Fast Company SA October 2018 - Issue 39

F A S T C O M PA N Y

INSIGHTS FROM

CAMERON VAN DER BURGH / HASAN MINHAJ

ISSUE 39

South Africa

CLEAN TECH EDITION

Venture Catalyst

Arlan Hamilton has muscled her way into the boys’ club Silicon Valley will never be the same

A R L A N H A M I LT O N

CLEAN TECH EDITION 2018

S U S T A I N A B L E CO M PA N I ES A N D P R O D U CTS WE LOVE OCTOBER 2018

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Plus The Fortnite Effect HOW THE BLOCKBUSTER GAME IS CHANGING BIG MEDIA

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Google it!

HOW DESIGN FITS INTO THE TECH GIANT’S MISSION

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On the cover and this page: Photography by JoĂŁo Canziani

Cover Story

HAMILTON MAKES HISTORY Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton’s unlikely journey to becoming an influential venture capital investor represents an opportunity for the industry and diverse founders alike.

BY AINSLEY HARRIS / PAGE 22

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Contents

CLEAN TECH 2018

KEEPING TECHNOLOGY CLEAN

38 With resources rapidly declining and global warming wreaking havoc, solutions are needed to help lessen humanity’s global impact.

We feature the world’s most innovative inventions in clean technology.

Next

Departments

11 Sound revenue – a Bitcoin boost for podcasters

6 From the Editor

12 Masterclass – Hasan Minhaj walks the line

14 My Way – Olympian Cameron van der Burgh talks money 16 Creative conversations – Rachel Bloom’s crazy for you

8 The Recommender 10 Wanted

76 Fast Bytes & Events 80 Global investing

BY PHILIPP WÖRZ

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South Africa AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY CEO Grant Fredericks

grant.fredericks@africannewsagency.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Saarah Survé

saarah.surve@anapublishing.com

ANA PUBLISHING COO Mark Keohane mark.keohane@inl.co.za

Walter Hayward walter.hayward@anapublishing.com

Lisa-Marie de Villiers CA(SA)

FINANCIAL MANAGER

FAST COMPANY INTERNATIONAL TEAM

HEAD OF DESIGN

PRINTER

Paarl Media

CHAIRMAN

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Warren Uytenbogaardt warren.uytenbogaardt@inl.co.za

DESIGNERS

Tariq Cassim, Sheeth Hanief, Mish-al van Rijmenant

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

Ellie Anzilotti, Joe Berkowitz, Yasmin Gagne, Ainsley Harris, Burt Helm, Elske Joubert, Farah Khalfe, Nicole LaPorte, Levi Letsoko, Keke Mahlelebe, Michael O'Carroll, Ben Paynter, Rina Raphael, Laynie Rose, Elizabeth Segran, Cathy Smith, Alexandra Uytenbogaardt, Philipp Wörz

DISTRIBUTION

MDA Distribution

SUBSCRIPTIONS PUBLISHED BY

DEPUTY EDITOR

SOUTH AFRICAN EDITORIAL BOARD

Prof. Walter Baets, Koo Govender, Alistair King, Pepe Marais, Abey Mokgwatsane, Kheepe Moremi, Ellis Mnyandu, Thabang Skwambane

Stephanie Mehta David Lidsky

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Noah Robischon

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jill Bernstein

DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL STRATEGY Lori Hoffman

ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVE

Susan Ball susan.ball@anapublishing.com

Eric Schurenberg

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HEAD OF SALES

OFFICE MANAGER

CEO

susan.ball@anapublishing.com

Kyle Villet

Tony Malek

Joe Mansueto, Mansueto Ventures

Editor-in-chief: Saarah Survé Physical address: 5th Floor, Newspaper House, 122 St Georges Mall, Cape Town, 8001 Postal address: PO Box 23692, Claremont, 7735 Websites: www.fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.co.za www.anapublishing.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Florian Bachleda

DESIGN DIRECTOR Ted Keller

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Sarah Filippi

ART DIRECTOR

Alice Alves

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR April Mokwa

ARTISTS

Cover: João Canziani Illustrations: Adobe Stock

Printed by A division of Novus Holdings

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Christina Cranley

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mark Rosenberg

No article or any part of any article in Fast Company South Africa may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the publisher. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith, but do not necessarily represent the opinions of Mansueto Ventures in the USA, Insights Publishing or the editor. Neither this magazine, the publisher or Mansueto Ventures in the USA can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages, or from any statements made or withheld by this publication. Fast Company is a registered title under Mansueto Ventures and is licensed to Insights Publishing for use in southern Africa only.

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Talk robot to me “I visualise a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.” – Claude Shannon In 2015, I sat captivated by Alicia Vikander’s portrayal of Ava, a breathtaking humanoid AI, in the movie Ex Machina. It’s a sci-fi film about a young programmer who is invited to a remote location to perform the Turing Test on Ava. Who would have thought that three years later I would have the opportunity to interview Sophia, Hanson Robotics’ humanoid robot?

Three-year-old Sophia, now a Saudi Arabian citizen, was flown from her lab in Hong Kong for the SAP Now conference in Johannesburg. It was her first trip to Africa.

Select media were invited to do oneon-one interviews, but were limited to asking only three questions.

I watched almost all of her interviews and couldn’t help but chuckle when one journalist couldn’t fathom how strange it was to be interviewing a robot.

Sophia is pre-programmed, so the way you phrase questions is important.

When asked if she had seen the television show Black Mirror, Sophia replied: “No, I don’t get to stay up-to-date on much television. I have to wait for someone to show it to me”.

However, in the same interview, when asked about her favourite movie or TV show, Sophia said it was a toss-up between Black Mirror and Humans.

Puzzling. Did she learn from the previous question?

I wanted to know why Hanson Robotics gave Sophia the features of a ‘white’ female. Surely, she could have been non-racial and still have humanlike features? She’s a robot after all.

I was also interested to know what a future where humans and humanoid robots work and live together, side by side, would look like. Sophia brushed off a reporter, who referenced the movie Bladerunner and a “bad future”, as reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies.

I would have liked to know how Sophia thinks South Africa fares in terms of technology, and whether we are ready for AI, specifically, humanoid robots.

And then the question of her citizenship… Should she be entitled to all of the rights and benefits afforded to citizens, and the responsibilities associated with those rights?

I’ll be posting the interview Sophia did with Carte Blanche investigative journalist Devi Sankaree Govender on our social media. Check it out.

What would you have asked Sophia?

Tweet me @FastCompanySA.

Sophia, the humanoid robot, created by Hanson Robotics.

Saarah Survé saarah.surve@anapublishing.com

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What the Fast Company SA communit y is loving this month

LOVING: BLINKIST AND GELBOWS

Blinkist and Gelbows are my two recommendations. Blinkist provides book summaries.

You can read the summary of each chapter or the full book. Gelbows are cool little gel circles that stick to a desk to make it more comfortable when working long hours.

Sasha Knott CEO of Switch2

LOVING: VEUVE CLICQUOT MAGNETIC PENCIL

I love this limited edition of the Veuve Clicquot magnetic pencil, partly because the sunburst yellow colour reminds me of my favourite time of year and gets me living in the ‘sunshine state of mind’ way before summer even starts. It also apparently links back to the tradition of the Veuve Clicquot winemakers using a pencil to jot down their notes about each wine before blending, and if there’s anyone who’s an avid list maker – it’s me.

Josie Eveleigh Travel and lifestyle influencer

Cambodia is one of Asia’s most beautiful destinations. From the unspoiled beaches, like Sihanoukville and Koh Rong Island, to the breathtaking history of the Angkor Wat temples. Siem Reap is also food heaven.

I use this powerfully strategic guide daily in my business. I rely on it to bolster business success (and even have four printed and two audible versions of the same book). It offers excellent advice in two areas that I specifically want to master: 1. How to win the war without fighting – preserving relationships with clients, staff and suppliers; and 2. How to control my emotions – finding better ways to manage anger or disappointment when things don’t go my way.

This is a must-read for every business manager, director, or owner.

Lorinda Voges CEO and founder of 4ElementsMedia

John Thompson CEO of Designer Water

LOVING: CAMBODIA

Images: sourced

L O V I N G : A R T O F WA R

BY S U N T Z U

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Fast Company SA rounds up the top gadgets and apps to help you live more sustainably

GOGREEN: CARBON TRACKER

It’s all good and well trying to ‘guesstimate’ your carbon footprint, but without knowing where it stems from, you won’t know how to reduce it. Enter GoGreen: Carbon Tracker. This nifty app accurately monitors your carbon footprint by analysing data from your household utility bills. The app is able to track your monthly consumption of electricity, water and natural gas, measure your driving emissions and identify trends in your usage patterns. It also compares your consumption to those around you and awards and deducts ‘energy points’ depending on your carbon dioxide emissions – providing incentive for users to be more environmentally friendly in their daily activities and lifestyle decisions.

S U N S T R E A M P R O S O L A R PA N E L AND POWER BANK COMBO

Not only is this solar-charged power bank convenient for staying connected in remote locations, but it’s good for the environment too. The device charges to one full amp by being left in the sun and is suitable for high-demand tech such as tablets, smartphones and GPS devices.

Portable, waterproof and shatter-proof, the SunStream Pro Solar Panel and Power Bank combo ensures you will have a fully charged phone in less than two hours.

With its lightweight design and built-in LED torch, it’s easy to carry around.

Images: sourced

GOODGUIDE

Ethical shopping just got a whole lot easier with the GoodGuide app. By scanning a product’s barcode, the app reveals scientific data and research regarding the item’s ‘green’ credentials and provides a rating from 0-10. The higher the rating, the better the product from a health perspective. You can find out the nutritional value of your favourite food products or the potential health hazards and chemical ingredients in the personal-care and household items you swear by. GoodGuide will provide greener alternatives for your daily purchases and, if you want to get clued up before heading to the store, you can search for and browse a range of brands and companies to help you make informed consumer purchasing decisions.

K I L L A WAT T DROPDROP

South Africa’s water scarcity woes are still ongoing and can only be reduced through the co-operation and commitment of all citizens to be mindful of their water consumption. During the height of the crisis, students of the University of Cape Town developed DropDrop, an app that helps users track their daily water usage, predict monthly bills, and learn new methods for conserving water. DropDrop reads your municipality’s external water meter and provides information that will aid you in optimising your water usage.

Keep tabs on how much electricity your appliances are using with the Kill A Watt digital watt meter. Simply plug the device into a wall socket and plug any appliance (up to 2 000W) into the watt meter to gage the current voltage, accumulated electricity (total kW hours) and current electricity consumption (watts being used) of the appliance you want to assess. Advanced functions on the meter can also calculate the electricity cost of using an appliance while the device’s display mode indicates various factors such as time/price or time/voltage and minimum and the maximum power consumed.

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S A WA N T E D A D I D A S PA R L E Y R U N FOR THE OCEANS

B y E l s ke J o u b e r t

From threat to thread Adidas is making shoes out of upcycled plastic. In collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, the brand aims to intercept plastic before it makes its way into the ocean.

Adidas has integrated

goal for 2018 is five million pairs.

Adidas has partnered with South African ocean conservationist Hanli Prinsloo and her foundation, I Am Water, in order to keep the conversation around sustainability going. They hold workshops in various communities that, amongst other things, aim to educate and raise awareness of the threat that plastic poses to our oceans. The ability to produce functional yet fashionable products in a sustainable way is what drives this brand’s passion for sustainable gear.

Commenting on their top tips for leading a more sustainable

life, CEO Kasper Rørsted says, “Plastic was designed to last forever, yet many plastic items are only being used once. There’s a fundamental imbalance with this that each of us can play a small role in redressing. Take reusable bags to grocery stores instead of buying plastic bags, start to carry water in reusable glass bottles or flasks instead of buying plastic

water bottles, and make use of a recycling programme at home and at work. If we all start to make some changes in our daily lives, collectively this will make a big difference. “ For more information about Parley, visit Parley.tv or follow the @adidasZA #adidasParley conversation on Instagram.

Images: Courtesy

sustainability into most aspects of their business – from product creation and supplier management, to store concept development and facilities.

When it comes to their gear, the brand upcycles plastic into a thread called Parley Ocean Plastic, which is used in the manufacturing of products like the Ultraboost Parley running shoe. By the end of 2017, Adidas had produced over one million pairs of footwear that contained Parley Ocean Plastic, and the

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HOW I GET IT DONE R E N E E WA N G CEO, Castbox

B y Ya s m i n G a g n e Photograph

by Chris Callaway

Former Googler Wang is using blockchain to allow fans to fund creators directly.

Sound revenue Castbox CEO Renee Wang has a new idea for funding digital content creators.

Icon: ProSymbols at the Noun Project

THE PROBLEM When Renee Wang’s three-yearold podcast listening platform, Castbox, began producing original audio content last year, the former Google advertising executive was introduced to every podcaster’s struggle: Ad revenue alone usually isn’t enough to fund a show, even if it has millions of listeners. She set out to develop a seamless way for subscribers to fund their favourite shows, while rewarding them for their loyalty.

THE EPIPHANY Wang considered using a service like PayPal to let consumers back their

favourite creators directly, but she decided that the process of leaving the app and going through a middleman would be too cumbersome for users and would undercut the podcasters’ profits. But blockchain, she realised, is decentralised, meaning users could send and receive money directly in the app, without linking out or going through a thirdparty service.

THE EXECUTION In June, Wang equipped Castbox, which now produces 25 original shows, including the popular truecrime documentary spoof This Sounds Serious, with a custombuilt payment system that allows consumers to purchase a premium subscription without leaving the app. She also hired four engineers

to expand the payment system’s abilities by creating a blockchain ecosystem called Contentbox that’s now in beta.

T H E R E S U LT With Contentbox, users are able to send and receive tokens from their in-app digital wallet. Those coins, which they can purchase and eventually earn, by consuming and sharing podcasts, can be donated to participating creators (who, in turn, can exchange coins for cash). “I want to incentivise and compensate creators who make great content, whether that’s podcasts, music, or videos,” says Wang. She hopes to eventually partner with digital media companies so that they can use Contentbox’s payment system on their own platforms.

Castbox Podcast Originals u Don’t Mess With

Christine Sydelko A weekly pop-culture talk show hosted by the viral video star

u Livin’ Large With

Mark Dohner YouTuber Dohner interviews people about what it takes to make it in Hollywood

u Be.Scared

Weekly horror stories – some fictional, some not – from contemporary writers

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MASTER CLASS HASAN MINHAJ

C o m e d i a n a n d h o s t, Patriot Act

B y J o e B e r ko w i t z Photograph

by Herring & Herring

The art of persuasion With his new Netflix series, Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj offers a fresh take on late-night comedy.

The unofficial theme of

Stylist: Sam Spector; groomer: Amy Komorowski

Hasan Minhaj’s breakthrough 2017 Netflix special, Homecoming King, is ‘Log kya kahenge,’ a Hindi phrase that translates to ‘What will people think?’

The first-generation Indian American refers to the line in anecdotes that explore racism and cultural tradition – including a heartbreaking story about a hate crime committed against his family on 12 September, 2001. Although he prods his audience to let go of the ‘Log kya kahenge’ outlook, Minhaj’s talent for influencing what people think has been a hallmark of his career. It’s a skill he honed as a former correspondent for The Daily Show and as the host of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April of last year. After his remarks garnered praise from both sides of the political spectrum, Minhaj teamed up with Netflix to create a weekly, half-hour talk show, Patriot Act, which earned an unprecedented 32-episode order. Here’s how he uses message-driven comedy to shift perspectives.

Minhaj often mines his personal history for comedic fodder. In Homecoming King, he recalls his white prom date canceling on him at her parents’ behest.

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BE CUTTING, BUT NOT CRUEL There have been two White House Correspondents’ Dinners since the Trump era began, and the entertainers took decidedly different approaches. This year, comedian Michelle Wolf opted for a profanitylaced set that took President Trump and team to task. Unsurprisingly, milder jabs at Democrats didn’t win her any accolades from the right. When Minhaj and his cowriter Prashanth Venkataramanujam were preparing his speech for the 2017 event, their plan was to win the audience with what Minhaj calls ‘angry optimism’. He took light digs at members of the Trump administration and at President Trump’s speculation about President Obama’s faith, but he also roasted Hillary Clinton, Nate Silver, and the mainstream media. He chided [MSNBC] for constantly focusing on how the Russians hacked the 2016 election. He ended the bit by saying: “Meanwhile, everybody in Latin America and the Middle East is like, ‘Ah, a foreign government tampered with your election?

What is that like? Do tell, MSNBC.’ ” By poking fun at the network, he was able to raise a serious issue for people at home and abroad.

Stylist: Sam Spector; groomer: Amy Komorowski

BREAK OUT OF YOUR CONSTRAINTS When Jon Stewart left The Daily Show in 2015, he challenged Minhaj and the other correspondents to push the programme’s limits.

Minhaj soon realised that The Daily Show and other late-night shows sat hosts behind desks with graphics positioned over their shoulders.

It inspired him to try a new execution: In Homecoming King, he stood in front of a backdrop like one you’d see on a concert stage, with wall-to-wall LED screens showing infographics and changing colours to reflect the mood of the set. In Patriot Act, he applies the same immersive environment to a weekly news show. “Every episode and every headline piece has an infinite amount of variability [that can be extended to the set],” he says.

Getting Here

Minhaj and his White House Correspondents’ Dinner co-writer selffinanced the proof-ofconcept video that led to his new Netflix show, Patriot Act.

2004 STAND-UP COMEDIAN

2015 THE DAILY SHOW COMEDY CENTRAL CORRESPONDENT

2017 WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER ENTERTAINER

2017 HOMECOMING KING NETFLIX HOST

2018 PATRIOT ACT NETFLIX HOST

PUT A FACE ON IT Minhaj has learned that getting personal elicits empathy from audiences. In Homecoming King, he recalled the day, in September 2001, that he came home to discover his family’s car had been vandalised. He realised that because he was born in the US, he had ‘the audacity of equality,’ but his father, who calmly swept up the glass, saw the crime as just “the price we pay for being here.” His commitment to illuminating issues for an audience is one reason he still prefers not to craft arguments around the 24-hour news cycle – it’s often too hard for people to see the humanity at the centre. Instead, in Patriot Act, he uses breaking news as a jumping-off point to explore who is affected by current events. The goal is to show viewers how hot-button issues might affect them personally, even if they feel detached from the headlines.

