🥧 Feast on the $15.7 Trillion AI Pie...

Plus: Helper bots 🦾, pulsating aliens, a 1M user-strong MySpace clone & insider secrets to startup scaling in SA.

Got game? Watch these researchers run the 1993 Doom game in real-time AI. So it’s not perfect (yet), but there’s no game engine, just a neural network simulating the game in real-time, based on user inputs. This is basically the first step towards really complex text/voice-to-game gen.

In this Open Letter:

• Make’em machines work: Using AI to make SA companies Rmillions.
• Helper bots, pulsating aliens & the 1M user-strong MySpace clone.
• Learn to scale: Your business growth strategy, sorted.
• How you prefer to enjoy a book: The results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.

Together with:

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TRENDING NOW

Making Sense of Data and Machines

Before the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, most people’s understanding of Artificial Intelligence was that it was the thing that empowered Skynet to take over the world…

Within 5 days of its launch, ChatGPT hit 1 million users (for context, Instagram took 2.5 months and Netflix 3.5 YEARS to hit 1 million users).

Suddenly everyone knew something about AI. And pretty soon, it became the buzzword getting thrown around boardrooms like: “Well, how do we integrate our product/service/offering with AI?”

And it’s not surprising everyone wants a slice of the AI Pie…

There’s big money at play for AI. As more and more AI tools hit the market, their use cases get bigger and bigger, with some estimating that AI could contribute as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030.

But not everyone is ready for the AI boom

There have already been a bunch of now-famous AI blunders…

Air Canada had to fork out over CA$800 to a grieving passenger after its AI chatbot gave them the wrong info about the airline's bereavement fares.

AI-generated sports articles came under fire after it was found that Sports Illustrated published articles by fake authors (including their AI-generated headshots), while another publication was forced to pause its AI tool covering high school sports after it missed out on key information (like, you know, the teams’ names).

Or the use of AI recruiting tools that reject applicants based on their (older) age, or Amazon’s AI recruiting tool that only recommends men.  

Not to mention deep fakes, AI’s use in scams and a bunch of other not so lekker stuff.

‍

A local AI Agency making big plays

The above scenarios could be attributed to a variety of reasons, from newly launched AI companies to top management not fully grasping how their businesses could benefit (or not benefit) from AI. 

But where the power of AI really shines is where there is a large amount of data, if processed, that could show areas of improvement or optimisation.

That’s exactly what local data and applied AI startup Spatialedge is helping many of Africa’s largest multinational enterprises develop bespoke AI solutions that solve some of their biggest business headaches.

The team has built over 170 bespoke solutions, including:

• A Markdown Tool to help Pepkor achieve a 92.7% sell-off rate (meaning they do not have stock left at the end of the season, and the discounts offered didn’t sink them)
• A proactive model to forecast accident hotspots to bring a 30% decrease in road fatalities over a major long weekend. 
• A predictive maintenance solution for a mining client to determine when tyres needed replacing, resulting in a decrease in income loss due to operational halts to the tune of $500’000 per month.  

They’ve been around since 2017, working closely with big retail clients like Vodacom, Pepkor, and Ackermans. They recently surpassed R300 mil in revenue which helped them secure R60 million in funding in April this year. 

Something we found interesting is that their preferred hire is someone with an industrial engineering degree. Why? They are often technical enough to understand the tech part, but it's the operational design thinking that helps them identify where in a business machine learning can best add value.

With the race to the top in AI still going and local players like Spatialedge making a big impact for their clients, we’re watching this space…

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IN SHORT

👚 Super”bye”list. Takealot announced on Monday that it has sold its struggling online fashion retailer, Superbalist, to a private equity consortium led by Black Canvas Capital.

🤖 Robots pretending to be Human. 1X Robotics has unveiled a beta version of its humanoid robot Neo. Back by OpenAI, Neo has advanced movement and agility due to its bioinspired actuators and advanced vision systems.

👽 Contact. Over the weekend an Astronaut rang up NASA’s ground crew to report a repeating “almost like a sonar ping” coming from a speaker onboard the Boeing Starliner craft. Listen to the call and the sound in the article.

💰Life Tyme. Sanlam Life is set to acquire a 25% stake in African Rainbow Capital Financial Services Holdings Proprietary Limited (ARC FSH). ARC FSH has existing investments in Tyme Bank, AI Fund, CrossFin and Ooba.

💼 Die Kantoor. SA is getting its very own version of ”The Office”. Local streamer Showmax has secured the rights to adapt the show, making it the 14th international adaptation of the hit show. Filming will be done primarily in Afrikaans and will kick off in 2025.

🚀 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with project management tools like Notion and super-easy social payment collection with WigWag.

Builder’s Corner

When (and How) to Get Serious about Strategy

Written in conjunction with Metavolve.

We have all heard how important strategy is, but, man, oh man, can people make it fluffy. So today, we asked scale strategy specialists Metavolve to share their framework for developing a scaling strategy.

Here are the four key pillars of developing a world-class scaling strategy :

Pillar 1: Market positioning

Understanding your market positioning is all about understanding who you compete with, what makes you different and why it matters.

Who you compete with could be someone with a similar product, but for most SaaS companies, they simply go up against MS Excel (or Google Sheets). This means that instead of using your product, they rely on a tool which is currently free (albeit clunky).

There are big differences in how we position and sell when our main competitor is Google Sheets as opposed to some other great product.

Pillar 2: Competitive advantages

Ask the question, “Mr customer, how can I serve you better?” and that means being able to solve the need better than anyone or anything else.

This includes:

• The customer experience through your product and engagement
• Addressing their actual pains as opposed to perceived pains

What is less obvious is that it sometimes means cutting down on your offering or actually doing nothing. That’s right. Finding your competitive advantage is about doubling down on that which matters most and where you can win.

Pillar 3: Customer Experience

The customer experience is crucial in retaining existing customers and landing new ones. 

In fact, nearly 90% of customers value the customer experience a company provides just as much as the product or service it’s offering.

So key questions to have the answers for include:

• How stress-free is it to work with your company?
• Does your value proposition align with your customer’s needs?
• Does it leave anything up to chance?
• Does the experience set, meet and exceed your customers’ expectations?
• Is it an emotionally positive experience?
• Does the experience provide positive benefits and make your customer feel good?

It’s also important to remember that customer experience is not the same as user experience! It’s the qualitative experience they have at each and every touchpoint with your business. It’s how they feel about it.

‍

Pillar 4: Growth strategy

There are many different ways to grow your business. Anywhere from vertical or horizontal integration, diversification, Geo-expansion, or even good old organic growth from selling the same thing to more customers, proving your organisation’s ability to retain and add new customers.

But sometimes, the shinest looking thing might not be the right fit. You’ve got to be growing in the way that makes the most appropriate choices, given the unique circumstances your company is in, to help maximise your chances of achieving the best possible results.

If you want to get stuck into strategy, we have two amazing offers for you:

1. Come join our free LinkedIn Live session with Metavolve this coming Friday (6 Sept ‘24) between 12:00 and 13:00, where we will practically unpack each of these pillars further. Book your spot here.
2. Or… Exclusive for Open Letter readers, book a 45-minute call to get going with your strategy.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Recently, in our online community, we…

• Learnt about a host of absolutely 🔥 podcast guests coming up in the next few weeks.
• Tested some seriously cool WhatsApp-based AI polling and interviewing tech.
• Welcomed so many new members, it’s starting to hum in here…

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.
  
  

All for only R250 a month. Go Open Letter Pro today, and let’s build together…

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What You Said…

We asked what you read most, and paper books’re the way…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📚 Physical books – I influence Exclusive Books’ Top 10 shelf (42%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📱Reading apps like Bookt (7%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ ✉️ Emails and other work-related documents (29%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗞️ The news (7%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📺 The subtitles on Netflix count as reading, right? (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔥 Startup, tech and business trends in The Open Letter (12%)

Your 2 cents…

“Love the feeling of paper between the fingers! But platforms like Everand and Perlego is also amongst my top platforms to access great books! And the occasional Kindle download when Takealot does not have stock!”

Herman

Sounds like you just enjoy a healthy reading habit. Nice one, Herman 📚☕

“I use Kindle and have invested in that eco system. Have found that it is quite useful as can send PDF there as well. Had a look at the book list and it is quite limited. I assume that the idea is that it becomes a distribution for ebooks. However, would be good to see whether it can tap onto other eco-systems.”

Muller

Hmm, good insights, Muller, sure Bookt is enjoying and learning from your engagement here 💯

“I generally shop for my books online and find Loot to be the best. Readers Warehouse is also well-priced. I enjoy going into a bookshop and browsing and then buy whatever I am interested in online.”

Lauren

Wonderful, Lauren, sounds like you know where the get all the good reads (and the best deals) 💌📖

"’Physical’ as in audio books I read while exercising or driving”

GJ

He he, love it GJ! Always on the move… 👟🎧📕

💡 How to Read 18+ Business Books a Year

Plus: Durex’s data dribble 🎈, SA’s new unis, Discovery’s 1M banking users & perfecting your startup scaling strategy.

Thinking big? Scientists have found a new use for AI: helping us figure out how reality works. In a new study, astrophysicists explain how they trained a specially-built AI on 2’000 simulated universes (to learn subtle differences in galaxy arrangement) and then used it to analyse 110 thousand real galaxies.

They claim to have found a clue to the parameters or “settings” of our universe — the Matrix or whatever — through AI’s sheer computational power.

In this Open Letter:

• Big gains: The world’s business knowledge in 10 mins a day.
• Durex’s data fumble, SA’s new unis & Discovery’s 1M users.
• Next-level business growth: Learn from the strategy masters.
• Strategies for running out of money: The results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.

Together with WigWag:

Did someone forward you this email? Join 12,479 South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

TRENDING NOW

All the World’s Business Knowledge in 10 Minutes Per Day

More people can read than ever before…

Since 1820, when only 1 in 10 people could read, reading has become by and large accessible to most people around the world – at around the 87% mark.

Now, while there are certainly some serious outliers scoring very low – Mali at 31% and South Sudan at 35% – most developed countries have a 99% literacy rate today. (South Africa’s literacy rate is around 90% these days, on track with global.)

And it’s a good thing, too, because whilst billionaires don’t often agree on anything, one thing likes of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos all agree on is in business, reading as many books as possible is the key to success.

So, the more we can read (and actually do it), the better it will be for the economy.

‍

Business Books are Big Bucks

While it’s hard to pin down an exact market size for business-related books specifically, the global non-fiction book category’s market size is growing steadily. It’s expected to reach $15.1 billion this year – up from $14.62 billion in 2023 and is estimated to reach $16.94 billion in 2028.

Some estimate the global business/finance category could be around 25% of that, so perhaps around $3.75bn per year? (Around 80M+ or so books.)

And the information in there is good – publishers tend to take way more care in ensuring quality than what you see on podcasts, blogs and social media.

‍

But who’s reading them?

The thing is, once you start looking into it, it’s not clear who is buying all these business books and whether people actually read them.

Studies show that roughly a third of books are bought as gifts, and it’s mainly older people buying and reading them.

In fact, if you look at the media consumption habits of most C-suite, you’ll see about 74% read on their phone in the mornings – and it’s mainly e-blasts, newsletters and web articles or podcasts.

