Failing to Win - Lessons from a Purpose-Driven African Startup

I had the pleasure of talking with Mike Quinn, founder of Boost, a B2B commerce platform for retailers and distributors in Africa. We discussed his entrepreneurial journey, lessons learned from building and scaling his past startup Zoona, and advice for startup founders based on his experience leading a purpose-driven fintech in Africa for over 10 years.

Persevering Through the Emotional Rollercoaster

Mike Quinn's journey from Canada to leading a startup in Africa has been defined by constantly learning from failures. In this interview, he shares the hard lessons he learned while building and scaling his first startup Zoona in Zambia.

Despite rapid growth serving millions of customers, Zoona struggled to raise later stage capital and ultimately had to reset the business. Mike reflects on the challenges of fundraising, managing growth, and the importance of designing your startup for scale from the beginning.

After 10 intense years building Zoona, Mike stepped down as CEO ready for his next challenge. He wrote a book titled "Failing to Win" to process his experience and inspire other entrepreneurs to embrace failure as part of the iterative process of building a business.

Mike then launched his second startup Boost, applying the lessons learned from Zoona. Boost provides digital infrastructure for informal retailers and distributors in Africa - essentially Shopify for the supply chain. He designed Boost from the outset for multi-country scale, with a capital efficient model and small remote team.

In this interview, Mike provides an inside look at the emotional rollercoaster of startup life and finding the motivation to keep persevering through difficulties. His story offers inspiration and wisdom for entrepreneurs everywhere.

Mike Quinn, Ryosuke (Rio) Yamawaki, Scott Hartley, Jenny Fielding, Adam Eldaba, Adam Kimmerer, 'Aizuddin Zakaria Adli, Alastair Curtis, Alexandre Lazarow, Anca Bogdana Rusu, Arnie Sriskandarajah, Chris Wake, Christopher M., Claire Diaz-Ortiz, David Mikkelsen Troensegaard, Elizabeth Rossiello, Florin Gheorghe, Jake Kendall, Jay Alabraba, Jay Murray, Joseph Kuvor, Koye Oyeyinka, Kunal T., Labi Idan Williams, Mario Alejandro Rojas, Mark Ransford, Mary Roach, Mbatang A., Percy Grundy, Ramzi Mansour, Richard Lim, Said Rahmani Khezri, Sebastian Stoddart, Seif El Gohary, Stefanie Silverman, Sucharita Kamath (She/Her), Taymour Sabry, Temi Marcella, Will Croft, Will Neale, Youssef El-Nakeeb, Boost Technology, Mahmoud Elkhazragy, Benedikt Hoffmann, Matt Miller, Will Croft, Benjamin Cardarelli, Tyrone Eady, Stan Mburu, Michael Tobias Odeny, Duncan Mwariri, Kalu Agwu Kalu MBA, BSc, Tom Kobialka, Julia Bergmann, Duncan Kabuba