David Otieno, co-founder of City Rydes, which is based in Kisumu. photo | kanyiri wahito
In a fast-paced life, it is normally difficult to find time to
run the simplest of errands such as household shopping or banking of
cheques.
Noting this challenge, 31-year-old David
Otieno established City Rydes, a company that runs customised errands
for organisations and individuals.
The Kisumu-based company has a team of motorbike riders who serve their customers in various parts of the country.
The Kisumu-based company has a team of motorbike riders who serve their customers in various parts of the country.
“By
a click of a button on City Rydes mobile app, a rider presents himself,
receives instructions on errands to be run, details it all in a coupon
before hitting the road,” says Mr Otieno, City Rydes co-founder.
Upon
sign up, organisations pay a fixed rate of Sh3,000 a month while
individuals part with Sh500. First-time customers enjoy two weeks of
free services. He says the free service offer enables the firm to learn
the client’s nature of work, routes they prefer and the days of the week
they operate.
The popularity of City Rydes has grown
since its launch in 2014, as evidenced in the 15 to 25 errands it
handles in a typical day.
Sixty-five customers have
since signed up, earning the company a minimum of Sh130,000 a month in
revenues most of which is cultivated back into the business.
An
international tech conference at the SafariPark Hotel in Nairobi
sparked the idea of establishing City Rydes. At the time, Mr Otieno, was
working as an outreach director at a job recruitment agency.
A
foreigner at the conference expressed interest in rushing to the
central business district to buy curios but discouraged by the negative
responses by locals who doubted he could beat the heavy traffic on Thika
Road.
“Then someone offered that he should search
online for riders. So I thought — why should I remain employed while I
could be a solution to unemployment in the country?” the Moi University
graduate of agricultural biotechnology asked himself.
When
he went back to Kisumu, Mr Otieno conducted a market research to
establish demand levels for errands-delegation in the market.
With
Sh800, he registered the company at Huduma Centre and teamed up with
Morris Cerrulo, 29, who offered his motorbike to start off the venture.
“At
first, I was the one who rode the bike, something that did not augur
well with family and friends. Those who abandoned me could not
comprehend why a graduate quit his job to ride a boda-boda,” recalls Mr
Otieno.
Mr Cerrulo, now the operations manager at the company, has since become Mr Otieno’s business partner.
It
took the firm three months to make the first sale while operating on
debt and was having a hard time putting food on the table.
He
had relocated from a slum house in Manyatta B where he had six-month
rent arrears. The office that he shared with two other individuals, who
later took off, also had one-year rent arrears.
Being
an ardent fan of the Apprentice show — a creation of US President
Donald Trump — helped him build resilience and negotiation skills.
“So
I just kept soldiering on. After all, I had already wasted too much
time. On top of that, I had the dream of being an employer in a firm
that operates beyond country borders,” he said.
A
friend told him about Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist Tony
Elumelu who offers seed capital to African entrepreneurs with innovative
business ideas and scalable startups through his foundation.
Mr
Otieno took his chances and applied for the Tony Elumelu Foundation
entrepreneurship initiative. He was selected and qualified for the Sh1
million funding.
He used the first phase of funding to clear debts and stabilise the business.
Today,
City Rydes is the to-go-to errands service provider in Kisumu County.
It also has clients in Nairobi, Eldoret, Kakamega and Bondo. The
entrepreneur says it is very rare for his clients to default because
they need the services the company offer such as delivery of letters and
payment of electricity.
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