Minute 5

We all love food , don't we?  I have heard some friends of mine say "food is bae, we are one,  I do not joke with food,  with food , I am sorted... haha".  But what about the process of preparing that delicious food,  it starts by you going to the market to shop for it. 

To you that has hated going to the market place whether it is Nakasero,  Nakawa  or Owino because of a bad attitude from the seller, one vendor carrying sacks of food over your head, irritated by the commotion or that rubbish that has made a home in all corners. Worry not. Minute 5 is bringing the market closer to you

Minute 5 is an online grocery delivery company located in the Pearl of Africa, Uganda . The business provides farm produce to people within a very short time and at pocket friendly prices.

Jonathan Katumba Paul is the Founder & CEO of Minute 5.  He is also a Software Engineering Student of Makerere University and a recent top 20 finalists of The Anzisha Prize. His story is of determination and persistence.

Jonathan is a lover of technology and food. 

He says. " I started using the computer at the age of three, at twelve I was coding. So I am a self made developer".

The Genesis

I love to see things work and people's lives made easy. That is why Minute 5 is here: to lessen the burden in shopping food items.

I happened to be a entrepreneur by coincidence. Jonathan says .  In 2016,  my co founder, Abdallah Kambugu had a farm of passion fruits and he wanted to sell them. We packed them up  and took them to Amber and Workers House in Kampala.  The reception we got was heart- warming , people bought the fruits and even asked us if we could deliver onions, tomatoes, and other supplies to them.

Breakthrough

We came up with an idea of asking people to make orders to one of our numbers that was on WhatsApp. With time, this strategy involved too much work because every day we had to send lists of updated prices to our customers.

Having a background in technology, we decided to develop an app and a website that would enable customers have access to information on the items and their prices. The app has also helped customers to have their products delivered on time since one makes an order based on their nearest location.

SET BACKS

I managed to develop the app in two weeks, however, my laptop was stolen which was a big hitch, no one was willing to give me a laptop at the time, good thing I knew the code in my head, so I made good use of the cafe with interruptions like computers being too slow. I kept going until the app was fully developed again. We launched it in 2019 and officially started business.

Some people have not yet embraced the value we are giving them : Saving time & alot of money. 

For the past one and a half years we have been bootstrapping which is not an easy journey. If we can get a proper source of income, we can work with more farmers and provide more sources of income for them. Jonathan adds.

IMPACT

 

We have delivered over 1500 produce to our customers. 

Our team consists of about 50 people with 8 employees, 11 in charge of handling deliveries and orders and 30 partner vendors that include farmers whom we outsource from.  Farmers have managed to sell their produce through our platform this Covid Season and our fellow youth have embraced farming.

Some of the farm produce sold.

Climbing the Ladder.

I have been identified as one of Top 40 under 40 youngest entrepreneurs of 2019. We have won start up challenges respectively of MTN and Makerere University.

I have been among the top 20 finalists of The Anzisha Prize 2020  that supports and celebrates young entrepreneurs who create jobs, solve problems and drive economies.

Gist

Start doing things right away . Most entrepreneurs have a mindset that they need to start with enough funding. I did not have any thing when we started. When you start early, you pivot and get to know  what will work and not work. An idea is really worthless if it is not executed.

You  should be information hungry because we are in era where information is too much. Join a community of like minded people like Outbox , innovation village,  Makerere incubation center to grow networks,  draw lessons from other people doing business too, this way you avoid making  the same mistakes they did. 

People like Jonathan need to tell their business stories to remind the young people out there that their ideas are great, they only need to start.