In the first Droidvilla Founder Spotlight, we sit down with Okam Solomon, Founder & CEO of Guida, to explore his journey, the story behind Guida, and his vision for transforming household commerce through technology.
There are some things people buy because they want them. Then there are the things they simply cannot do without.
Water. Food. Groceries. Everyday household essentials.
The problem is that these things often become urgent only when they are almost finished.
That is where Guida comes in.
Founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Okam Solomon, Guida is a RetailTech company building a subscription-based household commerce platform around a fairly straightforward idea: help households prepare for what they are likely to need instead of constantly reacting when something runs out.
What is Guida?
Guida is a Nigerian household commerce and RetailTech startup focused on subscription-based access to everyday essentials.
The company began with water in Calabar before expanding into household foodstuff subscriptions. Its broader goal is to use technology and its proprietary estimation model to understand what households are likely to need and make recurring supply easier.
Guida is therefore not simply trying to become another place where people go online to buy groceries.
The thinking behind the company is different.
Instead of asking only, “What do you want to buy today?”, Guida is interested in a more practical question: What will your household need next, and can that need be planned for ahead of time?
That distinction sits at the centre of what Okam is building.
Why Okam Solomon Started Guida
The idea behind Guida came from something Okam had observed in everyday life.
When money becomes tight, basic necessities can quickly become a source of stress. Something as ordinary as getting water or food can become another problem to solve at the worst possible time.
Okam did not want to build another marketplace where customers simply open an app, search for groceries and place an order.
He wanted to build around preparation.
The idea was to understand household consumption better and help people secure everyday essentials before they become urgent problems.
That thinking eventually became the foundation for Guida.
From Water to Household Essentials
Guida’s first major focus was water.
It was a practical place to start because water is an everyday necessity and something households repeatedly need.
From there, the company began moving into other household essentials, including foodstuff subscriptions.
This is where the larger Guida idea starts to become clearer.
The company is looking beyond individual purchases toward recurring household supply, a model where customers can plan ahead and receive the things they regularly need without having to start the shopping process from scratch every time.
Speaking during Droidvilla’s Founder Spotlight, Guida CEO Okam Solomon revealed that the company launched its subscription service in Calabar in April 2026.
For a young company, starting in a smaller market also gives the team room to learn directly from customers, understand fulfilment and improve the model before expanding further.
Guida’s Early Traction in Calabar
Guida launched in 2026 and has already recorded more than ₦3 million in early revenue from Calabar, according to Okam.
The company also built its initial customer base organically with a lean, founder-led team.
For Okam, these early results are less about presenting Guida as a finished company and more about proving that the problem is real and that people are willing to use a service built around recurring household needs.
The company has since expanded beyond its initial water offering into household foodstuff subscriptions while working on the technology and operational systems required to move beyond Calabar.
That next stage will be important.
Serving one market and building a system that can work across multiple markets are two very different challenges.
Building a Startup in Calabar
One of the realities Okam speaks openly about is the challenge of building in a smaller market.
For Guida, that means dealing with logistics, fulfilment, infrastructure and the ongoing process of finding the right product-market fit.
There is also the question of staying lean.
Early-stage companies rarely have the resources to solve every problem at once. Founders have to decide what matters now, what can wait and what needs to be tested before more money and people are committed to it.
For Guida, that process is happening while the company is also developing the technology and operational infrastructure needed for its next stage of growth.
What Okam Solomon Has Learned From Building Guida
One of Okam’s biggest lessons so far is that founders cannot always wait until everything is perfect before starting.
Some clarity only comes after the product is in people’s hands.
You speak to customers. You make mistakes. You discover something you did not expect. You change the product. Then you do it again.
That process has shaped Okam’s approach to building Guida.
He also points to something that is often less visible from the outside: entrepreneurship can be lonely.
There are decisions that have to be made when there is no obvious answer, and moments when the founder has to keep going despite uncertainty.
For Okam, resilience has become just as important as intelligence in that process.
Guida Wants to Change How Households Prepare
Water and groceries may be where Guida is starting, but Okam’s ambition goes beyond either category.
The bigger idea is to make household consumption more predictable.
Imagine a system that can understand what a household regularly uses, estimate when those items will be needed again and make the process of getting them almost automatic.
That is the direction Guida is working toward.
Rather than waiting for households to run out and react, the company wants to help them prepare.
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It is a simple idea, but making it work at scale requires a combination of technology, logistics, customer behaviour and reliable fulfilment.
That is the challenge ahead for Guida.
What Comes Next for Guida?
The immediate journey involves strengthening what the company has already started, expanding beyond its initial market in Calabar and continuing to develop the technology and operational systems behind the service.
But the longer-term opportunity is much broader.
If Guida can successfully understand household consumption and turn that understanding into reliable recurring supply, it could become more than a subscription service for water or groceries.
It could become part of the infrastructure through which households manage everyday essentials.
For now, Okam Solomon and his team are still building toward that.
And perhaps the most important part of the Guida story is that the company is starting with something everyone understands: the things we need every day.
About Okam Solomon
Okam Solomon is the Founder and CEO of Guida, a Nigerian RetailTech company focused on subscription-based household commerce.
His background spans technology, fintech and entrepreneurship. Through Guida, he is working on a model that combines household consumption data, estimation technology and recurring supply to help people prepare for everyday essentials.
X: @Itzsolowiz
Guida on X: @useguida_
Website: useguida.com
About Guida
Guida is a Nigerian RetailTech startup building a subscription-based household commerce platform. The company started with water in Calabar and is expanding into household foodstuff and other everyday essentials.
Its broader goal is to help households predict, plan and consistently access the things they need.
This story is part of Droidvilla Founder Spotlight, a new Droidvilla initiative focused on telling the stories of founders and companies building across Africa’s technology ecosystem.
