Online store gives women better shopping options

Who is Joanna?

Joanna is a technology leader, a business woman and entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, a sister and a daughter. She was born in Poland, grew up in Canada, now lives in Kenya with her husband and two young children.

Tell us more about your Kasha business in Kenya?

Kasha is an eCommerce company for women’s health, beauty and personal care products available online. We recognise women are busy and in need of convenience, that they deeply care about the quality of the products they put on their skin and on their baby’s skin, and that they often deprioritise the need for their own self-care.

Kasha exists to make it easier for women to care for themselves by providing a convenient and confidential way to order the genuine quality products needed to look and feel their best.

In which country were you selling your products and why have you expanded to Kenya?

Kasha originally began in Rwanda and, after about two years of growing fast and operating around the country, we expanded into Kenya.

We are excited to now also be operating in Kenya because it’s a vibrant, digital market where many people are familiar with eCommerce, just about everyone uses M-Pesa and everyone has access to a phone.

The same needs exist here: even if women have high profile, professional jobs, they are still mostly viewed as the ones who are responsible to take care of everyone else. Women need convenience and a supportive way to self-care.

As is true everywhere, social stigma towards women still exists and so women need confidentiality and privacy so they can easily get important products like contraceptives, pregnancy tests and HIV self-tests.

There are also a lot of counterfeit and expired products in the market, and so women need a place where they can trust that each product is genuine and high quality. For these reasons, I think Kenya is a great place for Kasha to operate!

What is Kasha all about?

Kasha is named after my daughter, and it was when she was born that I started to deeply think about all the challenges women and girls face in growing up and in living their lives. Knowing that all mothers want their daughters to have what they need to live their best lives, I decided to do something about making it easier for women and girls. About a year later, the company was started.

Kasha was built by women for all women. As an eCommerce company, we innovate so that whether a woman is rich or poor, lives in Nairobi or upcountry, she can always get access to the products and information she needs to live her best life.

Why did you decide to open an online store for female products alone? Was there a gap?

When you think about a woman throughout her lifetime, she continuously needs products for self-care that vary across the many stages of her life. Whether it’s products for her face, body and hair care, menstrual care, contraceptives, fertility, pregnancy, post-partum, breastfeeding, menopause … the list is endless. We want to be the best at helping women get the products they need. We know that quality, privacy, confidentiality, choice and accurate information is important to women, so we focus on ensuring that the experience women have getting these products is the best in the market. In technology, very few products and services are optimised for women.

At Kasha, we aim to fill this gap and innovate to serve women better.

Initially, Kasha focused on women’s health and personal care, the portfolio has since expanded; with women still the largest market, tell us more?

In the beginning, Kasha’s product selection was limited mostly to products like soap, body lotion, sanitary pads and tampons, contraceptives, pregnancy tests and deodorants. We exist to serve our customers. Our customers told us what else they needed and we listened.

They told us that we can’t serve them without also serving their babies, so due to popular demand we added diapers and other baby products. Men who bought products for their wives, girlfriends and daughters also wanted some products for themselves.

More and more women began asking for specialised products like those for natural hair and products that are organic, so we added those. Women also love quality beauty products, so we are also expanding our range across this category as well.

Before starting Kasha, where did you work?

I was the principal technology advisor for Global Development at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, working across East and West Africa and South Asia on technology strategies and solutions to optimise the supply chain of vaccines, family planning and other public health commodities.

Why did you leave?

My children motivate me to make the most out of my life. I left when I had my first child. Then, when my daughter was born, I left the Gates Foundation to start Kasha. I strongly believe that business has the greatest opportunity to drive large scale impact in the world.

I was frustrated that women were still struggling to get the basic things they need because of systemic issues in the world, such as social stigma and ineffective distribution models, and I questioned whether the work I was doing at the time was the best contribution I could make.

I actually tried to look for a job that does what I wanted Kasha to do, and I could not find it! So I decided to start it.

Tell us more about your family?

My family is my rock. I have an incredibly supportive and brilliant husband who has an impressive career in the technology industry. He puts the family first, and without his support it would have been very difficult to start the company.

My oldest is a nine-year-old mini-engineer called Noah, and my daughter Kasha is a four-year old who is a smart and sassy, opinionated boss lady.

What is your greatest strength?

My answer to this question has varied over my life, but at this time, I think my greatest strength is my strong intuition.

I have really come to respect it and to listen to it, because it often shows me the right way to go. The strength that has been most consistent throughout my life is determination!

Describe your typical work-week

I live a highly scheduled life, since I always strive to fit in all the important things. Unless I’m travelling, I have breakfast and dinner with my family six out of seven days, and I try to be emotionally present for this quality family time. I work during regular hours and also often in the evening, after the children have gone to bed. My husband and I have a date night every Friday. My alone time is between 5am and 6:30am on weekdays, before the family wakes up (I love this time!). I try to keep weekends for unplugging, family and relaxing.

What do you find most challenging?

Time goes by so fast! I always say that in a start-up, it always feels like you are building the plane as you are flying it.

What do you like doing when free?

I call myself an “outgoing introvert” so when I have free time I like being at home with my family, reading and going out for a run.

What mantra do you live by?

Work hard, play hard.

What is your greatest joy?

My family and my work. These are the most important things in my life. I know that I need to self-care to be able to truly enjoy these things, to be able to appreciate them as the true gifts that they are.

What are your future plans?

The vision is that Kasha will be the largest platform in the world for women’s health and self-care products, specifically focused on emerging markets. I am fully committed to making this happen. The future is bright and exciting.

Parting shot:

Kasha is a community for women by women and we believe the best way to support female entrepreneurs is to support their businesses. Be the change you want to see in the world and try out Kasha: www.kasha.co.ke