The 6% that say they consume media at night (when most people read a book) say they predominantly watch pre-recorded TV news reports.

So how can we help more people in business access the deep knowledge in books?

Well, it’s long been known that social reading works wonders in educational settings, and a number of professionals have argued that book clubs could be a prime motivational tool for learning in business – with some suggesting every company should start a book club.

And that’s just what one local startup is trying to do, on a much larger scale…

‍

Making reading social again…

Social reading app, Bookt is aimed at entrepreneurs to make reading simple, social and fun.

Bookt takes non-fiction business-related books and divides them into 10-minute daily reading segments called steps to help folks (like entrepreneurs, and those with full schedules) develop a regular reading habit. 

Plus, you’re able to connect with a global reading community to share notes and insights (just like the old-school book club), as they work through specific books together.

While starting as a B2C, they recently pivoted to B2B, which allows teams to create book clubs in their organisations, reading and discussing the content with each other. Using micro-prompts and discussion points, it gets readers to read the book 10 minutes a day on their phones— resulting in reading an entire book in under a month.

Its AI integration can know what book you’re reading, respond to the notes you’re making in specific sections of the book, pull in real-life examples, and even bring in YouTube videos like Ted Talks etc.

We had Bookt founder Louis-Neil Korsten on the pod this week. Check it out, it’s a real page-turner…

As our attention spans dwindle, and more and more solutions are built to counteract that, leveraging smarter ways to help people learn in shorter, sharper bursts, we’re on the cusp of a new era of learning and development. We’re watching this space… 

Podcast Highlights:

• Wanna know why they’ve limited their catalogue to individuals? Listen to Bookt’s GTM strategy.
• Get insights on tearing down a big corporate wall one book at a time… 
• Don’t be a closed book: How to handle competition in the startup ecosystem.
• Recruiting the champion within – get people inside corporates to sell your product for you.
• When to launch your product, and how some corporates working with small startups can see the bigger picture.

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IN SHORT

💰 Securing the Bag. Local FinTech startup Omnisient has just raised US$7.5 million in Series A funding. The privacy-preserving data collaboration and insights platform will use the funding to expand across Africa and beyond.

🪴 Banking 1 Million. Discovery Bank has reached the 1 million user mark two years earlier than initially planned. Launched in 2019, it has grown into a completely digital, comprehensive retail banking offering, attracting over 1’000 new clients per day.

🛰️ More African Starlinks. Following the telecommunications regulator in Botswana’s approval for an operating license in May, Bots has just become SA’s THIRD bordering neighbour to launch Starlink, with Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Namibia all expected to launch by the end of this year.

🎓 Houses of learned Drs. South Africa is set to get 5 brand-spanking-new tertiary institutions including 2 new government universities (the University of Policing and Crime Detection and the University of Science and Innovation) and 3 private tertiary education hubs: Akedemia by Solidriteit, Stadio, and AdvTech.

🎈 Durex Data Dribble. Durex in India has leaked hundreds of its customers’ personal data including names, contact details, and order information due to a lack of proper authentication on its order confirmation page. Honestly, the jokes write themselves.

😎 Get Accelerated. One of our partners, OCFO, is launching the third season of Founders Foundation in partnership with Investec. Get your startup financed and market-ready with this 8-month accelerator program. Apply here

CHECK THIS OUT

Getting Paid Faster, from Anywhere

With the number of online transactions set to double between 2022 and 2027 in SA, streamlining your card payments will become vital.

That’s why you need trusted payment technology, that’s easy to set up, with 24/7 instant payouts from anywhere in the world, with human support and all at a good price.

WigWag uses Stitch’s world-class technology to offer:

• E-commerce plugins: Integrate your Shopify, WooCommerce, Webflow or Squarespace site with WigWag to seamlessly accept card payments.
• Embedded payments: Check out WigWag’s API docs if you are building a tech solution and want to embed payments.
• Global receiving: WigWag processes any Visa and MasterCard, globally, getting you paid, from anywhere in the world.
• Instant payouts: Real-time withdrawals for smooth business operations.
• Human support: WigWag is always available to help.
• Ad hoc payments: Use checkout links or add card payments to Xero invoices for payments outside of your store.

New to card payments? Check out this simple payments directory to easily guide you step by step.

Ready to simplify your payment processes? Check out WigWag today.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

On Friday 6 September, we’re hosting the startup strategy pros from Metavolve on LinkedIn Live for a session on what it takes to scale like a legend. And, guess what? This one’s free and open to anyone — sign up here.

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

In the last 48 hours alone, in our online community, we…

• Discovered Nick Grey, who is a master at teaching you to host events that don’t get stale or boring.
• Tyler shared a nifty WhatsApp bot his team built that listens to your voice notes and writes the transcript for you — with notes, to-dos and availability checking coming soon.
• Learnt about a Bitcoin community empowering local businesses along the Garden Route.
  
  

And had our first awesome event in Cape Town…

‍

Coming Up Next Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked if you’d use early wage access, and most here have some windfall funds…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💰 No, I use my emergency fund (46%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💳 I use credit cards and overdrafts for emergencies (29%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪙 I use other financial services (2%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏡 I use friends or family (11%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📲 Yes, I use an EWA product (0)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✅ I would love to use EWA! (13%)

Your 2 cents…

“Check out this company too: https://levelfinance.co.za/”

Jennifer

Thanks for the intro, Jennifer! 🔥

“First month after employment really covers your whole journey through work. And if you don’t have money from the first day, let alone a bus ticket, you are screwed. And I mean bolted straight on a huge problem. Called into a brief meeting and warnings, taking you straight to a final warning and a "get out of here". EWA sounds like a EUREKA.”

Xola

Hi Xola, yes, so many people really want a job at a company that has EWA, for that reason. And did you know that Jem’s stats show that 70-80% of people who use EWA, use it for important things like transport and groceries? 🙌

Get the sun to shine at night? If you’re looking to get more juice out of solar (or do an insanely awesome party trick), check out this startup working on reflecting sunlight from space onto your chosen destination on Earth at night.

In this Open Letter:

• Ripple effect: Using tech to protect 15M+ SA livelihoods.
• SA’s new AfriLab, Eskom-powered EVS & TymeBank hits Asia.
• Accelerate yourself: Join a leading accelerator program.
• What skills you’d like to learn: The final results are in.
• Startup ideas: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.
  
  

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join 12,360 South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

TRENDING NOW

Protecting 15M+ SA Livelihoods

Housing, profit, employment, economic growth… it’s easy to get frustrated with South Africa’s economic performance when you’re out of touch with grassroots level.

Example: Did you know that Stanlib found that 75% of working South Africans live paycheck to paycheck? (Eek, that’s like 15 million people!)

One debt counsellor claims as much as 70% can’t pay their bills on time, while another’s quarterly reports show many households are repaying up to 62% of their income to debt.

And it doesn’t get much better for higher earners – stats show the debt-to-income ratio among many earning over R20k per month is a staggering 127% (meaning if they pay their entire salary, they’re still 27% short on monthly debt repayments).

Where most of the pain is felt

But those are all stats on people who can actually access financial services such as loans. 

For many South Africans, an emergency means getting money through loan sharks or “mashonisas,” who charge interest fees that are upwards of 50%. That’s right, borrow R500 a week before payday, and it’s either you pay them R750 or lose a kneecap. 

And as many as 40% of SA households borrow from these predatory lenders.

The cost of SA’s bad debt

This year, the Reserve Bank estimated that 80% of SA is banked, meaning as much as 20% of South Africans still don’t have access to basic financial services, let alone financial education, which the World Bank’s Global Findex reports show tends to:

• Increase poverty
• Lead to disempowerment (and disenfranchisement)
• Promote a rise in inequality
• Studies even show it directly affects economic growth.

But you can see it even more directly within SA companies, where research by Visa has shown that 84% of employees spend time thinking about their money troubles at work (34% over 4 hours per week), which directly lowers productivity.

By how much? Well, one 2017 Mercer study found at a company with 10k employees, financial stress causes 1’922 hours of lost productivity per week – costing the company R533k every week.

‍

The on-the-ground solution

One of the most promising solutions is Earned Wage Access (EWA), aka On-Demand Pay, which innovates at a specific point of inefficiency in companies – the payday schedule.

Instead of holding employees to a 30-day pay cycle, EWA makes a percentage of the employee’s already-earned wages available to them, negating the need to borrow externally.

This allows the employers to actively:

• Help curb indebtedness among employees
• Control interest rates and repayments
• Improve employees’ financial health
• Use the opportunity to educate employees on finances.

Good for everyone.

Great, so who’s innovating in this space?

Locally, there are a few players in the EWA space, including Floatpays and Paymenow, who both have a dedicated EWA app.

But, we like the way Jem handles its EWA product as a Whatsapp-first solution, i.e. no friction by using an affordable platform the user (employee) is probably already using (it has a 95% adoption rate).

It's way cheaper than anything else workers typically have access to. For example, a R500 advance with Jem costs the user R19, as opposed to R250 from a payday lender – helping people get out of debt.

The service is free for employers, and in addition, it offers these benefits to employers:

• Reduce HR admin hours spent on payday loans (dropped to 0 after EWA)
• Reduce absenteeism and promote financial wellness
• Promote financial literacy (a free WhatsApp-based financial education programme is part of Jem’s EWA offering)

Yes, there’s still a long way to go toward true financial inclusion and empowerment in South Africa. But with innovators like Jem offering tangible no-cost benefits that educate and help curb the debt cycle, there’s reason to get excited. We’re watching this space…

‍

IN SHORT

🌍 African Expansion. Africa’s largest network of innovation and tech hubs, AfriLabs, has added 18 new hubs, bringing its network to just under 500 hubs in 261 cities across the African continent. This includes a hub in a new city in Stellenbosch, South Africa at the Stellenbosch University LaunchLab.

👮‍♀️ Menotté en France. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was taken into custody at the Paris–Le Bourget Airport over the weekend on “suspicion of failing to take steps to prevent criminal use of Telegram”.

🏄 Indonesian Tyme. SA’s digital bank, TymeBank is further expanding into Southeast Asia with the launch into its 3rd market, Indonesia by the end of this year. This follows its October 2022 launch in the Philippines and its Vietnam launch in January 2024.

⚡️ Eskom’s EVs. Partnering with Gridcars, SA’s power utility Eskom has joined the EV industry with the launch of several new car chargers across SA, as well as procuring 20 electric vehicles for operational use.

💥 Defense Plan. Y Combinator has backed its first defence start-up, Ares Industries. The startup is building low-cost cruise missiles that are compatible with existing launch platforms and could see the US Department of Defense get missiles 10x smaller, and 10 cheaper.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy no-code automation with Make and unlimited content to build your brand and authority with Stream.

CHECK THIS OUT

Want to give your startup a boost?

If you answered “yes”, join Founders Foundation NPC's Accelerator Programme in partnership with Outsourced CFO & Investec.

The Accelerator Programme runs from October 2024 to June 2025 and you will learn, among other things:

• Finance Readiness: Create funding opportunities + raise capital.
• Market Readiness: Elevate sales and marketing to get more clients.

