EA - Writing about my job: Growth lead at a startup in Kenya by Luke Eure

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Writing about my job: Growth lead at a startup in Kenya, published by Luke Eure on September 10, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I think a lot of impact-minded people should seriously consider working at early-stage startups - particularly in low-middle income countries.I'm an American currently working at an early-stage startup in Kenya, so thought I would write up:How I got this jobHow I think about the impact of my workWhat my day to day job is likeMy advice for people thinking of working at a startupWhat would make me decide to stay or leave my companyI'm aiming to be concise, so sound off in the comments if there's anything you'd like me to expand on in more detail.Context: I work as a growth lead at a company called Kapu Africa, a startup based in Kenya reducing the cost of living for Kenyans by offering cheap direct-to-consumer sales of every-day purchased items, with next day deliveryHow I got this jobAfter undergrad I worked in consulting for 2.5 years (BCG) - first in Chicago and then in Nairobi KenyaI decided I had learned enough from BCG, and that the best way for me to contribute to global development was to work at a startup. I've written here and here about that decision-making processMy coworkers at BCG Nairobi put me in touch with a bunch of people working in various startups in Nairobi as well as elsewhere in Africa. Over the course of 15 or so conversations, I got a sense for what kinds of companies and roles were interesting to me vs. which weren'tI was very lucky in that most of the companies I was talking to were looking for someone with my background. I never had any formal interviews. I was able to have an attitude of "I'm looking for a job where I can have a lot of impact, and if I find that job I will definitely get that job."Kapu was actually in stealth mode when I joined it, so the only way I found out about it was because a former colleague worked thereI had like 3 conversations with different people from Kapu, decided it was the best shot at impact I had (see next section), and so went with it!How I think about the impact of my workI had decided on global poverty as what I wanted to work on in the near-term. Besides the obvious direct benefits, solving global poverty means also unleashing the potential of talented people (who happen to be very poor right now) who can help us solve humanity's other problemsEconomic development seems like the best way to lift people out of extreme povertyI think Kapu is particularly good in terms of impact on a few metrics:Direct impact: Our core business is making goods cheaper for end consumers - targeting poor Kenyans. Our goal is to provide $1B in savings to customers. I view providing real savings on everyday purchases as quite similar to unconditional cash transfers in terms of impactMy personal potential to give a lot: If our company does super well and gets a high valuation, I'll make a lot of money I can then give awayDriving economic development via:Low-medium skill job creationHigh-skill job creation potentially setting up our existing team to go start great companies laterIncreasing the visibility of Kenya as a destination for international investment capital (that is primarily profit seeking as opposed to impact-seeking capital of which Kenya has a lot now)Contributing to building up the business ecosystem in Kenya by doing business with our partner companies (e.g., suppliers, logistics companies)It will help me develop skills (directly driving impact, knowing how a business works from a 360 perspective, and focusing on moving fast) that will be valuable later in my career in the business or nonprofit worldSo what is my job actually like?At its core my responsibility is:Have a strong hypothesis about what we need to grow our number of customers by 10xTest t...