Earlier this year, I received a message on LinkedIn that sparked a wave of reflection about my journey with Web4Africa. The sender, Damilare, was reaching out to connect with me. I’ll share part of what they wrote: “I have been using Web4Africa for a while and found it has been acquired by HOSTAFRICA. How were you able to build Web4Africa?”
The backstory is simple: I started Web4Africa in 2002 in Accra, Ghana.
The Initiative
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When Damilare asked, “How did you get the initiative?” – which I interpret as “How did I find the drive to start Web4Africa?” – it made me think about the circumstances that led to its creation. Back in 2002, there were very few, if any, web-related companies in the region. Web Design was a nascent, niche industry, and web hosting was even less common. I launched Web4Africa out of necessity – purely out of the need to survive.
At the time, I found myself in a new environment with no means of income. I had to rely on the little skills I possessed to generate a living for myself. It began with basic graphic design – think flyers and the like. Eventually, I drifted into web design. With some rudimentary web design skills in my toolkit, I started creating websites for companies and organizations that needed an online presence.
The name “Web4Africa” came to me during a transformative period in my personal life. I was gaining knowledge about African consciousness, inspiring me to build a company offering web-related services tailored to the African market. The “4” in the name? It’s just a short, funky way of saying “Web For Africa.”
Building the Team
Damilare’s next question was, “How did you build the team?” In the early days, I was the team – if you can call it that. I started solo, but as the workload grew, hiring became necessary. If memory serves, the first people I brought on board were for customer service. By then, Web4Africa had evolved into a web hosting business. I rented an office space large enough to accommodate the team I needed at the time, hiring based purely on necessity.
Raising Funding
Then came the third question: “Did you raise funding for Web4Africa, and how?” The answer is no – I didn’t raise any funding. Web4Africa was entirely bootstrapped. I started with zero investment if I can put it that way. Every bit of money I earned went straight back into the business. That’s how I scaled it over time. There was never a moment when I secured external investments or raised funds – it was all self-funded, with income continuously reinvested. Raising funding has its advantages, but bootstrapping does, too. Each path has its challenges, but Web4Africa grew organically over the years.
Marketing
The fourth question was about marketing: “How did you go about it?” In 2002, there was no social media, and the internet itself was still new. Marketing meant going offline to draw people online. I was selling a service to get businesses on the web, but advertising online was pointless – hardly anyone was there. Relative to the population, very few people were online back then. My approach was to convince owners of regular businesses to establish an online presence, showing them they could reach more people or even an international audience if their business was positioned for it.
One strong example of my target market was travel and tour companies in Ghana. These businesses needed to attract an international audience to visit Ghana and explore its offerings. Marketing online made sense for them because some people in the Western world already had internet access. It was a niche strategy but the only way to sell back then. I focused on industries that would benefit from an online presence, especially those with international potential. Initially, I marketed Web4Africa by printing flyers and placing ads in The Mirror, a weekly publication owned by Graphic Communications in Ghana. Their classified ads section was affordable, and I used it – particularly in the Saturday edition – to promote domain registration, web hosting Они, and web design as a package.
Being Profitable
The fifth question was a two-parter: “How do you manage the business, and how do you make it profitable?” Universal business principles apply to almost any venture, and one of the simplest is “buy low, sell high.” That’s the most basic way to profit. In my case, I aimed to scale Web4Africa as fast as possible. As the market grew, I priced domain names and hosting as low as I could while still reaching the widest audience possible. The strategy was to appeal to the mass market – numbers were key. I wanted to sell as many domain names and hosting accounts as I could, and that scale eventually brought profits. As for managing the business, I handled it myself, building skills over time. I hired the right people to manage operations, and I supervised them.
Managing Stress
Next up: “How do you manage yourself with the stress of running the business?” I have to laugh because, over time, the stress was real and came in many forms – like server issues affecting many websites and upsetting customers. I had to handle communication and restoration efforts, which could get overwhelming. I managed it by separating my personal life from my business life. I intentionally carved out mental downtime when I was off the clock with my family. That balance helped me maintain a healthy lifestyle. When you’re with family, you try to stay happy and leave the stress behind. Then, when you return to work refreshed, you bring new ideas to tackle challenges.
Affordability
The seventh question was, “How did you make the service so cheap?” “Cheap” is relative, but I’ll take it to mean “affordable”. Scale was key, as I hinted earlier. Selling at scale lets you offer affordable prices to the masses. For web hosting, I started with a reseller account years ago, then moved to renting dedicated servers as we outgrew it. Eventually, I invested in server infrastructure – networking gear, servers, the works. We built our network across data centres, which took us to a new level of scale. That allowed us to sell at affordable prices. Two factors were critical: scale and operating high up the supply chain. When I sold Web4Africa, we owned everything – servers, networking equipment, IP addresses. As an ICANN-accredited registrar, we dealt directly with registries like .com and .ng, getting domains at cost with no middleman. That kept prices reasonable. For a beginner, jumping to the top of the supply chain isn’t economical – it makes sense only after building scale and a large customer base, which happened with Web4Africa.
Become a Mentor?
Finally, Damilare asked, “Can I become your mentee?” Yes, absolutely! You can send me relevant questions anytime, and I’ll respond to the best of my ability. That’s the most I can offer right now.
Thank you for these questions – I hope my answers have been helpful. If you’re reading this, I hope you find them valuable too. My goal is to inspire you to excel in what you do, become the best version of yourself, and scale your ventures to their full potential. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
