21 year- old Roxanne Mudenge Arakaza is the founder of Samples Rw, an online grocery delivery service in Rwanda that she launched last month. Her dream is to make the world a better place by creating solutions to people’s needs. The second year Business management student at University of Kigali has hired a team of IT specialists and creatives that deal with shopping and supplies. She talked to Sunday Magazine’s Sharon Kantengwa about this innovative platform. What inspired this particular startup? We have been building this platform for the last two years but launched the platform unofficially last month. My inspiration is that many people do not have time to go the market, they are busy with work and their house helps tend to cheat when they are sent to the market. We want to create solutions by saving people’s time and money and make their lives easier by delivering fresh groceries to their houses and provide recipes to people at low prices. With the available platforms already in place that do the same, how do you intend to penetrate the market? We have a uniqueness and the simplicity that comes with it is that our website has a telephone number if you need help. The other thing is that our prices are very low because we buy directly from the farmers. The reason our prices are very low is because we get goods directly from the farmers and supply them directly to our clients. We set off at 3 am and look for fresh vegetables, our clients having ordered the previous day, and we deliver on time. Did you receive any training on how to run this particular kind of business? I didn’t but I have been reading a lot, since I love food, and I did a market survey and tried to find out what I can do better. How was it like starting up Samples Rw? I didn’t have any funding but with my savings I just thought I should just start working on it, having thought about it for the last couple of years. I wanted to launch it in May, and I did a lot of marketing and shared with my friends, who were the first people to order. I am so far overwhelmed by the immense support from clients. It was a big experience for me. What are some of your achievements and challenges you have faced in starting Samples Rw? I could say my biggest achievement so far, is making my clients happy. My biggest challenge however, is that people are not yet aware of our platform. I don’t have as many clients yet and because of that we only supply on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to ensure the freshness of the goods but also to cut on our costs because we don’t charge for transport if an order above Rwf 3,000 is placed. We do a route plan to deliver the groceries. The other challenge is the mindset of Rwandans. Many people are not yet open to this kind of delivery platform but I believe it will change with time. What are your goals for this platform? My first plan is to get as many clients for our platform and manage their stores. Once I have set a good relationship with them, they don’t even have to order, I will be able to supply their stores with groceries whenever they need to. I want to also be able to give people recipes for their favorite dishes and supply the portions for the foods and spices for them.
