Skin in the game - Pathemata Mathemata

The year was 2022, in November. My startup, DMMC, was among the five Kenyan companies selected courtesy of Villgro Africa to pitch to investors at the Kenya Innovation Week (KIW). This was my first time to speak in front of judges and investors in the healthcare space. I came in Third and WON USD 2,500!

In his book Skin in the Game, NN Taleb talks about a Greek giant, Antaeus, the son of Gaea (Mother Earth) and Poseidon(god of the sea), who had a strange occupation of forcing passersby in his country to wrestle. Antaeus aimed at building a temple for his father, Poseidon, using for raw material the skulls of his victims, and his thing was to pin his victims to the ground and crush them. Antaeus was deemed to be invincible, but there was a trick; He derived his strength from contact with his mother, Earth. Physically separated from contact with Earth, he lost all his powers.

Antaeus' contact with his mother made him invincible. Hercules whacked & terminated Antaus by crushing him as his feet remained out of contact with his mamma. (Earth) - Story for another day.

Where am I headed?

Like Antaeus, you cannot separate anything from contact with the ground(Why you'd Kenyans say hear kwa ground vitu ni different). The connection with the real world is done via skin in the game—having exposure to the real world and paying a price for its consequences, good or bad. The abrasions of your skin guide your learning and discovery, a mechanism of organic signaling, what the Greeks called pathemata mathemata (guide your learning through pain)

My journey and experience in building a startup in the healthcare space has, in many ways, made me appreciate and have a lot of respect for African founders as I serve as Chairperson of the Fintech Association of Kenya.

Who's DMMC?

Ask anyone in the tech space, which is the most regulated sector, and they will quickly pick Banking and Healthcare. DMMC is a small giant in the healthcare space whose services include an Online Pharmacy (www.dmrckenya.co.ke) and a TeleHealth platform (www.teledoc.co.ke) which allows people with Non-communicable diseases to consult Doctors, Nutritionists, and other services i.e Laboratory at home conveniently.

DMMC's idea was birthed after losing my father in 2013 to diabetes-related complications. Before 2020, if you asked me, I did not think a Facebook page (https://web.facebook.com/DiabetesManagementMedicalCenterKenya) I created in 2014 and group (https://web.facebook.com/groups/223186998177953) to educate people about diabetes would make a concrete business case, leading to my decision to go all in 2020 by setting up a pharmacy and what today is a medical center focusing on offering quality and affordable primary healthcare services to people with Diabetes and Hypertension.

I have invested about Kes—15 Million in setting up the medical center, Laboratory, systems, etc. Guess what? We only became profitable this year! (I will share a detailed story on my learning curve, mistakes, and lessons learned in a different post.)

I gave up on funding after hundreds of rejections and NOs from Angel investors, VC firms, and every other person I could think of contacting and firing an email.

I have just scratched the surface, and the organic numbers look impressive and promising! As we celebrate Mashujaa day, my post invites that one Shujaa with skin and soul in the game to join me as Co-founder, and together, we put this baby up in the skies. My email is [email protected]

Happy Mashujaa Day, and see you next month during the Kenya Innovation Week. Register here: https://kenyainnovationweek.com/registration