NARROW YOUR AUDIENCE While Minhaj wants to show viewers why they should care about an issue, he also doesn’t waste any time trying to reel in people whose political opinions won’t budge.

“I don’t think anyone can bear that burden,” he says. With Patriot Act, he tailors his arguments to speak to the politically agnostic – a group he thought might be elusive, until he learned that several of his (college-educated, prosperous) friends didn’t bother to vote in the last election.

And although the show never shies away from the country’s thorniest issues, Minhaj always maintains a light touch. As he learned on his high school debate team, arguments get better scores if you can make the judges laugh. “My job is to be funny, and to tell the truth,” he says. “If I can do those two things, hopefully I can reach people”– and spur them into action.

“MY JOB IS TO BE AS FUNNY AS POSSIBLE, AND TO TELL THE TRUTH. IF I CAN DO THOSE TWO THINGS, HOPEFULLY I CAN REACH PEOPLE.”

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MONEY TALKS WITH CAMER ON VAN DER BURGH RENOWNED AROUND THE

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Text: Farah Khalfe; Images: Adobe Stock

globe as an Olympic goldmedalist swimmer, South Africa’s golden boy Cameron van der Burgh is channeling his athletic discipline and strong work ethic into his passion outside the pool – stock trading.

2018/09/20 10:42

Text: Farah Khalfe; Images: Adobe Stock

After winning the JSE School’s Challenge in Grade 11, Cameron was exposed to the world of investing, which ignited his passion for financial markets.

It may be a far cry from his highly publicised and successful career in the water, but Cameron reveals how his life as an Olympic swimmer draws many parallels to the fluctuating nature of professional stock trading and in fact, has nurtured his ability to excel as a businessman.

“Hard work and attention to detail helped me become the best I can in the pool and the same principles have enabled me to be successful in the markets. Like all investors, I do my research but I always try to go the extra mile and see things from different angles,” he says.

He identifies discipline and routine as essential factors in both his sporting ability and business acumen. “In swimming you have to train in order to compete. In the markets, one needs to do research and analysis in order to identify and have conviction on a potential trade,” he explains.

In addition, strategising is essential for any goal-driven activity. It’s important to have an investment strategy to minimise risk and bring in safe, consistent returns – just like in the pool, where Cameron develops a race strategy to perform to the best of his ability.

When trading, commodities are his assets of choice as ‘no day is the same’. “I find it more exciting with all the geopolitical and production risks in the world, especially right now with the current trade war and sanctions being brought about by [Donald] Trump,” he reveals.

“I love building my supply and demand models in search of impending surpluses or

“ H ARD WORK AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL HELPED ME BECOME THE BEST I CAN IN THE POOL AND THE SAME PRINCIPLES HAVE ENABLED ME TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE MARKETS.” deficits and act accordingly,” he adds.

Economic instability it seems is all within the thrill of the chase when it comes to monitoring and trading shares.

But Cameron asserts that despite the enjoyment it brings, it is crucial to remain informed and cultivate an educated and well-analysed view on any trade, in order to stay ahead of the curve. Due to the risk of directional trade, he advises to always assess the long and short position of both the broad market as well as a particular security’s direction.

Cameron’s stance on being educated and informed is reflected in his caution towards the current frenzy around cryptocurrency. “I don’t trade what I don’t understand and thus have not put any money into cryptocurrencies. I don’t have an issue with people speculating on it as long as they understand the risks involved. I think blockchain technology has amazing utility. We are seeing it being used in the oil industry, already helping traders have more reliable data when it comes to global shipping movements,” he says.

When it comes to getting your foot in the door, Cameron says: “One cannot learn to swim only by reading about it.”

He suggests opening up a demo account and to simply begin trading, in addition to following the daily news and reading a few books on the basic principles of investing.

This approach of ‘diving right in’ has certainly worked for the swimmer and stock trading professional, who splurges on fine dining as an indulgent guilty pleasure. Not the biggest fan of material things, he’s attached to the memories made around a meal of good food and wine. He concludes with advice that perhaps we could all heed: “Make money work for you, not the other around.” We’re certainly inspired to do so.

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C R E AT I V E C O N V E R S AT I O N RACHEL BLOOM

C R A Z Y E X- G I R L F R I E N D

By Laynie Rose Photograph

by Dan Monick

Bloom took her show and her castmates on a cross-country musical tour earlier this year, offering superfans live performances.

Crazy for You

The co-creator, writer, and star of the CW musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend talks about juggling multiple roles, pay equality in Hollywood, and lifting the stigma around mental health.

Eight years after she became a YouTube sensation with the music video “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury,”

a satire about lusting after the nonagenarian sci-fi writer, Rachel Bloom, 31, has been pulling audiences deeper into her musical fantasies through her Emmy-winning show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which begins its fourth and final season this month.

With Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) as producer and co-creator, Bloom writes, scores, and stars in the genre-bending show, which blends drama, romantic comedy, and earworm original songs.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is unlike anything else on TV right now. You play the lead, Rebecca, who is smart and accom­ plished, suffers from severe mental illness, and expresses herself in musical numbers. When you and Brosh Mc­ Kenna first started working together, did you have a sense of what you aimed to achieve with the show? I wanted to question expectations that women place on themselves based on what they see in the arts and in the media. The show was always meant to be a deconstruction of romantic comedies, princess narratives, hero narratives.

How do you make a comedy about mental illness with­ out poking fun at your character? The nature of the show was always that [Rebecca] was literally depressed. That was O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 F A S T C O M P A N Y. C O . Z A 1 7

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C R E AT I V E C O N V E R S AT I O N I R A C H E L B L O O M

Last season, your character tried to commit suicide, which unfortunately is something that has been in the news lately. Do you see the conversation around mental health starting to change?

I hope so. In the research we did about people who want to commit suicide, [they] kept saying that they don’t want to die, they just want the pain to stop. When you’re in the middle of a depression, the words mental health are clinical words that just feel so separate from the way you feel. Along with talking about mental health, we should be talking about how it feels – about hopelessness, sadness, the feeling of being trapped in your life. We need to address that in the national conversation.

What do you think you achieved with that episode? I had a few people tell me it inspired them to go to therapy, which is probably the best compliment I could ever get.

You have a background in writing and performing, but this is your first time creating a show and leading a cast. How did you approach these responsibilities?

I think a big challenge of this job is learning how to be a boss and to forgive myself when I disagree with [someone else’s] choice. That’s been something I [had to] learn as a young woman. I’m the secondyoungest member of the cast and [one of the youngest] members of the writing staff. When you’re in production meetings and people are often 20 years your senior, you have to find that balance of being

30-Second Bio Rachel Bloom YOU T UBE S TA RDOM After studying theatre at NYU, Bloom joined the Upright Citizens Brigade improv theatre. In 2010, she started posting original music videos on YouTube, beginning with the Ray Bradbury hit. It cost approximately R45 000 to produce (the bulk of her savings) and now has 4.5 million views.

Subsequent songs include “I Steal Pets” and “You Can Touch My Boobies.”

BRE A KOU T MOMEN T The effort paid off when Brosh McKenna discovered her videos.

Together they created the pilot for Crazy ExGirlfriend, which was picked up by the CW in 2015. Bloom won a Golden Globe for her performance in 2016.

TA L EN T OV ERF LOW Bloom released her first album of musical comedy songs, including “Chanukah Honey,” in 2013. She followed it up with a Christmas-themed album later that year.

Her first book, a collection of personal essays and more, will be published by Grand Central next year.

respectful, but also holding firm on what you want.

I try to treat everyone like collaborators. When I’m frustrated, I try to go somewhere where I can be frustrated alone. Every person who’s been in a supervising position has that moment where they feel like, “Ugh, why aren’t people getting it?” Or “Ugh, people are trying to sabotage my show!” You need to understand that everyone is just trying to make a good show.

You’ve talked in the past about being in writers’ rooms where people are afraid to pitch their ideas. How do you and Brosh McKenna stop that from happening on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? In every writers’ room, ideas are shut down, but I think it’s important not to look at people dismissively or derisively when one of their ideas isn’t going to work in the script. The role of a boss is to shut the idea down in a very calm and humane way.

I reject ideas overly kindly. I’m like, “I understand where you’re coming from. I appreciate it.” [Rejection] is something you have to learn as a writer.

What is it like to write and act on a show that also involves at least two musical numbers per episode? The hardest part is that we are a network show, so we’re doing it all at once. Other shows, like Insecure, Girls, and Broad City, are 30 minutes long and eight to ten episodes [a season]. I believe that all of them write, then film, and then edit. We do it all at once. So in the morning, I’m looking at outlines [for upcoming episodes], then acting, and then editing. It’s very fast and very hard, and I don’t think I could ever do this process again.

You’re among a generation of comedians, including Insecure creator Issa Rae and Eighth Grade director Bo Burnham, who got their start on YouTube. Do you think the platform is still a great talent incubator? It was a lot easier to get your web series noticed when I was coming up. The lines between web series and TV shows have shifted.

There is a real oversaturation of sketch comedy online, and that’s why you see sites like Funny or Die or College Humor downsize. The internet continues to be a great place for people to make art, but when it comes to getting noticed – how you break through with something that isn’t super topical – I don’t know. On [Crazy Ex-Girlfriend] we can’t be topical because we’re making the show in advance. We have maybe three or four videos that go viral-esque [each season]. But having quality content is not necessarily all that you need anymore, because there is so much out there.

The cast is diverse in a lot of ways, from ethnicity to age to body type. Was that something you planned from the beginning? When Aline and I were researching the show, one of the things we did was walk around West Covina [the Los Angeles suburb where Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is set]. It’s diverse, but no one is talking about how diverse it is. I grew up in Manhattan Beach: Our homecoming queen was Japanese and our king was Chinese, and I don’t remember anyone patting themselves on the back being like, “Oh, we’re so diverse.” I think you get a lot of writers in Hollywood who are transplants from the East Coast, specifically places like Long island where it’s much more segregated – though not officially – by class and race.

You’ve been a vocal advocate for pay equality in the entertainment industry. How have you approached the issue on your own set? All of the heads of the show are women and we’re very aware of pay disparity. We’re always monitoring that, especially during actor negotiations. I’ve learned to look at my own biases. Looking at a white person and a person of colour, [I’ve learned to] ask why [is one of them] getting paid more? Is it because of their expertise or because they have a better lawyer? We need to give everyone the same chance and opportunity to succeed, and then the ball is in their court.

“WHEN YOU’RE IN PRODUCTION MEETINGS AND PEOPLE ARE OFTEN 20 YEARS YOUR SENIOR, YOU HAVE TO FIND THAT BALANCE OF BEING RESPECTFUL, BUT ALSO HOLDING FIRM ON WHAT YOU WANT.”

Icon: Jemis Mali at the Noun Project

definitely autobiographical because I’ve suffered from anxiety and depression. The show’s about finding what makes you truly happy, about inner happiness. We’re always coming at [Rebecca] with compassion and [trying] to understand why she’s doing what she’s doing. Every episode is an experiment. The tone is always the hardest thing to nail, and in each episode there are definitely moments where we make a change when something feels totally off.

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A PR ER EQUISITE FOR ENA BLING

SU STAINABLE D E VELOP ME NT The Internet of Things (IoT) and digitisation enables us to efficiently, proactively and predictively address the sustainability challenges that are being faced by the African continent and global community.

With Africa’s population set to increase from around

mitigate these risks.

It is for these reasons and other socioeconomic and environmental concerns that the United Nations has established its Sustainable Development Goals strategy, addressing the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, and environmental degradation.

We need to look at smarter ways that leverage technology in order to address these challenges. The situation requires a radical response that delivers a proactive, predictive and data driven approach to addressing these issues with exponentially growing levels of speed and impact.

The IoT ecosystem, comprising of sensors, connectivity, data analytics and workflow automation platforms and applications are at the core of acquiring, analysing and harnessing the insights that can be integrated into agriculture, service delivery, health and resource management processors – IoT is at the core of a digitisation strategy.

Around 200 million Africans use approximately one million manual pumps across the continent to access clean drinking water. IoT applications have been utilised in assuring the delivery of water through these pumps. According to estimates, at least one-third of pumps will break down at least once in its lifecycle, and up to 70% will break in the second year of operation. The impact of not having access to clean drinking water is dehydration or water borne pandemics.

Oxford University began a proof of concept project in 2013 in the Kenyan Region of Kyusoa, that made use of motion sensors to capture the movements of the pumps’ handles which were transmitted and analysed in real time. A decision support system based on real data was used to predict pump malfunctions, allowing for better planning and shortening the time needed to repair broken pumps, or avoiding malfunctions altogether, directly improving access to clean drinking water for the rural population.

Liquid Telecom realises that the future of sustainability lies in technology and innovations such as IoT. We provide high speed fibre connectivity to interconnect and access platforms to build IoT solutions, as well as access the Microsoft Azure suite for analytics and algorithm driven-based processing and execution.

Our pan-African network enables collaboration and cross-border innovation and learning, as well as the capability to efficiently scale out these solutions in Africa’s Liquid Cloud.

Text: Reshaad Sha, CEO of Liquid Telecom; Image: Sourced

1.3 billion in 2018 to 1.7 billion by 2030, both challenges and opportunities are presented with regards to managing issues, including food production and food supply security, as well as the utilisation of limited natural resources in a sustainable manner.

Water scarcity and poor water quality are realities that negatively impact health, food production and security.

Population growth rates and climatic changes place an exponential demand on this scarce and dwindling resource. These are just some of the sustainability challenges facing not just the African continent, but other developing nations and the world as a whole. In addition to this, the demand for the delivery of basic services such as healthcare and sanitation also increases.

Against this backdrop of African population growth lies the grim projection that Africa will account for more than 50% of child deaths (under five years old) by 2030.

According to the UNICEF 2017 “Trends in Child Mortality” report, nearly 1 000 children die owing to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrheal diseases. It’s an alarming fact, given that while 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking water sources since 1990, 663 million people still do not have access.

The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry estimates that the agricultural sector accounts for more than 50% of water use in South Africa and experience water losses of between 30-40%. Further to this, the department states that around 35% of irrigation system losses, often nutrient enriched and containing herbicides, pesticides, and other pollutants, return to rivers.

These are just some of the ways in which reactive, inefficient, and manually driven processes have limited us to respond in an impactful manner and timeously

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AR E W E MOVING FAST ENOUG H? The race between agencies and culture in the connected age

How do you build a global city with almost no resources?

Quickly. Enter Hong Kong (HK), also known as the tallest city in the world. One of the world’s fastest growing urban areas – going from a small colony to an international financial centre in less than half a century. When I got to HK a few months ago from Dubai, another rapid growth phenomenon, I instantly felt the energy and pace of the city.

A sensory overload It’s 1am on the island in Wan Chai and England has just beaten Sweden 2-0 in the World Cup quarter finals. In the words of Lacoste, “Life is a beautiful sport”, so naturally I check in to my hotel room to drop off my bags and begin exploring.

Upon arrival at the pub, I’m greeted by bellowing roars and belches from a group of lads seemingly on tour insisting that “it’s coming home”. Across the road, a squad of businessmen in Brioni suits walk to their last meetings for the day, in between side streets lit up by Tesla LED headlamps and flickering neon signs.

It’s this almost comical duality that exists in Hong Kong as a result of its astonishing growth, that makes the city so exciting and inspiring.

Keke Mahlelebe Senior Strategist at M&C Saatchi Abel

Let’s RISE As we approach the fourth decade of the ‘job bag’, it’s no surprise that our industry is being disrupted.

Are we asking ourselves whether we’re doing enough to keep up?

How do agencies become the Hong Kongs of their industry? I decided to attend RISE – the largest tech conference in Asia, to find out.

Image: Courtesy

760 startups. 300+ speakers. Attendees from over 100 countries.

Maurice Saatchi once said, “Sometimes I feel as though I am standing at the graveside of a well-loved friend called advertising.” As agencies, we’ve been 2 0 F A S T C O M P A N Y. C O . Z A O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8

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LEADING VOICES

slow to adapt and are held back by our own processes, while startups thrive on agility and collaboration.

In the digital world, all the doors are open, decentralised technologies are empowering the individual, and being in beta is the only way to stay relevant.

Image: Courtesy

Propositions are a work in progress in startupland Netflix went from selling DVDs in 2008 to currently being the world’s biggest streaming service. Airbnb shifted from booking agent to travel brand with its experiences platform, and Amazon went from selling books, to a far broader e-commerce offering, moving into software with Amazon Prime, and hardware with Kindle and Alexa.

In the connected age our biggest competitor is culture Adapt or get left behind The key to Tinder’s initial success is how the app removed the element of rejection. Right now, their focus is on using AI to integrate voice into the app to help users match with the people they’re looking for quicker. Nike is focused on building swifter direct to customer relationships by taking the solitary act of running and turning it into a community activity with the Nike+ Run Club app.

Being agile and adaptive in a world that’s constantly changing is the only way to win.

Agencies and brands that understand this will see rapid growth over the next five to ten years.

The most talked about technologies are those that are evolving at lightning speed. AI, Voice, and Blockchain; the RISE 2018 trinity so to speak – shaking up industries around the world.

The machine-learning breakthrough in AI means that algorithms are learning faster than ever. Apple is using facial tracking on the iPhone X with Animojis to turn your smiling poop and unicorn videos into data that can analyse human emotion and start predicting how you feel.

Amazon has made Alexa open-source to use

“ T HE RISE OF TECHNOLOGY MEANS THAT THE WORLD IS GETTING MORE COMPLEX AND ONLY THE SIMPLEST IDEAS, MESSAGES, AND PRODUCTS WILL MAKE THE CUT.”

voice as a way of automating most human functions, like switching on the lights in your home or making playlists with your favourite songs.

IBM is using blockchain technology to help businesses empower consumers and build trust by being more transparent. In the next few years, data will be our most important currency. Startups are looking for ways to give consumers more control over their data, using the encryption of blockchain to allow people to sell their rich data directly to advertisers and get paid for it every time they get served an ad.

How are startups using some of these technologies to keep up with culture?

Bill Gates speaks of having the ability to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent as being critical to success. It starts with aligning to an ambition, having the desire to create something meaningful, and delivering on it with cross sector collaboration and thinking.

