Case Study: Joseph Rutakangwa, Rwazi

Joseph’s Startup Founder Journey

Originally from Tanzania, Joseph Rutakangwa attended the African Leadership University campus in Mauritius in its inaugural class. Upon graduation, Joseph founded his first tech startup, Rwazi, which harnesses a network of local mappers across Africa who collect on-the-ground data to help companies make decisions.

He found business mentorship and incubation support from La Plage Factory, a business accelerator program in Mauritius. His business mentors mostly focused on the technical and practical elements of starting a business, finding product-market fit, and scaling a profitable business model.

Joseph Connects With Executive Coach with CoffeeChat

In 2020, Joseph used CoffeeChat to identify and work with an executive coach, alongside his ongoing business mentorship. His coaching sessions focused on more deeply understanding his leadership style and business decision making frameworks. During his conversations with his coach, he identified a number of self-limiting beliefs that, despite his startup’s strong start, were holding him back from truly unleashing the potential of his company’s model.

One mental barrier that he held was the assumption that he should double down his business’ focus on Africa. But when he reexamined this assumption, in combination with his ambition for what he wanted to achieve for his company, he realized that he didn’t have a strong answer to why he wasn’t already capable to expanding his business development efforts to other markets.

10x Outcome from Coaching

During 9 sessions with his executive coach over 6 months, Joseph explored ways in which he could overcome the subconscious barriers he had placed on himself and take steps to grow his business beyond the African context. Within a few months of changing his mindset, his business’s monthly revenue had increased by 10x.

🎧 Listen to Joseph himself in the 6-minute audio clip at the top of this article for more details about Rwazi and his experience with executive coaching. And if you want to hear our full interview with Joseph about his leadership journey, listen to his episode of The Everyday Leader here.