Most businesses are started out of passion or an idea but recognizing what will set your business apart and help it grow, happens through observation and experience of life.

This is exactly how Mikul Shah, who is the CEO of Eat-Out Kenya came to make his passion a thriving business for 8 years and counting. Eat-Out is an online restaurant guide that sits over 100,000 dinners at hundreds of restaurants in Kenya each year. After relocating to Nairobi, he made acquaintances whom he would always meet at the same bar and this frustrated him. He knew Nairobi had so many restaurants to experiment on. From that, came the idea to start Eat-Out because back then restaurants did not have any online presence and social media platforms like Facebook were not yet in well entrenched in Kenya.

From his time living in London, he had used applications similar to Eat-Out so he was able to recognize this gap in Kenya. But, instead of going through the obvious route of approaching restaurants and explaining how he can build them an online website which would have been very costly at the time, he chose to create his online platform that does the same thing but for multiple restaurants at the same time. Mikul Shah created his business from a hobby he had formed of documenting restaurants that he went to. In doing what he loved, he was able to come up with a concept that filled a gap in the industry and provided consumers with an easier way of accessing information about restaurants in Kenya. With time, he adapted his business to the changing times hence ensuring its relevance to people.

With accolades such as being selected as Business Daily Top 40 under 40 men, featured on CNBC Africa’s, Eye on Kenya among many others from the formation of his company to date, Mikul is the embodiment of turning passion into business but also making your business stand out from the rest.

Mikul Shah, was a guest at Un.thinkable roast (our monthly 10X Growth Leaders Meet-up) in March 2018. Click here to apply for membership in Un.thinkable.