.” You’ll go fast, but you’ll
also get destroyed. Don’t get me wrong, scaling is a good thing, if done
right – and not to the detriment of customer relationships and product
experience.

I believe in doing good while making money. At the same time, I believe in
growing strong before growing up. It is in this way that you can achieve
growth which is sustainable. Furthermore, being profitable gives you a
degree of freedom, as well as new opportunities and a certain amount of
leverage when it comes to fundraising.

5. Is there anything you wish you knew about entrepreneurship before you
got started?

It’s 100% about people. Getting the right people is not easy, but it’s the
key ingredient that I believe will determine the success of a startup. If
you have the wrong people, then nothing gets done, passion is killed and
growth is halted.

Many entrepreneurs think that having funding is the most important thing
and that it is all they need to make their business successful. I have
learned otherwise. You can have the capital, but if it is channelled to
hiring all the wrong human resources it rapidly loses its value. This is
why, when we talk about startup failure rates, we should be talking about
hiring the right people more than we talk about whether the business idea
itself was wrong or right.—Howwemadeitinarica

Hilda Moraa

Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

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