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Fortnightly

Friday Shot

ISSUE #210 18 SEPT 2026

A WOW EXPERIENCE

Look at it like it's a double rainbow A straitjacket, a lfying table and a double rainbow. Harris III on why the information age is over — and why wonder is built, not stumbled upon.

MEMBER STORIES · NEW

LEARNING EVENT - ALN

MYEO

Abubakar Aidarus: the grid he built himself

Succession planning, done early

The Tasting Society, Golf, Padel & Garba

PLUS EVEN MORE INSIDE →

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE PARTNERS

WOW VENUES →

WOW DEALS →

E O K E N YA · E V E N T S C A L E N DA R

Upcoming Events, September to January.

Sep 2026 — Jan 2027

Ten curated sessions across strategy, storytelling, succession and human performance. Next up: Sunny Bindra on Demystifying Strategy, 24 September.

8:30AM – 5:00PM

25 Sep

LEARNING

MYEO · PADEL

Demystifying Strategy

Padel Tournament

Sunny Bindra · Strategy advisor Cutting through the jargon to understand strategy far more deeply.

Trademark Hotel

30 Sep – 4 Oct

Everyone's favourite! Easy to pick up, hard to stop — short matches and rotating partners.

Courts TBC

1:30PM – 3:00PM

2 Oct

MYEO · GARBA

MYEO · WHISKY

Garba Workshop

Whisky Tasting

All levels · KES 5,000 Five days of coaching across 12 Garba styles. Spouses and kids welcome. Brahma Sabha, 3rd Parklands

6 Oct

Guided flight · La Villa Five pours walked through region by region — an unhurried evening.

La Villa, Kitisuru

23 Oct MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

EO Accelerator — Strategy

Ready. Set. EO!

Venue TBC

30 Oct

9:00AM – 1:00PM

Member Kickstart An evening welcoming our newest members.

Venue TBC

Postponed

LEARNING

Succession Planning

The Formula One of Performance

In partnership with ALN The conversation every entrepreneur avoids — ownership, leadership, legacy. ALN House

5 Dec

8:00AM – 8:00PM

ACCELERATOR · PILLAR 2 OF 4

EO Accelerator Programme Turning strategic thinking into a written, actionable plan for growth.

Brilliant Beyond Belief Marginal gains, energy and recovery.

New date TBC

22 Jan

4:30PM – 10:00PM

GSEA & CHAPTER SOCIAL

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

Student Awards & Holiday Social

Ready. Set. EO!

Pitching for a place on the global GSEA stage.

Venue TBC

6:00PM – ONWARDS

★ NEXT UP

GSEA / MYEO

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT

24 Sep

ACCELERATOR

S PT

LEARNING

10 EVENTS

Member Kickstart An evening for new EO Kenya members.

Venue TBC

Dates, timings and venues may shift. Registration links go live four weeks before each event — watch the fortnightly newsletter or write to manager@eokenya.org.

CHAPTER EVENTS · LEARNING EVENT

Start with Wow Harris III on magic, storytelling, and why the age of information is over. Two of us buckled him into the straitjacket. I took one side, Gaurav Dhanani took the other, and we pulled the straps the way you check a rental car before you sign for it — properly, looking for the gap. There wasn't one. The canvas was stiff, the leather was stiff, and the man was genuinely tied up. He was out of it in under a minute. It would be easy to write up the evening as a list of things Harris III did to us, because he did a lot of them. But the tricks weren't the point, and by about twenty minutes in most of the room had worked that out. The point was the story that wrapped around each one. THE ARGUMENT

Harris III, illusionist and storyteller, mid-performance at the Learning Event.

Wow before how Harris's argument is a direct challenge to something most of us have absorbed without engineer the how. He spent years doing exactly that and stayed stuck. Nothing shifted until he

“Start with wow, not with how.”

stopped starting with why and started with wow.

HARRIS III

questioning it. We have all been told to start with why — find your purpose, then reverse-

The business case behind it is sharper than it sounds. The old economy was built on information and knowledge. The new one is built on wisdom and wonder. As we move from the information age into an imagination age, most organisations are equipped for the wrong one — full of people trained to analyse, short of people able to imagine. For a room of entrepreneurs sitting in the

SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENING

middle of an AI shift that is making information itself close to free, that landed.

Checking for the gap. There wasn't one.

