Podcasts · Coffee Pump Podcast

Mitumba Shirts, Burnout & Digging Shambas - Brian Longwe | Coffee Pump (E129)

4 Oct 2026 · 1 h 17 min · S1 E129

Konnichiwa Fam,

Everyone I've had on this series kept saying the same name, so we closed AfPIF Kigali with Brian Munyao Longwe. Before he helped bring the internet to Kenya he was washing mitumba shirts and selling them out of a briefcase in Nairobi offices, and he got his first tech job by knocking on every door from ABC Place to town until someone said yes. He talks openly about burnout, the shares he forgot to ask for, and getting sober eight years ago.

This episode was recorded at the Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum (https://www.afpif.org) in collaboration with the African IXP Association (https://www.af-ix.org) -

We talk about:

– A Harvard MBA dad with a gambling problem, and 27 houses by age 27

– Washing mitumba shirts and selling them to men in offices out of a briefcase

– Knocking on every office door in Nairobi for a week to land a 4,000 bob job

– Starting Corporate Computers and selling PCs at 250,000 with no elevator

– Walking away from his first company and handing back his shares

– Fixing a family's email by accident and discovering the internet

– Kenya's first always-on connection, a 64k pipe and a launch at the Serena

– Burnout, sleeping under the desk and what it took to break the pattern

– Building ISP Kenya, the golf course merger that became Wananchi, and leaving with nothing

– Eight years sober and the counsellor who told him to stop being an idiot

– The email from his 9-year-old daughter that ended his life out of a suitcase

– What he thinks happens to Africa's digital economy in the next five years

Hope you enjoy the episode.

Best,

Team Coffee Pump

Order Our Coffee and Wallpapers: https://wa.me/c/254707696969

Our Coffee and Tea Is live! Order from our website: https://coffeepumppodcast.com/shop

Join Our Membership and get access to videos early: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkZKGnWZWb-S9wJdz9IGDTw/join

Support The Channel:

MPESA: 0707 69 69 69

Pay Bill: 542 542

Account Number: 069 420

Find Brian Munyao Longwe:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-munyao-longwe-25432/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianlongwe/

AfPIF and AF-IX:

Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum: https://www.afpif.org

African IXP Association: https://www.af-ix.org

Find our host Sajid Vayani:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sajvayani

Coffee Pump Spotify, Apple and Socials:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/sajvayani

The episode on the publisher’s site ↗ (opens in a new tab)