Cathlees Trigg-Jones founded iWoman TV, a digital streaming platform by women, about women, and for everyone.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re feeling, there’s a community for you,” says our latest interviewee, Cathleen Trigg-Jones. With 25 years as an award-winning journalist and producer, Trigg-Jones has experienced the lack of representation in media firsthand and felt compelled to address it, not just for herself, but for the wider community. So, she founded iWoman TV—a digital streaming platform by women, about women, f or everyone.
In this episode of A Positive Voice, Trigg-Jones shares her mission for the platform, what she needs to make it successful, and why she is so passionate about it. We also welcome Christine Matovich as co-host. You might recognize Christine from an earlier podcast: she and Cathleen got to know each other in Positive Planet US‘s most recent Accelerator Hub, from which they are among our recent graduate cohorts. Tune in to the conversation on Apple Podcast, Audible, and more.
Originally a grad school project, the concept for Market Express almost didn’t see the light of day. But, Ebenezer Lazar saw so much potential in it that he felt it deserved a chance as a real business. The result? An ecommerce platform for Ghanaian grocery retailers, connecting farmers with a market directly.
The goals and benefits of Market Express extend beyond simple convenience. Tune in to hear Ebenzer explain how the online ordering system aims to improve the quality of life for everyday Ghanaians: saving time, improving stock management, opening doors to micro-financing, and even reducing the congested streets filled with traffic.
Listen to Episode 14 on Apple PodcastsListen to Episode 14 on Spotify
Co-Founders and childhood friends, Hicham Zouaoui and Otman Harrak, came back to Casablanca after spending high school and college apart, experiencing different cultures and realities. Once back together, they had the idea to build out a new business model and the first ridesharing app in Morocco.
Otman Harrak (gauche) et Hicham Zouaoui (Droite), fondateurs de l’application Pip Pip Yallah. Image courtesy of We Love Buzz.
Now they’re working together in a big, beautiful office overlooking the cinematic backdrop of Casablanca. “It’s been a wonderful adventure,” says Harrak. Carpooling isn’t a new concept for a culture that already has sharing as a big part of its values. This is what made it challenging for people to understand that it was ok to exchange money for something that is usually considered simply neighborly ⥖ even among strangers.
Zouaoui started Pip Pip Yalah through a Facebook group, just connecting people wanting to travel between universities and their hometowns. Ridesharing. They started talking about the new concept just among friends. They got all the way up to 100 users before reconnecting again with Harrak, coming back from studying in the London School of Business and the Grenoble École de Management.
Pip Pip Yalah now has recorded over 26 million kilometers in shared rides, reducing CO2 emission by 6,500 tons as people shared their rides and did not use their own cars.
Zouaoui and Harrak talk us through serial-entrepreneurship, battling “against” cultural norms, user experience and driving social, economic, and ecological impacts by facilitating and incentivizing ridesharing throughout Morocco.
Their pure friendship and excitement to conquer their mission together really comes out clearly in this very light and joyful conversation. “It challenged us to battle through interpreting English and French context together at the same time,” they agree. Their story of beating the odds is certainly inspiring and we know they are only at the beginning of their journey.
Learn more about Pip Pip Yalah downloading their app or visiting their website.
Listen to Episode 12 on Spotify.Listen to Episode 12 on Apple Podcasts.