EO Kenya - Flagship Event

CONTINUED OVERLEAF →

MEMBER STORIES

The Grid He Built Himself Abubakar Aidarus lost his mother at two, won the scholarship that changed his trajectory, and built a multi-milliondollar renewable energy company in one of the hardest markets on earth. He'll tell you the harder thing was learning to talk about it. GARISSA

A start most people don't come back from Abubakar was born in Garissa. He was two years old when his mother died, leaving his father with two small boys — Abubakar and a seven-month-old brother. Raising them alone was not going to work. Abubakar was sent to live with an uncle, and that decision quietly determined everything that followed: it put him in a classroom. He was good in that classroom. Good enough that the classroom kept opening more doors. S TA R E H E

The scholarship The biggest of those doors was Starehe Boys' Centre, where Abubakar won a four-year scholarship. Starehe gave him more than an education — the programme built in structured exposure to the working world, and one of those placements took him to Equity Bank. It was his first look inside a real business. From Starehe he went on to the University of Nairobi to read Electrical Engineering.

Abubakar Aidarus, founder and CEO, Solargen Technologies.

UNIVERSITY

The grinder years University students study. Abubakar studied and traded. Alongside a friend, he ran a stall in the Nairobi CBD buying and selling clothes and shoes — the kind of unglamorous, margin-thin hustle that teaches you more about cash flow than any lecture. He also enrolled in the Equity

“The entrepreneur was already there. He just hadn't found the thing yet.”

Leadership Programme, a paid internship he kept returning to between semesters. THIRD YEAR

The spark He found it in solar. In his third year, Abubakar started researching renewable energy seriously and posed as a client at Kenital Solar, an Italian-run outfit in Nairobi — this is how he learned how to design and quote for a client. Kenya's solar sector was in the middle of turning from novelty into industry, and he was standing right next to it. FOURTH YEAR

The failure nobody puts on a website He opened a shop in Garissa. It didn't work. He couldn't sustain it, and he closed it down.

“Most versions of this story skip that year. It's worth keeping, because what happened next only makes sense with it in.”

A technical tour.

G S E A K E N YA 2 0 2 6 / 2 7 · C A L L F O R N O M I N AT I O N S

GSEA is back. And we're looking for Kenya's next student entrepreneur.

Last year, GSEA Kenya brought together some of the country's most promising student entrepreneurs — young founders balancing lectures, assignments, and the very real work of building businesses.

Brian Ndung'u of EcoBana, GSE Kenya 2025/26 winner, with the EO Kenya team on ifnals day.

H O S T E D BY

N O M I N AT I O N S A R E O P E N

Send in your nomination

→

eonetwork.org/gsea/apply

W H AT H A P P E N E D L A S T Y E A R

W H Y I T M AT T E R S T O Y O U

WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Brian Ndung'u of EcoBana emerged as the GSEA Kenya 2025/26 winner — and his journey hasn't stopped there. Qualifying through GSEA opened doors most student founders never reach that early.

GSEA is the one EO programme where a member's time converts directly into a young founder's trajectory. Judging, mentoring, or putting one name forward is a small ask with a disproportionate return.

A student — full or part time, at any recognised institution — who already runs a business. Not an idea, not a plan: revenue, customers, something operating while they study.

Around him stood a ifeld of ifnalists building in waste, agriculture, robotics and education — pitching to a panel of EO members, in front of a room of entrepreneurs who have all stood at that same starting line.

Every ifnalist arrives because someone told them the competition existed. Most of them hear it from an EO member. That is the whole mechanism — and it is the part we need you for.

The 2026 GSEA Kenya judging panel.

The 2025/26 ifnalists and judges after the ifnal pitch.

If you know one — in your team, your family, your supply chain, or your last hire's WhatsApp group — that is the nomination. Send us the name and we will take it from there.

Peter Kimani, Cobot Kids Kenya, on the ifnals stage.

B A C K T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F B U S I N E S S S A V E T H E D AT E

Nominate one student founder — then keep 5 December free to watch them pitch.

8:00am – 8:00pm · Venue TBC

Nominations, judging and sponsorship: speak to the GSEA Kenya team or reply to this Friday Shot. Full details in chapter comms closer to the date.

5 Dec

E O K E N YA · M Y E O C A L E N DA R

Shared interests, stronger friendships. MyEO is member-led: start a group around something you love and invite the chapter along. No agenda — just good company and a reason to leave the office.

Sep — Oct 2026

25 Sep

3 OUTINGS

6:00PM - Onwards

MYEO · PADEL

Padel Tournament Everyone's favourite!

Easy to pick up, hard to stop — a day of short matches and rotating partners.

Courts TBC

30 Sep – 4 Oct

1:30PM – 3:00PM

MYEO · GARBA

Garba Workshop Group coaching · All levels · KES 5,000 Five days of coaching across 12 Garba styles. Spouses and kids welcome.

