Meet Nohemie Mawaka | Serial Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nohemie Mawaka and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nohemie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Observe your environment, why are people encountering this challenge and what are they doing to resolve it? Or not. What is the problem I’m trying to solve? Who will pay for my solution? Who will be impacted?

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’m tradiitonally in the space of health and technology, honing in on using resources from the west to innovate healthcare in Sub Saharan Africa, starting with my native country of Congo. At the moment I am launching my health app and locally in Congo I’m opening pharmacies. My app: www.aluuka.com aims to allow westerners to pay for their loved ones medical Prescription in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

My second business is organic Congolese honey, sold here in California: www.lubembo.co. We buy honey in Congo from female farmers at an equitable market price, cutting our fair trade fees. My dad ships to me in San Diego, we sell it here to retailers and consumers.

I began my journey as an entrepreneur at the age of 15. Traditionally speaking entrepreneur is synonym for Risk Taker. It’s definitely easy, you have to built grits around risk tolerance and failure. The latter you master it, by strategizing on your business idea, seeing if its viable, launching it at the cheapest possible cost and see its success. That ability to disconnect yourself from your outcome/achievement I think is key.

The world to know about me: If I can do it, so can you. I’m originally from Kinshasa, Congo (DRC), immigrated Canada at 8 and now I’m 30. I truly believe being an immigrant gives you an opposing lense/outlook on life on two very different worlds. One shows you extreme poverty, so when you leave your home country you have this drive and ambition that’s unexplainable. The other give you an endless amount of opportunity if you’re strategic and position yourself well. I’m blessed.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
1. Morning hike to see sun rise 2. cook them breakfast (I’m pretty good in the kitchen)
3. grab coffee at the nearest coffeeshop
4. coworking space to get some goals done
5. Hit the beach to grab drinks then read a book
6. Rest a bit at home
7. go out to eat at a nice restaurant

San Diego fun spots: Seaport, OB beach area for drinks, Cornado for family-style outtings

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Definitely my parents, they’re my biggest cheerleaders and have fostered an environment for me to thrive as an entrepreneur even when they don’t really get my end goal, and when they don’t, they help me let out my thought process which for me is important. My go to books: Shoe Dawg (phil knight), learn startup (Eric Ries), Atomic Habits (James Clear), The Alchemist (Paulo Coehlo) – I read these books once every year.

Website: https://lubembo.co/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lubembo.co/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noh%C3%A9mie-mawaka/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzIeK81FUwGK0i_sqCYbyQQ