In 2024, AB Entheos celebrated 10 years of operations. The company is the brainchild of Anne Kamau and Barbara Chesire, former colleagues from earlier in their respective careers. Launching and growing AB Entheos was the biggest professional challenge Anne and Barbara have faced. Through this blog series, they explain the challenges they have overcome, their successes and the lessons learned. This is the fourth instalment in their story of 10 lessons in 10 years, or 10-in-10.
By 2017, Anne and Barbara had experienced significant success; this was about to change. In a short space of time, they had landed multiple projects and this had led to a constant stream of revenue. For a fledgling business, this marked a dream start. However, Anne and Barbara had failed to anticipate how consultant cycles worked. In 2017, the work had dried up. There were no new projects nor any outstanding invoices to collect. Personal savings and other assets had be liquidated to keep themselves and the business afloat.
Hardship led to difficult, but strategic, changes…
Like many start-ups, Anne and Barbara were about to experience the “valley of death”. This refers to a gap in funding or support that can cause businesses to fail. Often, there is no easy fix to overcome this stage of a business’s lifecycle, and sometimes it requires founders to change tack. Anne took a long-term consultancy job in Tanzania for a year and a half. While doing this, she continued to contribute to the business and regularly worked with Barbara on proposal writing and pitching for opportunities.
I was so conflicted about going to Tanzania. I remember I kept wondering out aloud about turning my back on my own business. But the job in Tanzania needed to be done.
~ Anne Kamau
Although painful and conflicting for both Anne and Barbara, this was an important period for the business and their respective careers. They were committed to sustaining their joint venture to keep their dream alive. And this meant continuing to pitch for work among potential clients. Anne and Barbara also reflected on things that could prevent them from falling into such a trap again. For instance, there was a need to consider an investment policy as a safety net for the business.
…which ultimately led to new opportunities, including “ResilientME!”
Anne and Barbara overcame the “valley of death” through a range of new opportunities, including creating an interactive game to raise insurance awareness. In 2018, Barbara was invited to the A2ii Inclusive Insurance Innovation Lab (iiiLab), which saw participation from Albania, Ghana, Kenya and Mongolia. The Lab focused on the use of human-centred design for products as a means of developing customer-relevant products. This experience indirectly led to the creation of “ResilientME!”. Colleagues in Ghana sought Anne and Barbara’s help in developing an education curriculum for artisans, which they gamified due to low literacy levels.
The project in Ghana, though not large in scale, served as light at the end of the tunnel for Anne and Barbara. This overlapped with Anne’s return from Tanzania, which led both her and Barbara to feel a sense of relief. They could finally continue growing their business, as it started to pick up again. For Anne, it also meant overcoming an unfortunate feeling of guilt. Leaving AB Entheos to take up a contract in Tanzania had felt like “cheating”, even though it was necessary to keep the business alive.
I think there were some really good lessons we learned in the ‘valley’ that have stayed with us because ResilientME!is a key part of our business. This continues to influence our thinking even today.
~ Barbara Chesire
Persevering through the toughest years was the only choice
For Anne and Barbara, 2017 and 2018 marked the toughest years of their joint venture. Through sacrifices and painful changes, they managed to hold on and remain solvent. From late 2018 into early 2019, they started securing new projects. Some of these opportunities allowed them to continue expanding beyond Kenya.
Anne and Barbara’s shared persistence stemmed from a desire not to confirm the scepticism of several naysayers who felt that microinsurance was unsustainable. Their experiences in the field and on the ground with clients meant that there was always “so much more” that could be done. This was a powerful motivator that encouraged Anne and Barbara to continue their efforts and expansion. The result was a gradual transition from providing advisory services to implementing solutions themselves, primarily to ensure long-term success and sustainability for solutions. These early struggles that Anne and Barbara endured have now formed the basis of future success.
