Have you ever thought of what it feels like to be the smartest student in the room? Well, that’s Liyema every day, founder of Kulture Kwenche (KK).
Our Team met Liyema while she was finalizing her grade 7. For those of you who use a completely different school grading system than us in South Africa, grade 7 in that last grade just before you enter high school. Our team was invited to her school, Ellerton primary in Sea Point towards the end of 2020 by her school principal to give the valedictory speech. That day, she won so many awards we couldn’t count them; top achiever in maths, biology, English , Afrikaans and everything you can think of. I think she even won the top smile award in the school. Okay, that last one was obviously not a real award but she might as well have taken that one too. She won so many awards I am sure her neck must have felt heavy under all the medals she had to carry. Our team valedictory speech was great but nothing could outshine Liyema’s performance and achievement during that first year of Covid-19.
After the speech, we approached both the principal & Liyema’s mother to enquire about her entrepreneurial desires. As the top achiever she was, she had of course already envisioned trailblazing her own path in society. The principal felt honored and so did her mother. Just like that, we offered her a scholarship through the foundation without even an interview. We knew we had found a rare pearl.
Two months later it was 2021 and the team at the foundation felt it was time to start a “ junior class “ of entrepreneurs with only high school students rather than having a mix of both high school and young adults students in one class. Liyema was among the first junior class of entrepreneurs to qualify for this new program. Not only was she the first student to be in class, she was also the one to ask the most questions.
It is hence no surprise to see that she was one of the very first junior class students to come up with a start-up concept. She decided to call her start-up Kulture Kwenche, mainly referred to as KK. KK is a unique business concept that revolves around creating small packs of healthy and gluten-free pastries to be delivered as treats packages with different season-appropriate themes. For instance, one can order a Christmas pastry box, a holiday one, summer or birthday box pastry. She’s passionate about baking and wants to create healthy pastries for those who like her, are passionate about pastries and health.