TAKING AFRICAN INNOVATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL THE VALENTINE’S GIFT THAT STARTED A BUSINESS

The majority of entrepreneurs started their businesses with their own savings, while others needed bank loans to get started. More often, they will start their businesses as part-time hustles.

When Vusani Ravele founded Native Decor, he started his business as a part-time hobby from his living room. The year was 2015, and Vusi had just received a cordless drill as a Valentine’s Day gift. With a new toy in his hands, he couldn’t stop drilling holes.

Vusi became one of the first entrepreneurs to benefit from a lucrative investment deal with his current business partner, Gil Oved, of The Creative Counsel. His company, Native Decor, makes visually pleasing and functional products using sustainable timber. In this interview, we learn more about Vusi’s business journey.

Can you tell us a little about Native Deco and what inspired you to start it? This business was a bit of a passion project for me. I was actually working full time as a sales manager when I started. It was after I received a cordless drill as a Valentine’s Day gift. As soon as I got the drill, I decided I wanted to make some products. After making those products, I realised they were actually nice enough to sell. Since then, I have continued to manufacture products.

How does Native Deco differ from its competitors? Our products are quite different from those of many other manufacturers in South Africa. All our products have a very modern, European feel to it. We try to make it as relevant and relatable to South Africa as possible.

We use birch plywood, which is something that a lot of companies don’t use in South Africa. The colour of our furniture items is different; you can see the difference in our products.

What are the ways native decor has successfully engaged and empowered young people, specifically in terms of economic participation?

Our priority is to hire young people, but we also hire people who haven’t necessarily worked in the positions they are being given? For us, that means giving them new skills, which is a big deal.

Legazy Technology Conferencing is the brainchild of Zuko Tisani. In 2018, Zuko secured a $1 million letter of intent from one of Africa’s largest TMT (technology, media, telecommunications) companies to host a new Web summit conference in South Africa. His company has since hosted many business events and grown from strength to strength.

Zuko was born and raised in Zwide, a township in Port Elizabeth. As his parents were still undergraduate students at Rhodes University, Zuko had to be raised by his grandparents until he was seven years old. During our interview with Zuko, he shared more about his business.

How did you come up with the idea for your business? It may have been 2016 when one event took place. I attended a conference sponsored by Accenture in Hong Kong called Rise. Coincidentally, I bumped into a friend whose mom is the ambassador of Hong Kong and South Africa. As a platinum pass holder, I had access to VIPs at the conference. As a result, I was able to find myself backstage with the likes of Travis Kalanick and Jack Dorsey.

As a result of my travels and studies of entrepreneurial ecosystems and climates around the world, Legazy Technologies was born. It became apparent to me how much the South African entrepreneurial ecosystem (the relationship between public, private, and entrepreneur) needed maturing, how invisible African innovation was to the world, and how small our market share was.

Who were your first clients? One of our first clients was Standard Bank; we took them to a conference called Web Summit in 2016, in Portugal. Since then, we have taken over 195 different individuals to exhibit all over the world.

What has been your biggest highlight? First, gaining a global footprint through my company. Then between 2018 and 2019, I made the under 30 Business Forbes list. It was a major milestone for me as well to shoot our first film. Writing, producing, directing, and the film was all amazing.

What else does your business do? I decided to challenge the status quo with a new business that matched my two passions: market cases and video. I noticed that businesses spend a lot of money on advertising but are unable to estimate how much they earn from sales or advertising. Why? Because there’s no way to track that. So, what we’ve been able to do is simplify the process by providing that data to them. We do this by making sure that our clients get rich data from a platform that can tell them when a customer is paying, what was the motive response, or what motivated that purchase.