The fee? An incredible 90% of the accelerator is donor-sponsored, meaning only a small opt-in fee is required.

If you are a business that has been in operation for at least two years and generates R1 million+ annually, then apply here:

Apply Now

Need more information? Check it out here.

Want to build your startup with a supportive community around you?

In the last 48 hours alone, in our online community, we…

• Welcomed two new founders to our growing community!
• Helped Piet get contacts to finance purchase orders on devices.
• Got some recommendations for podcast guests.
• And more…

Coming Up Next Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked what you’d like to learn, and language lessons rule…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🥐 A new language (28%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👨🏻‍💻 Coding (15%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤖 AI (20%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎻 How to play a musical instrument (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📐 Woodworking (9%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔮 How to know what my spouse/partner is thinking (9%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤪 What’s trending in SA’s startup ecosystem (15%)

Your 2 cents…

“That Kayle & Peele meme had me rolling”

Ayuballie

He he, glad you enjoyed it — we couldn’t resist. 😂

“Now, if only there was a place I could get this info straight to my inbox 2x per week, be part of a lekker community of startup founders, and attend monthly events to find out about trends in SA's startup ecosystem...”

Jason

Yeh, if only such a resource existed. 😎🤏

Accurate enough? A high school in London has announced it’s going to be replacing some teachers with AI, despite experts warning not to since AI is still prone to weird hallucinations — just ask this founder who had to train his AI to stop RickRolling users.

In this Open Letter:

• Future view: Changing the way we learn, forever.
• Interns for Mahala, R1m’s UX up for grabs & Woolies goes dark.
• Last chance: Only 10 spots left at CT’s lekker-est startup event.
• How most of us buy our cars: And the results are in.
• Just for you: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.

Together with:

Did someone forward you this email? Join 12,202 South Africans reading The Open Letter by signing up here.

TRENDING NOW

A Whole New Way to Classroom

Covid sent online learning into overdrive…

Rocketing it from a respectable $164bn (R2.9 trillion) industry pre-Covid to an attractive $200bn (R3.6 trillion) and $240bn (R4.3 trillion) in 2022.

But, unlike a few things around Covid, e-learning has shown some real staying power.

The industry is expected to 5X globally to a cool $1 trillion by 2030.

So, naturally, there are a lot of players in this space… From your “familiar faces” like Coursera, Udemy, Khan and Shaw Academy to big universities offering unprecedented programmes like MIT’s online programmes and even a few free courses. 

To exciting newcomers like Jordan Peterson launching his own university.

Heck, one of SA’s most memorable exits in the last ten years was Cape Town brothers Rob and Sam Paddock’s online academy, GetSmarter, which sold for about R1bn. 

So, if you’re wondering how all these people can play in this pace, there’s something you should know…

It’s bigger than most of us think

See, when you think e-learning, most people immediately jump to K12 learning (you know, regular school, grade 1 to 12) and tertiary education.

But it is so much bigger than that. Also think:

• Corporate training –  ±R6 trillion industry
• Professional development – ±R790bn
• Microlearning – ±R27bn
• Language learning – ±R1.1 trillion
• Healthcare training – ±R1.9 trillion
• Financial literacy – ?? (surely billions)
• Coding and programming – ±R7.1 trillion

And you probably also need to think beyond the standard teacher-student concept (almost the entire world is short of teachers!) and start thinking about empowering people to teach each other.

Think of subject matter experts, retirees and experienced professionals sharing their insights; coaches and mentors able to connect with wider audiences; developers, IT pros and others in the tech space sharing skills and even tradespeople, musicians, writers, etc. all sharing the secrets of their craft with the next generation.

All that’s needed is a more creative space/way to teach…

The SA EdTech Building a Fully-Integrated Digital Classroom

Launched in 2018, local EdTech player Lessonspace is building a platform for virtual classrooms, online tutoring & collaborative learning.

Central to their platform is their collaborative whiteboard. And much like on actual whiteboards teachers and tutors can use it to make notes, draw drawings, and explain concepts.

What makes Lessonspace really interesting though is its set of education-specific tools that are built specifically for a wide range of subject matter including:

• Mathematics: Editable graphs and equations straight from the built-in resource drawer.
• Languages: Activities to help teach specific languages (10 at the moment, with more to come).
• Music: interactive sheet music so that students can learn to read and play different notes, songs etc.
• Coding: The collaborative whiteboard offers pair programming, complete with syntax highlighting.

Where most of its magic happens is as a tool existing EdTech tools plug into. This allows the platforms and institutions to focus on what they are good at, you know, courses and student matters, and leave the online classroom experience (high-quality video streaming without issue etc) to the experts.

This week, Lessonspace Founder Matthew Henshall was on this week’s podcast. Catch the entire episode.

With platforms like Lessonspace building bespoke, industry-specific tools and platforms to make the e-learning experience better for students and teachers alike, they’re poised to ride the online learning wave in a big way. We’re watching this space.

Podcast Highlights:

• Get the lowdown on Lessonspace’s central, most important company value.
• Understanding your customer and rolling with a changing customer landscape. 
• Insights for serial builders to hone ideas and cross-pollinate lessons.
• Education and the tech on everyone’s lips: Artificial Intelligence.

IN SHORT

🎓 Free Startup Interns. Graduate placement platform Jobox is on a mission to place 4’000 interns at SA companies; if approved, these interns will be paid a stipend at no cost to you. If you could do with an extra set of hands at your company, check out the InternFIT Programme.

🫡 Salute an SA Legend. South Africa’s most loved Maths and Science teacher William Smith (you know, the uncle from SABC 3) has passed away at the age of 85. Tributes have been pouring in for the teacher who helped countless South African learners and students pass Maths and Science. RIP, Sir.

🧠 Chipped Brain. Neuralink has confirmed its 2nd brain device implant surgery went well, with the recipient, Alex, able to design 3D objects and play video games.

🛵 In the Dark. Woolworths’ on-demand delivery platform Woolies Dash has seen a 71% growth in sales in the last year. The retailer will launch more ”dark stores” — not open to the public — to keep up with demand and to counteract the challenges of fulfilling online orders from local stores.

👩‍🚀 Startup Moonshot Help. Got an idea to get to market or pitch? Our friends at Jack Studios are celebrating their 10th birthday by giving startups a chance to secure R1 million worth of services — from UX to design, pitches to product help — to take a new idea to the moon. What you waiting for?

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with advanced lead sourcing and contact through Apollo and your own startup CFO without the hefty price tag with OCFO.

CHECK THIS OUT

Building Solid = Building Smart

When building Lean, especially early-stage, one of the last things you need to consider is the legal ramifications of testing and “breaking things”.

But, as many YCombinator startups learned in the 2010s, as soon as your idea gets legs, legalities become a big thing — one California University found up to 62% of new tech startups run into legal issues per year.

The truth is startups need legal advice for everything from company structure and compliance to contracts and agreements, securing your IP, employee matters, risk management and dispute resolution — and don’t even get us started on fundraising and managing investor relationships.

But there’s a catch: What startup can afford their own in-house legal person?

Fortunately, you don’t need to hire internally. You just need a savvy legal eye with ventures experience to step in and help every now and again.

That’s why we keep Dommisse Attorneys’ number handy — they know what high-growth companies need. Ask them yourself.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

In the last 48 hours alone, in our online community, we…

• Got Danei some pro design feedback on their trivia-style mini-game.
• Helped Pieter get the ball rolling in finding a non-tech co-founder.
• Had a good community laugh-cry session about the pressures of building big things when your old-school parents just want you to “get a freakin’ job”… #startuplife

And we have only 10 tickets left for our Cape Town event, so, you know…

Next week, 27 August at Stitch’s offices in Solan Road, Cape Town, we’re learning from successful African innovators and meeting the extended Open Letter community — grab your ticket here for only R150 or go for free if you are part of The Open Letter Pro (only R250).

Coming Up Next Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked how you purchased your vehicle, and cash is king…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚘 Bought a nice car with balloon payment and swapping for a new one every few years. (10%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💵 Cash, baby (48%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚲 I don’t have a car (18%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📈 Normal bank loan (24%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔑 I lease mine (0)

Your 2 cents…

“Bought a car via loan, almost done with balloon payment”

Angeline

Nice one, Angeline. Trust you got the wheels you wanted… 🚘

“As an immigrant worker, getting a credit is an uphill battle. So I decided to work multiple jobs while living waay below my means to be able to save up for a car & pay for advancing my tertiary education.”

Isaac

Well done, Isaac. It’s tough but we’re all rooting for you. 💪🏽

“I fought hard to buy my car cash. It is second hand and I did not want to take out a loan. Less monthly expenses was the main goal! ”

Michelle

Remarkable, Michelle, hope you get many happy kms from it. 🚙

“Started off with balloon payment, then paid off the car early and now it is paid in full”

Madelein

Good one, Madelein. Hope you managed to save some on interest. 🏁

“First choice, so dumb, but hey. It's a hybrid so my petrol expense is decreased. And yes, that is what I need to tell myself so that I can sleep at night.”

Andersen

Hmm, nah we think you can sleep soundly, Sir! 🔋

‍

‍

🔥 Moving a Quick R66bn in Cars

Plus: Spaza shop solar 💡, FinTech finalists, MTN’s mixed bag & Cape Town’s lekker-est startup event.

Need a medkit? America’s FDA has approved a real-life medi-gel treatment, so you can patch up like in video games. The algae-based innovation that’s been on the cards for 10 years now (here’s the original video) will finally be available in real life.

In this Open Letter:

• Fleet deals: Moving R66bn’s worth of vehicles, fast.
• Spaza shop solar, flying our FinTech flag & MTN’s mixed bag.
• Ready Cape Town? Tickets for our first CT event are flying.
• The hardest part of hiring new people: The results are in.
• Startup ideas: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.
  
  

In Cape Town next week?

Join us for our first Cape Town in-person ever!

Get Tickets

TRENDING NOW

Moving a Quick R66bn’s Worth of Cars

About a quarter of the 12 million-odd vehicles on SA roads are commercial ones. And it is estimated that more than 184k new commercial vehicles hit the SA roads every year.

But many (if not most) of these vehicles aren’t owned by the companies that operate them. Rather, they are leased from a bank or another company. 

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The reasons for this differ from company to company, but generally, it’s due to:

• Cashflow: Reducing high upfront costs and better cash flow management.
• Mitigating risks: By not owning the vehicles, companies can transfer certain risks (like maintenance issues, depreciation, and resale challenges) to the leasing or fleet management company. This can be particularly valuable for businesses that do not specialise in vehicle management.
• Outsourcing non-core functions: For many companies, managing a vehicle fleet is not a core function of their business. Outsourcing this through leasing or fleet management allows them to focus on what they do best, while still having access to the vehicles they need.
• Tax benefits: Leasing a vehicle typically results in it being classified as an expense as opposed to a depreciating asset on the balance sheet. Sometimes, you pay less company tax when you are profitable.
  

So, an entire industry developed around the financing and leasing of commercial vehicles. 

These companies put together packages for their clients based on the capital required to purchase those vehicles, all other costs associated with leasing the vehicle and the money they estimate they will make from selling the second-hand vehicles once the contract expires. 

