Resilience Spotlight: Maxine Kinyua Reinventing Beauty with Tech and Tenacity
1. Overview of who I am
I am Maxine Kinyua, the founder of Tui Beauty, a beauty-tech platform revolutionizing beauty shopping in Africa through AI-driven virtual skin analysis and personalized product recommendations. My entrepreneurial journey started eight years ago with Emkay Store, a traditional beauty retail business. While Emkay Store served thousands of women and validated the demand for a more efficient, tech-enabled solution, I soon realized that the business lacked a strong foundation for scaling.
Over a year ago, I made the tough decision to step back, rethink, and rebuild. That period of introspection led to the birth of Tui Beauty designed to not only sell beauty products but also solve the industry’s deeper challenges in supply chain inefficiencies and personalized customer experiences. Now, we are on a mission to transform beauty shopping in Africa by leveraging technology.
2. Resilience in Action
To me, resilience is the ability to pivot, adapt, and keep moving forward, even when faced with setbacks. It is about being unshaken by failures and instead using them as stepping stones to build something greater.
Resilience in my startup journey has been tested multiple times from navigating financial struggles, rebranding an entire business, and entering the tech space . There were moments when I questioned whether I should continue, but each challenge became a learning experience that strengthened my resolve. The process of shutting down Emkay Store and rebuilding Tui Beauty was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, yet it became the foundation for a more scalable, innovative, and impactful venture.
3. Importance of Resilience in the Startup World
The startup world is unpredictable. Founders often go through cycles of excitement, disappointment, breakthroughs, and failures. Without resilience, it’s easy to burn out or give up.
Human resilience is crucial because the mental and emotional toll of entrepreneurship is immense. The ability to persist, learn, and iterate is what separates those who succeed from those who don’t. Operational resilience, on the other hand, is about building businesses that can withstand market shifts, economic downturns, and technological disruptions.
For Tui Beauty, operational resilience means ensuring our platform can scale across different African markets, withstand logistical challenges, and maintain customer trust despite uncertainties in the economy. It’s about future-proofing the business by anticipating obstacles and proactively addressing them.
4. Resilience in the Real World?
A defining moment of resilience in my journey was the transition from Emkay Store to Tui Beauty. It required me to accept that while my first venture had achieved great success, it wasn’t built to last in the way I had envisioned. The hardest part was communicating this to customers who had grown to trust the brand. However, by focusing on transparency, engaging them throughout the transition, and proving the value of the new platform, I was able to turn a potential setback into an opportunity.
Another major challenge is fundraising. Unlike other industries, beauty-tech is still an emerging concept in Africa, and convincing investors of its potential hasn’t been easy. Yet, each rejection only refines our approach, strengthens our pitch, and pushes us to prove our model’s viability through bootstrapped success.
Entrepreneurship in Africa requires a special kind of resilience the ability to navigate regulatory uncertainties, infrastructure gaps, and economic fluctuations. But these challenges also fuel innovation. At Tui Beauty, we are not just selling products; we are reimagining how beauty is accessed, personalized, and delivered in a market full of untapped potential. That mission keeps us going, no matter the obstacles.