The rise of one-person startups and its impact on budding hustlers

It‘s a weekday morning in Nairobi’s Buruburu estate, 27-year-old Brenda Mureithi is already on her second Zoom call of the day.

Her ‘office’ is a corner of her living room, a small wooden desk holding a laptop, a ring light, and a cup of instant coffee that’s gone cold twice.

Even though she doesn’t have a formal employer, Brenda runs her own design studio, serving clients in London, Lagos and Los Angeles; all without ever leaving her apartment.

Brenda calls herself a team of one. Her tax records say ‘freelancer’.

 But in practice, she’s what economists are beginning to call a „one-person enterprise“, a new kind of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) powered by Wi-Fi, discipline, and ambition.

Across Kenya’s cities, thousands of young people like Brenda are quietly rewriting the rules of work.

What used to be called hustling has matured into a structured, digital-first economy where remote freelancers operate as full-fledged businesses. They file invoices, build brands, and even subcontract others for overflow work.

Freelancing, once dismissed as a stopgap between jobs, is fast evolving into a legitimate and scalable model of entrepreneurship.

For a growing share of Kenya’s Gen Z and millennials, it’s replacing the old dream of running a shopfront or café with the leaner vision of owning a laptop and a global client list.

It is a phenomenon economists are starting to notice. The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) estimates that by end of 2025, nearly 1.2 million Kenyans will derive their main income from digital freelancing.  On platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal, Kenya now ranks among the top five African countries by number of active freelancers.

The country’s internet penetration, now above 88 per cent, and the growing reliability of mobile money payments have made it possible for anyone with skill and persistence to plug into the global digital economy.

 But beyond statistics, the rise of one-person startups tells a larger story about autonomy, identity, and survival in a tough economy.

  “We grew up hearing that success meant opening a shop or employing others,” says Brenda, adjusting her ring light mid-interview.

 “Now, I can earn more working alone than some SMEs with five employees. I’m my own HR, accountant, and marketing manage and I love the freedom.”

Software engineer

That freedom is seductive. It means no commuting through traffic, no office politics, no middle managers. But it also means no cushion. The freelancer is both CEO and cleaner, both rainmaker and risk-bearer.

 Still, for a generation raised on uncertainty, that trade-off feels fairer than depending on an employer who might retrench at any moment.

As 31-year-old Brian Odhiambo, a remote software engineer from Ruaka, puts it: “At least when I’m my own boss, I know who’s firing me.”

But beneath this confidence, admiration and global access lies a more complex truth.

 Not everyone watching this revolution is fully convinced that a country can build its economic future on individual hustle alone.

University of Nairobi lecturer and economist Prof. X.N. Iraki, argues that the freelance boom must be understood as part of an evolving labour system, not a replacement for it. “When you work for these global companies as a freelancer, who sets up those companies? Are they not formally incorporated?” he questions.

 He notes that Gen Z’s may be chasing freedom, but they are still anchored to companies that have structure, capital and legal existence.

“I don‘t think these people who work for these global companies, want to work for SMEs in Kenya, they want to work for well-established companies. When you’re working for Amazon or Google or Meta, you are very happy about it,” Iraki said.

Adding “So I don’t think we are going to run out of formal companies. What is changing is simply the nature of work.“

But his warning is sober: The human touch won’t die, and face-to-face interaction will always matter.

 “Remote work is here, but offices will not disappear. What we are witnessing is not the end of formal work, only the expansion of choices,”he said.

For Gen Z, choice is the whole point. They are a generation raised on urgency. They want to choose their time, their workspace, their projects and even their sleep schedule. They are chasing portfolios, not promotions.

The pandemic and the pivot

Covid 19 has been cited as the great accelerator of this system. When lockdowns shuttered offices in 2020, millions of Kenyans discovered that remote work wasn’t just for tech giants and foreign firms.

 Corporate staff took their work home, and many never fully returned.

