startupAFRICA Issue

WHAT'S INSIDE

HOSPITALITY

TRAILBLAZERS

PROFILES

DISRUPTORS

EDITOR'S NOTE

It’s 12:56AM and there’s something in the air that’s keeping me awake. I decided to sit up and write this note because I have missed doing this - writing this love letter to all our readers.

The startupAFRICA team embarked on a journey to relaunch its website in an effort to communicate a lot more effectively and clearly to readers. In addition to that, we held back on publishing the up and coming issue in order to rework and revive our publication, an opportunity to afford you new and improved content!

So, as I lay awake, I keep thinking about how African startups are spreading their wings and expanding outside the continent. This speaks to the growing maturity of startups in the local scene, and the need to reach more markets in order to reach scale. And perhaps what keeps me awake at night with eager and excitement isn’t only the rebirth of the new and improved publication but the knowledge that entrepreneurship is one of the keys to Africa’s economic freedom, although our startup ecosystem is in its nascent stages.

A change to the startup landscape is required and angel investing needs to become part of our culture, in much the same way that cryptocurrencies have become. And I believe that Africa’s young entrepreneurs are as good as many in the world, they just lack a solid support system.

I can’t emphasise (enough) the fact that startupAFRICA has very little to do with what the team and I want. It really is for the people. This place has become a soapbox for young trailblazers to tell their own stories with truth a passion.

To me, being able to help young entrepreneurs share their journeys means a lot because it is a vital catalyst within that support system that I believe is lacking.

Apart from my many aspirations, I hope that this platform bridges the gap between the hopelessly passionate entrepreneur and their big break, whether it is funding from a large corporate or a gateway to great exposure within the public and media space.

I also hope that the stories of ordinary people who are doing the extra ordinary are able to give you the same kind of hope they afford me. The kind of hope and excitement that will keep you awake on an idle Thursday when you just can’t seem to fall asleep because there’s something in the air.

Enjoy!

Baradi Moletsane

C O V E R S T O R Y

teboho theoha: the ordinary entrepreneur doing the extra ordinary

By Baradi Moletsane

startupAFRICA was thrilled to catchup with the Man of the Moment:Teboho Theoha, a trailblazinggentleman, born and bred in theVaal, who left his inhibitions at his 9to 5 to pursue his dreams incomedy and entrepreneurship.

Unafraid, tenacious and crazily ambitious, Theoha let’s us in how the journey of becoming a humorist and business extraordinaire has been unbelievably tough and rewarding in equal measure.

When asked (off topic) about what his thoughts on femicide and woman abuse are, he answered: “The fact of the matter is that we (society) refuse to talk about how men abuse and murder women. It starts with the microaggressions, the cat calling, the unsolicited calls, texts and explicit images we send women – you name it. It starts with Patriarchy - teaching little boys that little girls are play things, you know? It happens in our work places, where women are objectified no matter how high the rise in the corporate ladder.

C O V E R S T O R Y

"the cheques are still coming in, and they reflect the quality of work we do"

We talk about how women shouldn’t dress a certain way, avoid going out at night, how they should be careful who to trust and and and, but we never talk about how men just need to stop being animalistic in character. It’s bizarre.

You seem to a busy man to pin down, can you tell us what it is that you do for a living?

[Laughs] I’m a professional standup comedian, radio host, writer and serial entrepreneur. Also, I run a creative management company called Creative Granum and an artisanal burger joint – Eesy Cheesy Burger Bar.

At what point in your career did you decide to become a comedian?

I worked as an IT specialist and one of my clients actually recommended that I try standup comedy because of the banter we usually shared. It was crazy really, I performed a five minute set and got booked for the very next show. Got my first comedy cheque almost immediately after that. Look, I haven’t looked back since.

Can you share a glimpse of your experience as a comedian? We can’t imagine it to be a walk in the park.

Being a comedian requires a very sharp mind. You have to dig through the malaise of every day to find the funny. Audiences aren’t as ignorant as some comedians think.

Many of the people we try to appeal to are so well-informed these days that you have to have a clear and fresh perspective to present. The travelling is fun. I did the Swaziland International Festival and even there, comedy is alive!

What have been some of the greatest challenges you have faced in the above field?

With the boom of internet connectivity, people are able to access comedy at their fingertips. This pushes us as comedians to constantly come up with fresh material. The switch from, slap stick comedy to a more sophisticated and thought out material has been a wonderful thing to see. The cheques are still coming in, and they reflect the quality of work we do.

C O V E R S T O R Y

Are there any comedians you look up to, if yes, who?