‍

On the flip side, the leasing and de-fleeting business itself and, in fact, most car rental companies, have two major risks when offloading cars:

1. Understanding the residual value (the price you’ll be able to sell that second-hand car for once the lease agreement ends).
2. Having a buyer ready at an acceptable price (to make the whole deal profitable) as soon as the agreement finishes.

A few years back, all of that had to be done manually, making it a very tricky business – the de-fleeter had to know a bunch of second-hand dealers they could move stock onto. 

Not very efficient, not very scalable, and very risky.

‍

An SA online marketplace that works!

Online marketplaces are notoriously hard to build in SA, largely due to the lack of market size that impedes reaching critical mass.

However, the local B2B marketplace, DealersOnline, managed to do just that in the de-fleeter space. Think rental car companies, banks and other fleet solutions companies on the supply side, and second-hard card dealers on the demand side.

Their bidding platform, which now operates in several countries across Africa and the Middle East, helped large banks increase the sales value of their vehicles by up to 12%, and reduced the time to sell a vehicle from 45 days down to under 5. 

And when you increase revenue and reduce time to sale, there is a margin to be made (to learn how much and how the business works, sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get the exclusive deep-dive info).

‍

Good volume 

They currently sell between 4’500 and 5’500 vehicles per month in SA alone, where they operate the platform (as well as their vehicle inspection and storage offering), so they have one of the most accurate predictions of what second-hand vehicles sell for in SA. This neatly solves the fleet owner’s other problem of calculating that residual value.

Whilst no longer a startup (Barloworld did own a majority stake at one point, which the founders bought back again later), it’s impressive what they managed to build in a short space of time.

With a local used car market still going strong, innovative ways to get used cars into the hands of South Africans are a good bet. We’re watching this space…

THE OPEN LETTER PRO ONLY

Get exclusive insights into this startup, the industry and other opportunities, PLUS join our community of founders who get access to free events and support in building their businesses and more…

Go Pro

IN SHORT

🔋Powering spaza shops. Local solar-as-a-service provider Wetility is partnering with informal retailer FinTech A2Pay to provide affordable solar solutions to A2Pay’s merchant network of more than 6’000 spaza shops.

💰 Securing the bag. The annual Ecobank Fintech Challenge has announced its 12 startup finalists including SA’s very own EasyEquities, with the winner set to walk away with a cool US$50’000 in prize money.

🚘 GM’s AI play. General Motors is cutting nearly 1’000 software jobs globally to focus on higher priority initiatives like improving its driver assistance system Super Cruise, improving its infotainment platform and exploring the use of AI.

🥴 Mixed Bag. MTN has announced that it’s grown its user base for its super app Ayoba by 28.6% YoY to 36 million monthly active users. In stark contrast, its interim financial results for the first half of 2024 reveal a 20.8% drop in revenue for the group.

🏦 Stokvel stacked. Lesaka Technologies has invested R3.2m into local stokvel FinTech StokFella as part of their enterprise development initiatives.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with newsletter and automation tools like Beehiiv and business strategy development with Metavolve.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

Last week, in our online community, we…

• We learned a whack load of hardcore founder truths about hiring, firing, and building the kind of team that’ll get you there with special AMA guest Philip Joubert last Friday.
• We discovered that if you don’t record online sessions, pros feel free to open up and give you the cold, hard truths you need to build big and not fool yourself.
  

And we’re only just getting started.

This time next week, we’re meeting in person to learn what tech approaches work and what doesn’t in Africa…

See you on 27 August at Stitch’s offices in Solan Road, Cape Town, to learn from successful African innovators and meet the extended Open Letter community — grab your ticket here for only R150 or go for free if you are part of The Open Letter Pro (only R250).

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the entire Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free uncapped startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked what you dislike most about hiring, and it’s the resumes…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 😴 Going through countless CVs (40%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 👥 Interviewing people (30%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧟‍♂️ The candidates (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📝 The recruitment company (0)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥺 Letting someone go that stuffed up in probation (20%)

Your 2 cents…

“Love how you add a touch of humor to your reports!”

Roux

Ha ha, ja that’s just ‘cos we want you to have as much fun with this as we do. 🤓

🙌 Making 1m+ Hires, 70% Faster

Plus: Dricus’s Bok escort 🏉, SA’s dirty hotspots, movies while you bank & your chance to ask the Snapscan co-founder anything you want.

Back atcha? Did you see… when the head of the EU sent Elon Musk a written warning ahead of him hosting Trump on Spaces (X streaming) on Monday, Musk responded with this Tropic Thunder meme… Oh, behave.

In this Open Letter:

• Dire need: Streamlining the hiring process in SA.
• Dricus’s bomb squad, dirty air hotspots & Google AI phone embed.
• See you later: Ask the Snapscan co-founder anything.
• Who has and hasn’t lied to their boss: The results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.

Together with:

TRENDING NOW

Shorten that Hiring Cycle

Hiring people is hard… 

It’s time-consuming, resource-heavy, and not to mention costly.

In applications alone, some roles receive over 200 applications per role that you or your recruiting team have to sift through to make an appropriate shortlist. 

For many companies, it takes an average of 42 days, multiple rounds (3 or 4, sometimes more) of interviews with key organisational stakeholders and costing anywhere between R30k and R60k in time taken to make just one hire.

‍

And the cost of a bad hire is massive…

But if you think hiring someone is hard, it’s even harder to let them go.

It’s not that hard for people to misrepresent what they can do, and once hired, South African Labour law dictates quite a lengthy and costly process to part ways with an employee taking anything from 3 (if you are lucky) to 12 months to resolve.

So needless to say, a major need in this space is to be able to hire better, faster.

Enter Wamly.

Go from candidate to hire more accurately

Wamly enables employers to create customisable interview questions which prompt a candidate to answer the questions in a one-way video interview. Why video? Because, whilst CVs feature important information, getting a feel for a person is a critical part of hiring. And being able to do that at scale, improves accuracy and reduces cost.

Integrated into the self-interview style flow, companies can also make use of assessment tools to rate individuals’ skills.

Finally, with all the data in one place, teams can collaborate by scoring candidates and making comments, helping the hiring manager collect data asynchronously. Meaning no aligning of calendars to meet up and discuss candidates and less bias or pressure to select certain candidates.

They already optimise various parts of the recruitment process. From cutting down the number of interviews per candidate by over 70% to increasing the number of interviews a recruiter can manage in a fraction of the time. Smart plays and that’s why we got founder, Francois de Wet on our latest podcast. Highlights include:

• The costs and challenges of being first to market.
• Quality, consistency, fairness and candidates’ Wamly interview experience. 
• A gold nugget on innovative pricing for B2b
• How to navigate resistance to change

This industry is growing fast and there are major opportunities here. To learn more about Wamly, how they make money and other opportunities in this space, sign up for The Open Letter Pro.

THE OPEN LETTER PRO ONLY

Get exclusive insights into this startup, the industry and other opportunities, PLUS join our community of founders who get access to free events and support in building their businesses and

Go Pro

IN SHORT

🌬️ Powering Energy Tech. Remember when we wrote about The Energy Gold Rush back in June 2023? Well, the SA startup we featured Open Access Energy has just landed $750’000 in investment to aid its mission of enhancing the distribution and management of renewable energy.

🤖 AI-Powering SmartPhones. Google has announced that it’ll start rolling out its Gemini AI assistant to Android devices including its latest line of Pixel phones.

🤢 Dirty Air Hotspots. Scientists from the South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring have developed SA's first air quality monitoring system using sensors, IoT and AI called Ai_r to identify air pollution hotspots in real-time.

📱Banking on Streaming. Capitec and Showmax have joined forces to give the bank’s 12 million app users Showmax streaming vouchers for as little as R22 to watch series, movies and more, or all English Premier League games for only R34.

🏆 SA Champs. SA’s UFC champion Dricus du Plessis will be walked into the octagon by Bok World Champs Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth as he defends his middleweight UFC belt down under on Sunday morning (local time).

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with project management tools like Notion and super-easy social payment collection with WigWag.

CHECK THIS OUT

Build Trust or Fade Away

In South Africa, trust and authority are not nice to have — they literally make or break your business.

Edelman’s landmark SA Trust Barometer 2024 shows that 65% of South Africans are willing to trust businesses over the government and the media — but 89% agree they only trust businesses that communicate openly and consistently

In fact, the 2023 study found that 61% of consumers will only buy from brands they trust — and 73% of investors agree, saying they only back startups who put time and effort into becoming credible leaders in their niche.

But, there’s a problem…

Founder-led trust-building doesn’t scale. Once your company starts moving, you’re stretched thin managing product development, fundraising and team building.

And that’s as it should be — your time is simply better spent running the nuts and bolts of your business.

So what to do? Content.

Demand Gen’s 2023 report shows that 65% of B2B buyers want short-form blog posts and infographics that talk to their pain points — with 71% saying they prefer web content the closer they get to making a purchasing decision.

That’s why we created Stream, an unlimited content subscription for SA tech companies. We combine tech expertise (engineering) with pro writing to help you build authority and trust.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap

In the last 48 hours alone, in our online community, we…

• Connected Richard with a moonshot opportunity for his new secret project.
• Helped Andy discover the best/most efficient way to produce video content.
• Helped Danei find a freelance Bubble developer.
• Got Renier some rad video-cutting tool suggestions.

And we have two upcoming events you don’t want to miss…

Today at 12:00 we’re logging in to learn from OfferZen and Snapscan founder Philip Joubert — activate your Pro membership to get access.

On 27 August you’re invited to our in-person in Cape Town to learn tricks on building African solutions — grab your ticket here or go free with Pro.

Coming Up Next Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked if you ever lied on a timesheet, and you have to see it to believe it…

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🕵🏼 Of course! Mine reads like a mystery novel (16%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤓 Never, ever – rules is rules (29%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😎 Only when I’m really trying to impress HR (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙉 I tried, but my conscience clocked me out (10%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤨 What on Earth is a timesheet? (42%)

Your 2 cents…

“Lying on a timesheet is fraud - claiming payment for time not worked. This off course is an immediate dismissible offence!”

John

Indeed, John, which is why we don’t share these polls with HR. 🥸

“I used to fill out the timesheet to get a good name from the HR office.”

Vakele

Right? Sometimes compliance is easier than defiance. 🤷‍♂️

“Why lie. It is what it is. You can never accumulate time, keep or save it. So better to be correct. Conscience also plays a part.”

Winn

Ah yes. A clear conscience is a soft pillow. 😴

‍

😇 Clocking in with a Selfie...

Plus: The 1st Nigerian in space 🪐, electric arrow busses, Jozi’s solar crown & two unmissable startup events

CrazyGPT? Uh, Open AI just caught GPT emulating people’s voices. Under the “Observed safety challenges, evaluations & mitigations” of its latest self-scoring report there’s an actual audio clip of it having an outburst and speaking back to the user in their own voice. Dun dun dun…

In this Open Letter:

• Productivity play: The startup helping SA clock in with selfies.
• 1st Nigerian in space, electric arrow busses & Jozi’s solar crown.
• Let’s hang out: Two awesome Open Letter events — book your seats.
• How expensive is being a parent: And the results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this 10 times and get Pro.

