Is Your Startup Making a Difference? A Kenyan Story to Inspire Your Startup Journey

No Sex For Fish — this is written on the first slide of a Pitch Deck, accompanied by a photo of a dark-skinned woman (appearing to be from an ID document). The startup and its founder are from Kenya. And here's her incredible story.

In Kenyan villages, men own boats and engage in fishing. The culture does not allow women to own boats. Therefore, women buy fish from men to sell in the market. Since the 70s, the fish population has been declining due to overfishing and environmental issues. For many years, fishermen have yet to catch enough fish to supply all the women. Fishermen began offering a service for a service: give me sex, and I will ensure you get fish to sell.

In 2018, our heroine quit her job to help the women in her community—teaching them to fish cage farming and not depend on fishermen. But then she faced another problem: a lack of affordable feed for the fish. Imported feeds were available, but their cost was prohibitive for the community members. Then, the women began producing their own feed using local resources such as soy, sunflower, cassava, and corn.

Today, they have over 3,000 regular customers, $120K in revenue, and 80 women saved from sex for fish.

Is your startup truly meaningful to your users?

Picture a world where your product already exists.
Are people crying tears of joy?
How does your solution turn their frowns upside down compared to the Dark Ages (aka now)?

Examine how your target audience currently addresses the problem your product solves and how your solution will alter their behavior or their experience. And don't forget — your solution isn't just about making things better; it's about revolutionizing a process or life, not just improving it.

Photo credit: npr.org