Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, why SunCulture can profitably sell to smallholder farmers artwork
The East Africa Business Podcast: African Start ups | Investing | Entrepreneurship | Interviews

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, why SunCulture can profitably sell to smallholder farmers

  • S4E3
  • 1:13:46
  • September 5th 2019

If you've been following The East Africa Business Podcast for a while, you might notice that most episodes are around the 30-40 minute mark.

Whilst that was the intention here, in this episode Samir and I end up chatting for well over an hour.

The reason being is that (to me at least) there's just so much interesting stuff to talk about the business he's running.

Sunculture exists to improve productivity amongst smallholder farmers, and does so through a variety of services including solar irrigation pumps and financing all run on a state-of-the-art software platform.

We talk about how and why the company was formed, why Samir believes that, unlike the US, there will always be smallholder farmers in this part of the world, and how Sunculture's dream team operates, in part motivated by Samir's monthly emoji email.

A big part of the Sunculture thesis on development is aligned with the discussion I had with Conrad Whitaker. To learn more, search for the episode on the Distributed Economy.

We do the interview in the garden of the lovely Sunculture offices and so there may some background noises (including a nearby scuffle between a dog and monkey) which I hope doesn't detract from what is a really fun and information packed episode.

We sometimes go a bit off-piste, including how Samir is hoping to one day reach out to the Ohio band that share Sun Culture's name. We sample one of their tracks at the end of the episode, if you're interested.

READ MORE AT:
https://theeastafricabusinesspodcast.com/2019/09/05/fortune-at-the-bottom-of-the-pyramid,-how-and-why-sunculture-can-profitably-service-smallholder-farmers-at-scale/

The East Africa Business Podcast: African Start ups | Investing | Entrepreneurship | Interviews

A podcast interviewing entrepreneurs and business leaders in the emerging market of East Africa. Host Sam Floy showcases companies operating across Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Find conversations with companies ranging from solar power and food production to smoothies and toothpicks.