The Strength in Our DNA with Papy Kaluw

The Hiring Paradox: Wanting Competence, Paying Less With Musa Jesse

"I want the world from you. But I don't pay you the best. That's the difficult part." Musa Jesse, founder of Pilgrims Specialty Coffee, gets honest about the guilt of firing someone when you couldn't afford to pay them what they deserved. He talks about the "duty feeling" that weight at the back of your mind. The question that haunts you: Did I fail them because I couldn't give them more? This is the real, messy truth of building a business in Africa. Musa Jesse on The Salary Scramble with Lee Kasumba.

I Gave Up A Dangote Salary For A Dream - Musa Jesse

"Africa grows your coffee. You get the profit. That's theft."That's the kind of bold statement Musa Jesse, founder of Pilgrims Specialty Coffee in Zambia, isn't afraid to make. In this unfiltered episode of The Salary Scramble, Lee Kasumba sits down with Musa for a real founder-to-founder conversation about building a business in Africa without safety nets. Musa's journey is unconventional. Musa Jesse went from making music as Frazy Millz to roasting coffee and building Pilgrims Specialty Coffee, Zambia's most intentional specialty coffee brand. But the journey has been anything but smooth.Lee Kasumba talks to Musa about the real, messy truth of building a business in Africa without government safety nets. Musa shares the "duty feeling", the weight of carrying someone's livelihood while knowing you can't fully provide for them. The anxiety of addressing underperformance when you can't afford to replace someone. And the gut-wrenching moment of firing a person and feeling like you failed them. No sugar-coating. No polished founder narrative. Just real talk about the cost of building something from nothing. Musa Jesse on The Salary Scramble with Lee Kasumba.

"I don't pay you much, but I want the world from you."

Building a business in Africa often means navigating a brutal contradiction. You need to attract top talent and demand excellence, but the numbers on your balance sheet simply won't allow you to pay what they’re worth. In this raw episode of The Salary Scramble, Musa Jesse, founder of Pilgrims Specialty Coffee in Zambia, gets brutally honest about that tension. He dissects the guilt of expecting the world from a team you know you’re underpaying, the gut-wrenching anxiety of calling out underperformance when you know you can't afford to replace them, and the "duty feeling" that comes with knowing someone’s livelihood depends on you. Musa explains the harsh reality of hiring: the moments when you feel you’ve done a disservice to an employee because you didn't make it clear at the start that this is where the business is, scrambling, growing, and unable to provide the luxuries of a corporate job. If you've ever felt that heavy weight of responsibility, or wrestled with the morality of asking for more while paying less, this conversation is for you. Musa doesn't sugarcoat the reality of leadership under financial strain. New Episode Out Tomorrow!

The Strength in Our DNA with Papy Kaluw

"We can work ten times more than the Chinese. Our DNA is strength. But are we building to capacity? To quality?" Papy Kaluw on why Africa has the power but still ships everything in from somewhere else.

Is There Actually Money In Fashion? Papy Kaluw On Where Fashion Stands.

The global fashion industry is worth $2.5 trillion. Africa's share? $31 billion, barely 1%. Papy Kaluw knows what that gap feels like. He left Congo as a child, dropped out of university, taught himself fashion, and built Urban Zulu from nothing. Today, he's dressed celebrities and opened pop-ups in Manhattan. But the journey from selling T-shirts outside Market Theatre to running a global brand has been anything but glamorous. In this conversation with Leslie Kasumba, Papy gets honest about why he left South Africa, whether his brand will outlive him, and the question no one asks: is there actually money in this business? This is not a victory lap. It's a founder sitting inside the tension between scramble and stable.