Interviewed by Shandie for Pearls for Her

Dr. Martha Kirabo is a medical doctor, trained from Makerere University. She is also a Public Health specialist and a Cosmetic scientist.
She obtained her masters from Johns Hopkins University where her focus was Epidemiology and Vaccine Sciences. She currently works as a Vaccine researcher with GlaxosmithKline.
One of her passions is skin care and she is a trainee of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists in London. She is the founder and lead formulator for the medical grade skin care brand called “Essentials by Dr Kirabo”. She developed this brand after realising how inaccessible and expensive quality skin care was on the Ugandan market. She also realised there was a lot of misinformation in the general public about skin care.
The brand was launched this year in 2023 after years of research, product formulation and studies on the products. They are currently a local market leader with a novel sunscreen. She hopes to make this an international brand focused on melanated skin.

What’s your self actualization moment? Are you getting an award? Moving operations to Uganda? Buying manufacturing plants? Expanding your brand’s reach to every continent? Is it a man? Is it everything?! 

Definitely everything! But come to think of self actualization, I do not dwell on that a lot because I carry myself as a ‘process person’ so I really haven’t had a moment where I have asked myself what the final moment will be when I stop doing certain things. 

I don’t think I’ll get to a moment and say I have done it all, I have achieved it all and now I can sit and rest.

But when it comes to the business, expansion is on my mind. I do not want this business to exist only in Uganda but the whole of Africa. I would want this to be a brand that black people love everywhere and eventually, everyone will buy into it. 

I want this brand to be so big that I can not manage it thus selling off parts of it.

Ummm, I’m not originally a business woman. I’m a doctor and this is a passion project for me so I want to grow a healthy business that I can hand over to people that run businesses. 

I’m quite okay with keeping at the science end of things. 

So we are talking really big. Global domination!

Yes. 

When was that moment when you just decided to START?

We should all use sunscreen but I wasn’t using sunscreen until I moved to the United Staes during summer and started to get hyper pigmentation and some small dark spots called DPN. I had never experienced this before so I started reading up on what to do for my skin (like most of us usually do when something unfamiliar happens to us) 

I started experimenting with sunscreens and a lot of them left me looking very ghostly, even when they were not mineral or hydrating sunscreens, the ingredients just didn’t look so right on my skin. 

And when I finally found the perfect sunscreen, most of them were Korean brands with quite the import charges. Eventually when I had to make the move back to Uganda and still try to purchase those same brands it ended up costing me thrice the amount.  

That’s how my research began with narrowing down suppliers, filters and manufacturers who could do great with my customization. It’s still costly, don’t get me wrong but in a manageable way so that people around the continent can still access quality products at a favorable price.

That’s the whole essence of Essentials By Dr. Kirabo. It was built on trying to afford quality products which is important to me. That and access. 

I wanted to create a product that anyone could be able to use and afford and available. 

This is about actual implementation? The everyday of it. The meetings, the timeline frustrations, how many laws, regulations, red tape and networks you had to cut through to get this first product out? How did you coordinate it all? Any lessons or tips?

Oh! It wasn’t easy but what I have learnt is that if it’s not an all or nothing for you OR a business you’re starting to keep the lights on and feed you, you’ll find yourself lazy and heavy on procrastination.

So my biggest tip :- 

•  Is to set goals with hard deadlines and see to it that you meet them.

•  Set proper systems so that when you start the business everything is in sync. 

By the time I launched that was on 1st February, I had set up almost everything from delivery systems both cashless and cash payments to logistics. 

Businesses start as a one man army so if you can, delegate as much as you can.

• Bottle necks!!!

URA is going to be stressful because of their notorious tax revaluation. So make sure you get a good clearing agent and work closely with them.

• Emphasis on getting a mentor. 

Get someone who’s walked this walk before you, they’ll probably give you some contacts, let you know of some complications before you even face them, teach you about expansion strategies.

I’d say that’s the biggest takeaway…GET A MENTOR AND JUST START.

Don’t over plan or over think about it. Just have a good business plan, create a good desirable product and put your whole heart into it and start. 

I took a year developing the product and the brand but part of it was experimentation because we needed to do lots of testing by UNBS and SGS together with skin tones since it was built to go global. 