Together with:

TRENDING NOW

Clocking in with a Selfie

Around 211 BC, the Romans changed the world (again) by switching from paying soldiers in salt (“sal” in Latin, where the word “salary” comes from) to silver coins.

The Denarius became the backbone of Roman currency. But more importantly, it was the unit of daily wage for Roman soldiers and labourers.

This was the birth of the workday wage.

Yet as timekeeping became more mainstream, wages changed to reward set hours and certain skills differently. In the industrial age, with machines running 24/7 and massive workforces, keeping track of all that data became mission-critical.

And to this day, clocking in and out is common practice for 9+ million South Africans across industries like construction, agriculture, retail, security and restaurants. 

Yet, with the rise of gig-work and flexible employment, chances are it might become even more common in the future.

‍

What’s currently out there?

Some companies still use mechanical sign-in, while some more modern solutions include the use of tags or biometrics.

But biometrics or even tags aren’t always practical. For one, the scanners are often fixed to factory walls and often carry a heavy price tag and upkeep costs. So what do you do when your workforce operates remotely but still needs to check in and out for work, like in the construction industry, where workers are required somewhere other than the company’s offices?

This is where local startup WorkWeek’s solution is a cost-effective alternative to traditional clocking devices or systems.

‍

Simply submit a selfie

With one internet-enabled smartphone on-site, an entire workforce can clock in and out by simply taking a selfie. The metadata of the image submitted is then used to check location and time and match that with an active working site or project predefined by the employer. 

This allows the company to have live data of who is working and where without having to send out a biometric scanning device to the field. The system then generates reports for payroll and business performance management purposes and where applicable data for health and safety records.

Because a selfie is hard to forge, it eliminates “Buddy Clocking” — when someone clocks in for a colleague. And live wage reports in real-time help companies forecast their payroll.

They have made some solid progress with around 80 clients and 3’000 workers logging roughly 5’000 clocking events per day in a short amount of time.

With smartphones becoming more accessible, and with more startups building solutions that leverage their built-in capabilities, we’re watching this space…

But there’s more…

This industry is growing fast and there are major opportunities here. To learn more about WorkWeek, how they make money and other opportunities in this space, sign up for The Open Letter Pro. 

ACCESS THE OPEN LETTER PRO DEEP DIVE & MORE

GO DEEPER: Get deep dives on SA startup unit economics in every newsletter.

CONNECT: Engage 40+ startup founders and operators in our Whatsapp community.

GET SUPPORT: Join our weekly office hours, get free consults and get referred.

ENGAGE: Get free tickets to all our events and exclusive ask-me-anything sessions with SA’s top founders, investors, and builders.

All this for only R250 per month.

Sign up to Pro

IN SHORT

👑 Solar Crown. Jozi’s Eastgate Mall has claimed the rooftop solar crown as its more than 13’600 solar panels make it Africa’s largest “registered” rooftop solar installation.

🚪 TikTok LayOffs. TikTok has laid off as many as 50 of its African team members from South Africa and Nigeria as part of its latest round of global layoffs.

🚍 Keep on Rolling. Golden Arrow Bus Services has signed a memorandum of cooperation with Eskom to set out terms for the introduction of 120 65-seater electric buses into the public transport sector later this year.

👩‍🚀 Nigerians in Space. Nigeria’s first space traveller will join other space travellers from India and some small island nations yet to be determined on the next Blue Origin space flight.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with tools like easy no-code websites via Webflow and services like Dommisse Attorneys who can help you get all your legal stuff sorted, fast.

CHECK THIS OUT

Scale Smart, Scale Health

In the high-speed world of tech startups, time is everything — which is why waiting days for a doctor’s appointment just doesn't cut it.

But founders and teams often prioritise product development over their health, which can lead to burnout and decreased productivity.

This is where Udok comes in.

It’s tech-driven healthcare that moves as fast as you do. Just log in and see the doctor in minutes from anywhere in the world.

And, like all good tech, it makes things affordable — Udok consults are up to 40% cheaper, too.

Keep yourself and your team at peak performance with Udok, now also with group health for startups.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

Over the weekend, in our online community, we…

• Made sure everyone had a break! (y’all deserve it)
• We did all laugh at Australia’s Olympic breakdancing, though.
  
  

But we did get requests for more events, so we’re delivering…

If he’s not exiting, he’s scaling internationally… and you should definitely learn from him… This Friday (16 August) at 12:00 sharp we have an online AMA with SnapScan, JourneyApps and Offerzen co-founder Philip Joubert.

Become an Open Letter Pro member to get access.

And then tickets for our next in-person event are live!

You’re invited to the Stitch offices at 29 Solan Road in Cape Town on Tuesday 27 August where we have product-legend-of-our-time Roger Norton from OkHi and co-founder and COO of WhatsApp-enabled HR heroes Jem, Caroline van der Merwe, talking about how to build uniquely African soluti

If you remember our event from last week, you’ll know to hurry — it sells out quite fast, so go grab your ticket here.

It’s R150 per person (the first 20 get them for R100), or you can get in for free by joining Open Letter Pro.

What You Said…

We asked how expensive it is to be a parent, and we need a couple of million R20M grants pls…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😎 I don’t even notice it (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😅 It’s not that bad (24%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🦕 They eating me out of the house (28%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💵 R1.8m to raise them? More like R20m! (44%)

Your 2 cents…

“Brown bread, bog-roll and Bovril were the three most frequent purchases in our household in those years.”

Chris

Ah yes, Chris, the 3 Bs at the heart of every good home!

“The more they grow, the more they cost you.”

Vakele

Oh no, don’t say that, Vakele; most of us still have a good 10/20 years to go.

🫶 Helping 21M+ Parents Save the Day

Plus: Toasters on demand 🍞, breaking an e-sweat, Woolies’ solar power play & SA startup royalty.

Great outdoors? You got solar for your home, now how bout a high-tech solar hat to keep your phone and devices charged wherever you go… Noice.

In this Open Letter:

• Little-big solutions: Giving 21M+ parents a helping hand.
• Toasters on demand, breaking an e-sweat & Woolies’ solar power play.
• Engage: Your chance to learn from an SA startup royalty!
• The worst thing the internet gave us: The results are in.
• Grab yours: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.
  
  

Together with Metavolve:

TRENDING NOW

Helping 21+ Million Parents Save the Day

Ask any parent and they will tell you: having kids is expensive... 

In the US, the cost of raising a child is an estimated $313k (±R5.6m). Sure, things are more pricey in the USA, so adjusted using the Big Mac index, that’s roughly R1,85 million to get them from birth to employment (excluding tertiary education).

Tough on parents, but this also means that, for every child born, it contributes that much to the GDP over the next 18 years. And with 1.2 million babies born in SA every year, it's safe to say that children growing up has a great impact on economies around the world. (Not to mention the tax revenue and contribution to the workforce once they reach 18). 

That’s why many people are concerned about declining birth rates globally.

Birth rates worldwide have declined by almost 54% since the 1950s and the UN estimates it’ll drop by another 34% by 2050.

You can bet the cost to raise a child graph is exactly the opposite of this.

In SA, the amount of babies being born per year has been consistent, but with population growth that actually means our birth rate is coming down. We are currently sitting around 18.8 births per 1’000 people (a 56% drop from 1950). 

The cost of having children, changes in the modern workplace resulting in more women being involved, urbanisation and other factors play major roles in declining birth rates. 

But one often-overlooked reason is just how difficult and taxing it can be to raise a little one in our modern, busy lifestyles.

Diagnosing issues quicker, and doing the right things that lead to healthy development – all while trying to not lose your mind — is something most modern parents battle with.

‍

Make it all make sense

Parent Sense is a science-backed mobile app that features real-world advice about your baby’s sleep, health, play, and nutrition, tailored specifically for your baby, to make parenting through different life stages a little bit easier…

Pregnancy: The journey starts during pregnancy, where Parent Sense walks the journey with an expecting mother explaining what’s happening, normalising some of the changes taking place and helping identify potential issues.

0–3 Months: The app uses the data moms enter to provide guidelines around sleep, feeding, and general health.

3–6 Months: As the baby gets older, the app navigates topics like improving a baby’s sleep, when and how to start with solid food, and how to deal with regression (that fun thing babies sometimes do: sleep poorly).

6–9 Months: Tips and tricks on how to fast-track your baby’s developmental leaps through play, as well as recipes and shopping lists for your little-big eater.

9–12 Months: As your baby approaches toddlerhood, Parent Sense is right there with advice on all the key things for their next developmental milestones.

And it’s quite a unique business. With roughly 140k potential new customers per year and a customer lifetime of at least 12-odd months (a baby’s first year) all the way up to 5 years, founder Meg Faure explains how they made it work on the latest episode of our Podcast 'How Would You Build It'.

Highlights from our podcast with Meg include:

• Why B2C is hard and how they’re making it work in South Africa.
• How being a subject matter expert helped her win.
• Building authority through content opened doors that were otherwise not possible.

ACCESS THE OPEN LETTER PRO DEEP DIVE

Want to get a detailed breakdown of how startups like Parent Sense work, grow and make money?

Then, sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get access to our Pro Deep Dives in every Open Letter that goes out.

PLUS join our community of 40+ South African founders building high-value startups and get free startup support, events access and more.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🛵 On-Demand Toasters. Massmart’s Game now lets customers shop for electronics and small appliances from its 51 stores via the Uber Eats app. Game has also integrated 23 of its stores into the on-demand delivery app OneCart.

👨‍💻 Coding For Madiba. More than 32’000 youth from Africa and Asia have participated in this year’s #Coding4Mandela tournament, with 70 teams heading to the national finals in September.

🎮 Breaking an Esweat. Fancy winning Olympic gold but couldn’t be bothered to train 12 hours a day? You’re in luck. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have decided to create the Olympic Esports Games, with the first competition to take place in Saudi Arabia in 2025.

☀️ Solar Power Play. SA retailer Woolworths is upping its renewable energy project investments with more than R10 million in solar installations, and just over R7 million per annum in other renewable energy projects.

🏃‍♂️ Discovering Vitality. Discovery is planning to merge 2 of its 3 separate businesses Discovery South Africa, Vitality UK (VUK) and Vitality Global (VG) into a single global entity, Vitality.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with easy no-code automation with Make, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and loads more.

CHECK THIS OUT

Work more on the things that matter

A scaling business normally equals chaos. Staffing, operations, clients, finance and more all need attention and all seem equally important. But what if they aren’t?

Metavolve’s Scale programme has helped agriBORA double their customers with only a 25% increase in employees – in just 4 months.

“Confidence is the win that I can really talk about here.

I'm now able to assert where the company is headed, be more firm with shareholders and guide my team with certainty.

And the main reason why I'm able to do this now is because of the clarity I got from the strategy process we went through.“

agriBORA CEO, Kizito Odhiambo

If you want to grow with a mission, sign up for the Metavolve scale program and start focusing on the stuff that matters most!

Want to learn more about Metavolve’s framework that has helped more than 100 founders and business leaders develop sustainable scaling strategies? 

Click here to book your free 1-hour strategy session.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

In the last 48 hours in our online community, we…

• Helped Natasha walk into her product meeting with a 🔥 new idea
• Gave Richard an idea to potentially repackage a feature for other industries
  
  

Oh, and, of course, we had the most awesome event in Stellenbosch…

It was fantastic meeting so many of you in person at our first event. Look out Cape Town, we’re bringing the vibes your way in a few weeks.

