2024: The Good, The Bad, and the Big Picture

Ah, the end-of-year board meeting. It’s like the League Finale of startups - except nobody wins a trophy, and the halftime show is just me fumbling with a presentation clicker. This year’s meeting was special, though, because it forced us to reckon with a tough truth: we’re still pre-revenue. Yep. No money is coming in yet, but somehow, we’re still alive, still building, but it’s time to shift the gameplan.

Before you write us off, let me explain. Being pre-revenue isn’t a failure - it’s just part of the process. Or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself between paralysing bursts of anxiety. Let me rewind and take you through our rollercoaster year, our big lessons, and why 2025 is going to be our year.

The Morning of the Meeting: Controlled Chaos

The day started like any other “big day” in startup life with me rushing over to beat traffic only to be beaten squarely by it for a cool 30 minutes; that is despite leaving home at least 2 hours before the meet time. Nails were bitten in anxiety as I debated whether to sacrifice my little busfare for a motorbike ride.Anyway, besides my board chairman and my cofounder, no one else had arrived, so I could breathe a sigh of relief.

By the time the board arrived, the team and I were ready—or at least as ready as a pre-revenue startup can be. Our presentation deck was a mix of polished slides, half-baked metaphors, and one too many jokes about being broke.

Wins: The Things That Keep Us Going

Look, when you’re pre-revenue, you learn to redefine “wins.” We might not have money in the bank, but here’s what we did accomplish in 2024:

• Market Validation: We talked to a lot of people this year—potential customers, partners, mentors—and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People love what we’re building, even if they aren’t paying for it yet. (Patience, grasshopper.). We even have some contingency deals signed but we need to get our product to commercialization.?
• Building the Team: Somehow, we convinced a group of insanely talented people to stick with us through all the uncertainty. They believe in the vision, and honestly, that’s the kind of magic money can’t buy.
• Getting into CGIAR Agritech4Kenya Accelerator: This was a huge deal for us. Being part of this program will grant us access to mentors, resources, and a community of like-minded innovators. Fingers crossed on the next steps.

Setbacks: The Reality Check

Now, let’s talk about the not-so-great stuff. Because if you can’t laugh (or cry) about it, are you even a founder?

• No Revenue Yet: Yep, the big one. We had ambitious plans to start generating revenue by Q3 this year. Spoiler: didn’t happen. Turns out, converting excitement into dollars is a lot harder than we thought.
• Product Delays: Remember that one agricultural hydrogel - IKUZE that we said would launch in September? It’s December, and we’re still tweaking it. (Insert facepalm emoji here.)
• Funding Struggles: While we’ve had great conversations with investors and donors, closing a round is like trying to catch smoke with chopsticks. We’re getting there, but it’s taking longer than we hoped.

Lessons Learned: 2024 Was Brutal but Eye-Opening

Every challenge came with a lesson. Here’s what we’re taking into 2025:

1. “Build It and They Will Come” Is a Lie: Just building a great product isn’t enough. We need to double down on our go-to-market strategy and actively pull people into our ecosystem.
2. Underpromise and Overdeliver: This year, we learned that setting overly ambitious timelines is a fast track to stress city. For 2025, we’re focusing on realistic goals and delivering on them consistently.
3. Adapt or Die: One of our biggest assumptions going into 2024 was that fundraising for prototype - commercialization would be easy. Turns out, fate had a few surprises for us. (Lesson: Always stay curious and adaptable.)

Gratitude: Why We’re Still in the Game

At one point in the meeting, someone asked, “What’s kept us going this year?” Cue the emotional moment.

• The Board: To our board, thank you for believing in us even when the numbers didn’t. Your guidance and support kept us grounded and motivated. (Also, thanks for not flinching when we admitted we only hit 20% of our goals.)
• The Team: This group of people is my favorite part of Anziboo. Despite setbacks, they’ve shown up every single day with creativity, resilience, and enough inside jokes to fill a sitcom.
• Our Community: The emails, the face-to-face feedback, the random LinkedIn messages from people who say, words of encouragement - it’s fuel for the soul.

2025: The Year We Turn Intentions Into Reality

So what’s the plan for 2025? Here’s what we’re focusing on:

1. Launch Our First Revenue Stream: We’ve got a solid product. Now it’s time to monetize it. Our first step is rolling out a commercial model that we’ll be testing with a small group of beta users. Then convert these to paying customers by Q2.?
2. Invest in Marketing: Pre-revenue or not, we need to get our name out there. This year, we’re carving out a budget (however small) to amplify our voice.
3. Take Care of the Team: Burnout is real, and it’s something we felt this year. For 2025, we’re making well-being a top priority. Happy team, happy startup.
4. Challenge Assumptions (Again): Just because we think we know the answers doesn’t mean we do. Next year, we’re committing to regularly revisiting our strategies and staying open to change.

By the time the meeting wrapped, we were all emotionally drained but somehow reinvigorated. I looked at the team, the board, and our slides filled with a mix of wins, losses, and wild dreams, and I said, “If we’re still standing after a year like this, imagine what we can do next.”?

Or something like that.

It wasn’t Shakespeare, but it was true.

Being a pre-revenue startup is tough, no doubt about it. But the thing about startups is they’re built on belief—belief in the audacious problems we’re solving, belief in the team, and belief that persistence will eventually pay off.

So here’s to 2025. The year we move from pre-revenue to post-revenue (fingers crossed), the year we build smarter and stronger, and the year we prove that Anziboo isn’t just surviving—it’s thriving.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got another stubborn excel Gantt chart to deal with.

In Photo: DR. Esther Kanduma Prof. Patrick Kareru Melvine Lovi Joe Kamau Fasika Legesse Ng'ang'a Wanjohi