Any mistakes you made as a result of assumptions with the culture here, proof of concept.

That’s an interesting question which has multiple parts so I’ll start answering with the proof of concept. 

So we did a market research where we asked about 300 individuals on their thoughts about sunscreen with data from both sexes and different age groups. So I started strong with women of the 25-35 age group which was an easy target because they know about skincare and Sunscreen. 

All this was me assuming that this age group would pitch to the other groups which doesn’t always go as you anticipate.

We were stuck with that age group for quite a while and yet I wanted this to be a product for everyone which made me attend more events where I knew I’d find older women (rotary, fellowship) and ask them to invite me as a speaker and share my knowledge on anti-aging or healthy aging skincare because that is there interest right now.

Men, men!!

This is still quite a challenging group to meet, not with all that “I don’t moisturize my whole body, I just use Vaseline on my body and go, those products are for women.” 

But I’m still learning and strategizing on how to reach them and one thing we proactively did was create branding that is neutral (teal and green) and men wouldn’t mind having it on their dressing table. That having been said we do have a good male clientele and they are repeat buyers. 

To add on that we collect a lot  of data on every single person that purchases from us and always follow up for feedback. 

I’m very keen on feedback and so I plan on reaching out to the men to understand why they keep buying and what they like about it. I know men would love good skin but the messaging needs to be tailored to suit them. 

What motivates you to get things done? 

It’s hard to stay motivated. That’s why I don’t rely a lot on motivation but more on DISCIPLINE and that’s why I’m a goal oriented person. 

I like to write down a list of things I want to do at the start of the week and audit at the end and ask myself What stopped me from doing this, was it an outside fact, was i having a low moment…

Another thing that keeps me going is the passion I have for the project. I started to understand what people mean when they say if you love something you don’t feel like you’re working.

Not forgetting FEEDBACK. It keeps me motivated.

I have created a feedback channel so that I keep getting feedback and every time I recieve reviews with most of them being positive it gets me motivated and reminds me of why I did this.

What’s something relatable you’re struggling with?

Hahaha…That’s the same for me. There’s not enough time in the day to do everything we want and I have to balance being a business woman who’s learning things by herself, full time employee, a good friend, a good daughter . 

Putting myself out there so that I can find a good partner. THAT’S THE LIFE YOU KNOW.

We can’t kill ourselves, ALWAYS BOUNCE BACK.

I just rest and get back to it

What are your comfort tv shows?

I don’t really keep up with new shows…I love watching a lot of funny shows. 

Every time I don’t feel like exercising my mind I go back to episodes of Modern Family and listen to Gloria. 

(gif/ clip of Gloria from Modern Family talking)

But my intense one’s have to be historical. Recently I watched Oppenheimer and liked it. 

When work gets overwhelming how do you ground yourself?

What’s interesting is that last year when I was trying to develop the business, I got more burnout than right now when the business is in existence and this may not be a popular answer but it is my answer: 

• Putting God in the mix!!

I’m a very religious person and I find that when I do things with God’s guidance it flows easily even the hard days don’t feel hard. They will be hard that day but by the next day I’ll be like we conquered that and it’s okay.

• Another thing is planning my day. 

I plan most of my weekdays but go with the flow most weekends. Most weekends I take time to catch up with friends and family, go to the spa. 

When I find that I’ve organized my day and get to do 3 important things. One for business, one that’s personal and another for work. I feel less burnout because one by one makes a bundle and by the week’s end I’ve achieved something.

I keep it simple so that I don’t stress myself and end up feeling guilty for not accomplishing what I promised myself. 

If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island with your human needs such as water and food taken care of, which two items would you want with you?

I’d want the daily duo because when they pick me up my skin will be skinning. 
(daily duo from Essentials by Dr Kirabo)

I’ll have my sunscreen with me and the antioxidant serum because I know the island will be hot as hell.

Well, Martha, it has been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. Thank you for sharing your inspiring journey and best of luck. I have no doubt that you will continue to make waves in the industry.

Thank you so much for having me.

(hahaha) 

Would you love to get yourself the Daily Duo? Or Any Essentials by Dr. Kirabo product?, Find them on her socials

Instagram – essentials_bydrkirabo , WhatsApp – +256 702 022 291

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