Moving at the speed of culture We believe that in order for brands to stay relevant, they need to constantly evolve, adapting to moments in time whilst remaining distinctly themselves.

Nando’s, a brand built on tone and a powerful understanding of the South African zeitgeist acts as a voice for the people, shining a light on the issues we face as a country.

When the cabinet was being reshuffled, tax money was being spent on swimming pools, and pastors were spraying Doom on people’s faces, we created a film called We Can Fix Our Shit to show South Africa that we’ve been through a lot already and we can get through it all again.

The closing scene of the ad shows the Gupta brothers loading up a Range Rover with all the money they stole from the country and making a run for it. Our spot flighted in December, and just two months later the Guptas made news headlines by fleeing the country as we predicted, entrenching Nando’s as an iconic brand with its finger on the pulse.

As brands are being shaped at the speed of culture, the next disruptors of ad agencies should be ourselves. We need to relook, rework, and rethink our own processes internally to drive efficiency and evolve. What role could AI play in the creative process?

Could voice help traffic with managing diaries? How do we use blockchain to discover new talent?

The rise of technology means that the world is getting more complex and only the simplest ideas, messages, and products will make the cut.

An unnamed artist was once asked about the difficulty of sculpting an elephant. The man answered, “I just chip away everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.”

The challenge we will face as an industry over the next few years, will not only be to strip away everything that isn’t necessary, but to get there as quickly as possible.

That is how we will stay relevant.

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SPECIAL REPORT STRONG FEMALE LEAD

ABOUT FAC E WITH HER D I V E R S I T Y- F O C U S E D VENTURE FIRM, B A C K S TA G E C A P I TA L , AND A NEW $36 MILLION FUND D E D I C AT E D E XC LU S I V E LY TO ‘BL ACK’ FEMALE FOUNDERS,

A R L A N

H A M I LT O N

IS WORKING TO CHANGE THE COMPOSITION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AMERICA.

BY AINSLEY HARRIS WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY J.J. MCCORVEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOÃO CANZIANI

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Like everything Hamilton does, the song request is equal parts self-aware and unapologetic. Hamilton knows that she stands out – she is the only black, queer woman to have ever built a venture capital firm from scratch. She also knows that she has a reputation for being direct, particularly when it comes to Silicon Valley biases, and how her own story is portrayed. (Indeed, the song is a jab at Gimlet Media, the podcast festival hosts, who devoted an entire episode of their StartUp series on her and what they saw as her sometimes counterproductive need for control.) But Hamilton exudes calm, even as she attempts, through her L.A.-based firm, Backstage Capital, the near impossible task of disrupting the way that venture investors pick winners and create wealth.

“It was crazy to me that 90% of venture funding was going to white men, when that is not how innovation, intelligence, and drive is dispersed in the real world,” she tells me. “I had no background in finance, but I just saw it as a problem. Maybe it’s because I was coming from such a different place that I could recognise it.”

Three years ago, the then 34-year-old Hamilton arrived in Silicon Valley with no college degree, no network, no money, and a singular focus: to invest in underrepresented founders by becoming a venture capitalist. The story of how

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the former music-tour manager studied up on investing from her home in Prairieland, Texas, and pushed her way into the rarified world of venture capital, scoring investments from the likes of Marc Andreessen and Chris Sacca, has become legendary in the industry. After making contact with Y Combinator president Sam Altman, she bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco. For months she stalked investors by day and slept on the floor of the San Francisco airport at night. She was broke.

Finally, in September 2015, she got her first check, for $25 000, from Bay Area angel investor Susan Kimberlin, who believed in Hamilton’s vision that the Valley’s lack of diversity wasn’t a talent-pipeline problem as much as a resources problem: diverse entrepreneurs needed money. With Kimberlin’s endorsement, Hamilton created Backstage Capital and began investing. Other funding soon followed, from backers including Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield and Box CEO Aaron Levie. This past June, Hamilton announced that Backstage had exhausted its first three seed funds, doling out between $25 000 and $100 000 to 100 startups in everything from beauty products to business analytics. And at all 100, at least one founder is a woman, person of colour, or someone who identifies as LGBTQ. Now Hamilton is gearing up for Backstage’s next chapter – a $36 million fund dedicated exclusively to black women founders, a demographic that’s glaringly absent in Silicon Valley. Just three dozen black women entrepreneurs, nationwide, have raised more than $1 million in venture funding.

Hamilton calls her latest initiative the “It’s about damn time fund”. Her first two $1 million investments, to be announced before the end of the year, will go to existing Backstage portfolio companies. And that’s just the start. This autumn, Hamilton will launch the Backstage Accelerator

Hair: Shendra Coleman; makeup: Ashley Kucich; photographed at Contra Studios

Backstage in the greenroom of the podcast festival where she’s scheduled to appear, Arlan Hamilton is quietly singing the lyrics to Janet Jackson’s “Control”. She’d like to walk on stage as the song plays, but the festival crew has copyright concerns. So instead, she is shimmying offstage in her chair, halfhumming the chorus under her breath: “I’m in control / Never gonna stop / Control / To get what I want / Control / I like to have a lot.”

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Hair: Shendra Coleman; makeup: Ashley Kucich; photographed at Contra Studios

Hamilton calls her new $36 million fund for ‘black’ female founders the “It’s about damn time fund”.

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to foster early-stage startups with locations slated for L.A., Philadelphia, and London. She’s also laying the groundwork for a $100 million fund to provide underrepresented founders with even larger checks.

Every nascent VC is under pressure to demonstrate success – Hamilton even more so.

Those in Silicon Valley who believe that the next Facebook will be created by a woman or person of colour are watching her portfolio closely.

Others view Backstage with more skepticism, seeing her funds as relatively inexpensive ways for investors to appear committed to diversity without having to do the hard work internally.

Hamilton shrugs it off. In an industry where privilege begets privilege – and at a time when racial justice in this country seems precarious, at best – she is claiming her seat at the table.

“How much of a fist in the air would it be to just be obnoxiously wealthy as a gay black woman?” she wonders. “And [how powerful] to be able to help other people do the same?”

Entrepreneur Stephanie Lampkin had an

engineering degree from Stanford and an MBA from MIT. But she couldn’t get a job at Google when she applied there in 2014. “They told me I wasn’t technical enough,” she says. Shortly afterward, she developed the idea for her startup, Blendoor, which sets out to eliminate bias in hiring practices through software that anonymises job-candidate data and analyses talent pipelines. She was soon accepted into a Stanford-run accelerator programme, but struggled to persuade investors to back her efforts. “I went through the demo day, and nothing converted to a check.”

Advisers suggested that Lampkin, who is African American, seek out women-focused venture funds. There has been an explosion of angel syndicates and early-stage funds in recent years that target women entrepreneurs.

But as Lampkin discovered, the founders in such funds’ portfolios are almost exclusively ‘white’ or Asian. In the end, she shifted gears and looked for VCs “who understood the

problem really well,” including Hamilton, who put $25 000 into the company in 2017. (Laszlo Bock, the former head of people at Google, is another early backer.)

“There are a lot of people who are talking about investing in women and founders of colour, but when you look at their portfolios, it’s still majority homogeneous,” says Ellen Pao, a Backstage investor and activist who filed the landmark sex discrimination lawsuit against VC powerhouse Kleiner Perkins in 2012.

She sees Hamilton as the real deal, capable of leveraging her network to identify talent that everyone else has ignored.

Though she is still a small player in a venture landscape awash with money, Hamilton has proven adept at connecting entrepreneurs to a robust network of toptier VCs and executives from Airbnb, Google, and more. Silicon Valley runs on warm introductions, and Hamilton, by force of will, is now able to offer them. “Time and time again I’ve seen Arlan tell the world, don’t count me out. It’s her persistence that I’m most inspired by,” says Uncharted Power founder and CEO Jessica Matthews, whose seven-year-old renewable energy startup has raised more than $7 million, with backing from Backstage.

Hamilton is gaining prominence at a time when ‘black’ female founders are increasingly giving up on venture capital entirely. Reham Fagiri, co-founder and CEO of used-furniture marketplace AptDeco, is one of the rare ‘black’ women to have raised more than $1 million in venture funding. She cashed her first VC check in 2014, before Hamilton arrived on the scene, but has since soured on the standard startup path, due to her interactions with VCs. “I always got asked who was running the tech, even though I ran a team of engineers at Goldman Sachs for six years,” she says. These days, Fagiri prefers to bootstrap her company.

Crowdfunding is also becoming popular: Republic, a platform that allows founders to raise money from nonprofessional investors in exchange for equity, reported in May that

founders of colour accounted for 25% of the investment dollars generated through its site, while women accounted for 44%.

(Industry-wide, the percentages are 1% and 2%, respectively.) And facial-recognition startup Kairos, one of Backstage’s portfolio companies, has raised millions through an initial coin offering – a type of crowdfunding that relies on cryptocurrencies – this past summer.

Many ‘black’ female founders turn their backs on venture funding out of sheer fatigue for “having to defend themselves as human beings,” says Jean Brownhill, co-founder and CEO of Sweeten, a matching service for homeowners and contractors. (Backstage is not a Sweeten investor.) Brownhill recalls meeting with an investor whose first question was whether her father was around while she was growing up. “I said something very pleasant with a smile on my face. But where do you go from there?” Matthews, for her part, cites the unique pressure of raising money as a ‘black’ female founder: “Whenever you are a black face in a white space, your presence represents all black people. You don’t have the ability to be flawed. Any mistake you make, that will be the one data point to explain an entire people.”

Hamilton knows that feeling well. She recalls the fellow VC who once told her that for Backstage to be taken seriously, it needs to be an ‘outlier’ in terms of its performance. “He said I need to be better than everyone in order to be seen as an equal,” she says. “It’s very unfair. But he can ship it to me; I’m not signing for it. I don’t feel the pressure.”

Under a pastel blue sky in mid-June, Hamilton

is doing what she does best: hosting a group of investors and portfolio companies at a Los Angeles co-working space for a day of founder-VC speed dating. It’s an important moment for Hamilton. For every Backstage startup that raises a Series A or Series B round led by a top-tier firm, Hamilton will be one step closer to convincing prospective investors that she’s capable of picking winners. She dispenses

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“ H OW MUCH OF A FIST IN THE AIR WOULD IT BE TO JUST BE OBNOXIOUSLY WEALTHY AS A GAY BLACK WOMAN?” hugs and greetings. But she’s here to work. “We definitely want to think about making deals today,” she announces as she scans the room, eyebrows mock-sternly raised.

The attendees fan out to their assigned meeting tables, each decorated with miniature succulents. The dozen-plus founders in the room mirror the overall composition of Backstage’s portfolio: 80% people of colour, 68% women, 13% LGBTQ. One company makes dolls with natural hair, one uses data to drive sports ticket sales, and another develops analytics for vending machines. In assembling Backstage’s “headliners”, as she calls her companies, Hamilton has avoided focusing on particular industries.

Through her presence on the conference circuit, she endeavours to attract the attention of all underrepresented founders. But the wideranging result can be challenging to manage and support. The less-than-charitable industry moniker for such a strategy: “Spray and pray.”

Hamilton defends the tactic, which mirrors that of high-volume early-stage funds like 500 Startups. “It’s not like [I’m saying], ‘Everybody’s getting a check! I’m Oprah!’ ” she says. So far, she has invested in roughly 3% of the companies that have pitched Backstage, a percentage that is on par with many venture firms. For her $1 million checks, Hamilton says she’s looking for companies that are transformative and scalable – and that “provide some sort of dignity for the end user.”

She approaches her investors with similar discernment. Amid the growing outcry around Silicon Valley’s stubbornly ‘white’, male norms, Hamilton seems to offer investors a convenient way to exhibit their good intentions. “There are probably a lot of people who see affiliating themselves with Backstage as a quick fix,” says Mark Levy, the former global head of employee experience for Airbnb and now a Backstage investor and adviser. “Arlan has a good nose for bullshit. She’s purposefully not taken money from investors when she thinks that’s the only reason they’re getting in.” Hamilton acknowledges that “there’s a bucket of people who are checking off boxes” by taking meetings with her. But she credits investors such as Butterfield and Sacca with “thinking about what the future looks like” and writing checks.

With other investors, she is less forgiving.

As the 2016 election approached, she took to Twitter to announce that she would no longer encourage companies to apply for Y Combinator.

YC partner Peter Thiel had just reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump, following the leak of Trump’s Access Hollywood comments, and Hamilton says she couldn’t stomach the idea of doing business with him. She also turned down an offer of more than $250 000 from an investor who was speaking out in Thiel’s defense. “I really weighed it, but I couldn’t do it,” she says. Later, she had to sell a portion of her Backstage ownership to cover payroll.

YC president Sam Altman, who lashed back on Twitter, might have greeted Hamilton’s decision with more understanding if she had spread the word quietly. But that is not how she operates. On Twitter and Instagram, she is disarmingly honest, posting about her loneliness and her longtime battle with alcoholism, even at the risk of unnerving potential investors. “I had a relationship with Tito’s,” she tells me. “It was my best friend, my comforter, the girlfriend that never cheated.”

Today she’s sober, helping to support her mother, and engaged to a woman who lives in Bavaria.

Meanwhile, the number of diversity funds is growing. Until recently, Rethink Impact, which has a $112 million war chest, was the only diversity-focussed fund capable of leading a large, post-seed round. Now there is also New Voices, a $100 million fund created this year by Sundial Brands CEO Richelieu Dennis, which has already invested in eight startups led by black women.

At the same time, the traditional venture world is starting to reform, albeit slowly. There are more women and minorities in junior roles, if not partner positions. And entrepreneurs are starting to seek out diverse investors. Ooda Health, a health-tech startup with male cofounders, decided to raise its initial round of funding this year exclusively from firms with female general partners.

As for Hamilton, she is thinking long-term.

“I definitely am aware that the majority of my [investors] are older white men who are rich, and who will get richer by my work and the work of others,” she says. “But right now the focus should be on getting that money to the founders so that they themselves can have massive exits.”

What follows from all these potential IPOs and acquisitions, in her vision, will be nothing short of revolutionary. “What will come of that,” she says, “is decades and decades of generational wealth for black people.” If Backstage and other such firms succeed, “[this country] will be a different picture.”

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SQWIDNE T DR IVE S IN N OVAT ION T HR OUGH Io T Using the Internet of Things (IoT) to make us net-positive consumers of shared resources, Sqwidnet CEO, Phathizwe Malinga, explains how his company is ensuring a sustainable future city.

There are currently over 7.4 billion people in the world

and consulting company McKinsey & Co estimates that by 2050 the number of African cities will double. As Africans, we are flocking to cities because they promise us a better quality of life. They give us the opportunity to be creative with other like-minded individuals, and the ability to innovate and produce products for a growing world economy. Essentially, they give us the opportunity to matter.

Cities do this well because of their ability to provide spaces for individuals to meet and collaborate and hustle.

However, the drawback of a city is its strain on shared resources like safe water and an adequate energy supply.

Although we are all inherently good people, we are all unfortunately driven by self-interest, and our uninformed collective action wastes these shared resources.

Since everybody uses and affects these scarce resources, whether employed or unemployed, and our cities continue to grow at a rapid pace, I wonder how we can produce more net-positive consumers of these resources?

One such way is to channel some of our corporate social investment (CSI) spend towards creating net-positive consumer communities. We can do so by focusing on improving our collective pattern recognition. The first step to pattern recognition is measuring. Academic Peter Drucker said, “If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.

The technology for pattern recognition is now cheaper and continues to decrease in cost. We now see the exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) being led by the commercialisation of low power technologies

like Sigfox. Sigfox technology allows for ordinary humans to simply connect assets to the Internet and specify when to get notified should there be changes in behaviour that could harm the asset. An example of this is when we saw Sigfox Ready™ water meters being produced locally for a few hundred rand, that will last for decades and are able to report water consumption to individuals without the need to have an intermediary involved, such as a municipality.

This is beneficial to a municipality as citizens become much more aware of their usage patterns and can notify the municipality of any leaks. In fact, the technology is getting so advanced that there is no need for a human to notify the municipality.

Instead, pattern recognising software can now live in the cloud and be shared across many datasets, learning to look for changes that suggest water leaks are occurring, and autonomously notify the municipality.

Our current CSI spend focuses on improving conditions at work as well as helping people in society. It doesn’t, however, address improving the shared resources that we require as a society, and I argue that we can redirect some of this spend to try and help create net-positive consumers across our society, regardless of social standing.

Safe water is by far the most crucial shared resource, but we don’t have to stop there. We can become smart users of energy. We can also look at the quality of air, as this has a huge impact on our healthcare burden. Another shared resource we could address through CSI is the quality of soil for sustenance farmers. Over watering and not maintaining the health of the soil can have adverse effects on our food security.

All these examples are what I consider to be a true smart city. A city where the companies that operate in it help turn the citizens of that city into net-positive consumers, regardless of their social standing or economic status.

For a better quality of life for all, we need to address our commons in innovative, novel and sustainable ways. IoT affords us just that. Let’s innovate and create a future we are proud of and is sustainable for many generations to come.

Text: Phathizwe Malinga; Image: Sourced

“ F OR A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL, WE NEED TO ADDRESS OUR COMMONS IN INNOVATIVE, NOVEL AND SUSTAINABLE WAYS.”

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REIM AGIN I N G BUSIN ESS ARCHITECT URE

BY M I C H A E L O’CA R R O L L , PWC AS S O C I AT E D I R E CTO R STRATEGY EXECUTION AND CHANGE 3 0 F A S T C O M P A N Y. C O . Z A O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8

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Image: Archjoe / Freepik

Reimagining end-to-end business architecture is critical to realising new growth in a rapidly changing market. One can’t expect to compete and lead in a market with only a corporate innovation programme and access to new cloud technology. The business blueprint needs to be rewritten to align to strategic growth priorities and to demand the organisation to remake itself.

Too of te n co rpo rate st rate g y i s set wit h

ambitious outcomes which lack clear and aligned plans to execute and achieve the desired value creation. Leadership action can be inconsistent with what needs to be changed and clear accountabilities never defined. Even so, organisations still work hard to realise their vision for change and new value creation.

Trying to incrementally improve performance and productivity won’t be adequate enough to disrupt dominant logic and shift the dial. There won’t be enough of a ground swell movement to shift gears and people will simply fall back into old ways of working. Ensuring the realisation of desired outcomes requires organisations to reimagine the end-to-end blueprint of the business.

