Entrepreneurship Zone: 10 February 2023 :: Tapiwa Guzha, the brains behind the eccentric African ice-cream

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Entrepreneurship Zone: 10 February 2023 :: Tapiwa Guzha, the brains behind
the eccentric African ice-cream

 

	
 


·          


PROPELLED by the innate curiosity of life, Tapiwa Guzha is a scientist
raising the bar in the ice cream manufacturing industry.  He is the founder
of Tapi tapi, which has been described as a place to discover, enjoy and
celebrate African food as well as culture through approachable scoops of
handcrafted, small batch ice cream.


 


In an interview Tapiwa Guzha shared how he followed his curiosity by
blending science, art and creativity to establish his brand.

Because of fear of failing in business, most entrepreneurs abide by the old
cliché, “Curiosity killed the cat.”  However, the story of Guzha is evidence
that for an entrepreneur, curiosity channels out-of-the-box thinking as it
opens the mind to new possibilities.

By virtue of being a scientist with a special focus on molecular biology
and plant biotechnology, Guzha blended his curiosity with science, art and
creativity to establish his brand.

“I was pushed by my curiosity about life and also trying to understand
things so those are probably my biggest assets, I suppose the purpose of the
work that is to help the people of the continent to celebrate their
identity, history and cultural background through traditional flavours.

“The name Tapi Tapi was inspired by an advert of Sun Jam (brand name for a
Zimbabwean mixed fruit jam) which had the catch phrase Nhapitapi ye sunjam
and Tuku’s song called Nhapitapi kutapira and those two sources were echoed
in my head since I was a kid it made sense to use the name for a sweet treat
company” Guzha told this publication.

Guzha was raised in Harare but because of studies, he moved to Cape Town,
South Africa and he is currently based there.

“I grew up in Zimbabwe, I was born in Harare and went to school in
different parts of the country. During holidays, we spent a lot of time
eating traditional cuisine, wild fruit, taking care of animals so I kind of
grew up in a communal set up with lot of cousins so there will be
multigenerational members of the family within the same household and the
year I turned 18 I moved to South Africa to study at the University of Cape
town

“I studied molecular biology and I pursued that for 14 years that is one
undergrad degree, one honours degree and one PhD all in molecular biology
and a post degree of 4 years in plant biotechnology. That is when I decided
to explore a new avenue that is different. I decided to divert from the
classic academic structure thus taking food as an educational tool,” Guzha
said.

Since time immemorial, novelty is one dominating characteristic of
innovation, thus for Guzha his motive was not to capitalise on his ice cream
making idea.

He said: “I have always been interested in making and sharing things.
Entrepreneurship is an extension of that which is something I get paid for
it but also I wasn’t particularly motivated into entrepreneurship as I was
creating a new system or using a different approach to educating and
empowering people.

“Through different tools so when I had started a business I realised that I
had started an educational space that had to fund itself as a business. So I
was just trying to find a different approach of teaching people and sharing
while learning as well without having to rely on European standard of the
academic workspace.”

Guzha goes against the tide that business models are a prerequisite for
building a successful organisation.

“I really don’t have a model system, I do what makes sense to me and what
feels true,” he emphasized.

Piloting the corridors of entrepreneurship as a foreigner was easy for
Guzha since he holds a permanent residence.

“The bureaucratic aspect of it was easy. What can be a little difficult was
navigating the legal requirements and expectations of maintaining the
business e.g. labour laws, tax laws.

“The community received the work in different ways there isn’t any
particular reaction or response ways some people were really excited,
positive and keen and welcoming…some people were very sceptical, dismissive,
and belittling and generally uninterested about the whole thing,” he said.

Speaking on lessons drawn from his entrepreneurial journey, he admitted
that isolation is inevitable when one is running a business.

“I have learnt how isolating entrepreneurship can be it has been very
difficult to create personal relationships there has been a lot of
casualties in this experience and I think it’s something important that
people ought to know before committing to this kind of work.

“It’s never ending especially on working hours, so you have to make time
for yourself and those relationships but ultimately you are going to lose a
lot of personal time and connections,” he pointed out.

The phrase “Jack of all trades” is most likely to raise negative meanings
but for Guzha it is somewhat a compliment because he is holding a solid
grasp of many concepts. For that reason his work ethic centred on balancing
all his skills.

“I do not live for work and I do not live for this project. It does not
describe who I am. It is currently what I am doing. I am making more effort
in not allowing this to be the only thing that I do with my time. I do art,
calligraphy, sex education, visual art, textile design…there is a bunch of
things that I do.

“In terms of values I focus of keeping a diverse experience of life. I do
not want one particular identity. I ultimately want to contribute positively
to the world and minimise damage that I want inflict on the world which we
inevitably do, but will try to minimize it,” he said.

He further admitted that he is not much of a planner, he is more rooted in
living in the moment as a result he does not have a formulated plan of
staying ahead of the business curve.

“I really don’t try to stay ahead in the world, I do my own thing, I don’t
compare myself to my peers.  We are so used to the idea of competitors,
market share and fighting for space in the world while the world is so
expansive so I just focus with what I want to do with my working my time.
For me there is no need to stay ahead of the curve, there is no curve,” he
said.

The cutting edge entrepreneur acknowledged the fact that we are living in
filled with uncertainty thereby making it difficult to operate a business.

When it comes to role models, Guzha is of the standpoint that inspiration
can be derived from anybody.

“I think it’s very easy to find role models in everybody because they have
a perspective and opinion that is very useful, set of skills, knowledge,
wisdom that we can all benefit from.

“I enjoy listening to most people’s perspective and opinion because it’s
going to unique and different from mine. So I do not have one or two
isolated role models. So I look to our humanity as collective, plants,
animals, nature and the world around us. There are so many inspiration,
amazing creatures,” he remarked. – entremag.co.zw



 


 


 


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