Big Ambitions After Success in Madagascar
Our journey in Madagascar has been nothing short of inspiring. Month after month, the demand grows, and our service continues to improve. This success sparked a natural idea: expand rapidly into other countries. We launched in Tanzania, and things began to move quickly there. With that momentum, we turned our eyes to Kenya.
We built the first version of the Kenya website, secured a dedicated Kenyan WhatsApp number, and even began hiring our first Booking Managers. Everything was in place. But then… we took a step back.
Why We Hit Pause on Kenya
While things looked promising, we realized something important: innovation in Madagascar hadn’t stopped. We were still discovering small (and sometimes not so small) improvements. Each improvement in Madagascar needed to be mirrored in Tanzania—and eventually in Kenya. But each time we “copy-paste” a solution, we also inherit the maintenance burden.
This raised a big question: wouldn’t it be smarter to perfect Madagascar first, stabilize the platform, and then expand? That way, future countries could benefit from a refined, stable version of our system—rather than needing updates weeks after launch.
Stability First, Then Scale
So we made a rational decision: let’s focus on improving Madagascar and Tanzania first. Once we have a proven, stable model—especially for the website—we’ll be able to roll it out much faster and with less effort in Kenya and beyond. It’s about avoiding unnecessary duplication and staying agile enough to innovate quickly when needed.
This pause isn’t a setback. It’s a strategic step toward scalability without losing flexibility. We’re laying the foundation for sustainable, fast expansion.
Recruitment Challenges and a New Approach
Beyond the websites, another area required attention: recruitment. While our Facebook Ads, Google Forms, and WhatsApp funnel work well in Madagascar, we’ve faced challenges with staff turnover and scaling the hiring process in Tanzania. We considered hiring a People Manager—but decided instead to solve the root of the problem.
In many developing countries, the right candidates are rare gems. Strong communication skills, customer orientation, independent thinking, and remote work readiness aren’t yet the norm. We needed a system to identify top talent reliably and efficiently—without spending hours screening every candidate manually.
ClassMarker: A Game-Changer for Hiring
That’s when we discovered ClassMarker. With this tool, we’ve started building powerful questionnaires to assess everything: language proficiency, tourism knowledge, mathematical thinking, and real-world booking scenarios. We no longer rely on CVs or endless chats—our system automatically sends quizzes to pre-qualified applicants via WhatsApp.
This reduces our time investment drastically while improving reliability. It’s a huge step forward: fast, automated, and scalable hiring across borders.
Giving Young Talent a Fair Chance
One of our team members in Madagascar shared something that stuck with us: she used to be rejected for jobs due to “lack of experience,” despite her talent. Today, she’s one of our best Booking Managers. That insight reminded us of a key value—we want to give young, capable people a real chance, even if they don’t have a long résumé.
By focusing on skill assessments through questionnaires, we can discover raw talent that would be filtered out in a traditional process. It's merit-based hiring at its best—and we believe it's the future, especially in emerging economies.
What This Means for Kenya
We’re not abandoning Kenya. Quite the opposite—we’re preparing to launch stronger than ever. With our recruitment innovation and platform improvements in place, we’ll be ready to assemble a top-tier team in Kenya at lightning speed.
When the time comes—and it won’t be long—we’ll be able to hit the ground running. Until then, we’re focusing on doing things right, so we can build something lasting.
Final Thoughts
Every improvement we make brings us closer to our mission: creating great jobs and excellent local services across Africa, Asia, and beyond. Our decision to pause in Kenya is driven by strategy, not hesitation. With our new recruitment system and our commitment to product stability, we’re getting ready to scale better, faster, and more impactfully.
Kenya, we’re coming soon—stronger than ever.