But first…

We want to give you the chance to learn from SA startup royalty, so we’ve put together a very special online AMA opportunity.

Let’s put it this way… Would you like to learn a few business tricks from the co-founder of SnapScan, JourneyApps and Offerzen?

Well, great! Because that’s exactly who we’ve organised for an online Ask Me Anything (AMA) session next week on Friday (16 August) at 12:00 sharp.

Just one catch. This one’s only for our Open Letter Pro members.

Sign up to The Open Letter Pro

What You Said…

We asked what about your pet internet peeve, and would you believe ads win out…?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📢 Ads (42%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🍪 Cookie consent popups (40%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📰 MSM amplifying its lies/truths (16%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗳 Politicians succeeding in getting the left on Threads and right on X (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎙️ RickRoll (2%)

Your 2 cents…

“When the cookies are bigger than the webpage content...”

Ayuballie

Ha ha, yes, Ayuballie, sometimes it’s like those cookie consents are an anti-UX conspiracy.

“MSM amplifying its lies - ditto the actual full article with a VERY shareable, clickbaity headline hidden behind their paywall... The RickRoll is still one of the greatest things the internet has ever brought us and I'm prepared to die on this hill...”

Jason

You’re so right, Jason. And our favourite investigative reporters just did a very insightful deep-dive on this very topic. 😉

📊 Clawing Back R1 trillion in Ad Losses

Plus: Starlink’s Chinese cousin 🛰️, SA’s lucky startup 7, PnP’s big bucks & SA’s lekker-est startup events.

Hands free? A Neuralink competitor called Synchron connected its brain-interface device to an Apple Vision Pro, and it basically lets a disabled man control digital devices with his mind — see for yourself.

In this Open Letter:

• Make ads great again: Clawing back R1 trillion in ad revenue losses.
• Starlink’s Chinese cousin, SA’s lucky startup 7 & PnP’s big bucks.
• Engage: Great local startup events coming up!
• How you pay for big-ticket items: The results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.
  
  

Together with Dommisse Attorneys:

TRENDING NOW

Clawing Back R1 Trillion in Lost Ad Revenue

Let’s face it, cookies were great for marketing – re-targeting ads alone could boost revenue by up to 33% if you used it right.

Until they weren’t…

The war on cookies (or trackers installed on websites to track and share information) kicked into gear in 2018 with GDPR regulation going into effect. 

Recently, Apple’s new privacy laws and Google’s announcement it would stop support for third-party cookies entirely in 2024 ended the era of businesses using cookies to track engagement and better target potential customers. 

Now, we’ll admit, the increased privacy is great for marketers giving us the creeps…

‍

But it’s caused a much bigger problem for virtually every business on the planet (yes, yours too!)... cookie armageddon brings with it CACs of doom.

And it’s not just about conversions, those targeting tools were great for collecting the type of customer data and insights that we in tech use to plan and service customers better – a practice also taking a knock in the post-cookie apocalypse.

Ad fatigue is a real thing…

People are served anywhere between 4’000 and 10’000 ads per day – prolly too much to process. 

And with 96% of people thinking ads aren’t truthful, and over 51% thinking the ads they see are not relevant to them, it’s no wonder over 40% of internet users have ad-blocking software – an expensive exercise costing businesses around the world around $54 billion in ad revenue (that’s R1 trillion) this year alone. 

Marketing is unimaginably massive.

Global digital ad spending is hovering at around R17 trillion and locally as much as R14 billion per annum.

It’s too early to tell, but Deloitte has predicted a bloodbath of advertisers struggling to find quality prospects, re-engaging potential customers and measuring the success of their campaigns. In fact, it seems to believe only the top 61% of high-growth companies who have the capital to build first-party data channels will have a chance of making it – their article reads like a bit of a eulogy to negative-growth companies.

So with most of the ad spend not yielding the results it used to, where will the money go to get the same kind of impact?

Getting users to engage and share data willingly

After years of getting requests to execute interactive digital campaigns in short amounts of time, local gaming and animation studio, Seamonster, spun out an entity to do just that called Hailr.

Hailr is a low-code platform that enables marketers to build interactive, web-based campaigns and games that make digital campaigns more appealing, more engaging, and finally helps collect some of the data cookies used to capture (and maybe even more), completely out of free will from the customer or participant. 

‍

And some of the things they can pull up within 4 weeks are pretty neat…

• Scan a QR code in a broadsheet to play an interactive game and win a voucher. This collects data, enhances the impact of the broadsheet and tracks conversion through the redemption of the voucher.
• Take a social media campaign up a notch by offering an interactive game when users click it.
• Scan a QR code while in a line at a physical retailer to play a game on your phone while you wait, with a chance to win some prizes - all in exchange for some of that sweet, sweet data.

Some campaigns have seen up to 37% basket size increases at some of the top retailers in SA, with an average conversion rate of 70% with some of their other clients. And with the likes of Sanlam, Clicks and KFC building these branded engagement games and platforms, they’re bringing digital advertising innovation to some old hands in the marketing game.

Hailr is but one local startup capitalising on this major change, and we are sure many more will come…we are watching this space.

ACCESS THE OPEN LETTER PRO DEEP DIVE

Want to get a detailed breakdown of how startups like Hailr work, grow and make money?

Then sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get access to our Pro Deep Dives in every Open Letter that goes out.

PLUS join our community of 40+ South African founders building high-value startups and get free startup support, events access and more.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🍀 Luck of the Irish. 7 local startups have been selected to participate in the 3rd edition of the Irish Tech Challenge SA 2024. The startups include Smartview Technology, Momint, The Awareness Company, Athena, AdBot, Samanjalo, and Credipple.

🛰️ Starlink’s Rival. China is creating its own Starlink with the launch of the first batch of satellites as part of Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology’s “Thousand Sails Constellation” plan.

🤖 CurroBot. Local independent school, Curro, is again hosting SA’s edition of the World Robot Olympiad with 755 teams of nearly 2’000 learners from 160+ schools competing at this year’s event.

💰 Chipping in. The Pick n Pay Group has overshot its rights offer by R4.3 billion — more than double what it set to raise in its bid to recapitalise the business and to turn around the trajectory of the struggling retailer.

🙈 Recession time? Fears of a recession in the US sparked by slower job growth, industry layoffs, and housing market concerns saw major indices take a dive. PS If you have any crypto, look away for a while…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with CRM tools like Hubspot and business strategy development with Metavolve.

CHECK THIS OUT

The right time to involve a lawyer

A study by Harvard Business School found that startups that seek legal advice are four times more likely to succeed than those that do not.

And if you’re raising funding (now or down the line) a National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) survey says that 90% of venture capitalists consider the legal preparedness of a startup as a significant factor in their investment decisions.

The reality is that most founders and business owners avoid involving lawyers because they are scared of the associated costs. But not all legal services should cost you the farm.

For years, Dommisse Attorneys have been helping South African startups with:

• MoI and shareholder agreements to help navigate co-founder and shareholder relationships.
• Offshoring IP and setting up abroad to make your startups attractive to foreign investors.
• For the sale of shares and fundraising, get a great team on your side to help you avoid blind spots and protect your interests.
  
  

Need legal advice for your startup? Get in touch with Dommisse Attorneys today to explore how they can set your startup up for success.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

Want to get valuable connections on tap?

Last week in our online community, we…

• Helped Leigh find a valuable connection to get MVPs rolled out in schools.
• Connected Danei with the best CRM consultant in the biz.
• Got Piet connected with a fire AWS expert.
• And sourced a high-quality merch contact for Renier (wonder what for…?)

We also have our first in-person event tonight (which is sold out!), and an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session is coming up with Philip Joubert, co-founder of Offerzen (previous founder of SnapScan and involved in early builds of many startups you know) on Friday 16 August at 12:00.

Philip will be talking about assembling a winning team and answering your burning startup questions!

Also, it's all systems go for our first Cape Town in-person event. Get more details here.

This event is exclusive to The Open Letter Pro members, so sign up today and get access to all our events for free, PLUS join our online community of 40+ startup founders and operators.

Sign up for The Open Letter Pro

What You Said…

We asked how you pay for big-ticket items, and saving up is the game…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💰 Save up (67%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💳 Credit card (18%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💵 ⁠Borrow from my partner (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐖 ⁠Emergency fund (6%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💸 ⁠BNPL (6%)

Your 2 cents…

“You need to be disciplined in order for you to achieve your goals. It can be done.”

Vakele

Wise words, Vakele, gotta learn that delayed gratification is the most valued.

“Saving up affords the opportunity to avoid costly finance charges”

Leslie

Good one, Leslie, helps you stay frugal and smart.

“I am 65 years old and have never owned a credit card.”

Graham

Wow, Graham, that’s definitely an inspiration!

What laundry? The math-loving coder who figured out how to hack coin-operated washing machines from an image he saw on Amazon (step by step here) has been invited to present at DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas next week.

In this Open Letter:

• Big ticket power: Helping South Africans afford more nice things.
• Melon for Mahala, Red Bull’s business play & SA’s AI-powered salespeeps.
• Joining in: Guess who’s bringing the drinks for next week’s event.
• Most annoying last-mile habits: And the results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

Together with

TRENDING NOW

When You Don't Want to Wait for Approval

Getting credit in South Africa isn’t that complicated if you have a good credit history. 

But for the 1.1 million South Africans newly joining the labour force each year, it's close to impossible. 

“Get a store card, buy some stuff and repay it” – sounds easy but it's a painstakingly slow process, and as far as user experiences go, not great.

Besides, what if you don’t need credit but simply need (or even want) to buy a big-ticket item every now and then without destroying your cash flow?

And it's not only new job market entrants. According to Tyme Bank, only 6.9 million South Africans have access to credit cards or similar, meaning 19 million employed and tax-paying South Africans do not have such a facility. 

How do they buy a large ticket item such as a TV, proper running shoes or even pay for a car service? 

Well, up until recently they couldn’t – unless they access exorbitantly high loans from unregistered credit providers.

Get it today, and pay for it later.

That’s why Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is such a game-changer for many South Africans – a trend we have highlighted before. But this time we’re diving in.

Often misunderstood as credit, BNPL, in most cases, is simply a financial product that allows customers to delay payments on items or services. This means people that they call a “thin file” consumer, one who doesn’t have a credit record yet, can participate in it more easily.

Yesterday, 5 years ago, three South Africans set off to change the BNPL game in SA after seeing it take off in other parts of the world, and PayJustNow was born. 

The solution splits your payment up into three very South Africanised transactions:

• Your first payment is at checkout or till point(Now)
• The next one is on the instalment date you picked when signing up (Now Now)
• And the final payment on the instalment date selected the following month (Just Now)
  
  

All at zero (interest-free) cost to the consumer. 

Another massive differentiator is that some BNPL players’ repayments are often positioned as smaller, but more frequent – i.e. fortnightly. Which is tricky for those monthly salaried consumers. If you’re struggling to afford one payment around payday, what are the chances the situation’s going to be any better 2 weeks later?

