09/09/2025
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world seemed to grind to a halt. Lockdowns, quarantines, and restricted movements became the new normal. But even as cities closed down, hospitals remained desperate for essential medical supplies. It was during this time that I noticed a glaring gap: unlike most products, medical devices and supplies were not easily accessible through e-commerce like Jumia, Kilimall - Affordable Online Shopping in Kenya, Jiji Kenya, etc.
For me, this was more than an observation โ it was a calling. The idea was simple but powerful: create an online platform where medical devices could be listed, suppliers could connect with buyers, and the healthcare supply chain could adapt to the new digital reality. However, I also understood that medical supplies were not like any other product. They are regulated, pricing structures were complex, and in markets like Kenya, high-value purchases could not easily be made through mobile money such as Safaricom PLC's MPESA or card payments.
To address this, I envisioned not just an online shop, but an exhibition-style platform. Suppliers would create company profiles, list their products, and receive leads from interested buyers. Buyers could request product quotations directly, or even post โgeneral quotationsโ โ open inquiries visible to multiple suppliers. It was a lead-generation model tailored to the unique needs of the medical supply chain, starting in Kenya with a plan to roll it out across Africa.
The name DigimedExpo was born: Digital Medical Exposition.
1. The First Attempt (2021โ2022)
In July 2021, I began engaging IT firms to bring this vision to life. The first company I contracted quoted KES 159,000 (excluding hosting and domain costs). It was my first direct interaction with a software development firm, and I was optimistic. I attended meetings with their team, eager to see my idea materialise.
Unfortunately, things went downhill quickly. Instead of building a custom solution, the developers purchased a generic WordPress theme from ThemeForest and tried to customise it. It was not what I had envisioned. As delays piled up, they convinced me to let them rebuild the system from scratch, but this time with a new quote of KES 350,000. Despite my frustration, I gave them another chance, only to face more broken promises. When I demanded accountability, they offered me just a partial refund. After pressure โ including a demand letter โ I only recovered KES 47,000 out of the KES 100,000 I had paid.
Determined to move forward, I turned to a second company that had quoted slightly higher. We agreed on KES 185,000, with KES 100,000 upfront and the rest upon completion. The contract was clear: delivery within 30 working days, starting February 21, 2022. The deadline, March 21, 2022, came and went with no working system. After countless excuses, what I eventually received on July 1, 2022 was only an MVP โ barely functional but enough to begin onboarding suppliers.
At the same time, I had taken a bold step: I rented office space at Lunga Lunga Square, paying KES 286,665 for rent, deposit, legal fees, and six months of service charges starting May 1, 2022. I furnished the office, assembled a team of four employees, and prepared to launch. But as weeks dragged on with no functioning platform, my office sat idle. For two months, we had space, staff, and overheads โ but nothing to work with. It was a painful loss.
When the MVP finally came, my team began marketing in earnest. By October 2022, we had onboarded 14 companies, all on trial plans. We managed to generate only KES 500 โ from a single job advertisement. Worse, the site became unstable. The developer blamed hosting issues, forcing me to purchase servers from DigitalOcean and later Cloud Clusters. But these only hosted the frontend; the backend remained on the developerโs unpaid servers. Each time their servers were suspended, DigimedExpo went offline. Finally, one day, their servers were deleted โ and with them, DigimedExpo Version 1 was lost forever.
2. The Collapse and Rethink (2022โ2023)
By the end of 2022, the six months of rent I had paid had run out. With stipends to cover for my four employees, plus utilities like internet and water, the costs were unbearable. I had to make a painful decision: I asked my team to step aside and began operating alone. By March 2023, I closed the office altogether to rethink my strategy.
I pursued legal action in the small claims court. I was awarded KES 250,000, to be paid in installments. The developer complied in bits and pieces, but before finishing the payments, they lured me again with a promise: they would redevelop DigimedExpo at no extra cost. I agreed, but once again, months were wasted. By December 2023, frustrated, I told them to delete the code repository.
3. The Turning Point (2023โ2024)
At that point, I realized the hard truth: I was the one carrying the brunt of these failures, and unless I took control, DigimedExpo would never see the light of day. In December 2023, I began learning software development myself. I went to Udemy and purchased a course. I complemented the course with YouTube tutorials. I chose the MERN stack โ MongoDB, Express, React, and Node.js โ after being introduced to it during the redevelopment attempts.
From January 2024, I immersed myself in both coding and learning. Day after day, month after month, I built my skills while slowly piecing together DigimedExpo from scratch. There are days I woke up at 4:00 am in and went to bed at 10:00 pm with only breaks for meals. Many days passed without me stepping out of my house. It wasnโt easy, but I was driven by the conviction that no one understood this vision better than I did.
For 21 months, I learned and built simultaneously. And finally, in September 2025, this month, DigimedExpo has been reborn โ bigger, stronger, and more robust than ever.
4. The New DigimedExpo (2025 and Beyond)
Today, DigimedExpo is no longer a small Kenyan-focused experiment. It is a global digital marketplace and a complete ecosystem for the medical supply chain. It now has dedicated modules for:
- Manufacturers
- Distributors
- Biomedical Engineers
- Logistics Companies
- Buyers
On DigimedExpo, a buyer in one country can identify a product, negotiate with the seller, engage a shipping company, and even hire a biomedical engineer โ all within the same platform.
Suppliers can now respond to RFQs (Requests for Quotations), while buyers can post inquiries and receive competitive bids. The platform also supports job postings and applications, making it not just a marketplace, but a hub for talent and opportunities in the medical device sector.
5. A Journey of Struggle and Determination
Looking back, the journey of DigimedExpo is one of resilience against all odds. I lost over one million Kenya Shilling in rent, salaries, legal fees, and failed contracts. I faced betrayal from developers, financial strain from idle offices, and countless moments when it seemed easier to quit. But instead of giving up, I chose to learn, to build, and to take ownership of my vision.
What started as an idea during the dark days of COVID-19 is now bound to become a global platform โ proof that determination, even in the face of repeated failure, can give birth to something transformative.
This is the story of DigimedExpo. This is my story. Stay tuned for more insights. And please, let's create awareness about it since that is the most honourable way to support us.
