Sit Down with Ongair CEO and Co-Founder Trevor Kimenye

Ongair has been making waves as one of the few platforms leveraging WhatsApp and other instant messaging platforms for customer service and support. I sat down with CEO and Co-Founder Trevor Kimenye to get a sense of what the company has achieved so far and what plans they have for the future.

1.What inspired you to start Ongair?

It all started off on Valentines 2014 on a client project. They wanted a more personalized way of saying thank you instead of SMS and someone suggested WhatsApp, which we were all using then. We rolled it out on a fundraising campaign for the client where we sent a rose via WhatsApp to everyone who donated via MPESA. It was a huge success and then we were asked if it could work for customer service. We built the dashboard and the rest is history.

2.What do you love about your job?

I love waking up everyday to a new challenge. There’s always some new development to keep you on your toes. Its never a dull day and you feel a sense of accomplishment when customers use the product.

3.What are the biggest challenges Ongair has/is facing?

The biggest challenge we face has to do with running a global company from Nairobi. Our product is used 24/7 so we need to be up early to support our Asian clients and up late to support our South American clients. In addition to that, there’s the challenge of collecting revenue. We charge in dollars and finding a payment provider that is affordable and settles to local accounts is a challenge. Many of our preferred providers (e.g Stripe.com) don’t operate in Africa.

4.Ongair seems to be predominantly leaning towards the international market, why is that?

Our local market simply wasn’t big enough for us. In addition, there was a lot of demand from overseas. At a key point of our expansion, India was the most popular region for the search terms “WhatsApp for customer service” in Google.

5.What do you think makes you stand out from your competition?

First and foremost is our team. My co-founder and I have assembled a great collection of creatives and engineers who have been working together for over four years in the marketing and communication space as well as mobile technology. Our vision is also quite broad – to be an aggregator of mobile based instant messaging platforms – not just WhatsApp. We are executing faster and developing key partnerships such as with Zendesk, further raising the barrier of entry.

6.Congratulations on closing seed funding. What advice can you give to Kenyan startup founders as far as attracting investment is concerned?

Assuming you’ve got a great product, focus on building a good network. Your network is your net worth. Most of our investors were people who we knew directly or were introduced to by other investors. Second, look for smart capital. Investment is more than about money. Look for people who can add value to your team. We had to turn down a few offers that we felt weren’t right for us. Finally, finding an investor is a bit like dating. You have to put your best foot forward but remember that it’s a two way street. Investors are also looking for viable ventures.

7.What in your opinion is the future of OTT apps/services especially in Kenya, and what role do you see Ongair playing?

OTT apps/services are now mainstream and will continue to increase with the increase in Internet penetration and smartphone adoption. We’d like to see more organizations especially startups, take advantage of our platform as a unified way to reach their customers via OTT services.