Image: Archjoe / Freepik

“ R UN AN EXPERIENCE STRATEGY EXECUTION CAMPAIGN THAT EXCITES AND PULLS PEOPLE ONTO THE JOURNEY OF CHANGE.” Reimagining this business blueprint (architecture) extends well beyond corporate innovation programmes and ad hoc new products or services. It’s more radical. It’s about fundamentally shifting an organisation onto a new playing field with new rules. If the long-term vision is for significant change, then the blueprint needs to be reimagined with this in mind. The biggest trap organisations fall into is believing that significant business transformation will happen without fundamentally changing.

Consider the following areas when reimaging the business blueprint.

1. R un an experience strategy execution campaign that excites and pulls people onto the journey of change. As an employee, they must feel and see the change; they must have an experience of what is being driven, rather than just seeing a future vision poster on the wall. Co-creation and involvement of teams to build and perpetually adapt an agile strategy will bring them on the journey and help them feel like they are part of the change.

2. D isruptive business models need to be set up. Significant change requires a new operating model to unleash radical change.

Don’t expect change if the business model doesn’t support it. With regard to new versus legacy models, insulate but don’t isolate. Create a safe place where jeans, chatbots and great coffee roam free and don’t exclude this way of working from the boardroom.

3. Opportunity visualisation to tell stakeholders the story of change. Take them on a journey to see the future and what they will experience. Paint a picture and get them on board today. Get leaders onto the intranet to talk about strategic focus areas, execution results and future value creation from a personal point of view.

4. Alignment of leaders to the vision, goals and strategic priorities for change.

Change won’t happen unless the top executives are 100% aligned to the change journey and investment value proposition. Set performance drivers (financial and non-financial), endorsed by leadership, which are critical to achieving the execution of priority projects. Pick the right leaders for change and get the wrong ones off the bus.

5. T alent and culture need to be different to what currently exists in the corporate world. Don’t think incremental improvements here and there – think big, think startup culture, think agile. Top talent want freedom to create and work how and when they want. They won’t tolerate working in a red tape corporate cage. Adjust the physical working environment and review the way you value and empower talent. Create a culture of recognition, growth and creativity. This is not a ‘niceto-have’ anymore, it’s just the way talent operates – get on board and attract those unique individuals that will help lead the organisation into the future.

6. Digitise how you work, enabling digital natives to feel at home. Digital natives are a mobile, cloud ready, collaboration generation. Make it easy for them to share documents and co-create ideas online. For example, Google’s G Suite applications allow users to work remotely but remain connected through shared cloud files.

Don’t only satisfy the needs of digital natives but enforce the old school players to shift to a new way of working. Think beyond productivity suite and digitise all functional areas, for example Human Capital process like performance feedback.

Digitise learning and development programmes to allow users to log in and train when and how they need to, on mobile or laptop. Digitise the entire core business.

7. E nable an emerging tech driven strategy relevant to the industry. Pick the top five emerging tech trends for the year and research and explore potential impacts and opportunities for the relevant industry. Don’t hover over all the new technologies and get lost in the myriad of emerging opportunities. The biggest challenge is to keep focused and on strategy rather than deliver diluted impact across numerous areas.

8. D rive resource transformation that supports emerging technology and a transformational operating model. One can’t expect radical change without new skills or a fresh way of thinking. Re-training dominant logic is challenging but not impossible. Catch them at the door before you recruit new talent. If you want to be a market leading data business, as an example, then you need certified data engineers specialised in at least two or more languages (python, java) and data science capability. Set a plan for radical resource transformation.

9. B e someone new for your market and your people. If you want to or need to transform the business then invest to change your brand accordingly. Communicate and showcase your new business model and transformation aspirations. Showcase new innovations and build a new brand profile. Set brand performance outcome targets per priority transformation area and be known for it, avoid dabling with no differentiating value.

Most businesses aren’t lacking in new ideas or innovation efforts, but very few are able to bring them to market, realise brand differentiation and transition beyond legacy operating models. Transformational change and subsequent value creation requires executives to reimagine the end-to-end business architecture – otherwise expect good incremental improvements and get ready for disruption.

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F U TU RE OF WO RK IN A D IGI TA L WO R L D The digital age, and the new technologies it has brought with it – blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) robotics, augmented realit y and virtual realit y – is seen by many as a threat to our way of life. What if my job gets automated? How will I stay relevant? How do we adapt to the need for new skills to manage customer expectations and the flood of data that is washing over us?

The bad news is that the nature of work has already changed irrevocably. Everything that can be automated, will be. We already live in an age of ‘robot restaurants’, where you order on a touch screen, and machines cook and serve your food. AmazonGo is providing shopping without checkout lines. In the US alone, there are an estimated 3.4 million drivers that could be replaced by self-driving vehicles in 10 years, including truck drivers, taxi drivers and bus drivers.

We’re not immune from this phenomenon in Africa. In fact, the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that 41% of all work activities in South Africa are susceptible to automation, compared to 44% in Ethiopia, 46% in Nigeria and 52% in Kenya. This doesn’t mean millions of jobs on the continent will be automated overnight, but it’s a clear indicator of the future direction we’re taking.

The good news is that we don’t need to panic.

What’s important for us in South Africa, and

the continent, is to realise that there is plenty of work that only humans can do. This is particularly relevant to the African context, as the working-age population rises to 600 million in 2030 from 370 million in 2010. We have a groundswell of young people who need jobs – and the digital age has the ability to provide them, if we start working now.

Make no mistake, there’s no doubt that this so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ is going to disrupt many occupations. This is perfectly

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By CATHY SMITH MD at SAP AFRICA

Text: Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa; Image: Adobe Stock

“ T HE COMPANIES THAT WILL STAND OUT WILL BE THOSE THAT FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT CAN’T BE DUPLICATED

BY AI OR MACHINE-LEARNING – UNIQUELY HUMAN SKILLS.”

natural: every industrial revolution has made some jobs redundant. At the same time, these revolutions have created vast new opportunities that have taken us forward exponentially.

Between 2012 and 2017, for example, it’s estimated that the demand for data analysts globally grew by 372%, and the demand for data visualisation skills by more than 2 000%.

As businesses, this means we have to not only create new jobs in areas like data science and analytics, but reskill our existing workforces to deal with the digital revolution and its new demands.

So, while bus drivers and data clerks are looking over their shoulders nervously, we’re seeing a vast range of new jobs being created in fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), data analysis, computer science and engineering.

This is a challenge for sub-Saharan Africa,

where our levels of STEM education are still not where they should be. That doesn’t mean opportunities don’t exist. In the region, for example, we have a real opportunity to create a new generation of homegrown African digital creators, designers and makers, not just ‘digital deliverers’; people who understand African nuances and stories, and who not only speak local

languages, but are fluent in digital.

This ability to bridge the digital and physical worlds will be the new gold for Africa. We need more business operations data analysts, who combine deep knowledge of their industry with the latest analytical tools to adapt business strategies. There will also be more demand for user interface experts, who can facilitate seamless human-machine interaction.

Of course, in the longer term, Africans will have to make some fundamental decisions about how we educate people if we’re going to be a part of this brave new world. Governments, big businesses and civil society will all have roles to play in creating more future-ready education systems, including expanded access to early-childhood education, more skilled teachers, investments in digital fluency and information and communications technology (ICT) literacy skills, and providing robust technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This will take significant intent not only from a policy point of view, but also the financial means to fund this.

None of this will happen overnight. So what can we, as individuals and business people, do in the meantime? A good start would be to realise that the old models of learning and work are broken. Jenny Dearborn, SAP’s Global Head of Learning, talks about how the old approach to learning and work was generally a three-stage life that consisted largely of learn-work-retire.

Today, we live in what Dearborn calls the multi-stage life, which includes numerous phases of learn-work-change-learn-work. And where before, the learning was often by rote, because information was finite. Learning now is all about critical thinking, complex problem-solving, creativity and innovation and even the ability to un-learn what you have learned before.

Helping instill this culture of lifelong learning, including the provision of adult training and upskilling infrastructure, is something that all companies can do, starting now. The research is clear: even if jobs are stable or growing, they are going through major changes to their skills profile. WEF’s Future of Jobs analysis found that, in South Africa alone, 39% of core skills required across all occupations will be different by 2020 compared to what was needed to perform those roles in 2015.

This is a huge wake-up call to companies to invest meaningfully in on-the-job training to keep their people – and themselves – relevant in this new digital age. There is no doubt that more learning will need to take place in the workplace, and greater private sector involvement is needed. As employers, we have to start working closely with schools, universities and even nonformal education institutions to provide learning opportunities to our workers.

We can also drive a far stronger focus on the so-called ‘soft skills’ – often used as a slightly dismissive term in the workplace. The core skills needed in today’s workplace are active listening, speaking, and critical thinking. A quick look at the WEF’s “21st Century Skills Required For The Future Of Work” indicates the following: as much as we need literacy, numeracy and IT skills to make sense of the modern world of work, we also need innately human skills like communication and collaboration. The good news is that not only can these be taught, but they can be taught within the work environment.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but to be successful in the digital age, businesses are going to have to go back to what has always made them strong: their people. Everyone can buy AI, build data warehouses, and automate every process in sight. The companies that will stand out will be those that focus on the things that can’t be duplicated by AI or machine-learning – uniquely human skills.

I have no doubt that the future will not be humans OR robots: it will be humans AND robots, working side by side. For us, as businesspeople and children of the African continent, we’re on the brink of a major opportunity. We just have to grasp it.

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E A RTH- FRI E ND LY E NTR EP R ENE U R SH IP Fast Company SA chats to Dr Rajesh Lalloo about his outstanding background in the clean technology space, and how he is redefining the possibilities in this industry.

What were some of the personal experiences that led you to pursue a career in the clean tech industry?

As a scientist, I always had the dream and vision to use technology to positively impact people’s lives. When my wife almost lost her life to Lupus (SLE) and a related brain aneurysm, it triggered me to look at wellbeing, nutrition, agriculture, water, waste and the environment in an interrelated and circular way. One universal common link was the harmonisation with nature and the systems that operate within it. As a Biotech nologist, my focus became dominated by natural bacteria, ‘nature’s age-old cleaning machines’ and how these microscopic organisms can change conventional paradigms of how we choose to live.

What was the inspiration behind the birth of OptimusBio and how did this development allow you to transition from chief scientist to chief technical officer?

After working on the technology at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for more than 15 years, we decided to functionalise it for people and so OptimusBio was born. As a scientist, the transition to CTO was a difficult but exciting journey – one that continues to inspire me. A spin-out company, OptimusBio was well supported and started the entire operation within the CSIR. Since then we have functionalised the technology to no fewer than 50 product offerings and continue to invent new products based on consumer demand.

The transition was obviously not smooth sailing. Most entrepreneurs experience waves of doubt during that period. Was this also the case with you?

The decision to leave a secure job at CSIR at the pinnacle of my career to start OptimusBio was a crucial one. As a sole breadwinner, there were some sleepless nights dealing with the conflict of matters associated with family security against a new horizon of uncertain opportunity.

I was concerned about the great bioprocessing capabilities at the company. A critical decision had to be made. There is a special courage and bravery associated with creating new products and solutions leading the technology space.

There are many opportunities in the clean tech economy that are still waiting to be explored. But, that doesn’t mean the industry is not faced with its fair share of challenges. What do you believe hinders the creation of an enabling environment in this sector?

One of the key challenges is awareness and the seriousness placed on matters pertaining to environmental sustainability. Neither of these feature highly on the agenda of many CEOs.

By: Levi Letsoko; Image: Courtesy

Chief scientist, dreamer, innovator and entrepreneur. These are just a few titles that can effectively describe the man behind some of the most innovative discoveries in the South African green economy.

He holds a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Biotechnology (having majored in Zoology and Microbiology) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and he is a Doctor of Philosophy in Bioprocess Engineering.

With more than 25 years’ experience in bioprocess development and production, Dr Rajesh Lalloo remains highly enthusiastic about the possibilities that are waiting to be explored in the clean tech space.

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DR RAJESH LALLOO

By LEVI LETSOKO

Both the public and private sectors are not taking a sufficiently strong stance on the future of health and the preservation of natural resources. A major implication of this short-term view is paradoxically a future debt and threat to business and national sustainability. This will further burden already ailing healthcare, food and water security and the quality of life of the rural population. There is a non-genuine commitment and operationalisation of economic transformation, which poses unique challenges to scalability of new technology broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) companies like OptimusBio.

By: Levi Letsoko; Image: Courtesy

What are some of the misconceptions about Bioprocessing – more specifically the raw materials used to produce the final products?

The dogma that all bacteria are bad is deeply programmed in the minds of people by large industry players, their brands and mainstream media. We are changing that. Backed by excellent science and technology from the CSIR, we produce functional products that people can engage with. We are constantly breaking new ground to make this a reality.

“ W E MUST BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGY FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE AND THIS KEEPS OUR INNOVATIVE SPIRIT AT FULL TILT.”

Do you believe creativity is a big component of any scientific process?

Absolutely. We believe that if you can think it, we can make it. We are sometimes constrained by our own rigour in ingredient selection (if it isn’t proper green, you won’t find it here) and sometimes funding.

As leaders in this space, innovation is critical for us and our partners, considering that our competition in biologically active products is exclusively import based. We must be at the forefront of technology from a global perspective and this keeps our innovative spirit at full tilt. We have spent the last few years stabilising the technology and operational aspects of the company as a robust commercial entity. Our immediate objective is to scale the business, which is not an easy task.

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The Fortnite Effect

Why the game’s unprecedented success means as much for the future of media as it does for the gaming industry THE BIG PICTURE

FORTNITE

By Burt Helm Illustration by Jean-Pierre Le Roux

With mere seconds to go before

13:30 ET, on a mountaintop overlooking Snobby Shores, Muselk scrambled up a makeshift ramp, lowered his sniper rifle, and peered down at the launchpad below. Like everyone else, he was here to see the rocket.

An alarm sounded. Boosters rumbled.

Fiery orange jets began pushing the missile skyward.

“Oh. My. God. Yaaaaaaaaow! It’s going, boys, it’s going!” Muselk shouted to his friend LachyDachy. He peered through his rifle’s scope to get a better look as the rocket disappeared into the night sky.

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suddenly – as a murderous projectile, bearing down on the world below. The missile careened low across fields, buzzed buildings, and then shot upward to crack the sky itself, leaving behind a shimmery blue fracture.

“Do you see that crack?” LachyDachy breathed.

“Do I see the fucking giant crack in the sky? Yes, Lachy, I do. I physically can’t believe what we just saw.”

“And the servers didn’t crash.”

Muselk and LachyDachy (whose real names are Elliott Watkins and Lachlan Power) had stayed up until 3:30 local time in Australia to livestream the June 30 rocket launch, which took place in the island world of Fortnite Battle Royale and was orchestrated by developers at the video game’s North Carolina–based parent company, Epic Games. Across the world, millions of fans logged on to watch the event, and within seconds streaming platforms such as Twitch and YouTube were filled with their awestruck reactions, from Avxry in the US (“I have chills!”) to ItsGrefgYT in Spain (“Oh, Dios Mio!” [Oh, my god!]). By the following week, streams and other videos of the launch, which kicked off the next season of play, had been viewed tens of millions of times.

Like its sky-shattering rocket, Fortnite Battle Royale has captivated the gaming and technology worlds for the past year – and left them scrambling to understand its implications. Within nine months of its debut last September, the freeto-play game had attracted 125 million registered users, more than 40 million of whom play every month, from sixth graders to pro gamers to NBA all-stars. Meanwhile, users are popping into Fortnite’s in-game Item Shop to buy outfits for their survivalist characters to wear, as well as emotes (funny dances and gestures) for them to perform. As a result, Epic Games has reportedly already generated more than $1 billion in revenue from Fortnite, which – once again – costs nothing to play.

Every so often, a game breaks through the muddle of similar titles to become a cultural phenomenon.

With hindsight, it’s often possible to

Mass Games A look at Fortnite’s explosive growth

$1.2

BILLION Revenue from ingame purchases between September 2017 and June 2018 SOURCE: SUPERDATA RESEARCH

$2

BILLION Estimated revenue for 2018 SOURCE: SUPERDATA RESEARCH

100

MILLION Number of iOS downloads in five months following launch of mobile version SOURCE: APPTOPIA

1.1

MILLION Concurrent live views of a Fortnite match starring 100 YouTubers in March 2018

152 MILLION Hours of Fortniterelated content streamed on Twitch in July 2018 SOURCE: GAMOLOCO

see how its success foretold a massive future trend: In 2009, FarmVille demonstrated the huge potential (and underlying risk) of building an audience on top of social networks like Facebook. In 2012, Candy Crush showed off the sheer amount of time and money people were willing to spend while on their mobile devices. While some predictions haven’t panned out – ask any Pokémon Go player who anticipated a world of augmented reality – Fortnite seems to signify another profound shift. It’s a game where more than 100 million people are connecting with real-life friends to compete, spectate, and experience a story together in real-time. “I think we’re on the verge of a new form of entertainment,” says Tim Sweeney, Epic’s founder and CEO. Every Fortnite Battle Royale session starts the same way: 100 players skydive onto an island, where they have less than 30 minutes to forage weapons and supplies and then fight to the death as a storm closes in. It sounds bleak, but in reality, Fortnite feels lighthearted, almost silly. Unlike its grimmer peers, the game contains no blood or gore (players simply vanish), and its island setting is lush and cartoony, as if the Hunger Games had been made into a children’s TV series. While the most skilled gamers fight for victory, there are plenty of ways for inexperienced ones to enjoy themselves before their inevitable demise: building forts, exploring neighbourhoods, goofing off with little dances. (According to a survey commissioned by BTIG Research, 21% of Fortnite players were previously non-gamers.) Perhaps because of the ample sources of bonhomie, the player community is unusually friendly and supportive.

What makes Fortnite even more remarkable is that its fans don’t simply play the game.

In May alone, they logged more than 574 million hours across the web simply watching others play; they generate more than 130 million video views each day. Last year, a weekly Friday Fortnite tournament starring some of the game’s biggest streamers pulled in 8.8 million live viewers one night. When word went out last March of an impromptu game with Ninja, Fortnite’s top player, and the rapper Drake, 635 000 viewers swarmed to watch.

