Meet Anastasia Tarpeh-Ellis | Co-founder of Bosa

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anastasia Tarpeh-Ellis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anastasia, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My best friend of 15 years and now co-founder, EJ Oruche, and I struggled with balancing our work performance and burnout early in our careers. We tried different tools and methods to keep us organized without sacrificing our wellbeing, but nothing worked. As time went on, we talked to co-workers and friends and they experienced a similar challenge. It finally dawned on us that many existing productivity tools weren’t made to work for us no matter how hard we tried to force them to fit our needs. EJ and I are kids of West African immigrants and Black Americans. Sadly, a lot of systems and tools weren’t and continue to be built without us in mind. Our lived experiences allow us to challenge the status quo in the productivity space and explore overlooked opportunities that we’re uniquely equipped to address. Making productivity more inclusive and people centric is what drives us. We don’t want anyone to feel like they don’t have options suited for and personalized for them. Starting Bosa is our way of dismantling the current systems and culture around productivity so that everyone can have the freedom and feel empowered to live intentionally while still maximizing their productivity AND their wellness.

What should our readers know about your business?
​​The problem our team is addressing is that most productivity tools make people work like a project manager, they’re too rigid and aren’t easily accessible. With the aim to create a more inclusive and personalized productivity experience, we created Bosa. It integrates into your browser and third party tools you already use so you can collect and capture tasks fast. We guide you through your day so you don’t have to think about what to do next and connect you with people in your community to help you get more done.

Our journey to this point hasn’t been easy as we are challenging the status quo and what’s been deeply ingrained in our culture, but I’m proud of our team for doing the hard work to research and reflect on how we want to show up in the world and who we want to serve. Being sure of who we are helps with making decisions about the type of product experience we offer and who we align ourselves with. Within being ourselves, I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned and what I think will be important for us moving forward is not being afraid to stand apart, to be different. It’s one thing to be automatically labeled as different or “other” based on things outside of your control, but another thing to choose to be different and standing firm in that. For Bosa, I’m excited to make that choice to be different, to be daring in how we build our business.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There’s a lot of folks I can shout out who have been a huge part of my journey as a person and tech startup founder! And hopefully I do a good job giving people their flowers while they are here. So those people know I’m grateful for them…again, I hope :D. But someone I know for a fact who doesn’t get enough recognition is my big brother Presley Tarpeh. We have a 9 year age difference, which despite that we’ve remained pretty close over the years. But I would say since founding Bosa my brother has been exceptionally supportive. He knows nothing about tech startups, but he keeps up with my fundraising meetings, any programs/workshops I’m doing, and encourages me every step of the way. All of that above and beyond his weekly texts to say “Happy Friday” or “Good morning sis” accompanied with a super cute GIF. None of the GIFs are repeats either! He’s an amazing father, a loyal friend, was probably an interior designer and artist in his past life, and the best big brother a little sister could have.

Website: https://www.bosa.life/

Image Credits
Headshot credit – EJ Oruche Team photo – Chelsea Oruche