Founder Fridays : Katibu

Business software is supposed to make work easier. But for Mbatia Muniu, experience in software development showed him that even when companies have systems designed to handle their operations, employees can still end up doing tasks manually because the technology is too complicated to use.

That problem became part of the thinking behind Katibu, an enterprise software platform Mbatia and his co-founders are building to bring different business functions together and make everyday operations easier to manage.

The idea began with a client who approached the team to develop an application from scratch. At the time, Mbatia and his partners were still working for other companies, but the project opened their eyes to the possibility of building a product they could develop, maintain and offer to other businesses.

Instead of continuing to create solutions for individual clients and moving on once the work was complete, they began thinking about how to build something that could grow beyond a single project.

“Why would we not be the ones having a product that is being presold by other people?” Mbatia says.

That question helped set the direction for Katibu.

Building a Product Around Business Needs

Mbatia's experience working with startups helped shape his approach to building the company. He wanted to create a business that could maintain an ongoing relationship with its customers, improve its software over time and respond to problems that emerged after implementation.

Katibu has a main platform with different modules that businesses can use depending on their requirements. Some customers need only one function, while others want several business operations managed through the same system.

The team can also develop additional features when a customer needs something that the existing platform does not provide. Those features can be enabled for the businesses that require them without making them compulsory for everyone else.

This approach has helped the founders decide which parts of the platform to continue developing. When some customers expressed interest in using multiple modules, it gave the team a reason to retain features they might otherwise have dropped.

For Mbatia, building a software product is not simply about creating as many functions as possible. It is about understanding what businesses need and making sure the technology serves those needs.

Winning Customers Takes Time

Getting businesses to adopt a new software platform has been one of Katibu's biggest challenges.

Mbatia said the team initially relied on relationships with people who already knew their work. Referrals from existing clients helped introduce the product to other businesses, some of which became interested after seeing what the system could do.

But attracting customers and retaining them proved to be two different challenges.

The team experimented with free trials, giving businesses time to test the product before moving to a paid version. Some customers would try the system but leave when the trial ended and payment became necessary.

That experience forced the founders to reconsider how they approached growth.

Rather than concentrating only on attracting more users, they began paying closer attention to the businesses that continued using the platform and the reasons they found value in it.

Mbatia said this helped the team better understand which businesses to target and how to develop the product without expanding too quickly.

For a small software company competing against established providers, building trust remains central to the business. The founders continue to rely on customer relationships, referrals and the reputation they build through their work.

Making AI Useful in Everyday Business

Mbatia began exploring how software could simplify business operations before AI became a central part of the technology conversation.

When the team started working on Katibu in 2023, he was interested in how technology could capture the steps involved in running a business and make those processes easier for employees to complete.

He had seen situations where companies received software with features intended to improve their operations but continued using manual methods because employees found the systems difficult to navigate.

For him, the opportunity was to make the technology work in a way that felt more natural to the people using it.

AI is expected to play a larger role in that effort, particularly in automating routine business activities and helping companies track what is happening across their operations.

The team is also developing a separate analytical concept called Business Unified Intelligence, or BUY. The idea is to bring data from different systems together and help businesses understand what the information means and what it could indicate about future performance.

The project remains in development, with the team exploring how AI and analytical methods can support business decisions.

Mbatia sees the practical application of AI in helping businesses operate more efficiently, instead of adding technology that creates more work for employees.

Building for Businesses With Unreliable Internet

Connectivity is another issue the team wants to address as Katibu develops.

The platform currently operates fully online, but Mbatia said the team is exploring offline desktop and mobile applications that would allow businesses to continue working when internet access is unavailable.

The proposed system would store information locally and synchronise it when connectivity returns. This could allow businesses to record transactions and continue certain activities without depending on a constant internet connection.

The work is still in development, but Mbatia believes it could help make the platform more practical for businesses dealing with interruptions to their internet service.

For the team, the challenge is to ensure that companies can continue with their daily operations without being forced to stop whenever connectivity fails.

Taking Katibu Beyond Kenya

Katibu's initial expansion plans focused on East Africa, but the team has also received enquiries from businesses in the Middle East.

Mbatia said the founders are exploring those opportunities while considering what it would take to establish the business in new markets.

One lesson from the company's experience in Tanzania is that software cannot always be deployed in exactly the same way across different countries. Businesses operate under different rules and procedures, and the platform has had to accommodate some of those differences.

The team has worked with people on the ground to help it serve customers in markets where local knowledge and technical support are important.

Mbatia recognises that expanding into new countries will require more than finding customers. The company will need to understand local business practices, make the necessary adjustments to its software and build relationships that can support its operations.

The founders are also considering bringing additional expertise onto the board to help strengthen the business and support its expansion plans.

For now, Katibu remains a small, founder-led operation. Mbatia and his partners have bootstrapped the business, using their own resources while continuing to build the product and establish a customer base.

Learning to Run a Business, Not Just Build Software

Moving from software engineering into entrepreneurship has required Mbatia to learn skills beyond product development.

He said interacting with customers has exposed him to the practical realities of running businesses, including procurement processes, customer acquisition and the differences between how a developer imagines a system will work and how employees actually use it.

Those experiences have influenced how he approaches product development. Understanding a customer's requirements now involves more than identifying a technical problem and writing software to solve it. It also means learning how the business operates and where the proposed solution fits into its existing processes.

The experience has reinforced the importance of listening to customers and being willing to adjust the product when their feedback reveals something the team had not considered.

As Katibu works to establish itself in the enterprise software market, Mbatia is focused on strengthening the platform, retaining customers and preparing the business for growth.

Advice for Entrepreneurs Building a Business

For Mbatia, one of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is continuing to work towards a goal when progress is slow.

He believes founders need to trust the value of what they are building while remaining realistic about the difficulties involved in turning an idea into a sustainable business.

“Look forward to those small wins, even if they are small,” he says.

His advice is to keep showing up and translating intentions into action. The market will not necessarily come looking for a new business, and founders have to keep working to demonstrate why their products deserve attention.

For Mbatia and his co-founders, that means continuing to improve Katibu, learning from the customers who use it and building the relationships needed to take the company further.

The ambition is to make business software easier to use while giving companies access to tools that help them manage their operations. The next stage will depend on how well the team can turn that ambition into a product businesses are willing to adopt, pay for and continue using.