“You want believers greater than résumés”: Day 1-1000 of Pharmarun

I first met Teniola Adedeji, CEO and co-founder of Pharmarun, at a well being tech panel discussing the early days of launching Pharmarun. She instructed the viewers that Pharmarun began with one easy commentary: no single pharmacy ever had every thing a affected person wanted. “Folks would wait, substitute, or ship kin throughout cities simply to seek out medication,” she says. That ache level turned the seed of a platform now connecting 1,000 pharmacies and serving over 115,000 Nigerians.

Adedeji is my visitor on immediately’s version of Day 1–1000. She tells TechCabal how Pharmarun grew from a WhatsApp lifeline throughout COVID to a nationwide healthcare platform.

That is the story of Pharmarun as instructed to TechCabal. 

Day 0: A reputation earlier than its time

I’ve at all times identified I needed to run a pharmacy enterprise. What I didn’t know was how stressed I’d really feel contained in the 4 partitions of a conventional group pharmacy. In 2020, I scribbled a reputation—Pharmarun—registered it, then tucked it away. I didn’t have a enterprise but, only a conviction that sooner or later I’d reimagine how folks in Nigeria accessed medication.

At the moment, I had a half-formed dream: one thing like Jumia, however for pharmacies. It wasn’t grounded in problem-solving but. It was merely the imaginative and prescient of a distinct strategy to follow pharmacy.

The issue revealed itself throughout COVID. Pharmacies not often had all of the drugs sufferers wanted. Prospects begged for substitutions, waited days for inventory to reach, or despatched kin throughout cities and villages with procuring lists that felt like lifelines.

As a result of I used to be in pharmacy networks, I knew the place to seek out even probably the most elusive gadgets. On WhatsApp, pals would message me: “My dad’s pharmacy is closed. He wants this drug urgently. Are you able to assist?” I may. And shortly it wasn’t only one or two folks. It was 20. Then 50.

That WhatsApp “facet service” turned the proof level: this wasn’t only a favor. It was an issue value fixing.

Day 1: Day One with Lola

By late 2021, I started to assume significantly about scale. My greatest buddy, Lola, was a product supervisor at MAX, the logistics startup. I’d choose her mind endlessly: How can we check this? Can we construct a easy web site? How do we all know if there’s demand?

At first, I hesitated to ask her to hitch me—her profession was flourishing, and I didn’t need to drag her into uncertainty. However ultimately, it was apparent: we did every thing else collectively; why not this?

In 2022, Lola turned my co-founder. That was Day One.

We launched a Wix web site, opened social media pages, and waited. The response was fast. Strangers—not simply pals of pals—had been asking us to supply their drugs. The issue was actual, and other people had been able to pay for the answer.

The primary month was chaotic. Most orders nonetheless got here by way of WhatsApp, and Lola and I did the legwork ourselves. I’d sprint out of the pharmacy to select up meds, whereas she juggled logistics and buyer updates. We weren’t simply operating a startup; we had been supply drivers, customer support reps, and pharmacists rolled into one. I bear in mind pondering: If this feels this tough now, perhaps we’re onto one thing actual.

Day 50: First pitch deck

We constructed our first deck which was very messy. We utilized for a fund run by Eloho and Odun. We didn’t perceive valuations, downside statements, or what a VC needed to see. However that first interview compelled us to articulate what Pharmarun could possibly be. It was the primary time I finished calling it “a facet challenge” and began calling it an organization.

By the hundredth day, we had inched past family and friends. A medical insurance firm signed us to ship treatment to their purchasers. I nonetheless bear in mind the joys of our first bulk order — bagging medicines late into the evening, personally dropping them off to see clients’ reactions.

We weren’t simply fixing an issue. We had been turning into infrastructure.

Day 200: Scrappy tech, actual income 

We automated with no-code instruments. A chatbot collected requests. We constructed a primary portal so orders may move extra easily. And we hustled: actually choosing up medicines from pharmacies ourselves, hand-delivering them, watching the faces of consumers gentle up.