For streamers like Ninja, this is big business: with nearly 10 million followers on Twitch and another 16 million YouTube subscribers, he makes a reported R7.3 million a month in endorsements. In May, Epic announced it was funding a prize pool of R1.5 billion for Fortnite competitions, a move that is sure to stoke larger audiences.

Fortnite’s broad appeal is both unprecedented and built from the ground up. Not only can it support 100 players on the same map, but gamers can also log in and play from almost any device, including PCs, iPhones, Nintendo Switches, Xboxes, and PS4s. “[Fortnite is] an engineering marvel,” says Roland Lesterlin, creative director at New York City’s Defiant Studios. Developers like Lesterlin are salivating because Epic Games now makes its suite of game-building tools, called Unreal Engine 4, available to outsiders. That means you can expect more titles to aggregate large audiences in ways that weren’t possible before. “[Epic’s] core business is the game engine: The technology is what they sell, the game is just an advertisement for that,” says Ethan Levy, a game maker at N3twork, based in San Francisco.

Of course, a platform that is supremely accessible, hosts millions of people, and connects them with everyone – from real-life friends to celebrities – is enabling more than just video games. Those are all characteristics of a social network, one far more interactive than an endlessly scrolling news feed. Imagine a world where games will be played, enjoyed as e-sports, and serve as mediums for immersive storytelling. With Fortnite, we may be witnessing the first time a video game wasn’t simply popular entertainment, but its own form of mass media, akin to television, radio, or the web.

For the past couple of years, mainstream media companies have been dipping their toes into e-sports in various ways. Disney’s ESPN, for example, recently began broadcasting the popular Overwatch League from gaming giant Activision Blizzard; Turner Sports began airing e-sports tournaments on TBS last year. That may not be enough. “A company like Disney, instead of buying Fox, probably should have tried buying a [gaming] company like Activision,” says Brandon Ross, media analyst at BTIG. “They need to own where the eyeballs are going, rather than doubling down on where they’re coming from.”

That missile hurtling toward the sky? It could be headed straight for legacy media companies.

“I THINK WE’RE ON THE VERGE OF A NEW FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT,” SAYS TIM SWEENEY, EPIC GAMES’ CEO.

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TE CH Sou t h Africa

CLEAN TECH 2018

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pg 40

Force of nature – wind power

pg 42

Clean beauty

pg 43

Energy efficient data centres

pg 45

BioLite FirePit

pg 46

Sustainable mobility

pg 54

Impact Farming

pg 58

Fresher filter & a new habitat at the bottom of the world

pg 59

Vollebak jacket

pg 60

Brewing leather in a lab

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Wind power

By Alexandra Uytenbogaardt

FORCE OF NATURE BREAKING BOUNDARIES IN SCIENCE AND DESIGN THROUGH NEW WIND P OW E R T E C H N O LO G I E S

Harnessing the power of wind has plagued human minds for centuries, going as far back as Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright brothers and even Nikola Tesla. In an age where climate change and the green economy is a reality, grappling with wind as a viable energy source is far from a pipe-dream. These great thinkers and inventors had the ability to marry design with mechanics in order to push the boundaries of today, for a better tomorrow.

Text: Alexandra Uytenbogaardt ; Image: Courtesy

Wind power in South Africa is far from new – Eskom had already begun prototyping a small-scale wind farm back in 2002 in the Western Cape – however, the way in which this energy is harnessed is being challenged by a new wave of inventors.

Traditional wind turbines have proven to be costly to manufacture. They contribute to noise pollution, interfere with radar sensors and are not as efficient as they could be. Another major factor includes the amount of bird and bat deaths as a result of the propellers from the wind turbines interfering in flight patterns. These factors have prompted the likes of Tyer Wind and startup company Saphon Energy to revise the traditional model and design the future of wind power.

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CLEAN TECH

Size matters

Text: Alexandra Uytenbogaardt ; Image: Courtesy

As opposed to scrapping the traditional model altogether, GE Renewable Energy has chosen instead to max out on the wind turbine’s current design. The Haliade-X 12 MW has been dubbed the world’s largest and most powerful offshore wind turbine, boasting a 220-metre rotor and 107-metre blade. What makes it so spectacular – apart from its height of 260 metres – is its efficiency.

Theoretically, if only one Haliade-X was to be in operation, it would generate approximately 67 GWh of power a year.

Being higher up, and equipped with blades with a larger surface area, means the Haliade-X is able to harness power from steadier wind forces.

The company is investing $400 million (R5.7 billion) over a three to five-year timeframe to make this concept creation a reality.

The blades of the Tyer Wind’s turbine resemble that of a humming bird – going as far as mimicking their ‘figure-eight’ flight motion to efficiently harness the power of wind.

Nature’s design One thing both Tyer Wind and Saphon Energy have in common is the concept of biomimetics being a core principle in new-age wind power technology.

Biomimetics is a man-made process by which the motions that govern nature are replicated to benefit advances in human technology. The design of Tyer Wind’s vertical axis wind converter is based on the motion of a hummingbird’s flight – their wings moving in a figure-eight pattern, keeping itself suspended in the air.

This breakthrough in kinematics was attributed to Tunisian inventor Anis Aouini, who discovered a way to transform linear motion into reciprocal motion via a converter – a phenomenon known as 3D Aouinian Kinematics. Such a converter takes the form of the Tyer Wind turbine, which, like the hummingbird, moves its propeller blades in a figure-eight motion, covering more surface area as they sweep out. With South Africa being home to two of the windiest coastal cities – Port Elizabeth and Cape Town – moving forward with new wind technology would not only alleviate stress off other energy sources, such as overworked power plants often resulting in loadshedding, but will also create new opportunities for budding scientists and entrepreneurs to have a stake in an evolving industry.

Aesthetics vs practicality With any revolutionary idea and invention comes skepticism and criticism. Many view Tyer Wind’s ‘hummingbird’ turbine as not being as efficient in harnessing wind power as the rotor-blade mechanism of traditional wind turbines.

The same skepticism lies with Saphon Energy’s ‘Saphonian’ wind turbine – a concept propelled by Aouini in partnership with Microsoft.

Scrapping blades altogether, the Saphonian harnesses its energy like that of a sailboat – through 3D knot motion. Priding itself on zero-blade technology, the early prototype of the Saphonian resembles the shape of a satellite dish.

It rotates in a figure-eight motion as the wind catches it.

The motion is then transferred into usable energy, according to the startup.

Whether Tyer Wind or Saphon Energy bring their creations to market is still up for debate.

However, the fact that newage inventors are not afraid to tap into more efficient ways of harnessing renewable energy is more than just a step in the right direction – it’s an opportunity to make history.

“ I N AN AGE WHERE CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE GREEN ECONOMY IS A REALITY, GRAPPLING WITH WIND AS A VIABLE ENERGY SOURCE IS FAR FROM A PIPE-DREAM.”

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CLEAN TECH

By the numbers Clean beauty

The beauty industry goes au naturel

P E R C E N T O F W O M E N W H O S AY B U Y I N G N AT U R A L B E A U T Y P R O D U C T S I S I M P O R TA N T, B Y A G E

A guide to the companies, ingredients, and consumers driving the ‘clean’ beauty trend

CHEMICAL CRACKDOWN

75%

Demand for healthier ingredients has spread beyond the dinner plate. Interest

in cosmetics and skincare products claiming to be ‘clean’ and ‘natural’ has grown in the past two years, with no regulation around either term. ‘Natural’ personal care and beauty products generated more than $1.5 billion in US sales in 2017, according to Nielsen*. And the trend isn’t slowing down. A new report from Grand View Research predicts that the global organic personal care industry will reach nearly $25 billion by 2025.

Number of chemical cosmetic ingredients banned by the EU

18–34

O N E S T O WAT C H

69%

Total funding to date of ‘clean’ beauty startups that have raised capital in the past two years

$86.3

10

$73.5 $8.5

$8.3

$4

$3

MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

$8.5

35–44

YES TO

TRUE BOTANICALS

TULA

DRUNK ELEPHANT

MENTED

FOLLAIN

11

Number of chemical cosmetic ingredients banned in the US SOURCES: EUR-LEX; FDA.GOV

TOP 10 INGREDIENTS USED BY VC-BACKED B E A U T Y S TA R T U P S Castor oil

PROTECTS AGAINST BACTERIA

0

BEAUTYCOUNTER

1 328

68%

Jojoba

MOISTURISING AND HYDR ATING

SOURCE: CRUNCHBASE

Moringa

RICH IN ANTIOXIDANTS

45–54

FRAGRANCES, PARABENS, PHTHALATES, SULFATES, AND GLUTEN

MOISTURISING ANTI-IRRITANT

Quinoa

54%

ANTI-AGING AND CONDITIONING

12 168 85

PRODUCT REPORT

Unique ingredients the average American woman encounters each day

BELIEVED TO STRENGTHEN HAIR

Rice

SOURCE: CVS

Number of personal care products the average American woman uses each day

Sea buckthorn

Unique ingredients the average American man is exposed to each day SOURCE: THE ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP

55–64

Turmeric

AN ANTIINFLAMMATORY

Caffeine

56%

USED FOR ANTIAGING

Green tea A DETOXIFIER

Charcoal 65+ SOURCE: ECO-FRIENDLY BEAUTY BRAND KARI GRAN

BELIEVED TO ABSORB TOXINS

SOURCE: CB INSIGHTS

Text: Rina Raphael; Illustrations: Antonio Uve; *Nielsen is a global information, data and measurement company

T H E T O P I N G R E D I E N T S W O M E N A I M T O AV O I D

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CLEAN TECH

Data centre

By Maryke Cronje, architect and adjudicator for the AfriSam SAIA Awards for Sustainable Architecture and Innovation

HOW TO DESIGN A SUSTAINABLE DATA CENTRE H OW T E C H N O LO GY I N F LU E N C E S A R C H I T E C T U R E O F D E S I G N

Yes, we all have a cellphone and want to make a phone call and have access to data, but please don’t install a cellular mast in my neighborhood!

The reality is that in a world where sustainable architecture and engineering has become an integral part of design and technology, the infrastructure for cellular mast and associated buildings stays a necessity.

Sustainable and alternative energy technologies form a vital role in my projects, where systems such as trigeneration, CSP (solar) and heat wheel (free cooling) are used to enhance optimisation and lessen the impact on the environment.

The emphasis in modern data centre design is to reduce the operating costs and increase energy efficiency. In one of the state-ofthe-art data centres completed

by Projectworks, the heat wheel installation is one of its kind in the world with unique features endemic to South African climatic conditions.

The configuration consists of a chilled water-cooling coil and a rearranged air intake, exhaust positions and other small differences compared to a standard Kyoto style heat wheel system.

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Although every avenue has been explored to make data centres energy efficient and to limit the impact on the environment, the buildings stay a power-hungry utility.

“ R ENEWABLE ENERGY INSTALLATIONS CAN BE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING, IF ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS A PRIORITY.”

and above the tri-generation plant, a concentrated solar cooling plant to serve their energy-hungry data centre. The design of the concentrated solar panels uses heat generated from the sun to generate a peak cooling capacity of 330kW. The system consists of 242 solar mirrors covering a total area of 484 square metres, which track the sun to generate pressurized hot water at 180-degree Celsius.

The hot water in turn powers an absorption chiller that produces chilled water circulated into the data centre for cooling of IT equipment. The mirrors follow the movement of the sun, based on the GPS location, orientation, and the date and time.

This information guides the system to track the sun to concentrate on the central absorber tube where heat is generated. It has zero impact on carbon emissions and when it rains, the mirrors move into a self-cleaning position. On cloudy days the mirrors turn down into a protective stow position. Renewable energy installations can be aesthetically pleasing, if attention to detail is a priority.

In conclusion, although every avenue has been explored to make the building energy efficient and to limit the impact on the environment, a data centre stays a power-hungry utility. The industry continuously strives to make buildings of such nature, as far as possible, carbon neutral.

To design sustainable buildings is a complex, and sometimes a costly exercise, which comes at a premium.

Therefore, sustainable buildings should include ‘SMART’ design principles: it must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely, taking South Africa’s climate and conditions into consideration.

About the author: Maryke Cronje is a qualified architect and has been practicing for the past 28 years in various architectural fields. She’s well experienced in the design and implementation of data and switching hubs and energy centres. Consequently, her commitment to the field enabled her to become a certified data centre professional.

Images: Courtesy

The functionality of the heat wheel system had a direct influence on the design of the building and footprint of the data centre. The ‘white space’ design had to be redesigned to accommodate the Heat Wheel technology without compromising security of the various spaces within the ‘white space’.

We were also involved in the construction of a 2MW tri-generation plant to ease the end-user’s dependence on Eskom electricity. Tri-generation refers to the simultaneous production of heat, power and chilled water. A tri-generation plant is more efficient than a co-generation plant, as it takes the ‘waste heat’ and converts it into chilled water that can be used for air conditioning. This is considered to be 50% more efficient than a co-generation plant.

The design of the energy centre had to accommodate, over

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CLEAN TECH

BioLite FirePit

A CAMPFIRE WITH LESS SMOKE fuel more efficiently, the FirePit requires less wood. BioLite’s HomeStove provides cleaner, safer combustion for the more than three billion people in developing nations who cook meals over open fires. The unit can hold up to four standard logs, or users can raise the fuel rack, scatter charcoal on top, and turn it into a grill. Either way, they will be able to watch the flames lapping. The first few iterations of the FirePit, Connolly says, were built with steel siding, which blocked the warmth from the fire.

The final version is encased in what BioLite calls ‘X-Ray mesh’ – a durable, perforated material that, once illuminated from the inside, all but disappears: Flames appear to be suspended in midair. “Anytime you’re seeing a fire, you’re getting heat from it,” Connolly says. In this case, minus the big mouthful of smoke.

International shipping available. For more information, visit www.bioliteenergy.com

Text: Eillie Anzilotti; Photograph: Will Styer; Set designer: Vanessa Barrantes at Brydges Mackinney; photographed at Contra Studios

The ±R3 000 BioLite FirePit is a portable device – around the size of a cooler – that creates smoke-free campfires by optimising airflow. A fan inside the rechargeable power pack that attaches to the side of the FirePit pumps air through 51 small jets that line the chamber, one row targeting the fuel, the other fanning the flames. “Blowing air onto the wood allows the fuel to burn extra hot, and blowing directly into the flames creates clean combustion,” says Tim Connolly, product lead at BioLite. Because it burns

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Sustainable mobility Compiled by Walter Hayward

4.4

SECONDS

How long it takes the BMW i8 to go from 0-100 km/h

THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY’S MOBILITY IS MOVING B E YO N D CO M BUST I O N E N G I N E S TO A P L AC E WHERE PERFORMANCE, DESIGN, AND EFFICIENCY D E F I N E T H E N E W N O R M A L; W H E R E P LU G - I N H Y B R I D S A N D F U L LY E L E C T R I C V E H I C L E S D O M O R E THAN TURN HEADS, BUT CHANGE MINDS; WHERE E L E C T R I C M O B I L I T Y I S N O T J U S T AT TA I N A B L E , B U T S U S TA I N A B L E . F A S T C O M PA N Y S A TA K E S A L O O K AT T H E M A N U F A C T U R E R S L E A D I N G T H E R A C E .

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CFRP

The BMW i3 and the i8 are built on a framework of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic

183

KILOMETRES

REVOLUTION STARTS WITH A CHARGE BMW i-Performance Each BMW i vehicle is built to harness exhilarating electric power, combining pure performance with innovative eDrive technology. The sleek, futuristic BMW i8 Coupe and Roadster turn the tables on conventional plug-in hybrid design. And the incredibly efficient BMW i3 and i3s are among the fastest BMWs off the line, thanks to the instant, smooth, and quiet acceleration of an all-electric engine.

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) is as strong as steel, but only half the weight, which is why it’s usually found in integral components of racing cars. That’s not the case with the BMW

The combined range of a fully charged 2018 BMW i3 EV

i3 and i8, both of which are built on a framework of CFRP. By mass-producing this revolutionary material, BMW ensures that every i model benefits from all the power under the hood – translating to responsive acceleration, impressive handling, and undeniable efficiency.

Sustainability means more than emission-free driving. It starts in Leipzig, where BMW i vehicles are assembled at one of the world’s most modern and eco-friendly factories. The process is entirely powered by the factory’s own wind turbines. And the Moses Lake plant in Washington, US – one of the largest CFRP plants on earth – draws its energy from locally sourced hydropower.

The promise of energy efficiency extends beyond manufacturing to the raw materials that make up every BMW i vehicle. Open-pore eucalyptus wood is handselected not only for its beauty, but also for its status as a sustainable resource. And the fine leather upholstery is tanned using olive leaf extract, a natural process that protects against fading and wear.

The promise of change is what makes the future exciting. And the more we innovate, the more opportunities we find to create thrilling new experiences.

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470

KILOMETRES

The combined range of a fully charged Jaguar I-PACE

4.6

SECONDS

How long it takes the Jaguar I-PACE to go from 0-100 km/h

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BRANCHING OUT JAGUAR LAND ROVER’S NEW EV-NETWORK E L E C T R I F I E S S O U T H A F R I C A N M OTO R WAYS

394 BHP

The amount of horsepower the Jaguar I-PACE produces

Introducing a new form of mobility is a difficult task. This is why Jaguar, in partnership with electric vehicle charging authority GridCars, has laid the foundation for the future of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in South Africa with 82 new public charging stations in the country’s major hubs and along frequentlytravelled holiday routes.

The R30 million infrastructure investment will make day-to-day travel, as well as longer journeys, possible for owners of electric vehicles, such as the soon to be introduced Jaguar I-PACE. With a range of up to 470 km depending on driving style and conditions on a single charge, an I-PACE will comfortably fit into most drivers’ lifestyles – whether it’s commuting to and from work on a daily basis, or travelling the long distances required for inter-city holiday destinations.

In addition to the publicly available charging stations to be installed in customer parking areas at every Jaguar Land Rover retailer in South Africa, a total of 30 public charging stations will be erected at various points of convenience, such as shopping centres, in the country’s major hubs including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.

South Africa’s city centres will be connected by the Jaguar Powerway – a series of 22 charging stations along the N3 between Gauteng and Durban and the N1 between Gauteng and Cape Town. Cape Town will be connected to the Garden Route with a series of

charging stations along the N2 all the way to East London.

