Sam Gichuru is Founder & CEO of Nailab, one of Kenya’ s leading business incubators.
Nailab, recognized in the 2015 State of the Nation address by H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta, has incubated over 40 entrepreneurs since its inception in 2010 and some of its startups include: Kuhustle, Wezatele (Acquired by AFB), Kejahunt (2015 Vision 2030 ICT award winners), Paykind (500 Startups alumni), Cladlight, Sokotext (2015 Index awards finalists) and Eneza Education (Kenya’s fastest growing mobile learning company)
Sam served as Vice-chair of the technical team that put together the first ever Kenya National Innovation forum whose result was the establishment of Enterprise Kenya- Kenya’s trade entity for innovations. He has been a strong proponent on the value of Mentorship of young entrepreneurs viewing them as a critical interface between job creation and poverty eradication in emerging markets.
Mr. Gichuru’s contribution in establishing the startup business ecosystem in Kenya, through Nailab, has been significant and as a result he was invited as a key speaker during the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), held in Nairobi and officiated by The President of The United States, Barack Obama. Sam was instrumental in setting the stage and discussing the importance of specialty incubators and the key role innovation hubs play in the success of a startup business.
A Rotarian, he has prior experience in ICT having worked in 3 major Internet Service Providers.
Sam currently serves on the board of several startups and is also an angel investor. He is also serving as a board member of AKVO, Nailab and KITOS (Kenya’s IT and outsourcing Services Body).