Our first hires mirrored the grind. An operations lead with pharmacy expertise. A development hustler who may knock on the doorways of medical insurance firms. The B2B route made sense—insurers wanted dependable achievement companions. Quickly, we signed our first company contracts.

That interval was a blur of adrenaline and exhaustion. From a handful of pharmacies in Lagos, we grew to dozens throughout the state. By the tip of 2023, Pharmarun had a community of lots of, stretching towards each nook of Nigeria.

Progress got here quick and with it, pressure. Demand was surging, however funding was skinny. We had been operating out of cash, operating on grit. In the course of that storm, we entered Pitch2Win on a whim. The prize was solely $10,000—not precisely what you consider once you’re watching payroll and growth. However in opposition to all odds, we received. In a corridor stuffed with fintechs, the scrappy health-tech startup took the crown. That validation was euphoric. It proved we weren’t delusional. The ripple impact was actual: extra traction, publicity, and eventual funding. That win pulled us again from the brink.

In hindsight

Trying again, our first 100 days had been crammed with wasted vitality on product perfection. I obsessed over design periods, wireframes, the “proper” tech stack. In hindsight, I ought to have been laser-focused on customers—getting them in, studying from them, adapting quick.

The opposite large lesson: co-founders matter. I wasted time trying to find a “technical co-founder” as a result of that’s what the ecosystem mentioned I wanted. However the fact was in entrance of me all alongside: Lola. From Day 1, it ought to have been us collectively.

The following stage was chaos. We had been turning over employees each three months—some couldn’t adapt, others left after they realised the anomaly wasn’t for them. We had been scaling demand quicker than we may construct provide. Pharmacies in states we’d by no means set foot in had been immediately important companions.

However by way of all of it, one factor caught: you want believers. The early staff have to be adaptable, able to pivot day by day, generally hourly. Later, you want course of folks—those who can take what’s working and scale it reliably. Understanding when to swap one sort of teammate for an additional has been one among our hardest, most dear classes.

If I can summarise the entire classes I’ve discovered alongside the best way, it will be: For Day 1–100, you could obsess much less about excellent merchandise, extra about customers. For day 100–500, you want believers greater than résumés. Rent individuals who can thrive in chaos. For Day 500–1,000, construction catches up with you. Processes and process-driven folks turn out to be the distinction between momentum and burnout.

Day 1000-present day: A thousand pharmacies, 115,000 customers

At this time, Pharmarun works with greater than 1,000 pharmacies throughout all 36 states of Nigeria and contracts with 20 of Nigeria’s largest insurers — AXA, Hygeia, Clearline, Purple Care, THT, IHMS. Over 115,000 folks have used our platform. We serve customers immediately, companion with communities, and insurers.

We’ve grown far past that WhatsApp group. However the essence hasn’t modified: make entry to medication quick, straightforward, and dependable. We’ve matured right into a scaling firm. Now we’d like course of folks, operators who can replicate success at scale. We’re targeted on B2C development, aiming for our first million customers. And but, the toughest half hasn’t modified: convincing pharmacies we’re collaborators, not opponents.

The toughest half has been constructing belief with pharmacies. We’re not right here to compete with them; we’re right here to attach them. However in a fragmented sector—the place some chains are tech-enabled and others nonetheless report gross sales on paper—consolidation is painstaking. Coaching, onboarding, persuading: it’s probably the most laborious work we do.

What’s subsequent for us? Now, it’s about scale. Advertising and marketing in all places. One million customers in sight. And past that, constructing the infrastructure that may really rework entry to healthcare in Africa.

Would I do it once more? My pals tease me that my dream job is to be a housewife, enjoying with my youngsters whereas spending my husband’s cash. However the fact is, I’d do that another time. The validation from a buyer whose life we’ve touched outweighs the fatigue, the doubt, even the concern.

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