“We realised we can work from home and even be more productive,“ Iraki explains, recalling how institutions struggled to convince staff to return to physical offices after restrictions were lifted.

 But the deeper change happened among the unemployed or underemployed, the so-called Jua Kali generation of the digital era, who discovered they could sell services beyond Kenya’s borders.

Online writing, transcription, graphic design, coding, social media management, and virtual assistance became new entry points into the economy.

Some learned through YouTube, others through online academies. Within months, the term ‘freelancer’ had shifted from a badge of desperation to one of adaptability.

What followed was a quiet boom. Mobile money statements became ledgers of cross-border remittances, and homes turned into production hubs.

 “Covid didn’t just change where we work, it changed what we think work is,” said Dr. Mercy Chege, a digital economy researcher based in Nairobi.

 “The freelance model appealed to Kenyans’ long-standing entrepreneurial spirit but allowed it to thrive without physical capital. It’s the democratization of business: your laptop is your factory.”To understand this shift, think of the freelancer as a modern artisan.

Instead of hammer and chisel, their tools are Canva, code editors, or video software. Instead of a marketplace in Gikomba, their shopfront is a profile on Fiverr or a well-curated LinkedIn page.

 And like traditional artisans, their success depends on skill, reputation, and relationships. But these freelancers are also evolving in sophistication. They register businesses, issue invoices, and use accounting software like QuickBooks.

 Some even hire other freelancers to handle parts of their workload. The effect is cumulative: Dozens of one-person enterprises that collectively function like a distributed SME sector.

There’s also a cultural shift underway. In middle-class Kenyan families, freelancing was once shorthand for “hasn’t found a job.” Now, parents boast about children who “work for clients abroad.”

The prestige of independence is growing. Gen Z, raised on self-expression and global connectivity, see freelancing not as risk but as freedom to live anywhere, work anytime, and align work with values.

“Freedom is the new currency. For Gen Z, the question isn’t how to climb a company ladder, it’s how to build a life that feels self-directed. Freelancing answers that,” says Peter Kamau, a Nairobi-based life coach who mentors young entrepreneurs.

But the trade-offs are real. Freelancers must handle unpredictable income, self-funded healthcare, and burnout from endless deadlines.

Without collective bargaining, they face isolation and under-pricing.

For women, particularly, the blurred boundary between home and work can reproduce domestic pressures rather than relieve them.

Still, many insist it’s better than the alternative-the rigidity and risks of underpaid formal jobs.

Policy and infrastructure are slowly catching up. The Ajira Digital Programme by Kenya‘s government, launched in 2018, was among the first formal acknowledgements of the potential of the freelance economy.

It aimed to train young people in digital skills and connect them to online jobs.

Meanwhile, fintech innovations like Payoneer, Flutterwave, and Deel are making it easier for Kenyan freelancers to receive international payments securely and in real time.

Yet, structural challenges remain. Internet costs, while falling, still weigh heavily on freelancers outside Nairobi. Power outages can cripple productivity, and taxation policies for online workers remain fuzzy.

“We need the government to recognise freelancing as part of the formal SME ecosystem,” says Chege. “It’s time policy caught up with practice.”

The future looks like

As Kenya’s economy digitises further, experts believe one-person enterprises will become the backbone of its creative and service industries.

The World Bank projects that Africa’s digital economy could add $180 billion (Sh23.4 trillion)  to GDP by 2025, much of it driven by small-scale freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Locally, this could reshape how the government defines SMEs,from capital-intensive shops to skill-intensive individuals.

 Already, universities are adapting, offering courses on digital entrepreneurship and remote work management.

The Nairobi tech scene now teems with stories like Brenda’s. Some freelancers grow into small agencies; others remain proudly solo.

 But the underlying current is the same — a generation redefining what it means to own a business, one gig at a time.

 “Freelancing isn’t a stepping stone anymore,” Brenda says as her next call pings. “It’s the destination.”

 She adjusts her camera, smiles at the screen, and disappears into the global grid — a one-person company running on Wi-Fi and willpower.