#11 Sarah Dusek - on becoming an entrepreneur who thinks BIG, and a venture capitalist who helps African women think BIGGER - an insider’s guide to scaling and pitching your business.
3 September 2024
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1 Guest Bio
2 Episode Description
3 Show Notes
4 Time Stamps
5 Transcript
1 Guest Bio
Sarah Dusek is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who is using gains from her business endeavours to help fund female entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa.
She began her career in her early twenties in a non-profit in Zimbabwe, southern Africa, but left eight years later when she became disillusioned by the sector’s short-term project-driven approach as it seldom led to sustainable development.
She soon began exploring the potential of business to effect systemic, and long-term, change and in 2009 co-founded the leading outdoor hospitality company Under Canvas with her husband on his family farm in Montana. Dubbed the founder ‘who put glamping on the map in the United States’, the couple went on to sell their outdoor lifestyle brand for $100 million less than ten years later.
Following the sale, the Duseks co-founded a new eco-travel company, Few and Far, that ‘creates extraordinary eco-hospitality experiences that endeavour to protect and preserve wild places around the world’. In all its management plans, the company's focus is on conservation (environment) and social impact (job creation in surrounding communities), as well as regeneration through its carbon sequestration projects. They also co-founded Enygma Ventures, a venture capital fund with an explicit mandate to close the gender and funding gap for female entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa.
Sarah and her husband moved to Cape Town, South Africa, with their two sons in 2019. She currently splits her time between South Africa and the United States.
On 2 September 2024, Sarah released her first book Thinking Bigger, a business book aimed at demystifying the entrepreneurial journey and the over complicated and inaccessible world of funding for female entrepreneurs. Structured in 10 chapters to mirror a traditional 10-page pitch deck, Sarah unpacks what venture capitalists look for in a potential business and what aspiring entrepreneurs need to include in a winning pitch deck. Sarah weaves her own entrepreneurial journey through the entire book, showing in each chapter the long and rewarding journey of growing her small four-tent business into the $100 million sale it was a decade later.
2 Episode Description
I have read many entrepreneur biographies, but none so captured the grit, persistence and flexibility it takes to create a truly successful business like Sarah Dusek does in her book Thinking Bigger - and in her generous share in this week’s conversation.
Sarah describes in vivid detail her journey from being flat broke and living in a camper van to growing and selling her business Under Canvas (co-founded in 2009 with her husband) for $100 million almost ten years later.
‘Iterate’ and ‘fail fast, fail often’ are two start-up mantras on constant repeat in innovator circles, but both sound more like they belong in a factory than in the day-to-day running of a typical business. Sarah shows us what these clichés look like, without graphs, spreadsheets or bullet points, and speaks candidly about the identity shift needed to change from being her husband’s ‘helper’ to becoming the CEO of their company.
Her story of turning four tents into a $100 million outdoor lifestyle brand is not so much about a series of dramatic events, but about an openness to change direction, be flexible, grab opportunities and respond to people’s needs - and a willingness to tweak one’s dream a little, when that dream in its current form, is hitting a ceiling.
Sarah gives us all a glimpse into how successful businesses position themselves in such a way that they can scale. She shares how she moved away from being solely focused on growing a successful small business, to shaping the business into something of much greater value with a much bigger return on her initial investment.
Sarah also gives us glimpses into the venture capital world, first through her own experiences trying to raise ‘big money’ and then as a venture capital investor herself, who has for the past five years been helping female entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa successfully pitch and scale their businesses.
The heart of Sarah’s own story and that of her approach to investing in female entrepreneurs, lies in her book’s title, as she encourages, cajoles, pushes, and entreats women to Think Bigger, so that ultimately women can help shape the world around them, create big businesses that can effect big change and ultimately, influence the trajectory of economic growth on the continent.
The book, and this episode, are ultimately a clarion call for women to get 'unstuck', think big and execute even bigger.
3 Show Notes
00:00:34 The Rocky Mountains is a formidable mountain range stretching from Canada to New Mexico in the United States. They are a testament to the Earth's geological processes, formed over millions of years through tectonic plate movement and volcanic activity, and represent a unique and dramatic landscape that include mountain ranges, alpine lakes (formed by glacial erosion and deposition), glaciers and volcanoes.
00:00:41 The word 'safari' originates from the Swahili language, which in turn comes from the Arabic word 'safar' meaning 'journey'. The Swahili word 'safari' can be used to describe any type of journey, not just those involving wildlife. The term was popularized in the West by the British explorer Richard Francis Burton, who traveled extensively in East Africa in the 19th century. Burton was fascinated by the Swahili language and culture, and he used the word 'safari' to describe his journeys throughout the region.
00:00:44 Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. It boasts some of the most iconic tourist destinations in the region, including the World Heritage Site 'Victoria Falls', 'the greatest sheet of falling water', flowing from the Zambezi river. 'You have the jewel of Africa in your hands,' said President Samora Machel of Mozambique and President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania to Robert Mugabe, at the moment of independence, in 1980 about the falls. 'Now look after it.''
00:01:27 Sarah Dusek's first book is called Thinking Bigger. Excerpt from the Amazon blurb: 'Sarah Dusek shares personal anecdotes highlighting obstacles that women face in business and how to overcome them. She reveals the metrics that really matter to venture capitalists and how to pitch them successfully. Her book delves into the art and science of creating a winning "pitch deck"―the standard formula for pitching to investors, from crafting a compelling story to using data and design to make a lasting impact.'
00:01:32 Under Canvas was founded in 2012 and has since 'grown to include 11 safari-inspired Under Canvas locations, as well as a new luxury outdoor resort brand called ULUM. The leader in upscale, outdoor hospitality, Under Canvas camps have received awards from the likes of Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure as some of the best resorts in the U.S. and the world.'
00:06:40 Montana, Spanish name for mountain, is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the western United States. It has the largest grizzly bear population in the US and has more cattle than people.
00:20:50 This is a modified reference (which Sarah also makes in her book) to the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, in which a whispered voice tells Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella that 'If you build it, they will come', referring to a baseball field that he should build in the middle of his cornfields.
00:35:14 Yellowstone, America's first national park, is located in southern Montana. This is one of the first Tripadvisor reviews on Under Canvas when it first opened in Yellowstone West in 2012.
00:49:48 For those who want to go down a rabbit hole on the 'tool of persuasion' - the 10-page pitch deck
00:54:51 For a little taste, here is a glossary of 90 Essential Venture Capital terms and how Venture Capitalists make decisions according to the Harvard Business Review.
00:01:12 Sign up to Sarah's newsletter on sarahhdusek.com or apply during the next round of funding through Enygma Ventures.
4 Time Stamps
00:00Â Introduction to the AfricanOptimist Podcast
01:18Â Sarah Dusek's Journey: From Zimbabwe to Montana
06:00Â The Birth of Under Canvas
09:57Â Challenges and Pivots in Entrepreneurship
20:16Â Overcoming Doubts and Embracing Risks
29:24Â The Tent Rental Business
33:10Â Creating a Tented Hotel Experience
36:57Â Overcoming Initial Challenges
37:48Â Living Conditions and Staff Living Conditions
38:37Â Realizing the Business Potential that Can Scale
41:14Â Understanding Venture Capital
42:47Â Shifting Mindsets and Building Value
49:56Â The Importance of a Pitch Deck
54:44Â Facing the VC World
01:02:02Â Embracing Thoughtful Capitalism
01:05:41Â Empowering Female Entrepreneurs
01:11:58Â Conclusion
5 Transcript
