Dr. Esther Muchemi’s new brand, Samchi Digital is nurturing youthful talent
By the Hustle East Africa team
When she was nominated for the Amazon Hall of Fame awards in 2017, Dr. Esther Muchemi took it in her stride. The award was a culmination of her consistent effort in the world of entrepreneurship where she has built a formidable business empire.
As the founder of Samchi Telecom, an authorized Safaricom dealership that she founded in 1998, Dr. Muchemi has received many awards, including the Safaricom Dealer of the Year for her trailblazing work.
But among all the trophies in her cabinet, the Amazon one holds the greatest weight; it motivated her to reinvent herself as an entrepreneur, releasing her unutilized potential.
“The Amazon Hall of Fame nomination was a game changer,” she says. “I do not know who nominated me, but the awards team had a hard time verifying my details because there was scant information about me on the internet.”
Soon after getting feted, Dr. Muchemi vowed to do things differently. “It had become clear that I needed some sort of online presence. My personal assistant told me that people struggled to know me.” With over a decade as an illustrious entrepreneur, and ten brands under her belt, Dr. Muchemi’s goal is to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs. Having launched her motivational talks to reach out to her growing network of youthful businessmen and women, she realized that to inspire people, one needs social and physical visibility. That’s why she started participating in social media, sharing her entrepreneurial story with thousands of internet users.
They say that successful entrepreneurs have a unique ability to sniff opportunities and to pounce on them to turn a profit. She has both. “I realised that there must be so many small and medium entrepreneurs who do not have an online presence. Most did not know how they could harness the power of social media.”
As traditional media advertising gets more expensive and our of reach for most young entrepreneurs, Dr. Muchemi is banking on the untapped power of social media to create an innovation vehicle for next generation marketing and brand positioning.
In 2018, she founded Samchi Digital as a platform for her stable of brands that make up Samchi Group, including Samchi Telecom, Mergut Communications, Jumbo Telecom, Space International Hotel, After40 Hotel, and Heavenly Foods.
Samchi Digital’s niche is digital content, including digital products and services that are tailored for a range of clients such as corporates and SMEs. Besides, it’s a platform that gives youth a chance to discover and use their God-given talents. The company was incorporated in February 2019 with an aim of actualizing her digital concepts and strategies.
Its range of products and services include; TV production, production of commercial and infomercial advertisements, social media management, marketing, production of documentaries, music, professional filming and photography as well as live streams and live broadcast services.
Like many of her other companies, Samchi Digital started small before spawning into a scalable enterprise.
“It’s consistent with the way I do things. I start small before scaling,” she says.
A year later, Samchi Digital is panning out to be a household name as far as quality video production goes.
For her, its niche fits in with her long time goal of providing a range of complementary services, all under one roof.
“We are disrupting the market. When we come to you, we take care of all your needs to make sure your event succeeds. Our brands work in concert to provide event planning services, catering, public address, entertainment, hospitality and related services.”
She wants to use Samchi Digital and the social media space to leave a legacy that’s close to her heart; inspiring people to be their best versions. When she delivers weekly inspirational messages to tens of youthful entrepreneurs, there’s no denying that the seasoned business magnate is passionate about the affairs of the youth. She inspires them through life experiences, drawn from her many years in business. She packages these into simple tips, lessons and pieces of advice that she feeds into the minds of her mentees.
“All my lessons are real happenings. It’s not something you can learn in school. It’s drawn from my journey as an entrepreneur. It’s good to expose people to the real world,” she says.
In 2018, she launched her inspirational book, ‘Give Me My Mountain’ to share her long and winding journey to the C-suite. Since its launch, the book was a hit. It inspired her weekly talks dubbed “Breakfast with the CEO,” another hugely successful one-on-one talk-show.
What motivates her to inspire others? “For me it’s all about impacting young people. I’m motivated to see them prosper because I believe in their potential.”
It’s this kind of will power that recently culminated into a partnership between Samchi Group and Zetech University. Under the partnership, students from Zetech university get a chance to intern at any of the companies under Samchi Group to nurture and hone their skills.
“One of the problems that young people have revolves around their attitude. With the right attitude, they can be anything they want. Once we are through with them after these months, they are transformed.”
