6 Questions with Soko 254 Co-founder Maggie

 

What made you think of starting Soko254?

 

In early 2014 I co-founded AM Café, and online café that doubles up as a thought provoking and action inspiring space. In mid 2015 I felt that it was time to take AM Café to the next level, and move it from being a predominantly online presence to a physical space. I started looking around Nairobi for a space that was in a prime location, and that would have a high footfall of working professionals who could buy AM Café’s products, but that was also affordable.

 

You know what they say right? With business location is everything. If you pick the wrong location that is the beginning of the end of your business. The more I looked the more I realised that commercial rents in Nairobi are very expensive. I worked, and re-worked, and re-worked my business plan many times trying to figure out if there was a way that I could afford to rent a prime space. But it just wasn’t possible. So I thought, ok, I cannot afford a permanent premise in a prime location. But perhaps I can afford a temporary space or to pop-up somewhere. I started looking at “pop-up options” and again most of the prime venues were very large, and still relatively expensive. I then thought to myself, “It’d be great if I could share some of these spaces with other food vendors, and pop-up as a group, rather than on my own”. I realised that I knew lots of food entrepreneurs who were predominantly engaging customers online because of the lack of access to affordable business premises, especially for vendors engaged in the food industry.

 

It occurred to me that rather than just address my problem, I (AM Café) could host a pop-up market, where vendors who face challenges similar to mine could pop-up, sell their product, increase the visibility of their brand, and access new customers that they haven’t been able to reach by engaging online. I thought that this might help not just my business, but other businesses do well, and come closer to making enough money to be able to save towards acquiring a permanent premise.

 

 

I talked to my sister Alice, and ran the idea by her, and she loved it. Alice had in the past thought of hosting a family friendly festival to celebrate musical and artistic talent in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa and the African continent. She suggested that we should host a food market with a musical twist. Thus AM Café and my sister’s events company Red Orchid came together to host Soko 254. It’s all about celebrating the fruits of the city, and supporting the amazing entrepreneurial individuals that produce them, against all odds.

 

 

What are some of the challenges you have faced?

 

Competition in the food industry is intense, and it makes entrepreneurs reluctant to collaborate on projects. This has been a major challenge to overcome, as one of the main goals of Soko 254 is to encourage more collaboration between stakeholders engaged in the food industry. One of the things we hope to do is create a space where innovation, creativity and collaboration is encouraged and nurtured among food entrepreneurs. It has been challenging to recruit individuals and organisations to get onboard with the idea. But we (my sister and I) can be very persuasive.

 

Why the name Soko 254?

 

We wanted a name that refers to a local market space. As I said Soko 254 is a celebration of the fruits, and by that we mean the food, beverage and homeware products that are available locally, and the entrepreneurial individuals that make them available for us. Soko is the Swahili word for Market. And 254 is the area code for Kenya. So Soko 254 seemed to make sense, and has a nice ring to it. We also envision scaling the market, and hosting markets in different African cities. So we thought that when we’re ready for that we’d keep the “Soko” part of the name, to ensure people always know that the idea originated right here in Nairobi, Kenya. But just change the area code. So for Uganda it would be Soko 256. In South Africa it would be Soko 27. In Nigeria it would be Soko 234 etc. You get the idea…

 

How many people does it take to run Soko 254?

 

Right now it’s mainly my sister, myself, an intern, a consultant, and a lot of love, support and understanding from my husband Paul. So 5. But it does get very busy and hectic. And we will definitely need to increase our numbers soon.

 

What should people expect from Soko 254?

 

People should expect to have their senses excited and awakened. We have a number of different vendors that will be selling everything from cakes, cookies, to gourmet nut butters, jams and salad dressings, to extra virgin olive oil fresh off the boat from Italy, to outdoor ovens, to beautiful hand-made ceramics, to coffee grown on a family farm, to the most amazing natural extracts. You cannot find the majority of these quality foods, and equipment in your local supermarket. But you need to know that they are locally available, and within your reach. They say “Food is music to the body, and music is food to the heart”. With that in mind the first Soko 254 will also feature a live performance by Dela, whose Swahili cover of Adele’s “Hello” has taken Nairobi by storm. So don’t miss out on what is shaping up to be a food market unlike any other in Nairobi.

 

Any advice for entrepreneurs out there?

 

Would-be-entrepreneurs spend a lot of time planning to get ready to actually become an entrepreneur. I guess what I have to say to them is you’ll never be 100% ready to become an entrepreneur. You’ll never have everything neatly laid out, from your finances, to your business plan, to your emotional and psychological frame of mind. So don’t wait. Take that first step. And no, the rest won’t fall into place, but you’ll start to put it in place. Someone once said to me “You have more than you know”, and they meant that I was surrounded by people that were willing to help in many different ways, and intellectual resources and networks that can be more valuable than conventional economic resources. So I’d say the same to others “Don’t think too much about what you don’t have. Think more about what you do have, and how you can put that to work for you to help you get whatever it is that you need or want”.