“I had no assumptions. I used to be simply constructing:” Day 1-1000 of Selar

In 2025, Selar, an e-commerce startup that helps creators promote merchandise, paid out over ₦18 billion ($12.8 million) to its African customers. Whereas the numbers may look good in isolation, the added context that this got here inside a decade of the startup’s launch and is nearly double 2024’s ₦9 billion ($6.6 million) in payouts exhibits how far the bootstrapped startup has come. 

Like many African startups, reaching these milestones was removed from simple. Douglas Kendyson, the corporate’s founder and CEO, advised TechCabal that when he launched the enterprise, he had no mounted blueprint for what it could turn out to be. As an alternative, fixed person suggestions formed the startup’s route and evolution.

“After I began Selar in 2016, I didn’t have a grand thesis concerning the market. I didn’t sit down and write out, “Creators will do X, and clients will do Y, and due to this fact we’ll win,” he stated.

“One of the best factor about these early days was that I used to be not boxed in by what I believed the market “ought to” be. I used to be simply constructing one thing I wished to exist after which enhancing it primarily based on what individuals advised me,” he added. 

The primary 100 days: “Wait, customers, don’t simply present up?”

Selar’s first buyer didn’t come from Nigeria. They got here from France. The very first person Kendyson arrange was his buddy after he launched an prolonged playlist (EP) of songs, and after slightly convincing from Kennedy, he listed it on Selar.

“Man, come. Put it on Selar. Let individuals help you,” Kendyson advised his buddy. 

On the time, the logic was that individuals would have listened to his music anyway, however with Selar, they might again him financially.  

“That was the primary ‘sale’ technique I understood. Individuals don’t simply wish to devour; they wish to help,” Kendyson stated. 

However after efficiently bringing in his buddy, actuality hit quick.

“The place are the remainder of the individuals? Who’s going to convey them?” he thought to himself inside the first 100 days of Selar. 

Initially, all Selar staff have been engineers. Whereas they have been good at delivery merchandise, no person was accountable for distribution. No person owned development. In response to Kennedy, one of many first brutal classes within the first 100 days was that gross sales and advertising and marketing are usually not vibes. 

“Individuals don’t simply come since you constructed one thing,” he stated.  

He tried the whole lot he may. He turned different associates into clients. He constructed a neighborhood. However by the third 12 months, the issue was nonetheless there regardless of Kendyson’s efforts at constructing and doing outreach, hoping individuals would discover Selar. 

“I cared about customers, however my default setting was to maintain refining, maintain enhancing, and maintain delivery. Then absolutely the whole lot will click on. That’s a really engineer-like approach to suppose,” Kendyson stated.

Low-cost hires and costly classes

Selar’s first hires have been low cost, however they taught Kendyson an costly lesson. In early 2020, he employed two social media staff to submit content material for Selar and paid them ₦20,000 ($52) every. He thought that with two junior individuals, issues would enhance, and they might determine it out.

Then in January 2021, he employed his first engineer, a junior developer, largely to maintain prices down. He assumed that as a result of he may write code himself, managing and supervising the rent can be simple. He rapidly realized in any other case.

Earlier than the 12 months ran out, Kendyson had learnt the true worth of hiring juniors too early.  “If you rent too junior throughout key roles, you pay along with your time,” he stated. 

He spent an excessive amount of time iterating, reviewing, rewriting, and giving suggestions. “It turns into a loop. You get monetary savings, however you lose weeks. And your time is just not free, particularly as a founder.”

He knew he needed to discover a steadiness. Regardless that it was tough, he elevated his price range and fired the junior staff.  

“The choice was me drowning in oversight,” Kendyson stated.

The rebirth of Selar began in Dubai

Kennedy attributed one of many largest shifts for Selar to a job that had nothing to do with the startup. In 2018, he moved to Dubai and labored as a development and software program engineer at Sarwa, a fintech firm, the place he labored intently with the advertising and marketing group. 

Watching how advertising and marketing really works when individuals take it severely and the way positioning, distribution, partnerships, and repetition compound modified how he constructed his startup. By 2020, he left the corporate to use what he learnt from his time in Dubai.

He describes that interval because the rebirth of Selar as a result of it was when issues started to really feel actual: “We have been lastly studying the way to transfer past ‘we constructed one thing’ to ‘individuals are really utilizing it,” he stated. 

One of many primary methods Selar tried to unravel the shopper drawback was by way of social media and chilly outreach. At first, Kendyson was messaging individuals he knew personally. Expectedly, he couldn’t discover scale utilizing this methodology and realised that if he wished strangers to seek out him, he wanted a distribution methodology that scaled.

“We leaned into chilly DMs, extra constant social content material, and ultimately accepted that adverts could be vital,” he stated.

The early milestones

The milestones Kendyson cared about most to start with have been income milestones. Solely chilly, laborious money may impress him, and the identical nonetheless runs true right this moment. 

The primary huge milestone was ₦100 million ($74,000) in gross sales in 2020. Whereas he was blissful, he was additionally in disbelief.

Then the subsequent obsession turned ₦1 billion ($740,000). Whilst Selar hit these milestones, Kennedy couldn’t settle down. 

“They gave me essentially the most nervousness I’ve ever felt as a result of digital merchandise might be inconsistent,” he stated. 

A creator may have a formidable launch this month, however their gross sales plummet by subsequent month. This unpredictability seeped into Selar’s enterprise mannequin and affected the startup’s income power. 

“So at the same time as we grew, I saved considering. Can I repeat this? Is that this sustainable? Are there sufficient creators? Are there sufficient launches?”

From 2020 to 2024, he carried ‘insane’ nervousness. The extra profitable Selar received, the extra his worry rose as a result of now there was one thing to lose.

To diversify the startup’s enterprise mannequin, Selar added subscriptions. The enterprise mannequin nonetheless revolves round transaction charges, however by the tip of 2020, the startup launched subscriptions, providing a professional plan with superior options. 

“It was initially ₦8,000 ($6), and now it’s ₦12,000 ($8.9). It turned a significant and regular income line for the corporate,” Kendyson stated. 

The “secret” is product and distribution, time and again

Individuals typically ask Kennedy what the key is to Selar’s success. He attributes it to being obsessive concerning the product and distribution. 

“The product ought to do what it says it’s going to do. Yearly, we maintain iterating, tightening, refining—ensuring Selar really solves the issue creators got here to us for.”

The subsequent step after constructing the proper product is to indicate up the place individuals already are.

“We do a number of partnerships and collaborations as a result of if you happen to’re not making an attempt to spend recklessly, partnerships turn out to be a wise approach to keep in individuals’s faces with out burning money like a furnace.”

That’s the key to the machine behind Selar. Construct, enhance, distribute, collaborate and repeat.