Is it more credit for people who already have too much credit? Not quite. As Mark explains here their solution is mostly used by people who don’t have credit cards.

It’s good for merchants too

While consumers get interest-free flexible payments, merchants also benefit:

• A larger pool of customers can now afford their goods and services.
• Which helps them move more stock faster.
• And with circa 400% markups on higher-end clothing brands, taking a third of the payment on checkout, it already offsets a lot of risk.

And it has taken off

With close to 2 million end users and thousands of stores and online stores across a bunch of industries, including automotive, appliances, and even service-based providers like Game, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and Dial-a-Bed offering their solution as a payment option, things are going well for them. 

But it wasn’t always this easy. Learn more about how they got early traction and validation here and more in this week’s podcast:

• The surprising growth in e-commerce over the last 5 years
• The reality of launching a new product with low margins
• The four most crucial daily metrics in this type of business

This industry is growing faster than most and there are major opportunities here. To learn more about the market size and get a deep dive into this startup and all future startups we feature, sign up for The Open Letter Pro. 

Plus: When you sign up, you get to join our community of 40+ SA founders who get access to free consults, free in-person events, and free online events, all for just R250. Start your free trial today and come check it out!

ACCESS THE OPEN LETTER PRO DEEP DIVE

Want to get a detailed breakdown of how startups like PayJustNow work, grow and make money?

Then, sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get access to our Pro Deep Dives in every Open Letter that goes out.

PLUS join our community of 40+ South African founders building high-value startups and get free startup support, events access and more.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🪂 Extreme Entrepreneurship. South African students are getting a shot at international business stardom with Red Bull Basement, an initiative to help student entrepreneurs develop and pitch their business plans (with the help of AI) to take them to the finals in Tokyo in October.

🍉 Melon Testers. SA’s first digital telecommunications service Melon Mobile has launched another SA first — a free 14-day trial of their mobile network with 5GB Data plus unlimited Calls & Texts to see the network’s capabilities for themselves.

🤖 Sales AI. Nearly 85% of local sales teams are either experimenting with AI or fully integrating it into their sales processes according to a recent study by Salesforce.

🍎 Healthy Sixty60. After more than 10 years Discovery’s Vitality will no longer partner with Pick n Pay for its HealthyFood benefit. Instead from 1 September Vitality members will get the HealthyFood benefit when shopping at Checkers and Checkers Sixty60.

👩‍🚀 Jou Ma se Astronaut. The Mother City is set to host more than 2’000 professional astronauts for the 2024 International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly. The event will be held on African soil for the first time in its 105-year history.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with project management tools like Notion and super-easy social payment collection with WigWag.

CHECK THIS OUT

Intercom for Startups

Join Intercom’s Early Stage Program to receive a 90% discount.

Get a direct line to your customers. Try the only complete AI-first customer service solution.

Apply now

ENGAGE

Community Meet in Stellenbosch

So many of you have already booked next week’s Open Letter community event, and we only have 20 spots left (book here)!

And guess what? We are making it even better! Introducing our event drink’s sponsor, CBC and Rekorderlig.

And, of course, the whole team and our entire community will be there at LaunchLab in Hammanshand Road, Stellenbosch next week on Tuesday (6 August 2024) at 18:00 sharp.

It’s R100 or free if you’re a pro member.

Buy Tickets Now

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.
  
  

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value tech-enabled startups? How about free entrance to all our events for the rest of this year?

Well, now you can — we’ve enabled free trials, so you can try it and cancel anytime…

Start your free trial

What You Said…

We asked what delivery driver habits annoy you, and

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📱 Press “I’ve arrived” 5 mins before arriving (41%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧭 Ask for your address before accepting delivery (15%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ᯤ Goes offline at the most crucial times (8%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 👋 Drives past your house 3 times while you’re standing in street (36%)

Your 2 cents…

“You waving at the guy, he still merrily zooming on, like why am i standing here...?”

Marius

He he, yeah Marius, us and the kids make it a game — see how many times they gonna zoom by until they finally realise…

“Story of my life...”

Jason

Out of this world? The James Webb Telescope snapped an actual image of an exoplanet. Still a bit of a smudge, but it is 12 light-years (113 trillion km) away. And it’s possible because it’s 6 times the size of Jupiter (or 1’908 more massive than Earth).

In this Open Letter:

• Fast play: Unique startup plays in SA’s booming last-mile space.
• OpenAI’s search play, Marmite’s new boss & flagging SA searches.
• Let’s hang out: Our first in-person event is here — book your spot.
• How often you service your car: And the results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

Together with Udok

TRENDING NOW

Unique Last-Mile Plays (Meep, Meep!)

If ever there was a perfect storm to drive the adoption of technology, it must be the Checkers Sixty60 launch and Covid lockdowns. 

It's obviously no longer the only player in the same-day FMCG space (bearing in mind it wasn’t the first: OneCart and Zulzi were leading the charge years before Sixty60), but the impact of the Sixty60 service has been immense. 

Earlier this year, it was reported that the app had been downloaded more than 4.5 million times, available at over 500 locations and has created more than 9’900 jobs. 

How much money does it make? It's not clear from the financials, but well-calculated estimates put it north of R10 billion per annum.

80k deliveries per day

What is particularly interesting is that Pingo, the company that coordinates the last-mile delivery for the Sixty60 service, made R994 million in revenue in 2023. And at R35 a delivery that’s 28 million+ deliveries – or 77’800 per day! 

‍
And that’s only Sixty60 – add Woolies Dash, Spar 2U, PnP ASAP!, Zulzi, OneCart, MrD Food and Uber Eats and the amount of last-mile deliveries in SA reaches millions per week. 

Almost overnight, it's a massive industry with massive opportunities for software and intelligence (read AI) to optimise routes, cut costs and increase margins – the obvious places entrepreneurs tend to look. 

But with a rising demand, just helping people get bikes on the road offers a massive opportunity!

‍

Rent a bike until it's yours

Local Rent-to-Own bike startup, Bike2Own started out by renting out 2 bikes they bought on auction and started modelling how it could scale. Now, a few years later, they’re servicing more than 400 riders. These riders earn between R2’600 and R6’000 per week with the highest earning in a week seen thus far R9’000 per week.

To rent the bike, these riders pay anything between R650 to R850 per week, depending on the bike spec and what’s included. And after 78 weeks (18 months) the bike becomes theirs. 

What is fascinating is that about 60% of riders, opt to go into a new contract to take on a new bike. They then rent out their old bike for additional income.

The ability to reduce risk with great payment processes is key to making this business work. If they drive for Uber Eats, Bike2Own gets paid directly from Uber weekly. If they drive for another company (like Checkers, Spar, Woolies, etc), these drivers pay by setting up an automatic recurring payment through Bike2Own’s WigWag setup.

It's more than just a bike

With a way to collect payments predictably, they have branched out to solve other needs of these riders: 

• Phones and data contracts – coz you need a smartphone to deliver.
• Gear –  jackets, helmets, gloves.
• Insurance and tracking devices – these bikes are unfortunately targeted by criminals in certain areas. 
• Parts shop – these riders normally know how to fix something on the bike, so selling parts and delivering to them is a great value add.
• Advertise on bikes – with countless trips per day, it makes sense to turn these bikes into moving billboards.

This industry is growing faster than most and major opportunities here. To learn more about the market size and get a deep dive into this startup and all future startups we feature, sign up for The Open Letter Pro. 

PLUS join our community of 30+ South African founders building high-value tech-enabled businesses and get free startup support, events access and more.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🔍 RoboSearch. OpenAI has launched a search competitor prototype SearchGPT, that’s powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, GPT-4 and GPT-4o models. And while it isn't available just yet, you can already join the waitlist.

🤳Selfie Safety. Bolt SA is rolling out rider verification as part of its safety features, allowing riders to take a selfie and upload a pic of a valid ID doc to validate themselves.

🖤 Spread out. PepsiCo SA is selling Marmite & Bovril to the Canadian company that owns Anchor Yeast. Included in the deal is also the business unit that produces the popular spreads.

🇿🇦 Flying the Flag. Following the remedial actions set out by the Competition Commission in its final report of the Online and Intermediation Platforms Market Inquiry, Google has started adding a label to its organic search results that indicates if a travel service or e-commerce platform is HQ’d in SA or owned by a South African.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with tools like easy no-code websites via Webflow and services like Dommisse Attorneys who can help you get all your legal stuff sorted, fast.

CHECK THIS OUT

Still, the fastest way to see a doctor

“We only have an opening on Thursday at 10 AM”

We have all heard that said, and this is a problem…When you want to see a doctor, you are sick now, not Thursday. And besides more, 10 am splits your day in half, so you might as well take the day off. Not to mention the drive, the parking, the waiting room (doctors always seem to be running late).

What if you could see a doctor right now? Not now, now, but right now. That’s Udok.

With more than 20 registered practitioners waiting to see you and trusted by Clicks to deliver healthcare consults in more than 150 stores nationwide, it’s never been faster and more convenient to see a general practitioner in South Africa.

Need to see a doctor? Try Udok today.

ENGAGE

Brand-New in The Open Letter Community

Things are getting fun in the community, and it’s time for a few firsts… kicking off with our first in-person event…

 
That’s right, we’ll see you at LaunchLab in Hammanshand Road, Stellenbosch next week on Tuesday (6 August 2024) at 18:00 sharp for a dive into why Stellenbosch is one of the best places to launch a startup and how to do it, plus some good vibes and lekker times.

It’s R100 or free if you’re a pro member.

Buy Tickets Now

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value tech-enabled startups? How about free entrance to all our events for the rest of this year?

Well now you can — we’ve enabled free trials, so you can try it and cancel anytime…

Start your free trial

What You Said…

We asked how often you service your car, and most everyone agrees…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🕒 Like clockwork – exactly as the manufacturer says (36%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📅 Just once a year, never get up to those kms (43%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷‍♂️ Meh, those are more like guidelines, right? (19%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥰 Never, my partner takes care of that stuff (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😲 Wait, you have to service your car? (2%)

Your 2 cents…

“Got a car that still has its service plan — but getting to know more about Michanic, is presenting this as a VERY viable option for the future. Mega convenient.”

Jason

Nice one, glad you like the option, Jason!

“I pay severely too much per month for my car to not listen every time it tells me it needs something 😅”

Sabeeha

Ha ha, well that should get you all the more KMS from it, Sabeeha.

“I service and repair my own cars. It's all on Youtube anyway, hahaha”

Marius

So true, Marius. One of us needed to change brake pads recently (super cheap) but the dealer prices didn’t make sense (super expensive). YouTube and 20 minutes later, the job was done, with loads of spare change left over.

‍

Gone bananas? US zoos are fighting a terrible scourge of smartphone-addicted gorillas that’s breaking up ape families and causing zoo feuds. The only recourse? Limit those big apes’ screen time.

In this Open Letter:

• Roll with it: Bringing trust and transparency to SA roads.
• Shein’s SA mall play, Zuck’s Llama fight & censoring China’s video AI.
• All the action: Community events & engagement for you.
• The MedTech that’s got you excited: The results are in.
• Startup fuel: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

Together with Outsourced CFO

TRENDING NOW

Keeping Millions of Used Wheels a-Rollin’

With the current economic climate, more South Africans are opting for used cars that are often outside their warranty/service plan.

