“Your business will go as far as your own clarity and talent because you’re the first employee. How much further you go depends on how much passion, hard work and talent you’ll bring into the game.” Ken Njoroge who is the Co-Founder and Group CEO of Cellulant (an African digital payment platform) says. His words above are mainly to bring home the point that, when starting your business, it’s your best bet to pursue what you’re good at and have knowledge on. He therefore advices, any entrepreneurship journey taken up is more likely to yield profit and bring about the feeling of fulfillment only if it’s in line with the Founder’s interests and talents. Ken was a web developer and he loved to build products, so he poured his heart into everything he did in that field. In the end, he believes that due to his talent and hard work in that field, his product differentiated itself in the market.

One would naturally assume, in order to make a product sell in the market, you need sales and marketing skills but all I did was focus on what I was naturally good at and in the end the product spoke for itself. Ken Njoroge

“I was never really a sales person. I would just show up to the customer, the customer would ask some questions and we would have a discussion.” Ken said He would use this strategy when approaching all his potential clients and by the end of the first year, he knew all the vital information such as what the client was looking for and how much they were willing to pay and therefore, he was able to determine very early how he would position his product to potential clients. Because he did his research, even when launching his product and being up front about it being the most expensive in the market, he still got clients because he showed them that what he offered was more valuable. 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.