Without a doubt there are, guys like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Mitch Hedberg have always been icons of comedy. Locally, Roni Modimola, Loyiso Madinga and Robby Collins are some of my favourite comedic minds. They deliver their material with such wit that it’s hard not to laugh when they speak.

Tell us about The Morning Papers that you host on eNCA.

I’m a regular correspondent on Weekend Wake Up with Dudu Ramela on eNCA. We discuss news coming out of the big Sunday papers.

I’m there to provide comic relief as well as perspective on various issues. It makes for riveting entertainment. It’s live so that’s always exciting.

What has the above experience been like?

Live TV is so awesome and scary. I never in my wildest dreams thought a million people would hear my voice. The response has been phenomenal. I come from a very small community and everybody is so proud to see a familiar face on the airwaves. It brings great inspiration to those coming behind me.

When we talk about your career, what scares you?

I worry that my comedy and my business life are always clashing. It’s not easy running a company and following your passion. Luckily, I have an amazing support system that keeps me focused and firmly grounded.

And what about some of your life changing encounters that you have experienced these past few years?

I recently lost both my parents and that shocked me to my core. I even stopped doing comedy. I thought I’d never go on stage again. Then one day, my nine year old son saw a rerun of one my shows and told me he misses seeing me being funny. That really was a huge turning point.

C O V E R S T O R Y

"validation is great from strangers, but so powerful from those closest to us"

What makes your blood boil?

People who don’t refill the ice trays. People who take too long at ATMs. People who don’t indicate before switching lanes. People who think mayonnaise and baked beans is a salad. People who think bigotry and being “savage” on social media is an acceptable form of popularity.

So where to from now? What do we expect in the next few years?

Running a successful creative agency, having my own TV show, travelling a lot more and being a lot more chilled about life. My ultimate goal is to start producing great international content. We know how amazing South African stories are, so I

want to take up the liberty to get them out to the world.

There’s a business aspirant who might be reading this, who’s afraid to break away from their 9 to 5 to achieve their goals, what would you like to say to them?

So many of us die without ever having taken a chance on ourselves. We ask for breaks all the time but we never give OURSELVES a break. It isn’t easy being on this path. Sleepless nights, long days, clients to renege on agreements. But what’s amazing is realising that armed with only your will, intellect and skill, you really can achieve a lot. Don’t quit your day job unless you absolutely, positively and unwaveringly believe that you can make it on your own. Belief is the first big step.

STARTUPAFRICA, SOON TO BE A MONTHLY DIGITAL MAGAZINE

"We stuffed up - big time..."

- 0 2 -

Did you know that Yoco nearly shut down?

By Asanda Mtili

In a tell-all session at FuckUp Nights Cape Town — held in Cape Town on Tuesday evening (20 March) and hosted by Aspiring Black Leaders and Cape Town Office — Maphai detailed the struggle he and his three cofounders faced before they were able to clinch the startup’s first round of funding. The deal, which involved an undisclosed amount in a round led by USbased Quona Capital and Netherlands-based Velocity Capital, was announced in March last year.

There were moments where we literally had a month of capital in our bank account. We were just raising angel and family office money to allow us to continue,” says Maphai.

It took Maphai and his team two years before they were finally able to conclude what was their first, Series-A funding round. After a brief career in management consulting and as a venture builder with Rocket Internet, Maphai founded the startup in 2015 with Lungisa Matshoba (who studied together with Maphai), Bradley Wattrus (who he worked with at Rocket Internet) and Carl Wazen (a former consultancy colleague). It was in late 2012, that the four first began working on the idea for the startup — how to make it easier for small businesses to accept manual credit card payments. The four then spent a full year trying to get a license to operate.

“We literally packed up our bags and moved to Johannesburg to do that. We were self-funded and really before the end of this period we could have been told that ‘you are not getting the license’ and we literally could have failed before we even started. And psychologically that was really tough,” recalls Maphai.

After they were able to secure a license to operate as a payments company, the four moved back to Cape Town, where they were able to get their first angel funding. About a year later, in late 2014 the company went live with its first customers and decided to hunt for a Series-A round.

"We really got on track with our mission, which is to support smaller businesses"

“Really it was here that we really started to stuff up. We, in our minds had been operating for two years, but in truth the company had only been operating for two months. And we went out to the market to try raise capital and it was a complete disaster,” he admits.

Linked to this, the four had made promises to their staff of salary increases. But instead of focusing on acquiring customers and helping SMEs, the four were focused on trying to close the funding round — by aiming to drive up client volumes by signing up larger businesses, for example.

“If I go back to this period, the 2015 period, we were just taking fund raising meetings. It was not working out. We were getting rejections. If we weren’t getting rejections we were getting really nasty pricing on our (funding) round,” he says.

But he says in the end those tough times had a positive effect on the business.

