Episode 008 Deepankar Rustagi, Founder at Vconnect, What we learnt from attempting to build ecommerce platform in Nigeria. How to get early traction by focusing on specific market segment.

“In business, emotions should play a secondary role and logic a primary one” Deepankar Rustagi is the Co-Founder and CEO at Vconnect, Nigeria’s largest online business directory and local search engine. Vconnect was one of the first players in the Nigerian tech ecosystem and has been active since 2010. This episode is a lesson on how to get traction for your startup by focusing on ‘One Metric that Matters’! It is very tempting to do a lot of things at the same time as an entrepreneur. Deepankar had the same challenge. But he had a good advisor who told him to focus on one thing only. That focus on a single metric - the number of businesses added to Vconnect platform within a specific geography - was a major contributor to their early success. One of my biggest takeaway from this episode is this: ecommerce business is harder and more complex than people think it is from the outside. It’s one of the most difficult business to scale. And success is dependent on a lot of factors that is beyond the control of one company. Successful ecommerce companies are built on a lot of existing and continously innovated infrastructure, such as payment, logistics, stock management, consumer online behaviour, merchant education and trust. Stay humble, stay focussed, stay grounded. If you run a business that sells, or has a potential to sell via ecommerce platform, this episode is for you. On this episode, you'll learn: How he started Vconnect after an accident on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Why he pursued a degree in software engineering as well as the jobs he did before starting vconnect. How to get traction by focusing on ‘One Metric the Matter’ and specific market segment. The advice given by a member of the Vconnect Advisory Board that significantly shaped the business. The conversation he had with his previous employers when he informed them that he was about to leave to start his business, and how they ended up funding his startup! How well-funded competition helped educate the market, and what they learn from them. How Vconnect tried to pivot  into ecommerce business model, why it failed and and the biggest takeaways from taking that experiment. Why you need to really care about unit metric of your startup The key things that matters before setting up an ecommerce business in Africa Why it is important to build around your core competencies as a businesses rather than do-it-all Why it is important to get your team to speak into significant changes you are making as as business. What Vconnect’s plan for the next few years is as well as an interesting add-on they've included in their directory services Why African tech ecosystem will be strengthened through collaboration Selected links from this episode This episode was brought to you by is a legal firm that specialise in working with early stage startups in Africa. They understand the peculiarities of business as a startup. They are trusted by many other startups including the likes of paystack, callbase, pass.ng, techcabal, printivo, wecyclers, and many others. To get free consultation as a listener of this podcast… fill out the form on is a ridiculously simple online accounting platform specifically designed for small and medium scale businesses in Africa. Accounteer simplifies your financial report, help you to create invoices, track your expenses and avoid overpaying taxes. It is integrated to local payment solutions such as PayStack in Nigeria and DusuPay in Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. To get an exclusive 75% off your first year subscription, sign up FREE at