by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Three core things get investors up in the morning.
- The Problem.
- The Solution.
- The Team that is going to deliver.
The ‘Problem’ is the starting point that drags investors in. As Maxime Bayen, the Operating Partner, of the Catalyst Fund says "I am often sold on the problem. If I see the problem is big, if I see that it is well articulated, is data backed, then I am really eager to see the solution..." (here).
Sarah Dusek, Investor and Co-Founder of Enygma Ventures, goes a little further (here): “A really key point for us is how we help women transition from thinking about building a small business that just provides for you and your family and maybe your employees; to thinking about could you build a big business that affects your entire community, that employs hundreds of people, that maybe affects the GDP of your town or your city and maybe your nation.”
They are thinking BIG and that comes from solving a BIG Problem.
The Problem is the most important part and certainly the starting point of any Pitch and indeed the Pitch Deck that you simply have to get across to any investor…but it is not always the most obvious. Looking at some of our ‘100Lionesses’ you will see what we mean.
Temie, the founder and CEO of LifeBank, started out by delivering blood to hospitals across Nigeria, but a lack of blood was not the problem (it became a problem as she became so successful, but initially it was not the problem). The problem was ACCESS to and the TIME it took for essential blood to be delivered - that is what she solved.
Hospitals in Nigeria would sign up to one or two blood banks. Then when there was an urgent need a nurse would call up these blood banks and hope that they had enough blood, that it was of the correct type and importantly was (as it claimed), free from HIV (a huge problem at that time as up to 14% of newly infected HIV patients were through blood transfusions, as Temie tells here).
Temie linked those and all the other blood banks in the region together to increase the chances of having the right type of blood (and certified safe) in the necessary quantities to save the life and then strapped boxes of this precious blood to the backs of fearless motorbike riders (and if you have driven in Lagos you will know just how fearless - see them in action here) and sent them off. Her systems get real time supply information from the blood banks, giving hospitals access to what they need 24/7, and through this, she is building the supply chain system for health systems in emerging markets.
Temie won the first ever Africa Business Heroes award - here is Temie’s pitch (move to 22.00 minutes into the video), note how it starts - Bang! - straight into the problem with a nurse desperately searching for blood to save a life. As she says, every hour 10 African women bleed to death because their hospital cannot find the critical supply to save their lives. She is solving this.
Also at the same Africa Business Heroes award (and came third - remember thousands applied to this, so third is crazy!) was another Lioness, Christelle, founder and CEO of Water Access Rwanda, she created a Water Utility Company serving the rural villages and neighbourhoods in Rwanda not reached by the national water company. The problem was not water, the problem was ACCESS to clean water and TIME. The time that women and children spent walking to the nearest good water source - here is Christelle’s pitch (move to 45.11 minutes into the video). As she says, 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water and 200 million hours are lost by women daily (yes daily) walking for water (to say nothing of the real danger from crocodiles at the river bank). In addition millions of trees are cut down to boil and purify the ground water collected.
She cut out this time by using all the failed water boreholes that had been left broken and in disrepair (and there were many) from various global north charities (next time you see those adverts, send the money to Christelle instead - she uses donations to connect really poor neighbourhoods to her systems), and piping the water to a manned kiosk where her company would ensure that the boreholes not only kept pumping, but that the water was purified, but then in addition she started to pipe water into people’s homes. Here is her explaining the process.
Sarah, founder and CEO of Wonderbag and Global Humanitarian (currently in Gaza working her heart out to stop the famine taking hold). Her Wonderbag slow cooks food, but cooking isn’t the problem, the problem is HEALTH, POWER and TIME, a lack of all three. As she says: “Half of humanity still eats off open fires.” That’s right, half! If you have ever tried to braai (that’s barbecue for our non-South African readership) indoors (as we have done - once and once only!) you will know the pain and suffering that accompanies this with throat, lungs, and eyes all complaining! That is what half of humanity suffers from daily. As she says “[i]ndoor air pollution-related diseases are the biggest killers in the world, more than Aids, Malaria combined.” Women spend their time over the fires, the young girls in the household collect the firewood (boys go to school) as she states here (jump to 1 hour 14 minutes for her brilliant Pitch).
Her Wonderbag allows for hours and hours less cooking time as wrapped in a cocoon (the Wonderbag) the pot of stew or rice will simply continue cooking in its own heat, thereby reducing significantly the wood or charcoal or electricity being used. This means too in places with humanitarian disasters she can work with incredibly brave groups such as World Central Kitchen to allow significantly more food to be cooked on the fires they have. As each huge famine-busting-pot comes to the boil, so it is wrapped in a massive Wonderbag and a new large pot takes its place on the fire, so rather than cook 1 huge pot of stew in 3 hours, so 5 huge pots can be cooking away in the same time. Time and Power saved. As she says: “Entrepreneurs are here to solve the greatest challenges that the world faces” and she along with Temie and Christelle have done just that.
It goes without saying that not all our businesses will solve a global problem like Temie, Christelle and Sarah, but look again at your product/service - look really hard and think bigger.
Take a step back (and a deep breath) and then follow the brilliant advice from Sarah Dusak (here):
“I urge you to challenge the limitations you've internalized. Thinking bigger is not just about scaling your business; it's about reshaping the narrative around what [you] can achieve in entrepreneurship…”
How do you think bigger? Sarah tells us:
"Shift from Incremental to Audacious Goals: Set bold, ambitious goals that stretch your imagination.
Shift from Doubt to Visualization: Regularly visualize success to cultivate an abundance mindset.
Shift from Isolation to Community: Surround yourself with big thinkers to expand your vision.
Shift from Envy to Celebration: Celebrate the success of fellow women entrepreneurs as a testament to collective potential.”
Then and only then, look again at your product or service, and find its super-power. What Problem is it solving? Is it as you think? Or is it something bigger, wrapped around something huge, such as…TIME!
Stay Safe.