Nelly is tackling a lack of sufficient transport/school busses for schools in Kenya and Africa at large.
Hi Nelly, give us a short intro as to who you are and a bit about your background?
My name is Nelly Alili, my background is in software and business development but I also did a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Science before this tech and business thing.
During the Corona Virus period, it was pretty hard to get any jobs related to Biochemistry and Molecular Science so I started to look around for other options. Tech was being talked about everywhere so I though why not give it a try.
At that same time, I also had an idea for a business that I wanted to start which would need tech to go along with it. The developers I approached to help build it were pretty expensive so I decided that I would to enroll for a software development bootcamp, learn Android development and build the first iteration of the application and that is what I did.
I got into tech not to become a software engineer but more of as a means to an end, I wanted to start a business and my business would need an app to help it run smoothly.
I am business first then tech, I like to say I am in the business with tech not in the tech business.
What are you working on currently and how did the idea come up?
The motivation behind working on Zidallie is very personal. I have seen firsthand how it can be pretty hard for children especially special needs children to go to and from school, especially when the school doesn’t have a school bus.
They are usually packed and squeezed into 14 seater matatus or vans which do not even follow the guidelines required by the government when ferrying school children.
I saw the problems the children and their parents were facing and thought this was something I could explore. Initially I wanted to buy a vehicle and do the business but then it occurred to me that if I wanted it to be bigger, scalable and more accessible, I should incorporate tech.
Instead of buying vehicles I decided that it would be better to do an app that could connect people with the required vehicles to schools and parents who needed their kids ferried around safely and conveniently.
So while I was enrolled at the software development bootcamp mentioned earlier, the final project that I did was what became Zidallie.
After the bootcamp, I launched the app and put word out about the business and I got customers immediately. This made me see that it could really become something so I decided to completely focus on it and give it my all.
This is how Zidallie came to be.
What are your marketing strategies? How do you get customers?
The demographic I am serving is very rarely on social media. They are mostly of the older generation or people who have very little time for Tiktok and Instagram, social media in general. Parents and people who run schools.
The best way for me to get clients has been through referrals.
I pour my heart into my work when serving my existing clients because they are the ones who refer me to other clients.
When a school recommends me to another school, it’s a trusted referral and it’s easier to onboard them as a client as compared to me going door to door trying to onboard with no prior connection or introduction.
Trusted referrals have worked best for our business.
How is Zidallie different from the competition, the other apps and websites in the same market as yourself?
From our research most of the apps/websites in the market are building school bus management systems, when in real senses there are very few school busses that need to be managed. Many schools don’t have school busses or have just one or two.
You cannot build tech for non-existent or insufficient infrastructure. The problem we are solving for is a lack of sufficient transport/school busses for schools in Kenya and Africa at large.
We are filling this gap where there are few or no school busses in schools by giving parents a reliable alternative option, private and safe transport for their children to school, we are solving the infrastructure problem, the tech is an add on.
My competitors are primarily the other transport options that parents are using, could be carpools or the usual matatu rides, towards this end our key advantages are timeliness, safety, properly vetted & trained personnel and good customer care. We give parents peace of mind.
What are some challenges that you have faced and how did you overcome them?
Our biggest challenge has been meeting the demand for the services that we offer.
There is a lot of demand as compared to the resources that we have at our disposal currently.
For instance, vetting, hiring and training drivers can take a lot of time and can be resource intensive.
At the moment, to overcome this, we try to onboard as many drivers as possible for the different routes that we serve so that we are always ready to handle any influx in transportation requirements.
We have built a sustainable business and to grow further and manage such high demand we are now raising outside funding.
Financially/user acquisition wise how is the business doing?
We like to measure our growth in terms of the number of children that we are able to get to school safely on a daily basis.
Currently we transport more than 700 children to school on a daily basis in Nairobi.
Considering that I started the business with Ksh. 30,000 back then, it still amazes me as to how far we have come. But we are still keen to grow even further.
What would you say are some mistakes that you have made as a founder of a business?
While I was starting out I was very naïve, I was too trusting towards people, I would sometimes not write contracts with people thinking that they would just pay as required, because why would someone not pay after you have done a good job for them.
My biggest one would be that I trusted people too much.
Hiring the wrong people is another one. I was not doing proper vetting when hiring people into the core team believing that they would work as hard as I do. People can teach you lessons and I definitely learned mine.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
I’m not sure if there is anything that I could have done different. There is no manual for building a business, sometimes things just happen and you have to deal with them head on as they come.
You mainly just learn on the go, iterate and keep moving.
Every mistake is a learning step for me.
What are some of your future plans for the business?
We want to build a very inclusive platform for all children. This means that our business must also be able to cater to special needs children.
Last year we served very few special needs children and we want to change that this year.
Transport is a huge determinant as to whether a special needs child will get education or not. It can be quite hard even on the parents, we want our platform to help these parents as well.
Our vehicles for special needs children have child minders to ensure that the children are well taken care of during their commute.
We are also looking to expand to other cities and towns outside of Nairobi. The goal is to be able to transport 10,000 children to school and back home on a daily basis at some point in Zidallie’s existence.
What advice would you give to other African founders?
To focus on the customer whole heartedly. We have been able to bootstrap Zidallie to a place where the business is sustainable by simply focusing on giving great value to the customer.
A business is supposed to be primarily funded by customers, practicing this has helped our business a lot and it can definitely help others as well.
Any recommendations in terms of who to follow or a useful online resource?
My new obsession is female founders, it doesn’t matter if they are in tech or skin care, I’ve mainly been trying to find female founders who are running successful businesses and whose values align with mine so I can learn from them.
I’m still weighing my options on the ones to emulate.
Getting personal, what does success look like to you as an individual and at what point would you say you have achieved said success?
When the business runs itself without me having to be there physically, that will be success.
When I am able to separate from the business and it still runs successfully as intended.
Where can people go to learn more about Zidallie?
Check out our website for more information and my twitter (X) handle @Alilinelly
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Product Spotlight: Ugali Sosa Mobile Game
I haven’t played any games since on my phone since Temple run and Flappy bird. It has been a while.
Until recently, when I stumbled upon “Ugali Sosa” after it was mentioned on Twitter.
“Ugali Sosa” loosely translates to the small ugali (maize meal) that you are given on a small plate to accompany your stew in a small Kenyan hotel.
I have been a game designer before and I have also tried making my own games using Unity, it is no easy task. From playing “Ugali Sosa”, you can tell that time and energy has been poured into it by the makers. It is a really cool hyper-casual game that can help you pass time on a chilled out Sunday afternoon or on your commute back home.
It is also a funny one from the sounds to the sprites/characters that have been used. Try it out here 👉🏾 Ugali Sosa
Worked on by @shemtom_games and team.
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