You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow a

Side Hustle from Passion Project to Profitable Business.

And I'm your host, Nakela Matthews. So let's get started.

Hey guys, welcome back to the show.

Today's guest is Kalechi Anya Debeu.

Kalechi is the founder of Zuva, an online community and marketplace

for African-inspired fashion. Zuva helps emerging African fashion brands, increased revenue, scale operation, and

streamline their process with their easy to use online platform for

social selling and personal shopping. The mission of Suva is to give African fashion labels the tools they need to

transform their brands and bring authentic African-inspired fashion to the mainstream. And in 2016, Kalechi was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for retail and e-commerce.

On this episode, you'll learn how she got the idea and started Zuva with $500 and now in 2016 is expected to earn 2 million in sales.

So welcome to the show Kalechi.

Let's get right into it.

Awesome, thank you.

It's so great to have you.

I, you know, in the pre-chat, talked about how I've been meaning to reach out to you

since I saw you at the Blavity Empower Her conference.

So so glad we're finally getting to chat.

Cool, yeah, let's do it. Great. So let's talk a little bit about your upbringing because I know that

had to influence the entrepreneur you are today.

So what was your childhood like?

And what do you think influenced your entrepreneurial drive?

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