In 2025, Selar, an e-commerce startup that helps creators sell products, paid out over ₦18 billion ($12.8 million) to its African users. While the numbers might look good in isolation, the added context that this came within a decade of the startup’s launch and is almost double 2024’s ₦9 billion ($6.6 million) in payouts shows how far the bootstrapped startup has come. Like many African startups, reaching these milestones was far from straightforward. Douglas Kendyson, the company’s founder and CEO, told TechCabal that when he launched the business, he had no fixed blueprint for what it would become. Instead, constant user feedback shaped the startup’s direction and evolution. “When I started Selar in 2016, I did not have a grand thesis about the market. I didn’t sit down and write out, ...