“This really toughened us up, really got us to understand like what drives this business. And also amazingly within the process we really got on track with our mission, which is to support smaller businesses,” he says.

Out of this the four developed a key metric — to track first-time card acceptors. Today, for 75% of the company’s 20 000 card machine users, it is the first time they have ever accepted physical card payments.

The company is now raising a Series-B funding round, to assist the company to expand into new markets internationally.

‘Knew nothing in beginning’

Maphai points out that when the idea for Yoco was born, the four knew little about the payments sector.

“We knew shit about the payments industry, when we started. We spent most of the early days identifying experts within the industry, finding them and taking (them for) coffee, building up those relationships,” he says.

What also helped was assembling an advisory body made up of the right experts, says Maphai.

“We knew shit about the payments industry, when we started"

“There were no ways we would have gotten that license to operate without that. They weren’t even looking at us. They were looking at our advisors and the fact that the advisors said ‘these guys know what they are doing’,” he says.

And what does it take to be a leader? It’s the ability to think long term, says Maphai. “What I’ve found is that when you think in those horizons and when you condition your mind to those horizons, your perspective on whatever is going wrong and right completely changes. You see it as a ripple and not as this big sort of amplitude that is going to last forever.”

Says Maphai: “When you have that perspective you are able to have belief. And when you have belief you can constantly infuse that into your team.”

Ntediseng Mwale

They say food is love, and when prepared by passionate chefs who have a love and respect for the ingredients they use, combined with a creative eye and hand, that love is passed on to the customer. South African chef and entrepreneur, Ntediseng Mwale (Teddy), founder of Excellere Foods, is passion personified in the kitchen.

Putting the love and passion into cooking

B Y A S A N D A M T I L I

What does your company do? At Excellere Foods, we specialise in catering and confectionery.

What inspired you to start your company? I have always loved to cook. The thought of making money and improving my life and the lives of those around me, by doing what I love just inspired me to go for it. I am also about woman empowerment. As a mother of two girls, I wanted them to grow up seeing that a woman is capable and equipped to care for herself and those around her, not just emotionally and physically, but financially too.

"I knew I had find people that I would work with for years to come."

Why should anyone use your service or product? I love what I do and I believe people can actually taste as much in my food. There is cooking, and then there is cooking with love and passion. The difference is in the taste and presentation. I care for my customers' health and well-being. As a result, each time I cook my heart out. That is one attribute that very few people possess.

Tell us a little about your team Well, I am blessed to work with some really talented individuals. Both my chefs have been in the industry for over 10 years and are very strong cooks with a lot of creativity and energy. Added to the team is a vibrant young man who is our baker. And then there is our barman Justice - the calmest, hardworking and talented Justice. These guys have become family to me. I didn't go out looking for male team members but when I found these guys, I knew I had find people that I would work with for years to come. We spend so much time together it feels like we live together. They can definitely handle the pressure and the long hours.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background? Oh yes, my dad, who is now retired, was an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. He sold anything and everything - from live chickens, to milk, salt, traditional beer, and eventually he opened his own brick-making company. My sister is also well established in her logistics business. For me, it had to be cooking. From a young age I loved to cook. I even found the way to my now husband's heart through his stomach as they say. The journey as an entrepreneur has been somewhat bumpy yet fulfilling.

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company? We plan to open a culinary institute to train our youngsters to become chefs. I want to encourage them to travel the world and experience various cuisine, cultures and life outside South Africa. We are also in process of commercializing our frozen, healthy dessert which will be exported to various countries.

ALLEGRODINKWANYANE

FOUNDER, ORGELLA MEDIA

Dinkwanyane spends her life wired into the internet where she makes her money.

You could call her the poster child of social media; Dinkwanyane makes a living from telling stories of the rich and famous.

Her entrepreneurial journey started not in an MBA classroom, but in journalism school, when she was given an assignment to start an online blog. Impressed, her lecturer encouraged her to keep at it.

After diligent research, planning and a lot of soul-searching, Orgella Media was born in her university dormitory in 2011. Orgella?

“I was inspired by Oprah’s Harpo because it’s her name spelled backwards. From the time I saw it, I started writing my name backwards and realized there is a good ring to it,” says Dinkwanyane.

Orgella Media started as an entertainment blog and has now diversified into public relations (PR), charity and property divisions.

Dinkwanyane’s public profile increased over the years. She represents the likes of South Africa’s music sensation Donald, TV presenter Siya Mdlalose and fashion designer Paledi Segapo. She also has corporate clients like Avon South Africa, Africa Fashion Week Nigeria and Poppy’s Restaurant and employs eight people.

She may spell her name backwards but her business is going forward.

