Hey Startup Leapers 👋

🚨Quick shoutout before we dive in: We’re looking for someone from the TSL community to support us with social media content and storytelling.

If you love startups, enjoy crafting content, and want to help amplify bold founder stories - we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email with a few lines about you and any examples of your work!

Now, onto this week’s feature 👇

This week, we’re spotlighting founders who didn’t just survive tough markets - they thrived in them.

From freight in East Africa to fintech infrastructure across 40+ countries, these founders built despite bureaucracy, bias, and broken systems.

But what really sets them apart?

Their ability to build trust, get traction, and prove the impossible with receipts.

Whether you're launching in a misunderstood market or struggling to explain your value to investors, there’s a playbook here for you.

💎 Josh Sandler - Turning Africa’s broken logistics into a billion-dollar opportunity

Josh didn’t plan to become a freight tech founder.

But while living in Kenya, he kept hearing one thing from local operators: moving goods across East Africa was a logistical nightmare.

No transparency. No tech. No trust.

So he co-founded Lori, a freight coordination platform that tackled everything from route planning to payment and vehicle tracking.

But what really made Lori work? They didn’t just build software - they embedded in the real pain points of the market.

Here’s what they did:

• Brought transporters online: Many small trucking firms were still doing business by phone or paper. Lori gave them software that made fleet and fuel management easier, cutting costs and delays.

• Fixed broken payment cycles: In East Africa, transporters often waited weeks or months to get paid. Lori partnered with financiers to ensure drivers got paid quickly, which improved retention and reliability.

• Built proof over pitch decks: Josh didn’t rely on theory. He worked directly with operators on the ground and used that traction to raise investment from people like Tim Draper.

The impact? Lori reduced delivery times by up to 50%, made logistics cheaper for shippers, and helped formalise a massive informal market.

In doing so, Josh built one of Africa’s most valuable logistics platforms - not by copying Silicon Valley, but by engineering trust in a trust-deficient system.

🌍 Dare Okoudjou – Linking Africa’s fragmented money systems into one network

Dare spent years at MTN and Mastercard watching money flow between countries and how difficult it was for most people.

Every country had its own mobile money system, but none of them talked to each other.

It made cross-border trade slow, expensive, and inaccessible to most Africans.

So he quit his job and launched MFS Africa (now Onafriq), a company that would eventually become one of the largest payment networks on the continent.

But Dare knew this wasn’t a "move fast" space. The real challenge wasn’t the tech - it was trust.

Here’s how he tackled it:

• Built regulatory muscle early: Rather than skirt regulation, Dare made compliance a strength. He hired legal experts in each country, proactively engaged with central banks, and made licensing a core part of the growth strategy.

• Stayed focused on interoperability: While others built wallets, he built rails. Onafriq integrated 200+ mobile money systems and banks - helping users send, receive, and convert funds across borders with one interface.

• Took the long road with capital: He raised early from strategic partners - people who understood financial inclusion and were willing to take a 10-year view. That patience allowed him to scale responsibly.

The result? Onafriq now processes payments across 40+ African markets and connects more than 500 million mobile wallets and bank accounts.

Investors who once dismissed the idea are now backing the vision with serious capital.

📚 Interesting Reads, Resources & Opportunities

1. Black Swan: The Founder's Room featuring our very own Maria, who will be sharing candid insights on validation, revenue models, and fundraising.

2. Startup Discovery School: Just Transition Series (Wednesday 23 July)

3. Accelerator Programme for Climate Tech Entrepreneurs

Thanks for reading 💜

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