Tom Osborn has a humble manner about him, which is
surprising since, at the age of 19, he has already been
recognised as one of world’s top young entrepreneurs.
“In Africa there are a lot of young entrepreneurs who
have great ideas but they never get noticed or past the
small-scale level. I think one reason is that they poorly
position themselves and the organisation,” says Tom
Osborn.
He is the founder of GreenChar in Kenya, a clean energy
start-up that produces charcoal briquettes for cooking
purposes that are both healthier to use and last longer.
His coals are produced from recycled agricultural waste
such as sugarcane, which studies show emit 90% less
smoke, and have 60% more energy than the normal
charcoal used for cooking.
GreenChar is less than two years old, but has already
caused a buzz. Osborn has recently been named as one
of Forbes ‘ global ’30 under 30′ social entrepreneurs, and
last year was selected as a 2014 Anzisha Fellow,
winning US$10,000 from Donors’ Circle at the Anzisha
Prize Gala Awards.
He was also chosen as a global Echoing Green Fellow
for 2014, which comes with two years of funding
totalling $80,000. He is the youngest recipient to receive
the fellowship in the organisation’s 27-year-history.
Humble beginnings
Osborn’s inspiration behind starting GreenChar was
based on a concern for the health of his community,
particularly his mom. Growing up in Awendo, a small
town in Kenya, he watched how women in the
community would cook meals for their families on
charcoal-fuelled cookstoves. And as a young child, it
was Osborn’s duty to light the cookstove for his mother
every day for lunch.
But in high school he discovered something that worried
him. “I randomly came across a report saying smoke
from firewood and charcoal killed more people than
AIDS, Malaria and TB combined,” he explained.
“That really shocked me and made me start thinking of
my mom, and that maybe she was slowly dying from all
the times she had cooked for us. And I felt guilty
because I was one of the people she was cooking for.
So I wanted to try to help her.”
He started researching online and came across students
at MIT who were testing the potential of converting
agricultural waste into charcoal. Osborn got in touch
with them and found out how to produce the healthier
charcoal briquettes that GreenChar now offers the
market.
Thinking like a CEO
It wasn’t just a good idea that led to GreenChar’s
success today. Osborn had to think strategically to
overcome a number of challenges facing adoption of his
company’s product in the market. For starters, he
needed to convince consumers to change the way they
have always cooked.
“Initially we had to give free samples, because it is a big
thing in Kenya that people don’t like to change,” he
said.
The free samples allowed him to educate consumers on
the benefit of using his eco-friendly charcoal briquettes.
Another strategic decision was to make sure
GreenChar’s product could compete with the price of
normal charcoal. “For our target customers the biggest
factor for them is price. So we believe that even though
our product is better quality, it should not be
expensive.”
For this reason, Osborn began offering their product at a
cheaper price. “And that is why I think we have been
very successful so far with sales. Once someone uses it
and is able to experience the benefits, and also realises
it is cheaper, they come back to buy it again.”
Growth supported by product diversification
When GreenChar first started it had the capacity to
produce 30kgs of its charcoal briquettes a day, but it
wasn’t long before Osborn and his team were unable to
keep up with demand. Using their revenue from sales,
they managed to increase this to 50kgs per day. This
soon proved not to be enough either.
However, to increase their production capacity further,
he realised they had to hire more staff, and this meant
they needed more money. The solution: product
diversification.
“At that point we decided to start selling cookstoves to
increase our revenue base so that in turn we could
scale up the charcoal production,” he recalled.
GreenChar partnered with Envirofit, a global
manufacturer of cookstoves that ensured optimum
efficiency of his eco-friendly charcoal briquettes. The
company started selling these in bundles to groups of
women, where the group pays instalments and the
women act as security for each other.
The revenue generated from this was enough to allow
GreenChar to scale up production to 150kgs a day. But
of course even this proved not to be enough.
Using funds Osborn received from Echoing Green last
year, GreenChar bought two acres of land and started
building its own manufacturing plant. The factory was
completed in November and the company produces
2,000kgs of briquettes a day, with the capacity to
increase this to 3,000kgs.
The company has also set up a research and
development team of university students to design
GreenChar’s own cookstoves.
Be well aware of risks
“I think in Africa there are a lot of young entrepreneurs
who have great ideas but they never get noticed or past
the small-scale level. I think one reason is that they
poorly position themselves and the organisation. They
don’t know how to tell their story. They don’t know
how to create their brand. And I think that is also very
important,” said Osborn.
“So I think entrepreneurs should spend a lot of time not
only on their products, but also on working out how
they are going to sell them.”
Osborn believes solutions to many of Africa’s problems
lie in its youth, and advises aspiring entrepreneurs to
take the most important step and start. However, he
added, they should be aware of the risks.
“In my case I have sacrificed a college education for two
years, and if GreenChar doesn’t work I might be
screwed up for the rest of my life. And that is very
scary,” he noted.
Credit : www.anzishaprize.org
