At a time when most startup success tales deal with hypergrowth, burn charges and Silicon Valley playbooks, a brand new e-book is taking a extra grounded strategy. Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Recreation Plans brings collectively the tales of twelve founders who constructed enduring companies by fixing issues others neglected.
Amongst them is André de Moist, founder and CEO of Flood, and the one African founder featured within the e-book – a distinction that displays each his private journey and the relevance of the issues he has spent twenty years making an attempt to unravel.
De Moist’s chapter doesn’t start with Flood. It begins with failure.
After dropping out of medical college to begin his first enterprise, he constructed and offered an organization by 27 solely to lose every little thing a 12 months later. That have, he writes, reshaped how he thinks about threat, resilience and execution: “Expertise gave me the flexibility to create one thing from nothing, and to do it at scale,” he displays.
That mindset led to PriceCheck, which grew from a South African startup right into a platform utilized by greater than 5 million individuals, successful App of the Yr internationally in 2013. It later took him to iflix, the place he helped scale the streaming platform throughout eight rising markets.
But it surely was what he noticed repeatedly – throughout telcos, banks and retailers – that in the end led to Flood.
Whereas shoppers throughout Africa, Asia and different rising markets quickly moved on-line, most native retail didn’t. In reality, round 95% of retail exercise nonetheless occurs offline, largely as a result of small retailers lack the instruments, budgets or abilities to digitise – and since the underlying infrastructure wanted to assist digital commerce stays underdeveloped in lots of markets. From fragmented logistics networks to inconsistent last-mile supply, getting merchandise to prospects will be tough, unreliable or just not doable at scale. On this context, the problem just isn’t solely about service provider readiness, but in addition concerning the broader ecosystem required to allow trendy retail. On the similar time, banks and telcos sat with huge buyer bases, however restricted methods to create every day engagement or new income past their core companies.
Flood was constructed to sit down exactly in that hole.
Reasonably than launching one more shopper super-app, Flood took a unique strategy: Enabling banks and telcos to grow to be the platforms. Its SuperApp-as-a-Service mannequin permits giant establishments to embed native commerce, loyalty and discovery straight into their current apps – no new downloads, no new behaviour required. The outcomes have been telling. In a single early market, Flood is now used every day by 28% of the inhabitants, turning apps that have been beforehand opened a couple of occasions a month into platforms used virtually every single day.
De Moist’s chapter additionally revisits one among Flood’s defining moments: The 2020 lockdowns. As hundreds of small companies struggled to outlive, Flood onboarded 8,000 retailers and launched 360 service provider apps in simply three months, giving casual and small retailers rapid digital visibility inside apps individuals already trusted.
Right this moment, Flood has processed over $400 million in GMV throughout 14 million transactions in six nations, quietly powering native commerce ecosystems behind the scenes – not by changing casual commerce, however by making it seen and accessible in a digital world.
What makes De Moist’s contribution stand out in Founders in Focus is its refusal to glamourise entrepreneurship. As a substitute, it provides a sensible, emerging-market view of what it really takes to construct at scale – the place distribution issues greater than innovation, execution issues greater than technique, and success is measured by impression, not hype.
The e-book options founders from sectors spanning development, healthcare, journey, media and shopper items, however De Moist’s chapter is the one one rooted in Africa’s casual and offline economies: A reminder that a number of the most significant innovation is occurring removed from conventional tech centres.
Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Recreation Plans is now obtainable internationally on Amazon as of three February 2026. The Kindle version is out there instantly for simply $0.99: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Focus-Unstoppable-Entrepreneurs-Their-ebook/dp/B0GGTT6T37/
For extra info on Flood, go to www.flood.finance
Concerning the writer
Founders in Focus: Unstoppable Entrepreneurs & Their Recreation Plans is written by TJ Avazona, a bestselling writer CEO of Avazona Ltd, a best-selling writer, and a number one voice in PR, branding and digital technique. He has helped over 1,000 manufacturers construct world visibility, securing hundreds of options in top-tier shops together with Forbes, Entrepreneur, Vogue, IBTimes and VCPost. Founders in Focus brings collectively voices from a number of industries and geographies, providing a grounded have a look at what sustainable entrepreneurship actually appears to be like like in apply.
Different founders featured within the e-book embrace:
- Warren O’Shea, founding father of O’Shea Builders LLC, whose craftsmanship and customer-first philosophy have made him one among Maine’s prime remodelers.
- J. Fred Huther, founding father of COLLECTIVE SME, reworking model experiences throughout sports activities, media and leisure.
- Dr. Sara Spowart, founding father of Compassion-Primarily based Happiness, serving to purchasers heal by means of mindfulness and compassion.
- Will Lukang, president of Kairos Elite Partnership, whose management methodology empowers world leaders.
- Joelle Machia and Ryan Slough, co-founders of Wanderers Compass, a worldwide journey model inspiring significant exploration.
- Dr. Carla Barry, founding father of Embracing Hope Relationship Teaching, mixing military-honed empathy with relationship transformation.
- Paul Okay. Nutall, CEO of 2nd Probability TV Reveals & Manufacturing, utilizing media to champion justice and redemption.
- Cathi Provider, founding father of Purely Bella Skincare, redefining clear magnificence and confidence by means of science-backed skincare.
- Jessica Horne, founding father of Obbligato Music, constructing a worldwide neighborhood the place music turns into a device for connection and pleasure.
- Barry Cervantes, founding father of Camelot Life Coach, serving to people align private success with religious significance.
