At age 23, Ken Njoroge teamed up with two friends and started 3mice, a web development firm. They worked their way up until the business grew to be valued at Kshs 20 million in just a few years. Despite this early success, Ken had this burning feeling that he was destined for something bigger. His partners however felt that they were okay with the progress being made and the rate at which the business was growing. “A 20 million bob business was still very small for what I wanted to be doing but on the other hand, my partners at the time were getting settled therefore my restlessness and desire to do more festered into conflict which kept getting more aggressive and even spilled onto the staff.” Ken said He remembers taking a one week break that he spent at home in order to think about what he would do. He was now approaching 30 and he felt the milestones he had set for his life were way behind schedule. His first decision was to go see the best commercial lawyer in town to determine what can be done.

I said to him, “this is what I do. I can’t possibly afford you but I believe I have an interesting problem for you to work on with me” Ken Njoroge

Luckily, the lawyer agreed to work with him. They started by discussing the issue at hand, then Ken had to get all the documents needed to make his exit. In his mind he thought the business would be split 50/50 but the Lawyer concluded otherwise. The business was actually worth Kshs 50 million meaning he was worth Kshs 25 million but only on paper. The challenge that arose was there was no one willing to pay that amount in order to buy him out and waiting for someone to do so would take around 2 years at least. Therefore, the Lawyer advised him to leave and start all over again. At first he thought it was crazy but after careful consideration he realized that was his only option and believe it or not that’s exactly what he did. He has never looked back since. Today, Cellulant, his second company is currently valued at $105 Million. Ken Njoroge, Founder of Cellulant, was a guest at Founders drink up held in January 2018. Get access to the full podcast for only Kshs 250, email dream@wearefounders.co.ke.