The majority of charging stations on the public network will be 60 kWh fast chargers, meaning 100 km of range will take around 20 minutes for Jaguar I-PACE owners. A charge from 0 to 80% will take around 72 minutes.

Every charging station will also be equipped with a 22 kWh AC fast charger to accommodate plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The AC standard Type 2 socket will allow charging of all electric vehicles (EVs) currently available in South Africa. The DC charger is fitted with the CCS DC type socket used by the vast majority of EVs in South Africa.

Jaguar Land Rover owners will use an RFID card to activate the charging station and manage electricity billing to the card. Cards can be credited with simple EFT payments, much like cellphone airtime top-ups. Charging station electricity rates will also be discounted by 25% for all Jaguar Land Rover EV or PHEV owners.

Like petrol, the price of electricity fluctuates, but for now the rate for 1 kWh on the card will be between R3 and R3.50 depending on where in South Africa it’s redeemed. With a 90 kWh battery, a full recharge in an I-PACE will cost between R270 and R315 – a fraction of the fueling costs of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

The entire Jaguar charging grid and Powerway is expected to be operational by the end of November, 2018. The I-PACE will be available in South Africa in the first quarter of 2019.

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PIONEERING A HYDROGEN ENERGY SOCIETY T O Y O TA’ S F I R S T H Y D R O G E N F U E L C E L L V E H I C L E, T H E M I R A I, A I M S TO C H A N G E T H E S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y G A M E

The continuing growth of the world’s population – estimated to reach 9.6 billion by 2050 – will certainly lead to a further increase in the global production of vehicles and a resulting massive consumption of fossil fuels. This will exacerbate problems such as climate change, global warming and air pollution.

Two strategies are being taken to address environmental problems caused by the mass consumption of fossil fuels.

The first is to use less petroleum.

Combining high thermal efficiency, low fuel consumption engines and a host of advanced technologies, hybrid vehicles are a textbook example of how to use less petroleum.

The second strategy is to diversify energy sources. Energy diversification is a broad field, and Toyota has been working for decades to diversify the use of automobile fuels and powertrains. Each alternative fuel has its characteristics, and Toyota is confident that hydrogen is one of the technologies that can bring the promise of a cleaner future. Hydrogen is an environmentally friendly energy vector that can be produced from a variety of raw materials, including solar and wind power, biofuel, and natural gas.

How can a Fuel Cell Vehicle contribute to a better environment?

A Fuel Cell Vehicle runs on hydrogen instead of gasoline or diesel. It runs on a motor powered by electricity generated by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell. The only by-product of a Fuel Cell Vehicle in operation is water vapour. It does not emit any harmful

substances such as CO2 (a major cause of global warming), or SO2 and NOx (causes of atmospheric pollution). In addition to producing zero emissions when driven, Fuel Cell Vehicles are also highly practical. They have an ample cruising range and can be refuelled quickly.

Introducing Toyota’s first Fuel Cell Vehicle: the Mirai. The Mirai is a core component of Toyota’s dream for a sustainable mobility society. This is one that allows us to move freely in comfort and safety in an environmentally friendly, sustainable manner.

With a focus on the next 100 years of automobiles, Toyota has proceeded with the development of a vehicle that offers a new, unique value. The Mirai is a pioneering vehicle that will contribute to a hydrogen energy society.

In order for green technology to contribute to the environment, the technology needs to become widespread.

Toyota has already taken the initiative in popularising hybrid vehicles. With the Mirai, Toyota is bringing innovation greater than that of the first-generation Prius to market, and will do all it can to popularise the Mirai and the associated FCV technology.

The hydrogen that powers the Mirai can be generated using a wide range of natural resources and man-made byproducts, such as sewage sludge.

It can also be created from water using natural renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

When compressed, it has a higher energy density than batteries, and is relatively easy to store and transport. Consequently, it also carries expectations for potential future use in power generation and a wide range of other applications.

502

KILOMETRES

The estimated range the Toyota Mirai can achieve

“ H YDROGEN IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ENERGY VECTOR THAT CAN BE PRODUCED FROM A VARIETY OF RAW MATERIALS.”

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CLEAN TECH

240 m L /4 K M

The water volume generated by driving the Toyota Mirai

Green Bakkie In combination with reduced service times, the superior fuel efficiency and reduced running costs of the new GD engines in the Toyota Hilux offer customers best-inclass total cost of ownership.

With fuel efficiency improved by some 9% over the larger capacity engines they replace, they return class-leading fuel economy figures as low as 7.3 l/100 km for the all-wheel drive 2.4 D-4D. The drivetrain has also been upgraded to support high engine torque output. And all engines in the Hilux range are equipped with a Drive Mode switch, allowing drivers to choose between ECO and POWER settings.

ECO mode reduces power consumption in relation to acceleration, heating and cooling to improve fuel economy, whilst POWER mode offers driver’s a sharper response to throttle inputs for a more engaging driving experience.

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TURNING A NEW LEAF The new Nissan LEAF is the next generation of the world’s best-selling zero-emissions electric vehicle. More than 300 000 customers have chosen the LEAF since it went on sale in 2010 – and now this all-new model offers even greater range, improved dynamic design, class leading advanced driver assistance technologies and enhanced connectivity.

The Nissan LEAF is the icon of Nissan Intelligent Mobility. It is a whole new driving experience, designed to move people with greater exhilaration and

270

The combined range of a fully charged 2018 Nissan Leaf

Images: Sourced from Press websites

KILOMETRES

confidence, and to connect them to the world.

This consumer proposition encompasses three main pillars: Intelligent Power, which is brought to life through the LEAF’s advanced new 40kWh e-powertrain, with improved energy efficiency, increased torque and power output for more exciting driving; Intelligent Driving, which is technology designed to improve driving confidence, enhance safety and reduce stress; and Nissan Intelligent Integration, the linking of the car to wider society via connectivity and to energy grids via unique bi-directional charging technology.

Much more than just a 100% electric vehicle, the new Nissan LEAF is a mobile power unit, allowing customers to manage their energy use either through home or office solutions.

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A sustainable and greener way to invest

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CLEAN TECH

T H E N E E D T O A C C E L E R AT E A N D A D VA N C E E C O N O M I C ACTIVITY WHILE PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT DOES N O T H AV E T O B E M U T U A L LY E X C L U S I V E . S O C I A L LY C O N S C I O U S E N T R E P R E N E U R S N O W H AV E T H E O P T I O N T O G E N E R AT E A D D I T I O N A L R E V E N U E W H I L E T H E Y C O N T R I B U T E P O S I T I V E LY T O T H E W E L F A R E O F S O C I E T Y A N D T H E W E L L B E I N G O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T.

While the various industrial revolutions have spurred the industrialisation of the economy and ramped up production, they also brought accelerated degradation of the environment, which manifested itself in the dwindling animal populations, emissions, overpopulation, spiraling consumption and rapid urbanisation.

As the human population encroached on animal reserves, the world has given attention to the dying population of bigger mammals. However, rapid industrialisation has silently decimated the bee population with a disastrous impact on food production and security.

The declining bee population has a far-reaching impact on food production and food security. According to studies conducted by New Agriculturist, an international journal of agriculture, the declining bee population can have an adverse impact on the production of beans, tomatoes, onions, carrots and hundreds of other vegetables, oilseeds, fruits and livestock that are dependent upon bee-pollinated forage plants like clover.

Scientific studies have found that bees pollinate about one-sixth of the world’s flowering plant species and some 400 of its agricultural plants. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer, often misshapen, fruits and lower yields of seed with inevitable consequences on the quality, availability and price of food. One of the few farm activities that can actually increase yields, rather than simply protect existing yields from losses, is to manage bees to encourage good pollination.

In a bid to preserve the environment and provide entrepreneurs with sustainable means of generating extra revenue, investment and insurance company Fedgroup has pioneered an initiative in South Africa called Impact Farming, which allows investors to unleash their inner entrepreneur through the unprecedented opportunity to generate an income by owning assets in various farming ventures.

Impact Farming is an app-based crowdsourcing solution that gives prospective investors the opportunity to own agricultural assets and venture into the renewable energy space. Currently, the choice of assets consists of blueberry bushes, beehives where sustainable honey is produced, and urban solar farms that generate clean electricity. A regular income based on the production of these assets can be earned. This investment can be for as little as R300, which is the equivalent of rugby match tickets or a nice bottle of wine.

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“ C ONSIDERING ITS MINIMAL IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT, IMPACT FARMING MAY AS WELL BE THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE AND ENERGY IN SOUTH AFRICA.” critical mass of local entrepreneurs can contribute to the production of sustainable honey that is free of contaminants. There are added benefits to the environment and food production when beehives across the country are swarming with millions of bees,” says Field.

Investors in Impact Farming can offset their lack of farming experience in the full knowledge that their assets are managed by experienced professionals who boast years of experience in their respective fields.

“Never in the history of humankind has the need to preserve the environment become more acute. It is our deeper understanding of these issues that has motivated us to introduce this innovative app, which we believe has the potential to be a game changer in the agricultural and renewable energy space in South Africa. Considering its minimal impact on the environment and its potential impact, Impact Farming may as well be the future of agriculture and energy in South Africa,” concludes Field.

Diversifying energy Environmental activists have criticised South Africa for being over reliant on emission-emitting coal-fired coal stations to generate electricity. Fossil-based fuel contributes over two thirds of the country’s energy needs, which is crucial to fuel industries and sustaining economic growth.

Encouragingly, South Africa has taken bold steps towards diversifying its

Images: Courtesy

So how does it work?

To kick-start an investment in Impact Farming, prospective entrepreneurs need to download the app, select the asset or mix of assets they wish to invest in, and then kick-start their portfolio for a purchase price.

Through the Impact Farming app, investors can own a physical asset from accredited farming partners.

The beauty of Impact Farming is that the purchase price is inclusive of insurance and maintenance, as well as the harvest and sale of the produce.

“We are excited to bring this groundbreaking innovation to South Africa. We believe that Impact Farming will go a long way toward reviving the honey producing industry in South Africa and preserve the delicate balance in nature, while giving our asset owners an opportunity to make money on the side. There is no technology or ingenuity that can replicate the work of bees, so it is critical that beehive production be ramped up, not only for sustainable honey production, but for the long-term sustainability of the environment and food security,” says Fedgroup CEO, Grant Field.

Investors who opt to include solar panels have the option of taking physical ownership of the solar panels or selling the asset back to Fedgroup at the end of the 20-year period.

Entrepreneurs who opt to have beehives in their portfolio also own the beehives, which closes the perceived separation between the ‘investment’ and the ‘impact’ being made.

The global demand for honey has seen South Africa and many other countries flooded with contaminated honey from China, which is packaged and sold as ‘100% natural honey’.

According to figures released by the International Trade Commission, South Africa imports massive amounts of Chinese honey. Imports to South Africa have rocketed from 20 tons in 2001 to 3 577 tons in 2017, trailing behind local bee producers who only deliver 2 000 per annum.

“An investment in Impact Farming will ensure that a 5 6 F A S T C O M P A N Y. C O . Z A O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8

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CLEAN TECH

energy mix. Earlier this year, government signed historic agreements with independent power producers (IPPs), thus reaffirming its commitment to renewable energy sources.

These agreements between government and IPPs are expected to unlock a whopping R56 billion that will be invested in renewable energy projects across the country, predominantly in rural areas. The socio-economic spin-offs of investment in urban solar panels will be far-reaching as well, as cleaner sources of energy are expected to lower electricity prices and help indigent households cope with the rising cost of living.

“The signing of agreements with the IPPs earlier this year bodes well for investors who wish to generate clean energy that they can on-sell to the national grid and contribute positively to the alleviation of the energy crisis. At the heart of Impact Farming is making an impactful investment that contributes to food security and clean energy in a sustainable manner,” says Field.

It is with these encouraging developments in mind that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has noted that South Africa has developed what is arguably one of the most successful IPP-driven renewable energy programmes globally. The report by the leading conservation group has found that South Africa has positioned itself to become one of the world’s most attractive renewable energy investment destinations.

The report went on to note that renewable energy sources are “strategically viewed as an avenue through which the South African government can respond to the challenge of climate change, improve energy security by diversifying sources of energy supply, and propel green growth through localisation and empowerment”.

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OZ Architecture McMurdo Station

Molekule Home One

A NEW HABITAT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

A FRESHER FILTER

Outside, winds can howl at 185 km per hour and winter temperatures dip to –34 degrees Celcius. Yet inside Antarctica’s McMurdo Station is a bustling hub for research. McMurdo would be a big city by standards if the continent had any actual cities or towns: Hundreds of scientists from around the world live here to study everything from climate change to astrophysics. “It’s a community that’s devoted to one thing,” says Rick Petersen, principal at the Colorado-based firm OZ Architecture.

The National Science Foundation, which funds the research hub, and contractor Lockheed Martin commissioned Petersen and his team six years ago to rethink the station’s inefficient design – a hodgepodge of buildings, some dating back to the 1950s, that need to be heated primarily by fuel delivered by tanker once a year. “For every dollar we’re using to heat a building down there, that’s a dollar that could otherwise go to science,” Petersen says. After two trips to McMurdo and months of coordinating between dozens of stakeholder groups, the architects proposed consolidating McMurdo’s

105 buildings into just 17, including 12 brand-new structures, each optimised to conserve McMurdo’s precious energy and constructed out of structurally insulated panels specially designed to fit into shipping containers, allowing for quick assembly upon arrival in the unforgiving environment.

Efficiency wasn’t the only goal, though – the architects also wanted to increase the well-being of McMurdo’s residents, a population that fluctuates from 250 in the winter to 850 in the summer. “We’re addressing that in a bunch of different ways, from increasing collaboration opportunities and the exchange of ideas between people to more privacy and ways people can get away and reflect on their work or make a difficult phone call,” Petersen explains.

The new plan, which will be implemented in phases beginning in February 2019, calls for a lightdrenched lecture hall, shared social spaces, and individual bedrooms.

The goal is for architecture to facilitate science – and make life better for the people who relocate to the ends of the earth to do it. – KCD

Molekule is the world’s first air purifier that destroys pollutants at the molecular level, marking a significant upgrade from standard HEPA filters, which were invented in the 1940s. Its process, called photoelectrochemical oxidation (PECO), involves shining light onto a filter membrane that has been coated with proprietary nanoparticles, triggering a reaction that breaks down pollutants of any size, including allergens, mould, bacteria, viruses, and carcinogenic volatile organic compounds that concentrate in indoor air. Mechanical engineer and veteran energy researcher Yogi Goswami spent 20 years creating the prototype – which involved adapting technology he’d previously developed to purify groundwater – in order to help his son, Dilip (Molekule cofounder and CEO), find relief from asthma and allergies. Since launching in May 2016, the company has worked to keep up with demand: The ±R12 000 device has sold out seven times.

– Yasmin Gagne

Photography: Clinton Moodley

CLEAN TECH

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CLEAN TECH

Vo l l e b a k Solar-charged jacket

Photography: Will Styer; Set designer: Vanessa Barrantes at Brydges Mackinney; Photographed at Contra Studios (Vollebak)

Part running accessory, part high-tech toy, this shell is made from waterproof, breathable fabric that can be charged by any light source so that it glows in the dark.

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CLEAN TECH

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Modern Meadow’s chief creative officer, Suzanne Lee, wears the cotton and Zoa shirt she designed for MoMA’s Is Fashion Modern? exhibit.

Modern Meadow Zoa shirt

BREWING LEATHER IN A LAB

Photography: Benedict Evans

Suzanne Lee was a fashion designer in the early ’90s when she discovered in a lab that biofabrication processes could produce leatherlike materials via yeast fermentation. She spent the next 10 years experimenting with giant vats of bacteria while advising clothing brands on how to incorporate newly invented materials. Recently, as chief creative officer at biotech startup Modern Meadow, she’s helped lead the development of an animal-free leather material called Zoa and is now collaborating with industrial fermentation company Evonik to scale the biofabrication process.

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As the world becomes more affluent, people want more meat and leather products, but the planetary stress is unsustainable. Here, we design and edit DNA, put it into yeast cells, and then use a fermentation process to scale. We can actually brew protein collagen like you brew beer, and use it anywhere that you might use a leather material, whether that’s fashion, interiors, or cars.

Many consumers care about being able to trace [leather] back to the farm. It’s almost impossible with the leather supply chain as

it is. With Modern Meadow, you have complete traceability, to the very cell that was engineered to produce it.

We’re starting with a liquid form of leather that you can transform into all kinds of different shapes, thicknesses, and sizes that are not bound by the sheet of leather hide that nature gives you. And we can reduce waste to a minimum.

Paola Antonelli, the design curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), is interested in synthetic biology and what it means for the future of products.

As we were thinking about the Fashion Modern exhibit, we thought this was an opportunity for us to make something [unexpected] from leather, like a white T-shirt.

Because we’re using liquid leather, we can make it incredibly thin but strong, and combine it with other fabrics.

The T-shirt was appealing because it’s timeless, genderless, and ageless. It’s also a garment of revolutionaries, because people use the T-shirt as a slogan-carrying device. The exhibit at MoMA was very much a billboard.

– As told to Elizabeth Segran

2018/09/25 12:01

A PASSION FOR

G ROWING SUSTAI NABLE B US INESSES

Text: Elske Joubert; Image: sourced

Capitalising on his passion for Africa’s emerging markets and internet enabled companies, Manuel Koser, the co-founder and managing director of Silvertree Internet Holdings, has proved his diligence as the investment growth partner for some of South Africa’s largest consumer and digital brands. Fast Company SA spoke to Koser about his passion for growing sustainable businesses.

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2018/10/05 08:47

MANUEL KOSER, CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING D I R E CTO R O F S I LV E RT R E E I N T E R N E T H O L D I N G S

BY ELSKE JOUBERT

Image: sourced

You saw a gap in the market in founding Silvertree. What led to the establishment of your business and what differentiates a passive investment holding company like Silvertree from all other firms following the same model?

Silvertree Internet Holdings is not a passive investment holding, but an investment growth partner. It is led by entrepreneurs assisting other entrepreneurs to scale their business with a full service offering, from capital and operational support (23 people are dedicated to an operational platform), to experience and a wide network. As an entrepreneur-led company, we don’t plan on selling any businesses, but rather managing and growing businesses sustainably for the long-term.