But, of course, regular servicing is essential to keep your car on the road – whether once a year, every 15’000 kms or as the need arises (like some of our cars in our student days).

‍

The road to reliability is filled with potholes

While there are many options for servicing, challenges remain:

• Downtime: Waiting for your car to be serviced can leave you stranded for a few hours.
• Cost Transparency: Oh, an SA favourite; unexpected high bills and hidden costs are a biggie – whatcha gonna do, after all, just leave your car there?
• Quality Assurance: If issues resurface shortly after service, there isn’t much you can do about it, so you’re never really assured it’ll be fixed properly (or if someone just disappeared with your money).

‍

You’re not alone…

And it’s a big potential pool of other people facing the same sort of challenges. In 2023 alone, nearly 400’000 used cars changed hands – up 4.6% from 2022. 

Not to mention the 2020 Competition Commission ruling that found the way car dealerships handled new car service plans as uncompetitive – forcing them to unbundle service plans from finance and denouncing the practice of voiding warranties if you don’t service it with the dealer themself.

This opens the door to motorists being able to save up to 40% on their servicing costs. If you can trust the mechanic, that is…

A mechanic that's just a few clicks away

A local start-up, Michanic, is revolutionising this space in 3 ways:

• It’s mobile – the mechanic comes to you
• More accurate, transparent pricing – on both labour and parts
• Quality assurance and giving you recourse if the job’s done badly.
  
  

How? Well first off, Michanic lets you book a mechanic to come to your home or workplace. Then they leverage clear and transparent pricing based on six years’ data on job times and also integrate with their parts suppliers, ensuring more accurate quotes, with no nasty surprises.

Lastly, once you accept the quote and make payment, they ensure a mobile mechanic in your area arrives at your doorstep at the agreed-upon time. And, once the service is complete, Michanic acts as an escrow intermediary that can hold onto the payment to provide recourse, if any issues arise.

Offering convenience, transparency and accountability, innovative solutions like Michanic are taking a lot of good steps toward keeping more of SA’s wheels turning. We’re watching this space.

Plus: We had Michanic’s founder Lesetja Dikgale on the podcast this week, and he shared some valuable insights, including:

• How car owners save 40%+ on services and repairs
• How to build a hands-free tech product overnight
• And so much more – check it out:

Want to understand how startups like Michanic make money? Or do you want to get access to up to 3 opportunities with them or in the space they operate in? Then, sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get access to our Pro Deep Dives in every The Open Letter Newsletter that goes out.

PLUS join our community of 30+ South African founders building high-value tech-enabled businesses.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🍑 Expanding the Orchard. Peach Payments has acquired custom software development firm Operativa to help the local FinTech grow more effectively and efficiently.

🤬 Chinese AI Censorship. A video-generating AI model Kling from China seems to be censoring topics like “Democracy in China” and “Chinese President Xi Jinping walking down the street” or anything else that could rub the Chinese government the wrong way.

🦙 Zuck’s Fighting Llama. According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms’ newly debuted “state of the art” model Llama 3.1 is set to take the AI fight to OpenAI and Google after taking several months to train Llama’s models and spending hundreds of millions of dollars on computing power.

🎟️ Get yer tickets… The world’s largest ticket marketplace Ticketmaster has acquired SA-based Quicket to support the rapidly growing African live event market.

👗 Fashion that Pops. Shein is popping up in SA at the Mall of Africa for a 10-day Pop Up Shop event from 2-11 Aug offering an “interactive experience” where customers would be able to “assess the quality for themselves”. Could also just be a way to assess having a local brick-and-mortar presence…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with tools like Apollo that help you find new enterprise leads and Metavolve which helps founders dodge a lot of the pain of scaling a business.

CHECK THIS OUT

When you need more than compliance

Scaling companies need more than just tax and regulatory requirements.

You need maximum return for the areas where you spend money – that’s where strategic financial decisions can play a major role in helping you grow healthily.

You need a CFO.

McKinsey & Company says startups with top-performing CFOs tend to see a 60% higher return on equity than their peers.

But what does a highly experienced CFO cost?

Likely between R90k and R110k per month… worst still you likely don’t need this person full time.

That’s why we created our Outsourced CFO model at OCFO – get highly experienced strategic financial inputs at a fraction of the cost.

Keen to explore how OCFO can help you grow?

ENGAGE

What You Missed in the TOL Community

We’ve been diving into 5X-ing your builds with AI, and people are doing some amazing things…

Coming Up This Week

• Next Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• Put on your dancing shoes! Our first-ever in-person event is coming soon! Time, date and place coming your way next week…
• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.
• Plus: Book free consulting sessions with The Open Letter team to help you grow!
  
  

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value tech-enabled startups? Start your free trial now!

Join by Going Pro

What You Said…

We asked what MedTech advances you’re excited about, and affordability is a big one…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏎️ Rapid testing (14%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 AI-powered screening (25%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🩺 Portable diagnostic tools (16%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🥼Affordable healthcare technology (43%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😏 The big patient data we can gather from these devices (2%)

Your 2 cents…

“I think if this type of tech is constantly improved to make better diagnosis, then the lessons learnt from this tech can be applied to a variety of areas, some even outside of medicine.”

Panache

Nice catch, Panache. Yes, that could unlock a whole lot of NB lessons.

“Most poor people cannot afford medical aid, so such devices can assist in providing medical care.”

Vakele

Indeed, Vakele. And hopefully, it can get to the point where you can run tests in places where there’s not even a clinic — it would be so great.

“If run correctly, AI-powered screening could result in rapid testing, be a portable diagnostic tool and early diagnosis will lead to affordable healthcare. Big patient data will ensure accuracy in the AI-powered screening and diagnostics.”

Feda

Yes, Freda, just imagine how advanced our medicine can become with that kind of dedicated processing power.

Got the power? These guys used Midjourney and Luma to put a bunch of political bigwigs on the catwalk. Now we just need to pull a Formula 1 and demand they wear their “sponsors” as badges.

In this Open Letter:

• Health game: How AI is saving 2.5 million Africans.
• Finfluencer clampdown, SA’s VC rise & blue screens of death.
• Don’t miss out: Community events & engagement for you.
• Who built your company website: The results are in.
• Real value: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

TRENDING NOW

AI Helps Cure 2.5 Million Africans

Tuberculosis (TB) is a pretty big deal considering it now trumps HIV/AIDS and is second only to COVID-19 among the world’s leading infectious killers.

In fact, in 2021 more than 832 people contracted TB each day in South Africa, with 153 (18%) losing their lives daily to a disease that’s totally preventable and treatable.

But it ain't easy to diagnose…

Part of the reason why so many still die of TB is that it’s hard to detect:

• Firstly, the symptoms of TB (coughing, fever, night sweats, weight loss etc), are pretty common in a ton of other diseases – so it's often misdiagnosed.
• Secondly, the bacteria in TB is slow-growing, taking a while to detect, resulting in multiple doctor's visits, tests, X-rays, and, again, plenty of misdiagnoses (and expenses).
• Lastly, given SA’s already buckling health system, clinics in poorer communities outside of major metropoles have up to 3 hours waiting time, so a real pain getting treatment (if you ever even get diagnosed).

The true cost of TB

TB tests can cost as much as R3’000 a pop, and treatment is insane: one course requires daily medication for 6–8 MONTHS, easily running to R20’000 for some TB tablets.

Add in other meds like cough syrup, painkillers and immune boosters to alleviate the symptoms, and it starts turning into a costly exercise – not to mention potentially being off work all that time 😵‍💫.

Speeding up Diagnosis

The key to fighting TB is early detection. Enter local MedTech AI Diagnostics.

These guys are revolutionising TB screening with their AI-enabled digital stethoscope that captures and analyses a patient’s lung sounds and feeds it back to a state-of-the-art deep neural network that’s been trained on thousands of negative and positive lung sounds.

AI Diagnostic’s tech improves the accuracy of TB detection dramatically, cutting down on missed cases by 41% and reducing unnecessary tests by 33%. With this improved testing mechanism alone, you’re looking at a saving of R300 million on lab costs each year. 

The Western Cape Government is already using it to make TB diagnosis faster, cheaper, and more reliable, especially in primary healthcare.

With South Africa’s illustrious history of medical advancement and innovative MedTech startups working to solve real-world medical problems, we’re watching this space...

Want to understand how startups like AI Diagnostics make money? Or do you want to get access to up to 3 opportunities with them or in the space they operate in? Then, sign up for The Open Letter Pro and get access to our Pro Deep Dives in every The Open Letter Newsletter that goes out.

PLUS, when you sign up, you will join our community of 30+ South African founders who support each other in building high-value startups.

Start your free trial today

IN SHORT

🚀 On The Up. South African Venture Capital investments are on the rise, passing the R3 billion mark for the first time since the launch of the SAVCA annual VC Survey 14 years ago, with larger investments being made in a smaller number of companies.

🥶 Dead Blue Screens. ICYMI: On Friday IT security company Crowdstrike caused a mass outage event on Windows PCs. Planes were grounded, SA’s Capitec went down, even Crowdstrike-sponsored F1 team Mercedes had blue screens during Friday’s practice session.

💰Climate Bucks. Local ClimaTech, Plentify has closed its funding round from American and African VCs. The oversubscribed funding round will be used to accelerate growth and expand internationally.

😡 Taken for a Ride. If you’ve gotten the short end of the stick by taking financial advice from local Finfluencers on TikTok, Telegram and WhatsApp, there’s good news. South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is setting its sights on efforts to regulate financial advice on social media.

👉 The Stack. Founders need leads to build and grow their businesses. Check out our Founder’s Stack with tools like Apollo that help you find new enterprise leads and Stream that helps you create the perfect outreach to convert them to clients.

ENGAGE

What You Missed in the TOL Community

Last Friday, we just couldn’t leave poor CrowdStrike alone for the Windows PC outage…

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.
• Our first in-person event coming soon!
• Plus: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.
  
  

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value startups together? Start your free trial now!

Join by Going Pro

What You Said…

We asked if your company has a website, and it’s mainly no-code…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙅‍♂️ No, don’t need one (7%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🤩 No, lemme get a Savvy.site (23%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👩🏻‍💻 Yep, built by my school science prize-winning cousin (0)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🆆 Yep, using WordPress (23%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🎨 Yep, using some other no-code platform (34%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👾 I build everything myself (13%)

Your 2 cents…

“I built my website on wix”

Farhaanah

Nice, Farhaanah, see Wix has also been expanding their product and building out a robust version for agencies, too.

Elmethra selected 🤩 No, lemme get a Savvy.site and wrote

“As a single mom, solopreneur trying to find the time to even work (looking after parents & my son)... Using a platform that streamlines what I need in order to get my professional space online, is overdue”

Nice one, Elmethra, sure the guys at Savvy will welcome you with open arms.

“I am surprised at the low adoption of WordPress. Globally, Wordpress has a market share of 43% of all websites, and 63% of content managed websites.”

William

Oh yes, William, there are some Open Letter team members who absolutely swear by WordPress, even though Webflow is our official affiliate. And you’re just never gonna sway them, just like PC and Mac, Pepsi and Coke…

‍