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Finance expert making e-commerce ‘social’

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As a man wearing many hats, idea-consultant George Gachui dabbles up as a marketer and an entrepreneur. Even with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance & Information Systems, he has his passion devoted to other things.

Being involved in making local pioneering DJ unit Code Red a corporate entertainment entity, George sees no limits playing part in transforming Africa’s culture through vital cultural data and technology know-how.

Founding e-commerce company Mookh is part of his great accomplishments, but the party-master is keen to build Africa for Africans with ideas to push the culture forward.

They say High school is where you really get out of your shell and start to explore new horizons. Certainly, not even George Gachui aka Porgie Rosso could dispute that. The tasteful event organizer cum entertainment strategist cum finance officer is a man with a plethora of attributes, and the man of the people definitely got his alias Porgie thanks to his peers in Aga Khan Academy high school for notoriously always being ‘the man with the plan’.

While in college in USIU Porgie didn’t bother to halt, he just got better and even turned his ideas, charm, and charisma into a money-making avenue. From the wildest parties to brushing shoulders with top executives even back then, fast forward, he survived college and is now a forward-thinking CEO embracing life and shaping Africa’s culture the best way he knows how to.

Inspired by the idea to innovate, the idea Mookh came into fruition late 2015 after consistent persistence and constant perseverance to revolutionize the process of online commercialization in Nairobi. The opportunity was so clear even a blind man could see it according to Thimba, Porgie’s partner.

The name Mookh is a moniker coined from the Kenyan slang term ‘mukwanja’ that is a substitute for the word money in Kenyan streets, something only the crafty mind of a business man like Porgie can conjure in a split second.

Today, the Kenyan business community can reap the fruits of being in a free and forward-thinking society such as Nairobi’s. They can freely transact on the online space through their mobile phones without the strain of leaving the comfort of their luxury as traders and buyers can interact through online platforms such as Mookh that deals in the sale of products, music, event tickets, and donations (crowd funding), as well as offering direct plugins of traders websites and social media all on their platform.

“The realization that we can do things for ourselves as Africans let alone Kenyans is key. We have no developers from outside of here. We may have support from organizations that are from outside but we prefer to do everything ourselves. The inspiration that we can build a product for Africans and not have outsiders do this for us was adequate motivation for us to take up the challenge to come up with such efficient product’’ Gachui tells People Plus.

Since it’s inception in late 2015, Mookh has made up to 2 million dollars worth of ticket transactions alone on their platforms highlighting how effective they have filled a gap for ticket vendors especially, pathing a way that has brought an end the physical ticket purchasing ways of the past. Before they began the company, less than 30% online transactions used to occur, as opposed to the scenario right now where they are being rendered as one of the best retailers with events’ tickets displayed as sold out regularly on their site these days.

‘’Online is the future. If you look at ages 15 to 24, everyone in that bracket accesses their secondary needs from music, information, or news, it’s all there and if it’s not there they are probably not going to know about it’’ George reveals.

Together with his partner Eric Thimba whom Gachui met while Eric worked in a research company some ten years back, together instantly clicked forming a great bond and working relationship managing to create an organization ‘The Ideas Company’. In the organization, their task was to experiment on different insights on the ground after data collection and come up with concepts that pushed for a culture they desired to see in Nairobi. Through the efforts they assessed the information and Mookh would be born after heads knocking and sleepless nights looking for capital and resources to kickstart their mega idea.

‘’Eric is like a childhood friend and brother. He studied theology and research. We began working when we were trying to sell a health product back around 2010/11 during the boom of M-PESA.

We wanted it to really go online and convert our sales from there so that interest and quest is what drove us to creating Mookh. The intrigue that multinational companies must be desperate to sell their products and there was no way they were not doing the same online is what got us very inquisitive. In that research of how online stores work, we began to develop our own online store.’’

Challenges

In a country where Small Market Enterprises (SMEs) contribute to 30% of the gross domestic product, George and his partner Eric could see such gaps in their research and would quickly begin to look for cracks to make their vision a reality.

The process to build Mookh took three years and the challenge to win over trust of traders that the products would function fully, or tickets would be original, these were some of the faces they had to rectify in order to take off and win people over to transact on their platform. The times were not as they are today when the cultures have shifted and it’s almost awkward if someone is not transacting online, they had walls to climb still back then when the future was still blurry to many but them.

George recalls how his business partner Muthoni Ndonga, alias MDQ, an event organizer, gourmet music collector and entrepreneur in Nairobi believed in their idea before the world caught on. Muthoni who was in the process of beginning a new revolutionary festival called Africa Nouveau in late 2015 would offer ball-breaking advice. Instead of opting for physical ticket sales for the same gig, she gave the benefit of doubt to Mookh to sell the tickets to the event online and that worked as a good marketing strategy as well as pilot strategy that only motivated more companies into following the same trend and believe in Mookh. Today George and Muthoni throw the most lux parties at high end joints in Nairobi such as The Alchemist through their Youth Knows No Limits (YKNL) initiative sponsored by another trusted Gachui associate in French champagne company Belaire Lucc.

Business-oriented

George being the risk-taker and a party-master conformed and that was the first of hundreds events Mookh has offered services of online ticket brokerage.

While completing his university degree in Finances and Information Systems in United States International University, he had already ventured into the peculiar industry of Kenyan entertainment. His cousin was a founder of DJ unit Code Red and George would offer his services as a manager and coordinator while the company’s rapport grew regionally and steadily.

They played the role of the best entertainment brokers in their hey days throwing massive university parties and recruited the best DJs quenching revelers thirst for fresh music and entertainment. This slowly turned into a way to make a quick coin and motivated Gachui into representing the company in the board room where he made a name for himself to The Who’s n who’s in the entertainment industry’s influencers.

In 2016, he got the shock of his life when he walked into a meeting at I-Hub Nairobi offices on Ngong Road to his shock meeting Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg. Totally unexpected that was a life-changing moment as he began to realize his purpose in life with Mookh was actually not in vain as his effort had actually made enough waves to score billionaire Zuckerberg’s presence while he was in Kenya.

Porgie as he is known to his confidants has been the brain behind many multinationals such as Lucc Belaire collaborating with Kenyan brands and his networking spirits knows no limits as he strives everyday to change the face of Africa to the world. He takes the challenge of being an idea curator and marketer quite boldly as he embarks on his daily missions hardly refusing to say no to any meetings with the hope of a spark of inspiration to live another day.

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