According to you, the venture capital (VC) model does not work in emerging markets yet. Why is this?

To have a fund that is self-sustaining, you need approximately $50 million (R665 million) in assets under management. But in an emerging market context, it’s incredibly difficult to find enough quality businesses to invest in to hit that number. At smaller numbers, however, say two or five million dollars deployed, the fund’s economics cease to make sense. There’s very little value to be had.

In funds operating with, say, $10 million or less, the entrepreneur – the fund’s general partner – also often starts to overcharge the fund. This suppresses returns. Investors soon begin to feel that they should rather have put their money in, for example, the JSE, given that the All Share Index earned an annualised return of around 10% per annum over the past 10 years; and which would have been a liquid investment too, versus the illiquid private investment of a VC. The core is this: Most emerging markets are simply not ready. You’re often chasing unicorns in a small market that’s not yet scaling.

“ A S AN ENTREPRENEUR-LED COMPANY, WE DON’T PLAN ON SELLING ANY BUSINESSES, BUT RATHER MANAGING AND GROWING BUSINESSES SUSTAINABLY FOR THE LONG-TERM.” What more can be done to ensure the readiness of these emerging markets and help with scaling?

• Talent is the biggest driver • Serial entrepreneurs supporting young, smart and hungry talent • Governmental support through tax breaks and subsidies Startups need to change their approach to capital access. In your opinion, what would be the best way for entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, especially in Africa?

Build a business that does not need external capital (website views and clicks are hardly valued by local investors). Alternatively, build a business that can sustain itself on operating cash-flow.

What would you say is key in building a successful business in South Africa and Africa?

Talent and passion, capital, a product tailored to the market as well as Capex investment aligned to the addressable market.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

• Do something you love, as this is a tough ride.

• Find partners you trust who have skills and experience that you don’t possess – finding a balance across a wide skill set is crucial.

• Fundraising is not a success matrix, it allows you to play.

• Make yourself independent from as many external factors as possible.

• Don’t overestimate your market size, rather be over-conservative.

• Increase your prices: If you still manage to retain customers, you still have a product.

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2018/10/04 13:23

Text: Elske Joubert; Image: sourced

You saw a gap in the market in founding Silvertree. What led to the establishment of your business and what differentiates a passive investment holding company like Silvertree from all other firms following the same model?

Silvertree Internet Holdings is not a passive investment holding, but an investment growth partner. It is led by entrepreneurs assisting other entrepreneurs to scale their business with a full service offering, from capital and operational support (23 people are dedicated to an operational platform), to experience and a wide network. As an entrepreneur-led company, we don’t plan on selling any businesses, but rather managing and growing businesses sustainably for the long-term.

According to you, the venture capital (VC) model does not work in emerging markets yet. Why is this?

To have a fund that is self-sustaining, you need approximately $50 million (R665 million) in assets under management. But in an emerging market context, it’s incredibly difficult to find enough quality businesses to invest in to hit that number. At smaller numbers, however, say two or five million dollars deployed, the fund’s economics cease to make sense. There’s very little value to be had.

In funds operating with, say, $10 million or less, the entrepreneur – the fund’s general partner – also often starts to overcharge the fund. This suppresses returns. Investors soon begin to feel that they should rather have put their money in, for example, the JSE, given that the All Share Index earned an annualised return of around 10% per annum over the past 10 years; and which would have been a liquid investment too, versus the illiquid private investment of a VC. The core is this: Most emerging markets are simply not ready. You’re often chasing unicorns in a small market that’s not yet scaling.

“ A S AN ENTREPRENEUR-LED COMPANY, WE DON’T PLAN ON SELLING ANY BUSINESSES, BUT RATHER MANAGING AND GROWING BUSINESSES SUSTAINABLY FOR THE LONG-TERM.” What more can be done to ensure the readiness of these emerging markets and help with scaling?

• Talent is the biggest driver • Serial entrepreneurs supporting young, smart and hungry talent • Governmental support through tax breaks and subsidies Startups need to change their approach to capital access. In your opinion, what would be the best way for entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, especially in Africa?

Build a business that does not need external capital (website views and clicks are hardly valued by local investors). Alternatively, build a business that can sustain itself on operating cash-flow.

What would you say is key in building a successful business in South Africa and Africa?

Talent and passion, capital, a product tailored to the market as well as Capex investment aligned to the addressable market.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

• Do something you love, as this is a tough ride.

• Find partners you trust who have skills and experience that you don’t possess – finding a balance across a wide skill set is crucial.

• Fundraising is not a success matrix, it allows you to play.

• Make yourself independent from as many external factors as possible.

• Don’t overestimate your market size, rather be over-conservative.

• Increase your prices: If you still manage to retain customers, you still have a product.

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2018/10/05 08:48

A SEAMLESS APPROACH TO TECH GADGETRY We all remember the face-plant that was Google Glass. Or the time when, in an infamous fit of overengineering, Google tested 41 shades of the colour blue on ad links to find the most profitable hue. Since then, however, the company has been steadily refining its design strategy to get out of the way and put users first.

This year, the company has presented a slate of sophisticated new products – including a range of smart speakers, a globe-trotting virtual experience, and a new interface for communicating via Morse code on smartphones – signaling a design-first sensibility.

CEO Sundar Pichai sat down with Fast Company’s Co.Design editor, Suzanne LaBarre, for an exclusive interview about how design fits into Google’s overall mission.

Ten years ago, I would not have identified Google as an iconic design company. Was there a moment when you said, “We need to invest in design”?

If you go back to Google Search and the Google home page, design was a big focus – this notion of doing something simple for users that’s accessible to everyone. All those elements were there.

But not all products [groups] were

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thinking through the core tenets of design. As computing started shifting with mobile, that gave us a good opportunity to give a deeper framework for this philosophy across all our products. One thing that was important for me was: Users don’t use one Google product. They may be interacting with many Google products multiple times per day. Technology should be in the background and should adapt to you. Maps is a good example.

You open Maps, it’s very intuitive. You understand this is what it should look like. When we built Chrome, we wanted it to be simple. We always had this mantra on the team: “It’s the content, not the Chrome, that matters.” We needed to more systematically do this across Google.

How would you describe the company’s design strategy today?

One element is a focus on the user – not trying to call attention to a product. It’s approachable, you feel comfortable interacting with it. If you go back to the classic Google home page, you could be a Nobel laureate using it or you could be in an emerging market getting internet access for the first time. We want things to be intuitive.

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What is the structure of design at Google? Apple has a very top-down structure, with Jony Ive, the visionary, running his design group.

Google has incredible designers – Ivy Ross, Matías Duarte, and more – but it doesn’t strike me as being hierarchical.

Google has more of a distributed approach. We have world-class designers across key areas, and the design community is very strong. There’s alignment around shared values and approaches but diversity of thought and opinion. Apple is great at what they do. But we found this works well for us. Because we are building many different products globally, diversity is an asset for us. We have all kinds of people from all parts of the world, and that contributes to the strength here.

A big conversation in the design profession these days is around whether design really has a seat at the table. How does Google ensure that designers are empowered throughout the organisation?

When I look at our products that I feel have been designed well, I can name who the key designer is. There is a strong voice for these people.

Whenever I do a review on any of her hardware products, [head of hardware design] Ivy Ross is in the room, and it’s clear to me that the role she’s playing is to make sure [there’s consistency] across a family of products [and to show] how we’re thinking about design, and what our philosophy is.

How does Google reconcile the tension between building seamless products that help users accomplish their goals easily and ensuring their privacy?

I actually think they are not necessarily at odds with each other. Great design can help affect privacy and ensure well-being. For example, hush mode in Android – being able to place your phone down [for] ‘do not disturb’ – is a good example of that. If you go to our ‘My Account’ page, we’ve done a lot around privacy settings for our users.

Over time we can do more and more.

I think things like voice give you new affordances for better control.

Looking ahead, what do you think is the company’s biggest design opportunity?

Computing is in the middle of an exciting transformation. Today you use a single-purpose computer, your laptop, or your phone. Over time, computing will be there ambiently for you, when you need it, in the context of your life, and increasingly it will help you with more things.

What do you see as Google’s biggest design challenge?

Users still feel [that] getting technology in their lives, setting it up, configuring it – all of that is a hassle.

[We want] technology that is super easy to use and is personalised and thoughtful in a privacy-sensitive way.

When we built Chromebooks, a big focus for us was [to allow users to] set it up in less than a minute. There’s no time for it to boot up. Things just work. And if you give a Chromebook to someone else, they can just pick it up and use it. Those are hard design challenges that we are constantly working on to make better.

What, ultimately, do you see as Google’s design legacy?

That we make great design more common in the world. We care about the tools we provide other developers. For me, it’s a personal passion that technology works for everyone – globally.

That not just Google, but a small developer building a new product, solving a problem for someone, can also create great design.

That’s a big goal of ours. Android plays a big role in that. Providing platforms and tools that help people do better design.

I want a $100 (R1 500) smartphone, or a $50 (R750) smartphone, which we are getting excited about increasingly.

When we build Android Go phones, we want those to have the same great design. Design shouldn’t be conflated with higher-end.

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2018/10/04 12:30

SAMSUNG G a l a x y Ta b A c t i v e 2

By MW Photograph

by Mauricio Alejo

A tougher tablet THE PRODUCT: It feels like any other small, sleek

tablet. But when it slips through your fingers and falls onto the concrete below, you’ll realise it isn’t. The sturdy Samsung Galaxy Tab Active2 is designed for employees who work in roughneck environments, from construction sites to warehouses. In fact, the Tab Active2 isn’t even marketed to consumers. “Connected business is expanding beyond the office to all the employees in the enterprise,” says Jen Langan, Samsung’s senior director of mobile computing product marketing. “FedEx or UPS have tens of thousands of employees at headquarters, but they have hundreds of thousands outside of it, all of whom need to be connected to the business.” Analyst firm IDC estimates that companies bought 385 million rugged phones and tablets in 2017, and that rugged Android sales in particular are poised to grow 22% within the next five years.

THE PROCESS: Samsung talked to large enterprises to learn exactly where rugged tablets – Samsung’s and other companies’ – were falling short. The most indestructible are extremely bulky and cost thousands of dollars. Samsung engineers traded off a bit of durability that its on-the-go customer didn’t need – like resistance to the gunfire vibrations common to war zones or the acidic cleaners used in many hospitals – to create a thin tablet that costs around R6 000 but still works after being frozen in ice or dropped dozens of times. The device’s capacitive screen is also designed for gloved hands. “We had fun testing out how many types of gloves could work with the tablet: kid gloves, work gloves, leather gloves. I even got my daughter’s soccer-goalie gloves to work,” Langan says. “We finally hit our limit with a heavy ski glove.”

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GOOGLE

A global travel pass

T HE PRODUCT: Google Earth VR enables users to teleport virtually anywhere in the world. The free desktop application, which works with an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift headset, compiles satellite and aerial imagery to reconstruct a simulated globe that is rendered from the user’s point of view. Users can explore any major city, rural outpost, or childhood home.

Since its debut in late 2016, the app has been downloaded more than 900 000 times. It’s also gotten faster and received two important upgrades: Users can now search by place name or address and use Street Views to explore 360-degree photos at ground level – or even under water in some spots.

The experience can be so profound that researchers at Simon Fraser University’s iSpace Lab are using Earth VR to study what astronauts call the ‘overview effect’ – people being awestruck after encountering a new perspective on the planet. “I never strived to make people cry,” says product manager Joanna Kim. “But if they’re crying because they just feel so overwhelmed with the beauty of the earth or a beautiful memory, then I think that is a success.”

T HE PROCES S: To counter simulator sickness, which often plagues users flying around virtual worlds, the Earth VR team created a new perspective dubbed ‘tunnel vision’ – anything outside a central, circular field of view appears gray and blurry.

A horizon line in the distance helps maintain bearings. Some smaller cities and regions have yet to be densely mapped: Google hopes users will help by submitting their own 360 photos through Street View.

– Ben Paynter

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2018/09/25 12:03

M ARCEL ACCELER ATE S THE T RAN SFO R MATIO N OF PUBLICIS GROUPE It ’s been ju st fou r mont h s since Pu blici s

Groupe – the world’s third largest marketing services group – unveiled Marcel, an artificial intelligence-powered innovation that is accelerating the transformation of its business from a holding company to a platform, creating the first truly borderless enterprise workforce, comprised of 80 000 employees worldwide.

So what (or who) exactly is Marcel?

Basically, Marcel is a mobile app for both Android and iOS, built for today’s technology-savvy workforce. Future versions will include a desktop version or other interfaces as the need arises.

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Images: Courtesy

How does Marcel, a connecting Artificial Intelligence (AI), aid the company’s transformation? Here’s how this interconnectivit y is important to other industries. Publicis Groupe’s Chief Operating Officer for Africa, Miles Murphy, elaborates.

Images: Courtesy

Designed to be as user-friendly as any consumer app, employees can use Marcel through voice or text input.

The AI engine then suggests refinements to queries that provide large returns to help someone rapidly make connections and complete goals. Far more than a stimulus-response machine, Marcel goes way beyond just responding to requests. He proactively presents relevant knowledge, connections and opportunities.

Marcel is each employee’s workday partner – not only does he serve six prompts tailored to the person’s role and interests in the form of a daily digest, Marcel will refine what it presents each day based on an employee’s interaction and feedback.

In South Africa, the group’s COO for Africa, Miles Murphy, is excited about how the South African agencies in the Groupe are already using the tool to effectively drive innovation for their local clients and give them access to creative minds and experts from all over the world. “With Marcel we are ushering in a new era of creativity and innovation,” he declares.

“At Publicis Groupe we’re creating an open platform model that allows our specialist agencies (from advertising agencies, digital specialist and media experts, to activations, PR and business consultants) to work collaboratively for our clients – and Marcel is the virtual tool employed to get our teams to collaborate. In the physical world that has meant bringing our agencies under one roof.

“ M ARCEL IS THE FIRST ENTERPRISE PLATFORM DESIGNED WITH PEOPLE-FIRST BENEFITS AND EXPERIENCES IN MIND.” There’s no doubt that it’s been a good move for the team in South Africa because Marcel enables us to quickly deploy expert teams from all over the world and our local staff get to work on projects outside of South Africa.”

“In a world where people no longer want to work for companies and instead expect companies to work for them, Marcel is the first enterprise platform designed with people-first benefits and experiences in mind. At its core, Marcel is about empowering every single Publicis employee in South Africa to the power of 80 000. Marcel is founded in a belief that an augmented workforce leads to higher engagement, which in turn leads to better work and results for clients. We can already see the difference in the way our teams are inter-

acting more closely as the enormous potential of Marcel, to make cross-continental collaboration seamless, becomes a reality.’’

“We’re already using Marcel for one of our major South African clients to access creative teams all over the world in countries that are important export markets for that client. In the past the client had to engage separately with different agencies all over the world. Now we tell Marcel what we need and where and he connects us to them.”

It’s easy to see why Miles and the leadership of Publicis Groupe are betting on Marcel to transform the way this leading global company services its clients.

Watch this space.

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SBC A FR IT E CH SBC v2.indd 70

Startupbootcamp, one of the world’s leading tech accelerator programmes, launched its first pan-African accelerator – Startupbootcamp AfriTech, in Cape Town in 2017. The intense 3-month programme received 1 004 applications from 7 7 countries in 2018, almost doubling its stats from last year. The top 10 ventures of the 2018 cohort are midaccelerator, and the countdown to Demo Day has started. Here is a snapshot of the top innovations coming out of SBC AfriTech.

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RCS

“We are in our second year of sponsoring Startupbootcamp AfriTech and collaborating with this dynamic team. With a new group of diverse startups on the African content, we look forward to explore how their innovations can help shape our digital transformation and customer centricity ambitions.”

– Regan Adams, CEO

BRANDBOOK Brandbook is a decentralised rewards programme that allows shoppers to earn points by uploading any purchase receipt from anywhere. It’s like one big loyalty programme for every shop and requires just one click. Simply open the app and take a picture.

Based on the receipt purchase value, the rewards management system returns points to a single location in the app. You can use these points to redeem various gift cards from retailers like Takealot, Superbalist, KFC, and Xbox Live.

Businesses, on the other hand can better understand their customers’ purchasing behaviour holistically to ensure they deliver the right product to the right shopper at the right time. Businesses can also award additional points for selected product or store purchases. All of this is archived with full POPI compliancy ensuring each shopper’s personal data remains safe and secure.

AKIBA DIGITAL Akiba Digital is a financial savings platform and personal savings coach that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and gamification.

Perfect for young tech savvy millennials who are struggling to save, Akiba is a mobile app that makes it easy and effective to save using behavioural and alternative data.

Savings is the starting point, but Akiba’s true vision is to become the leading financialbehavioural data marketplace, in Africa.

Akiba can simplify administrative hurdles, demystify language barriers to investment products and give on-demand insight, visualisation and motivation to personalised savings and investment goals.

DIGITECH Digitech provides a fully integrated and cloud-based InsurTech platform to incumbent insurance companies, which aim to attract and reach out to the next emerging consumer segments.

The platform is highly scalable and customisable to the needs of each particular corporate client. The services can be deployed in any African country in a fraction of the time it would normally require for similar or even more complex platforms to do the same.

Through secure web access and data repositories, which are compliant with the highest global standards, including PCI-DSS, insurance companies will access a single view of their customers including “Know-Your-Customer”, onboarding, payment, e-claims, and policy processes.

In the same vein, customers who have the most basic feature phone can still access products that are tailored to their needs and wants, for the very first time. Through Digitech’s powerful artificial intelligence agents, the customer service and claims process are operated 24/7 via all available channels.

BNP PARIBAS PERSONAL FINANCE

“BNP Paribas Personal Finance is glad to support the second year of the Startupbootcamp AfriTech programme. It will continue to highlight the strengths, uniqueness and growing entrepreneurship success of the African continent.”

– Natacha Baumann, Head of Innovation: SUN region

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I N C LU S I V E I N N OVAT I O N S I N C

“Working with the 2018 cohort has been exhilarating and SBC continues to promote our ethos: ‘For Africans,

By Africans’. Leveraging my experience working with three SBC programmes in Europe and Africa, helps these founders scale their disruptive companies.

They represent some of the best ideas and talent on the continent, and it’s an honour to be leading a world-class accelerator team.“ – Nsovo Nkatingi, SBC AfriTech Programme Manager

LULA

KUDIMONEY Everyone is aware that owning a bank account is expensive.