Brahma Sabha, 3rd Parklands

2 Oct

7:00PM – 10:00PM

MYEO · WHISKY

Whisky Tasting Guided flight · La Villa Five pours walked through region by region — an unhurried evening away from business.

La Villa, Kitisuru

Got an interest worth sharing? Any member can start a MyEO group — or join one of our existing groups. Ask the Chapter Manager how to get involved. Venues and times confirmed in the fortnightly newsletter.

Dance · Connect · Have fun K E N YA

Garba

WO R KSH O P

Group coaching session or Garba ance classes WHAT IS GARBA?

THE EVENT

A traditional folk dance from Gujarat, celebrated for its energetic moves, colourful attire and joyful rhythm.

STYL ES

All levels welcome

Join a fun-iflled group coaching session to improve your Garba, get exposed to 12 different styles and connect with a great group of people who love to dance.

WED

30 Sep

THU

1 Oct

F RI

2 Oct

Open to spouses & kids

SAT

3 Oct

SUN

4 Oct

D AT E

CLASS TIMES

VENUE

CO S T

30 Sep – 4 Oct

1:30 – 3:00pm

Brahma Sabha, 3rd Parklands

KES 5,000/-

Five afternoons. One dance floor.

Friday 2nd October

E O K E N YA · M E M B E R S H I P D R I V E

A CALL TO EVERY MEMBER

EO NEEDS YOU. Not for a committee. For one name — the entrepreneur you already trust, who should be in EO but isn’t yet.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

US$1M+

in annual company revenue

10+

full-time employees on the payroll

Founder-led a shareholder and executive actively running the business All in

open, curious, generous with what they know

EO Kenya is not-for-proift. Every member we add gives the chapter more to put back into all of us — better learning, stronger events, and more perspectives in every room.

NAME ONE PERSON. Two minutes. The Membership Committee takes it from there — conifdentially.

REFER A MEMBER →

GLOBAL NEWS

Upcoming MyEO Events MyEO Land Rover Adventure Scotland, Whisky & Castles 20th - 30th Sep 2026 Prepare to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime journey through one of the most breathtaking regions on Earth—the Highlands of Scotland. This is a land steeped in ancient history, dotted with formidable castles, and world-renowned as the legendary birthplace of whisky.

Bali and Komodo Islands Voyage 19th – 29th September 2026 Set sail 19–29 September 2026 aboard Aqua Blu for an exclusive 10-night EO adventure. Explore Bali and the Komodo Islands through diving, kayaking, hiking, and curated island experiences an unforgettable luxury expedition with fellow explorers.

MyEO x Zero G 21 - 22 September 2026, Experience a once-in-a-lifetime MyEO adventure in Bordeaux from 21-22 September 2026, featuring a members conference and an exclusive Zero-G flight with astronaut-led experiments, real weightlessness, and rare insights into European space training.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The EO Global Speakers Academy The power of your story 28 Sept - 2 Oct 2026 Location: Bangkok, Thailand

2026 MEPA UNLEASHED

Master the Now. Shape What’s Next 1st – 2nd October 2026 Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

MLS – MEPA Leadership Summit Untethered Leadership Lead with Presence 29th – 30th September 2026 Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

EO Global Leadership Academy 2026 Where Leadership Deepens. And Purpose Gets Clearer. 8th – 12th, December 2026 Location: Athens, Greece

UPCOMING EVENTS

South Asia RIE 2027 A shared pursuit of growth. 14th – 17th January 2027 Location: Jaipur, India

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE The aim this year is to share a wide range of partnerships, benefits and perks to give EO members more value, variety and make it a Wow Experience. Top Tip: Open up the ‘Wow Deals Deck’ on a regular basis as it is continuously updated with the latest partnerships and benefits. If you have any leads and ideas for partnerships, do reach out! strategic@eokenya.org

VIEW WOW DEALS HERE

DEAL SPOTLIGHT

SPECIAL EO OFFER: All EO Kenya members become Platinum members of EO Kenya. Bookings to be made via Serena hotel directly. Benefits are subject to change as per Serena’s prestige club policies. Benefits Platinum Card member get to enjoy include: • Earn points through your stay and utilization of room and other hotel services • Welcome VIP amenities • Complimentary spouse stays • Access to member exclusive offers • Access to Executive lounge in city hotels • Complimentary massage (30 min per stay) • Complimentary bottle of house wine on arrival (Africa only) • Welcome gift per stay (handicraft item) (Asia only) Email: nairobi@serenahotels.com

Click here to see all the WOW Venues and Contact info for easy booking

Your Comms Team Anuj Radia

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