Wasoko: digitizing Africa's corner shops

Banking on an expensive, asset-heavy approach, the Kenyan-based logistics startup isn't scared to spend to win a competitive market.

Fresh eyes

Some successful startups exhibit an intriguing trait. In cases such as Bolt, Stripe, or Brex, the founders of these now-unicorns had little to no experience in the sector they were disrupting. Ignorance is bliss and in the startup world, bliss translates to the ability to see problems with a clear mind, void of any anterior frustrations.

If unfamiliarity with an issue is proportional to one’s creativity in solving it, Daniel Yu dove into a well of possibilities when he decided to build a product for Egyptian pharmacies. As his name suggests, Daniel is about as non-Egyptian as one can be, growing up in California suburbs, birthed by immigrant Asian parents. Nor is he a pharmacist, but rather a drop-out from the University of Chicago, an institution more associated with economic theory than with aspirin.

During his brief college stint, Daniel went to Egypt with the stated goal of improving his Arabic. While visiting a clinic there, the local pharmacist explained to Daniel that not only was a significant amount of his medicine expired, but much of the essential ones were simply absent.