Thinking beyond the idea. Building businesses with a long-term vision.
Sixteen years, six businesses, and one thread running through all of them: getting goods from where they are to where someone needs them — and building the operation that makes that repeatable.
It started in fuel. I ran a petroleum logistics operation along the corridor from Nairobi out to Kakamega, which is an unforgiving place to learn: the margin per litre is thin, the asset is expensive, and the schedule is the product. Get the routing and the turnaround wrong and the business does not limp — it stops.
That lesson became the pattern. Every venture since has been a variation on the same question — what does it actually take to move something reliably, and who pays for the gap when it is done badly?
Margins, process and cash discipline decide whether the interesting parts survive at all.
Most of the value arrives long after the launch, for whoever is still standing.
Distance from the day-to-day is how owners end up managing a story instead of a business.
Downstream fuel haulage · Nairobi → Western Kenya
I managed Nitron Petroleum, a fuel transport operation moving product along the Nairobi–Kakamega corridor. Scheduling, route planning, vehicle turnaround and the compliance that riding on a fuel licence demands. Thin margins per litre mean the whole business lives or dies on utilisation — an idle truck is the single most expensive thing you can own.
Third-party logistics (3PL) · Motorcycle fleet
Built a delivery company running a motorcycle fleet for supply runs and customer deliveries, operating as a third-party logistics provider for other businesses. Riders, dispatch, route density and the economics of cost-per-drop — the difference between a delivery business and an expensive hobby is how many parcels one rider clears in an hour.
CCTV & access control · SMEs, estates, schools
Specified and installed surveillance and access control systems for small businesses, gated communities and schools. Site survey, camera placement, cabling, access rules and handover training. Selling security is really selling confidence, so the install has to survive the day the client actually needs the footage.
Cross-border procurement · China → Kenya
Sourced, consolidated and shipped goods from China on behalf of individual clients — supplier vetting, order consolidation, freight forwarding, duty and customs clearance. Clients were buying certainty as much as product: that what was ordered is what lands, and that it lands when promised.
Product distribution · Brand importation · Salon
Traded in beauty products, became the Kenyan importer for Rosalind gel polish, and opened a beauty parlour of my own. Two businesses in one: distribution, which runs on stock turn and reorder discipline, and a service salon, which runs on chair utilisation and whether clients come back.
Dairy route-to-market · Distributor & supplier
Held distribution and supply for one of Kenya's major dairy companies. Fast-moving consumer goods on a cold chain are the hardest discipline in distribution — the stock has a clock on it, so forecasting, route coverage and same-day settlement are not admin, they are the margin.
Different sectors, the same discipline underneath — routes, stock, margins and the unglamorous operational detail that decides whether a business is still trading in five years. That is the part I actually enjoy.