Life Update…
Long time no write….
The last time I sat pen to paper to write my thoughts was in February. Time has moved so fast, we’re in June already. What have I been up to these three months? Navigating entrepreneurship.
In March, a startup idea: Visibl, making the informal sector visible.
In Ghana, the informal sector is the largest part of the workforce, yet it contributes the least to the GDP. Why? Two things. Maybe there’s no insight into what they do financially, so the real value of their businesses can’t be calculated. Or maybe they just make less?
Visibl was meant to give them a seamless way to record their transactions and the health of their business: WhatsApp, OCR, voice, anything convenient and easy to adopt for this market’s traders. The plan was to go full time once April was done. But April had other plans for me.
In April I joined a team, Bloom then, now Omaya. It’s taught me a lot, and still is. Omaya Care supports mothers after birth, while they’re at home recovering, adapting, transitioning, and celebrating a newborn all at once. In Ghana, about 50% of mothers screen positive for postpartum depression.
There are actually a few stages after birth. First, the baby blues. It affects up to 75 to 85% of women and lasts about 6 to 8 weeks: mood swings, crying for no reason, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed. This doesn’t need medical treatment, just enough support and care so she knows she’s not alone in her new journey. Usually that comes from family. Hardly ever from the medical institutions. But if she doesn’t get it in those early weeks, it can turn into postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression affects roughly one in seven women and can last up to a year: irritability, anger, overwhelming fatigue, difficulty bonding with the baby, loss of appetite that affects breast milk, feelings of worthlessness. At this stage she needs a professional, an OBGYN, a psychologist, or a pediatrician, depending on the issue.
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And if it gets worse, or sometimes right in those first weeks, there’s postpartum psychosis. One in a thousand women. Agitation, confusion, manic states, hallucinations, delusions, even the urge to harm the baby. This needs immediate medical attention.
It’s on this basis that Omaya Care was built. We want to screen mothers in their homes from the moment they’re discharged, and get them help before it becomes a crisis.
Yeah, you can tell I’m obsessed with this problem, going deeper and deeper as the days go by. My biggest lesson, one I’m still taking in, is EXECUTION.
First, a solution that delivers the exact value, that meets the needs and the regulations, because health is a sensitive area. Can I call this product-problem fit? Then the market, how you make money, because after all it’s a business. But I believe that if it solves a real problem, this part shouldn’t be too hard, right?
There are so many angles and i’m learning to take things one step at a time instead of diving into everything at once. And speed matters too: look from all angles and at least one will come through. I’m still on this ship. Fortunately my team is amazing, and I believe that together we can. That’s my prayer. So help us God!
Another thing on my mind is how much AI chatbots, LLMs, have affected me these past months. It really is a bang in the world. It’s diluted the originality of things, and you have to be intentional now to stay original, genuine, you. Everywhere you go, LinkedIn, Twitter, even personal chats, the articles, the stories, the replies, all of it passed through an LLM before it’s posted. Even the way people talk. I’m not saying it’s bad, I do it too. But I’m learning to be more intentional about just being me.
I’d end here with a “talk to you soon” line.
If you made it this far, kindly leave a comment, a like, your thoughts, something.
Wait, one more thing: the need to always look good on the outside. I get that exposure is good. I learned a few months ago that it actually accounts for 70% of a business’s success. But heck, putting myself out there is something I really have to work on. I want to learn not to perform for people, just to be myself, comfortably, genuinely, effortlessly. The year is almost half over and the reflections are starting to hit, hard.
Anyway, a big thank you to my father, Jehovah Jireh, for bringing me this far and looking after me. Cheers to getting better and better each passing day!