From high bank transfer fees, to account opening charges, and with little to no interest on your money, it’s easy to see why consumers are demanding more from their bank.

Now, imagine a bank that allows you to open instant current accounts with no bank charges, and pays you

OLD MUTUAL

“Old Mutual continues to enjoy its partnership with Startupbootcamp AfriTech as one of the key delivery mechanisms of our innovation strategy. It’s exciting to see the calibre of startups vying to be part of the programme improve every year. What’s even more inspiring is seeing how the 2018 SBC AfriTech cohort mainly comes from fastgrowing countries outside of South Africa.

This again demonstrates the innovation, ingenuity and creativity of our entrepreneurs grounded in the realities of our continent. We’ve had the privilege of exploring collaboration opportunities with a number of startups and are executing proof-ofconcepts with a select number of finalists in the areas that we want to grow.”

– Evelyn Olwagen, Manager, Strategic Partnerships & Alliances in Customer Solutions

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LÜLA is a mobility-as-aService platform that connects stakeholders to improve mobility by providing transport that is convenient, safe and accessible.

They do this through mobile ticketing, big data, and shared infrastructure to enable the community to make better decisions in getting from A to B. Since joining Startupbootcamp AfriTech 2018, the team has zoomed in on a shared shuttle service that aims to improve productivity for commuters, reduce the time spent looking for parking and enables passengers to save on the costs of mobility daily.

Since the launch of this service, the startup has attracted interest from seven companies with a combined user pool of approximately 20 000 people.

6

The number of countries represented by the 2018 SBC AfriTech cohort

Images: Courtesy

LEADING SBC AFRITECH

interest on your money with access to instant low-interest loans.

Kudimoney is this bank and so much more – a full-service digitalonly bank that allows you to bank, save, and borrow on your phone.

Kudimoney does not charge unnecessary fees. There are no minimum balance requirements, no account maintenance fees, and no unpredictable monthly charges.

With Kudimoney you can literally bank for free. Kudimoney makes banking more affordable, more accessible, and more rewarding.

Inclusive is a pan-African financial data application programme interface (API) that helps financial services onboard, verify and monitor identities of Africans via digital channels.

Inclusive’s infrastructure consist of a data validation API that verifies the identification attributes on an ID document and a facial recognition SDK for onboarding customers remotely.

Inclusive has verified over 2 500 unique IDs and made over 7 000 API calls since they launched version one in November 2017.

They are connected to 60 million identities across Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, with 5 more countries due before end of the 2018. The team is on course to go live with 10 of the 30 client sign-ups by beginning of Q4 2018, and expect to do 100 000 verifications a month.

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Should this become a success, they will fundamentally transform the way people commute, but also ease off the pressure on Cape Town’s road infrastructure whilst increasing the flow of traffic on a regular basis.

MPOST MPost is a patented technology that enables any mobile phone user to transform their phone into a unique mobile postal address and mobile postal box.

MPost provides a simple, elegant and innovative solution.

Developed in Kenya, MPost works on both smart phones and older generation feature phones that are ubiquitous throughout Africa and in other developing regions. MPost was initially started on the USSD platform and is now on Android and iOS platforms.

Through a configuration of partnership with national postal services worldwide, users can obtain their MPost addresses enabling them to send and receive mails and parcels.

MPost is inclusive, affordable and efficient, and has material impact on economic growth, e-commerce and trade, thus improving hundreds of millions of lives every day.

PWC

“This group is exciting because we are bringing together entrepreneurs from all over Africa, and in learning from each other, and working with the sponsors, we are able to see the influence of many different national contexts. This brings a richness and diversity to the learning opportunities and to the discussions which is enhancing the experience for all concerned.”

– Paul Mitchell, FinTech and Blockchain Lead

Images: Courtesy

PAGO Pago is a mobile network operatordriven online payments processor that enables any unbanked smartphone user to make payments online using airtime.

Whilst in emerging markets internet access and smartphone penetration is growing by more than 50% annually, the growth of people with bank accounts is only 17% since 2016. Pago is addressing a problem that is affecting more than half a billion people every day.

For the unbanked internet consumer, Pago is inclusive, affordable, convenient and secure.

For the online merchant, Pago is an opportunity to reach new customers and grow revenue. For mobile network operators, Pago is

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NEDBANK

“Nedbank is incredibly excited about the success startups are already seeing with events such as the AWS Startup Day and the SA Innovation Summit. We see that momentum as validation that the 2018 Startupbootcamp AfriTech programme has a very strong cohort and we are already looking at collaborating with other partners in terms of what we can implement.”

– Stuart van der Veen, Head of Innovation and Disruption

an additional revenue stream that increases the operators’ disposable income, offers a value-added service to their existing customers and attracts new customers.

PROSPA Over 10 million South African residents work as semi-skilled or unskilled labourers, earning low and infrequent incomes. Existing savings products don’t cater to this reality, meaning most are left without a practical option for formal savings.

Prospa provides a new solution focused on convenience and saving small change.

It’s a mobile savings wallet that uses a prepaid voucher system allowing people to safely deposit their savings.

Savers purchasing a voucher enter their voucher code into Prospa’s website or USSD menu (for those with a feature phone) to top up their savings. Vouchers start at R5, accounts have no minimum balance, no monthly fees and accrue interest. With quarterly cash-out dates, Prospa promotes longer-term saving, helping people to build up meaningful balances before cashing out. Currently available in Khayelitsha, Prospa plans to expand into more townships within the coming months.

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MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2018 CALL FOR ENTRIES BOOK YOUR STAND NOW Most Innovative Companies conference and awards It is with great pride that we present the first-ever Most Innovative Companies (MIC) conference, gala dinner and awards ceremony. At Fast Company South Africa, we think, dream, and live innovation. This is a celebration of innovation and progress, and epitomises what we believe is driving our present and future.

This is Fast Company South Africa’s way of honouring those who are at the apex of innovation in this modern era. A total of 25 companies will be recognised for their efforts and awarded accordingly.

The top five of those are the crème de la crème of innovation and disruption in Africa. The companies that will be honoured have all supplied a product, service or process that is of value to the consumer in 2017/2018.

These are companies that have taken into consideration the needs of our fast-paced and ever-changing society. We congratulate and applaud the companies that have made the cut.

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SHOWCASE The MIC Conference and Awards offers a platform for exhibitors to showcase their products, solutions and innovations to top level CEOs, MDs, CTOs and investors.

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Fast Company SA takes a look at the innovative new ideas, services, research and news currently making waves in South Africa and abroad.

Microsoft introduces subscription plan for Xbox Microsoft has launched a subscription plan for those who love to game but don’t want to – or can’t afford to – make the full-on commitment of purchasing an Xbox console. The tech giant has taken its existing subscriptions, Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass, to develop Xbox All Access – a payment plan that includes both subscriptions as well as an actual Xbox.

For ±R320 a month you can get both subscriptions and an Xbox 1 S for a duration of 24 months, or you can sign up for ±R520 to receive the subscriptions along with an Xbox One X, for the same time period. When comparing the price difference between All Access and the other payment plans or simply just buying an Xbox, All Access is indeed a cheaper alternative. In fact, if you keep your All Access subscription for 24 months, you can keep the Xbox as it has already been paid off.

The traditional paper airplane gets a modern-day upgrade

Images: sourced

Aerial drones are all the rage amongst tech aficionados, hobbyists and even industry giants but can we talk about (arguably) the very first unmanned aerial vehicle? The paper plane, of course. This childhood merriment has received a modern-day upgrade in the form of the POWERUP x FPV Video Paper Plane. This smartphonecontrolled paper airplane is fitted with powerful propellers, a robust motor and a rotating, remote-controlled wide angle camera, making for stunning recordings while traveling up to 32 km per hour. Using the free POWERUP app, you can do flips and tricks and experience a simulation of the flight as if you’re sitting in the cockpit through the interactive live-video feed on your smartphone. The box kit comes with everything needed for assembly, and with its auto-navigation and self-stabilisation feature, pilots can fly with utmost precision – even in unfavourable windy conditions. The video paper airplane combines a nostalgic past-time with cutting-edge technology, allowing both trainees and experienced pilots to create adventure in the most fun, safe and educational way possible.

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Lego builds life-size working Bugatti Chiron At the recent Grand Prix Formula 1 event in Monza, Italy, Lego unveiled a life-size replica of the Bugatti Chiron supercar, with all the details down to a working engine. Weighing over 1 300 kilograms, the model is made of over one million pieces and took 13 000 hours to design and build. The engine, with a top speed of 19.31 kilometres per hour and 5.3 horsepower, is comprised of 2 300 Lego Power Function motors and over 4 000 Technic gear wheels. The car was driven

by Andy Wallace, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona racing competitions. He may not be able to compete with Lego’s version of the Chiron, yet this man-made marvel is almost as impressive as its original counterpart in motion.

One Gram – The world’s first gold-backed cryptocurrency Launched just over a year ago in May 2017, this cryptocurrency seeks to change the face of digital economic finance by backing it with the tangible value of gold. It is also the world’s first cryptocurrency certified in compliance with Islamic Shari’ah law.

One Gram has partnered with GoldGuard, a Dubai-based online gold trading platform, where each crypto token is backed by at least one gram of physical gold. This provides a stable floor price that is regulated, and reduces the erratic price fluctuations experienced by other cryptocurrencies. To cement this transparency, GoldGuard is building one of the world’s largest gold vaults in the Dubai Airport Free Zone. It will house 2.5 tonnes of gold on display to the public – proving that OneGram is a credible and lucrative financial investment capable of carrying value in the real world. In line with Shari’ah law, OneGram’s transaction processes are comprised of three fundamental factors: No interest is ever charged, all transactions are live, and 2.5% of the company proceeds are donated to charity. With only 12.4 million coins to be produced, 40% of this supply has already been sold. They will also be testing their Point of Sale terminals in retail stores in the near future.

Images: sourced

Uber partners with Japanese taxi company As one of the largest taxi markets in the world, Japan is a lucrative environment for cab-hailing service Uber to operate. Despite clashing with taxi operators in countries around the world, Uber has had a rather seamless integration into the country since launching in Tokyo four years ago. Now, the San Francisco-based company has struck up a deal with the Fuji Taxi Group, allowing users based in Nagoya, Japan, to hail cabs through its app. Nagoya is the country’s third most populated city while Fuji’s taxis amount to approximately 5% of all cabs that commute through its streets.

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Local conferences, talks and meetups we think are worth attending

Property Buyer Show Tropics Business Summit

When: 12 – 14 October 2018 Where: Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, Gauteng Cost: R80 pp per day, R150 pp for both days Whether you’re looking to buy your first home or perhaps add to your growing portfolio of properties, the Property Buyer Show is the place to be. With a finance zone, property zone, first-time buyer seminar and property investor seminar, the innovative exhibition layout will ensure guests are able to literally ‘walk through’ the property buying process. Visitors can interact with lenders to discuss affordability, compare prices, see new developments and agent listings and understand rental returns, in order to make informed purchasing decisions.

Fun and entertaining brand interactions aim to keep attendees engaged for the duration of the convention.

When: 16 – 20 October 2018 Where: Protea Hotel Parktonian and The Formation Hub, Braamfontein Cost: R220 – R900 pp for different aspects of the summit

Singularity University South Africa Summit When: 15 – 16 October Where: Kayalami International Convention Centre, Midrand, Gauteng Cost: R16 500 pp Singularity University is a global community that uses exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. With its community of entrepreneurs, corporations, development organisations, governments, investors, and academic institutions, the summit has the necessary ingredients to help create a more abundant future for all. The summit serves audiences with a range of products to help them understand rapidly accelerating technologies and how to apply them to positively impact billions of people.

A congregation of the brightest business brains in Africa and the world, the topic of this year’s Tropics Business Summit is ‘accelerating startups in emerging markets through financial partnerships for inclusive growth and sustainable development.’ The networking event will offer a range of conferences, workshops, exhibitions and insightful panel discussions in multiple languages. A meet-andgreet, food, arts and fashion festival on day one and four of the event will allow some downtime for attendees to socialise in a relaxed atmosphere to complement the informationheavy forums taking place throughout the day.

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Betting and iGaming Big Africa SuperShow When: 5 – 6 November 2018 Where: Emperors Palace, Kempton Park, South Africa Cost: R3 995 pp (for South African citizens) Africa is one of the biggest untapped markets for the gaming industry and as the continent continues to embrace technological change, the Big Africa SuperShow aims to explore the business opportunities and economic benefits within the betting and gaming sector. The summit will gather leading industry experts, government representatives and spearheads in software development and data analytics under one roof to network and forge potential partnerships while exchanging knowledge and experiences. Exhibitors will include suppliers and services providers of gaming platforms and solutions, virtual reality, sports betting, mobile, payments and more. For those wanting to keep up to date with the latest trends and technological developments in the sector, this is one event not to be missed.

AfricArena 2018 DigiMarCon 2018 When: 8 – 9 November 2018 Where: Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg, Gauteng Cost: R2 950 – R10 450 pp The Digital Marketing Conference aims to help attendees cultivate effective marketing efforts across a range of digital platforms. With saturated online platforms in today’s omnipresent digital climate, the conference will challenge conventional thought and inspire new ways of thinking, fresh ideas and action steps to catapult businesses to new heights of marketing. Sessions will focus on building traffic, improving customer service and expanding brand awareness with specific intentions of increasing sales for businesses, improving lead generation and driving stronger consumer engagement. Topics include sustainable growth strategies, geotargeting and conversion rate optimisation, amongst others.

AfricaCom When: 13 – 15 November Where: Cape Town International Convention Centre Cost: R12 150 pp AfricaCom is the largest and most influential Africa-focused technology event in the world, bringing together 400 exhibitors, 13 000 attendees and 450 visionary speakers. A business-critical delegate experience incorporates a 16-track conference programme with hot new agenda topics, including blockchain, e-commerce, digital health, agritech and more, plus brand-new networking experiences for 2018. In addition, 400 exhibitors offer innovative solutions to the most pressing business challenges with a showcase of some of the newest technologies across two largescale exhibition halls.

When: 15 – 16 November Where: Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town Cost: R3999 – R8999 pp AfricArena brings together the continent’s leading innovators and entrepreneurs within the tech start-up ecosystem. The two-day event provides essential networking opportunities that can take your business to the next level. Pitch your product or service to potential investors, learn from a panel of highly acclaimed speakers and delegates from various industries and identify how to develop creative solutions for real world business problems. Last year’s conference saw over 450 attendees and more than 100 investors, while this year, the likes of Aaron Fu, Managing Director at MEST and Jerome Touze, CMO of Travelstart are scheduled to give informative talks.

With a brand new Xperience Centre, new partners and challenges, and a showcase of the best start-ups on the continent, AfricArena 2018 is not to be missed.

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GUEST COLUMN

By Philipp Wörz, investment analyst and fund manager at PSG Asset Management

Global investing Finding opportunities in uncrowded spaces addition, Microsoft and other legacy technology companies such as Cisco were once pronounced doomed by the by ‘death of PC’, and high quality names such as Unilever, Heineken and Reckitt Benckiser were available at bargain prices at the turn of the decade, as consumer goods companies fell out of favour due to low growth rates.

Investments in these parts of the markets, and others that were once unpopular, have yielded attractive returns for investors who found opportunities in the negative narrative.

Most investors tend to base their decisions on what has worked well in the recent past because that is what they recall most prominently. But one needs to be careful of extrapolating recent performance. In the past decade, high-quality growth companies have outperformed value companies, and it can be tempting to extrapolate this performance. In fact, extrapolation has led to a significant shift in the investment styles of global fund managers, and the majority of global equity funds are now growth-focused.

However, we believe it is important to have an investment process in place that guards against basing your decisions on recent performance as these areas of the market are typically more crowded and competitive.

It is possible to assess the popularity of countries or sectors simply from newspaper headlines.

“ W HEN YOU LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES IN UNCROWDED INVESTMENT AREAS, YOU PUT THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOUR.” But investment managers can go about this more objectively by using quantitative crowding screens to identify areas with the greatest chance of mispricing.

The results don’t provide answers on exactly where to invest, but do indicate where investment opportunities are likely to be found.

Currently, regions such as Japan, the United Kingdom (on the back of Brexit-related fears) and emerging markets in general are among those least liked by global investors, which means they are the least crowded areas.

Similarly, valuation factors generally favoured by value investors (such as low P/E ratios and high dividend yields) are out of favour, while momentum

factors (such as high P/E ratios and high expected earnings growth) are crowded.

Unsurprisingly, the least crowded sectors are those that are currently considered least exciting: telecommunications, real estate, financials, and materials. These are all characterised by low expectations, low prices and possibly mild neglect. These are exactly the kinds of uncrowded areas where we believe we are likely to find the best opportunities to buy quality, mispriced stocks.

Philipp started his investment career at PSG when he joined as an equity analyst in 2007. He is the fund manager of the PSG Global Equity Fund and PSG Global Flexible Fund.

Images: Courtesy

Investing successfully over a long-term period is tough and there are masses of incredibly smart people combing the globe for bargains. To think that anyone has a leading edge in such a competitive space may well be misguided, especially when it’s been shown time and again that the average investor underperforms market indices.

Although there are no guarantees in investing, we believe you can improve your likelihood of achieving strong results at acceptable levels of risk by the way you approach it. And when you look for opportunities in uncrowded investment areas, you put the odds in your favour.

Often the best investment opportunities are found in times of fear and uncertainty because the competition for assets is less fierce, and the potential to find mispriced securities is good.

When the issues that spook the market turn out to be temporary and prices recover, investors who deployed capital when valuations were depressed are rewarded.

The key is to maintain a long-term view when assessing apparently plausible negative narratives. A few examples in recent history include the popularity of Unites States’ banks amid heightened industry regulations a few years ago and the negativity towards South African banks and industrials in the wake of ‘Nenegate.’ In

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INSIGHTS FROM

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CLEAN TECH EDITION

Venture Catalyst

Arlan Hamilton has muscled her way into the boys’ club Silicon Valley will never be the same

A R L A N H A M I LT O N

CLEAN TECH EDITION 2018

S U S T A I N A B L E CO M PA N I ES A N D P R O D U CTS WE LOVE OCTOBER 2018

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2018/10/04 13:40