"MY ADVICE WILL BE THAT THEY SHOULD BUILD A BUSINESS AROUND THEIR PASSION AND THAT PASSION MUST BE SOLVING A PROBLEM."

What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?

Midridge as an organization has an ambitious vision and clear mission which dictates all our business strategies.

Our Vision is to be the leader in driving the revolution of creating the finance function of the future as strategic business partners and Our Mission is to help forward-thinking businesses to build and support their finance function to maximize their economic potentials and deliver long-term value consistently.

Our future plan is to see this company growing and continuing to provide high value CFO advisory and business consulting services to our clients. We intend to use both personal and professional networks to establish our reputation and leverage references from satisfied clients.

What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?

I think being an entrepreneur is great because the possibilities are endless. You can be as creative and innovative as you want to be, and the results are most rewarding. Starting my own business has been empowering, challenging and exciting all rolled into one. The best part for me is a feeling of contributing to something larger than myself.

What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?

My advice will be that they should build a business around their passion and that passion must be solving a problem. They should also realize that they will not always have all the answers and so should seek out people with expertise where their skills may be lacking and use the knowledge to achieve their goals.

NAKED INSURANCE LAUNCHES IN SOUTH AFRICA

B Y T H I N A B H E N G U

Insurtech startup Naked Insurance has launched to market in South Africa, offering an artificial intelligence (AI) powered car insurance solution.

In October last year, Naked Insurance raised ZAR20 million (US$1.66 million) in funding from Hollard, South Africa’s largest privately-owned insurance group, and private investment firm Yellowwoods.

The startup secured the funding before launching any product to market.

Naked Insurance has now launched its car insurance solution in South Africa, promising to give consumers control of their insurance and save them money.

Potential customers can request a quote, and if it’s accepted, receive cover in three minutes on the Naked website or app; while existing customers can also change their cover instantly at any time. The use of AI-based algorithms allows the startup to bring down the cost of insurance, by removing the need for inefficient business processes such as call centres.

INSURANCE

The fraud algorithms permit certain claims to be approved instantly, reducing inconvenience and lowering the cost of premiums.

In addition, Naked has created the “CoverPause” feature – giving customers the ability to pause their accident cover if their car won’t be used for a day or more – reducing the premium for that time.

“Having been involved in insurance from the inside, we knew we needed to build Naked from scratch, avoiding legacy systems and thinking. We are proud to kick off a new generation of insurance that offers unprecedented user-control, value for money and customer fairness at its core – all the while making a positive change to society,” says Alex Thomson, cofounder of Naked Insurance.

The startup is based on a different model than traditional insurance companies. It takes a fixed portion of premiums to run the business, with the balance going into a pool to cover claims.

At the end of each year, money left over in the claims pool goes to charities nominated by customers rather than towards company profits, meaning Naked’s income doesn’t depend on whether claims are paid or not.

“We saw first-hand how insurers’ focus on underwriting profits overshadows claims handling, premium fairness and customer service. We realised that to fix these problems we needed to change how we make money, to remove the inherent conflicts of interest,” says Thomson.

ADVICE

TOP 7 REASONS WHY YOUR SMALL BUSINESS SHOULD USE TWITTER

By Cue Sibiya

If you run a small business and aren't using Twitter, I have to ask, why not? It seems that just about everyone else on the planet with access to the web or a cell phone is.

Twitter seems to be following the same pattern that blogs did. First a few, and just for personal use – (please!) Then a lot more and an expansion of uses. And then a belated awakening by businesses that something is happening over there and it might be worth getting in on it.

Everyone else is doing it.

The guy who runs the convenience store down the street. The landscape architect. The shoe store owner. And lots of big companies, such as Dell, HP, AT&T, and Microsoft. In fact, 74% of 2013 Inc 500 companies use Twitter and 377 of the 2013

Fortune 500 companies have a corporate Twitter account (Twitter Stats for Businesses). Having your business on Twitter is hot.

Twitter is good optics.

Using Twitter is evidence that your small business is participating in social media and obviously a "with-it" kind of outfit that people might be interested in doing business with.

It's just not enough to have a website anymore. (Learn How to Create a Social Media Plan for Your Business.)

Twitter is a fast way to get the message out.

Assuming your potential and existing customers are on Twitter, you can instantly let

them know your news, whether it's an announcement or a new product, a special deal, or an upcoming event they may be interested in.

And now that businesses can advertise on Twitter, it's even easier to reach the potential customers you want to reach.

Twitter will help you stay on top of your industry and/or market segment.

Twitter lets you hear what other people are saying. Using Twitter Search, you can find out what people are saying about a particular topic, enabling you to keep your ear to the ground about your company and the competition.