For her transformative work with the youth, Zetech university recently feted her with a doctorate in entrepreneurship. “I was honoured to be their first doctorate graduate,” avers Dr. Muchemi, who also holds a degree in commerce from the University of Nairobi.
She describes the doctorate as a reward for her consistency in her work, and urges all businessmen to ‘do what’s right all the time, regardless of who’s watching or what they say about you.’
“When you do that from a selfless position, with an aim of giving back to the society, the world will locate you.”
Samchi Digital is not the only disruptive idea that she has had. Her first venture, Samchi Telecom was as disruptive. She quit her well-paying audit practice to venture into the male dominated telecommunications industry.
“Back then, most of my friends couldn’t believe that I had quit my job to become a shopkeeper,” she says. Despite the negative criticism, she didn’t give up. Instead, she put in more work to be the best airtime dealer. When Safaricom’s revolutionary product, M-Pesa, launched, she was the first mobile money dealer, holding the iconic 000001 till number.
As M-Pesa grew tremendously, so did her business. For the next ten years, she concentrated on growing her company, and she ended up winning many awards and accolades from far and wide. After a decade, she diversified into other industries. Today, she sits at the crest of a business empire that she has painstakingly built through sheer grit, dedication, passion and hard work.
“For ten years, I didn’t launch any other business. I didn’t have the money to venture into other industries. I built Samchi Telecom to be a successful brand and that kind of consistency finally paid off. Later on I was able to venture into the hospitality, credit, real estate, and digital marketing industries without breaking a sweat.”
She says that launching a business in a new industry is one of the toughest things for any entrepreneur.
“Its a steep learning curve. You have to learn fast.”
Having laid the groundwork for her business empire, Dr. Muchemi aspires to be an authority in each industry that she ventures into.
“We continuosly improve our product and service offering to make sure we meet the needs of our clients, and to be leaders in our respective industries,” she says.
After setting up Samchi Digital and anchoring it on a growth pedestal, she’s excited about the impact that the young company is making.
In her flagship book, she figuratively views new opportunities as small mountains that she must conquer. Without divulging details, she says her next mountain will revolve around agribusiness, a key sector that’s described as the backbone of Kenya’s economy, yet the most unexploited.
In the meantime, she’s motivating a whole generation of entrepreneurs, inspiring them to ‘scale their next mountains.’
As the founder of Samchi Telecom, an authorized Safaricom dealership that she founded in 1998, Dr. Muchemi has received many awards, including the Safaricom Dealer of the Year for her trailblazing work.
But among all the trophies in her cabinet, the Amazon one holds the greatest weight; it motivated her to reinvent herself as an entrepreneur, releasing her unutilized potential.
“The Amazon Hall of Fame nomination was a game changer,” she says. “I do not know who nominated me, but the awards team had a hard time verifying my details because there was scant information about me on the internet.”
Soon after getting feted, Dr. Muchemi vowed to do things differently. “It had become clear that I needed some sort of online presence. My personal assistant told me that people struggled to know me.” With over a decade as an illustrious entrepreneur, and ten brands under her belt, Dr. Muchemi’s goal is to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs. Having launched her motivational talks to reach out to her growing network of youthful businessmen and women, she realized that to inspire people, one needs social and physical visibility. That’s why she started participating in social media, sharing her entrepreneurial story with thousands of internet users.
They say that successful entrepreneurs have a unique ability to sniff opportunities and to pounce on them to turn a profit. She has both. “I realised that there must be so many small and medium entrepreneurs who do not have an online presence. Most did not know how they could harness the power of social media.”
As traditional media advertising gets more expensive and our of reach for most young entrepreneurs, Dr. Muchemi is banking on the untapped power of social media to create an innovation vehicle for next generation marketing and brand positioning.
In 2018, she founded Samchi Digital as a platform for her stable of brands that make up Samchi Group, including Samchi Telecom, Mergut Communications, Jumbo Telecom, Space International Hotel, After40 Hotel, and Heavenly Foods.
Samchi Digital’s niche is digital content, including digital products and services that are tailored for a range of clients such as corporates and SMEs. Besides, it’s a platform that gives youth a chance to discover and use their God-given talents. The company was incorporated in February 2019 with an aim of actualizing her digital concepts and strategies.
