The Founder Files Scaling Africa's Largest Click and Collect Network - Lars Veul, Pargo
Online shoppers, stores and retail companies all love Pargo, a South African logistics company transforming the e-commerce landscape with over 4000 pickup points in South Africa and a recent 500 more in Egypt. Today we are joined by Lars Veul, the co-founder and CEO of this rapidly growing business. Lars shares Pargo's journey—from founding to scaling—offering insights into their successes and missteps along the way. We explore how the Pargo team initially lost focus by trying to tackle new problems that customers brought to them. Lars explains how this shift impacted the business and, despite a financial setback, why they chose to double down on their core identity instead. Spoiler alert—the payoff was huge. We also delve into the strategic decision to expand into Egypt and the process of establishing 500 locations and appointing a managing director. This episode packs many lessons and experience-shares from an amazing entrepreneur running a great business. Enjoy!
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This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
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00:00 Introduction 03:09 What is Pargo? 19:00 The founding story of Pargo 20:56 A look into Lars’ environment 21:43 Finding product-market fit 29:51 The difference between growing and scaling 33:38 International expansion into Egypt 41:43 The consequence of losing focus 55:14 The mindset mistake South African founders make 01:03:35 How Pargo decided which country to expand to 01:07:18 How did Pargo actually expand into Egypt from the other side of the continent? 01:14:40 What the next 6 - 12 months look like for Lars and Pargo