Denis Opudo
There are renown people globally who have thrived in a hardship environment. They have changed the hardship they are into solutions that have helped a larger number of people. For instance, Aisha Pandor had a problem of getting somebody to clean her parents’ home. This is what has made her remain in the mouth of many people. The situation made her develop much interest in the industry. She latter own together with her husband Alen Ribic founded SweepSouth startup. The situation placed her amongst the few female tech CEOs with a black origin.
Pandor is a holder of Ph.D. in Human Genetics who decided to drop her job as a scientist to fulfill her desire of becoming an entrepreneur. Furthermore, she has a postgraduate degree in Business administration. She was working with various companies such as Accenture as a consultant. She used her rank to help them come up with solutions to various challenges affecting them. She decided to resign after realizing that she was able to do more in the capacity of an entrepreneur rather than as an employee.
According to her, she got into management with an aim of learning more about the world of business. Her role at Accenture was a success as she advised customers on Human Resource management, supply chain management and digital strategy in the mining and telecommunication company. However, after a period of two years, she opted to come up with SweepSouth in 2014. The startup is operational in Pretoria, Cape Town, Joburg, and Durban towns of South Africa.
The move was to help solve the problem between underemployed and unemployed among experienced local workers. Statistics show that among 1 million South African registered domestic workers, 30% of them are unemployed. Pandor says that their main target is to maintain good working standards among their home cleaners. They do this by personally vetting the workers who are later on rated by the customers. The startup aims at expanding into various African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya in future. She channels most of the company’s success to the role played by her husband who is a software developer.