Its range of products and services include; TV production, production of commercial and infomercial advertisements, social media management, marketing, production of documentaries, music, professional filming and photography as well as live streams and live broadcast services.
Like many of her other companies, Samchi Digital started small before spawning into a scalable enterprise.
“It’s consistent with the way I do things. I start small before scaling,” she says.
A year later, Samchi Digital is panning out to be a household name as far as quality video production goes.
For her, its niche fits in with her long time goal of providing a range of complementary services, all under one roof.
“We are disrupting the market. When we come to you, we take care of all your needs to make sure your event succeeds. Our brands work in concert to provide event planning services, catering, public address, entertainment, hospitality and related services.”
She wants to use Samchi Digital and the social media space to leave a legacy that’s close to her heart; inspiring people to be their best versions. When she delivers weekly inspirational messages to tens of youthful entrepreneurs, there’s no denying that the seasoned business magnate is passionate about the affairs of the youth. She inspires them through life experiences, drawn from her many years in business. She packages these into simple tips, lessons and pieces of advice that she feeds into the minds of her mentees.
“All my lessons are real happenings. It’s not something you can learn in school. It’s drawn from my journey as an entrepreneur. It’s good to expose people to the real world,” she says.
In 2018, she launched her inspirational book, ‘Give Me My Mountain’ to share her long and winding journey to the C-suite. Since its launch, the book was a hit. It inspired her weekly talks dubbed “Breakfast with the CEO,” another hugely successful one-on-one talk-show.
What motivates her to inspire others? “For me it’s all about impacting young people. I’m motivated to see them prosper because I believe in their potential.”
It’s this kind of will power that recently culminated into a partnership between Samchi Group and Zetech University. Under the partnership, students from Zetech university get a chance to intern at any of the companies under Samchi Group to nurture and hone their skills.
“One of the problems that young people have revolves around their attitude. With the right attitude, they can be anything they want. Once we are through with them after these months, they are transformed.”
For her transformative work with the youth, Zetech university recently feted her with a doctorate in entrepreneurship. “I was honoured to be their first doctorate graduate,” avers Dr. Muchemi, who also holds a degree in commerce from the University of Nairobi.
She describes the doctorate as a reward for her consistency in her work, and urges all businessmen to ‘do what’s right all the time, regardless of who’s watching or what they say about you.’
“When you do that from a selfless position, with an aim of giving back to the society, the world will locate you.”
Samchi Digital is not the only disruptive idea that she has had. Her first venture, Samchi Telecom was as disruptive. She quit her well-paying audit practice to venture into the male dominated telecommunications industry.
“Back then, most of my friends couldn’t believe that I had quit my job to become a shopkeeper,” she says. Despite the negative criticism, she didn’t give up. Instead, she put in more work to be the best airtime dealer. When Safaricom’s revolutionary product, M-Pesa, launched, she was the first mobile money dealer, holding the iconic 000001 till number.
As M-Pesa grew tremendously, so did her business. For the next ten years, she concentrated on growing her company, and she ended up winning many awards and accolades from far and wide. After a decade, she diversified into other industries. Today, she sits at the crest of a business empire that she has painstakingly built through sheer grit, dedication, passion and hard work.
“For ten years, I didn’t launch any other business. I didn’t have the money to venture into other industries. I built Samchi Telecom to be a successful brand and that kind of consistency finally paid off. Later on I was able to venture into the hospitality, credit, real estate, and digital marketing industries without breaking a sweat.”
She says that launching a business in a new industry is one of the toughest things for any entrepreneur.
“Its a steep learning curve. You have to learn fast.”
Having laid the groundwork for her business empire, Dr. Muchemi aspires to be an authority in each industry that she ventures into.
“We continuosly improve our product and service offering to make sure we meet the needs of our clients, and to be leaders in our respective industries,” she says.
After setting up Samchi Digital and anchoring it on a growth pedestal, she’s excited about the impact that the young company is making.
In her flagship book, she figuratively views new opportunities as small mountains that she must conquer. Without divulging details, she says her next mountain will revolve around agribusiness, a key sector that’s described as the backbone of Kenya’s economy, yet the most unexploited.
In the meantime, she’s motivating a whole generation of entrepreneurs, inspiring them to ‘scale their next mountains.’
