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Help build the listening company.

Sikivu is a Kenyan-led mental-wellness companion for East Africa — a clinical outcomes company, not an app company. We measure wellbeing, not downloads. And we’re building the founding team to get there.

The team, today

Lawrence Juma

Founder

Right now, the whole team is one person.

Lawrence founded Sikivu and currently does all of it — the engineering, the clinical research, the operations, and reading every message that lands in the contact inbox. One person can start something wonderful. It takes more than one to make it timeless. That’s why this page exists.

EngineeringClinical researchOperationsThe contact inbox

Why Sikivu exists

Before Sikivu was an app, it was a pattern I kept noticing.

People close to me needed someone to talk to and had nowhere to put it — not a diagnosis, not a prescription, just someone who would listen and keep it to themselves. Therapy cost more than many of them earned in a month. And where I come from, saying you’re struggling is often heard as saying you’re going mad — so most people say nothing.

The ones who did want help carried a second fear. Before opening up, they had to weigh whether the person across from them would hold the secret or pass it around. Many decided it wasn’t worth the risk. They kept the weight, and kept quiet.

One question stayed with me: if the privacy were real, and the safeguards were real, could technology let a person be heard without the fear of being exposed — and give them something useful back?

That question became Sikivu — listening, in Kiswahili. Built to do the one thing those people couldn’t reliably find: to listen, in the language they actually speak, without judgement, and without telling.

— Lawrence Juma, founder

The problem

For the people we’re building for, professional care is too scarce, too costly, or too exposing to reach. The need doesn’t disappear when help is out of reach — it just goes unspoken.

What we believe

That a private, judgement-free companion — grounded in proven techniques and built for how people move between English and Kiswahili — can give someone somewhere to be heard. And that we can measure whether it genuinely helps, rather than assume it does. We’re testing that with real people, and we’ll say plainly whether it holds.

Roles open now

We’re looking for three people.

We’re pre-seed and founder-funded, and we say plainly which roles are paid, honorarium, or reimbursement-based.

Clinical Advisor

Our founding principles state that no feature touching user safety ships without documented review by a licensed clinician. This role is that reviewer. Pre-launch: a structured review of crisis-detection thresholds, PHQ-9/GAD-7 usage, safe-messaging copy, and disclaimer language, against a prepared nine-page brief. Post-launch: monthly review of escalations and outcomes, with a genuine mandate to say no.

What you’d do

Review the pre-launch brief and give a documented professional opinion
Review serious escalations and group-support outcomes monthly
Advise on our pre-registered n=200 pilot methodology
Put dissent in writing when you see risk

Requirements

Licensed clinical psychologist or psychiatric social worker, registered with the Counsellors and Psychologists Board of Kenya; CBT grounding; English and Kiswahili.

Advisory engagement · honorarium offered · remote, Kenya · written scope agreed before starting.

Email Lawrence →or use the contact form

Legal Advisor

Mental health data is the most sensitive data a person can share, and our architecture keeps it on the user’s device. We want our legal posture reviewed to the same standard before launch. This is a bounded pro bono review engagement on documents already prepared, not an open-ended advisory seat.

What you’d do

Review our Legal & Data Protection brief
Check Kenya DPA 2019 obligations and ODPC registration
Review terms of service, privacy policy, and contractor agreements
Advise on our Q3 incorporation

Requirements

Kenyan-qualified advocate; data protection or technology practice experience preferred.

Pro bono · bounded scope agreed in writing · remote, Kenya.

Email Lawrence →or use the contact form

Community & Marketing Intern

Help us reach our first 75 users. You’ll create content in English and Kiswahili, design assets from our brand system, research whatever the week needs, help build our launch community, and support basic admin, working directly with the founder. Strong performance is the natural path into our first paid operations role once our funding round closes.

What you’d do

Design and post social content (English and Kiswahili)
Build and help moderate our prospective-user community
Desk research
Support admin and documentation

Requirements

Kenya-based; own laptop; demonstrable design ability (Canva/Figma); clear writing; fluent English and Kiswahili. A portfolio, even informal, beats a certificate.

Internship · 10–20 hours/week · remote · expenses and work subscriptions reimbursed · premium product access · paid trial task during selection · written scope before starting. We are transparent that this placement is reimbursement-based; it is structured to qualify for university attachment credit.

Apply →or use the contact form

Send a short note, CV, and any portfolio.

Other areas we’re building toward

Where another pair of hands changes everything.

These aren’t open positions yet — they’re the shape of the team we’re building, with funding still ahead of us. We keep expressions of interest on file and come back to them when a role opens. If the mission fits, we want to know you.

Engineering

Build a privacy-first, offline-capable product. On-device ML, real-time sync, and a crisis path that has to work without a network.

React Native / Expo
Next.js + TS
Supabase / Postgres
On-device ML

Express interest →

Clinical & Safety

Keep the product safe and evidence-based — crisis thresholds, safe-messaging copy, and our outcome-measurement battery. Our first pre-launch hire.

Clinical advisor
Crisis review
PHQ-9 · GAD-7

Express interest →

Community Stewards

Trained community mental-health workers who hold Sikivu Circles and peer-chat safety — the human layer behind the pipeline. Paid, part-time, remote at launch.

Community MH background
Group facilitation
English + Kiswahili

Express interest →

Marketing & Growth

Reach East African users with a voice that fits their lives — culturally grounded, Kiswahili-comfortable, free of growth-hacking and urgency.

Content & brand
Community & social
Lifecycle

Express interest →

Operations & Partnerships

Turn a Kenyan-led product into a sustainable organisation — NGO and employer pilots, grants, and the day-to-day that keeps a small team moving.

NGO / employer pilots
Grants & fundraising
People & ops

Express interest →

Design & Research

Shape an anxiety-aware product and learn from the people we serve — interface design, and qualitative research with East African users.

Product / UX design
User research
Accessibility

Express interest →

Advisors — every field welcome

A founder’s biggest risk is not knowing what they don’t know.

If you have depth in any of these — or something we haven’t thought to list — an hour of your perspective changes what we build. Advisors give as little or as much time as they can.

Clinical Psychology & PsychiatryData Protection & LawFinance & FundraisingAI / ML & SafetyProduct & GrowthAcademic Research & EvaluationTrust & SafetyPayments & M-PesaNonprofit GovernanceBrand & communications…and your field

Become an Advisor →

How we hire

We weight integrity above everything else.

50%: Integrity
30%: Potential and aptitude
20%: Experience

Expect reference checks, a conversation about a time you disagreed with a decision, and a paid trial task.

If this isn’t you but you know who it might be, please pass it on.

How to reach us

There’s no portal yet — and you’d be writing to Lawrence directly. Send a note: who you are, what you’d work on, and why East African mental health matters to you. A link to your work (GitHub, portfolio, LinkedIn) helps.

Get in touch →