Archetypal job creator scales the heights of entrepreneurship

At the tender age of 24, Patrick Mutahi, a Bachelor of Business Management student at MKU Nairobi Campus is already a millionaire. But how did he do it? For starters, he credits his success with a challenge he received from one of his lecturers. This is his spellbinding story.
One sunny morning in February 2013, Patrick Mutahi walked into the offices of the Coalition on Reforms and Democracy party in Lavington, Nairobi. He had a little more than Ksh100 in his pockets, loads of confidence, and one killer marketing idea.
It was during the heat of the general elections campaign season and the party and its key rival, The National Alliance, were going hammer and tongs at each other.
A few months before, Mutahi had stumbled upon a business idea when his lecturer at Nairobi Campus repeatedly harped on the multi-million shillings advertising industry.
“I was travelling by Citi Hoppa to The Junction, Ngong Road, to buy a phone when I noticed that every passenger was silent throughout the journey, lost in their own thoughts,” Mutahi reminisces. “Then it struck me, ‘why not erect TV screens inside these buses to entertain the passengers, and at the same time use them as a medium of advertising?’”
The idea was Philmax Media Agencies, a digital marketing, advertising and branding company. The bus advertising was the idea he was selling to Raila Odinga Jnr., son of then CORD Presidential candidate Raila Odinga, that sunny morning. “He just sat there and listened with rapt attention,” recalls Mutahi. “He asked me very many questions. But I was prepared. I had done my homework. I knew my business well. I had been to the TNA offices but the campaign secretariat didn’t buy my idea. Nairobi has a population of about four million. Up to 80% of this use public means of transport. I was convinced that this was the best medium for political parties to advertise their manifesto.” Odinga Jnr. was convinced too.
After the business pitch, Mutahi was asked to wait outside for a short while. The short while became a tense seven-hour wait. Patience pays. In mitigation, he walked away with a Ksh240,000 contract to advertise CORD’s manifesto for a period of two weeks.
“I was besides myself with joy,” he recalls. “That was certainly one of the happiest days of my life.”
Mutahi used the money to install more screens inside more buses, and gained the confidence to approach even more clients. “My overheads were basically very low. So, I managed to make a healthy profit margin.”
His journey from a wimpy lone ranger trying to make it in Nairobi’s cutthroat and unforgiving business environment to a magnate-in-the-making reads like fiction. His story begins in 2010, when he enrolled for a Diploma in Banking and Finance at MKU Nairobi Campus. “My lecturer used to tell us that there is a lot of money to be made from billboards and advertising. He often used an example of a local company that has 1,000 billboards throughout East Africa. The monthly cost of advertising on a billboard is Ksh150,000. Do the maths.”
Upon hatching the idea for on-board advertising inside Nairobi buses, Mutahi sought to make it a reality.
He needed a capital of Ksh1 million but through friends and family, he could only raise Ksh70,000. “I chose not to focus on what I didn’t have. So I started small.”
The money was barely enough to erect two screens. He walked around the city, selling the new advertising concept office to office. “Many laughed and scoffed at me.” His first contract- from a commercial college- brought in Ksh18,000.
Mutahi has also branched out to not only advertising inside buses but also outside – by way of branding. He counts several high profile clients including Safaricom, Broadways, Ebro TV, KCA, Huawei and YuMobile. A true entrepreneur has a nose for opportunity. From his dealings with proprietors of the Nairobi buses, Mutahi had learnt that one could mint a pretty penny in the Matatu business. Using his savings and with the help of a local bank, he purchased two buses. They ply the Kikuyu, Kawangware, Utawala and Airport routes.
“I’m not done yet. I really want to venture into billboards, and in a very big way,” says Mutahi, who is only 24. At his advertising company – he directly employs four people, three in the sales department and one manager. The sales people are former students at MKU, while the bus manager, John Moguche, is a BBM student. “I want to reiterate that if I didn’t encounter the lecturer who tutored me at Diploma level, I would not be where I am today. I will be eternally grateful to Mount Kenya University. By extrapolation, choosing to study at MKU has been the best decision I have made in my life so far.”
Last November, Mutahi participated in the Sijoitus Investment Forum 2014 held in Helsinki, Finland. Mutahi was one of only seven Kenyans who showcased the country’s investment potential in real estate, agriculture and transport, among other sectors.