Hi there,

A world record for the slowest 100m ever? Somalia had to apologise when it sent an untrained candidate to participate in University Athletic Games. Clocking in at over 20 seconds at the 100m event, this might be the slowest one in history. We haven’t run in years but pretty sure we can beat that.

In this Open Letter:

• Game changers: What truly inclusive workplaces look like.

• Cashless OK, $50M Series B injection & shoddy internet.

• The progress: Why female engineers make great founders.

• Discounts: Get R500 off this Cape Town founder's event.

• Poll results: How you choose to pay.

TRENDING NOW

Guess Who’s to Thank for Cooler Workspaces…

Do you ever wonder how work even began?

Picture this: ages ago, people probably realised, "Hey, we need more hands during harvest time!" And so, people pitched in and got a share of the crops. Zoom ahead to the middle ages, and people are farming, building stuff, and guarding towns.

Back then, jobs were super physical. So, usually, the guys did the heavy lifting while the ladies stayed home, managing everything and taking care of the kiddos.

But guess what? Times have changed big time! Work today? A whole lot easier on the back. Plus, thanks to modern family planning, ladies are smashing it in the workplace and business world like never before.

We really need to catch up…

Work: Still Stuck in the Man Cave?

Even though the nature of jobs has changed, the workplace itself? Not so much. It’s like we swapped out the old TV but are still using a VCR. So, while more women can now join the formal workforce, the formal work environment is mostly not a good fit.

And it shows in the numbers, 90% of informal work (typically work not governed by an employment agreement or formal business setup) in Africa is performed by women.

And oh boy, the classic 9–5 office grind? It's tough. Think about it: commute, work, commute. Barely any time at home. And perhaps that’s why 47% of women in SA are out of the workforce.

But this is all changing. Post-Covid we’ve seen a cool work mix – some days at the office, some at home. Major win? Moms get the best of both worlds! Just saving time on the commute alone is buying valuable family time.

What’s more, the rise of online gigs and remote jobs is rewriting the rules of work. And considering it's Women's Month in SA (shoutout to the incredible 20,000 women who stood up against unfair laws in 1959), it's time to dream of a workplace that's all about inclusivity and flexibility. One that works for more people.

Local Game-Changers

Ever heard of RecruitMyMom? It’s not your average job site. For years they have been a matchmaker for moms, connecting them with flexible jobs that fit their desire to spend more time with the family or other activities.

Think about a woman who spent the first 10 years of her career as a consultant for a top-tier consulting firm, or a woman with 15 years of auditing experience for a leading audit firm! These are the kind of candidates on RecruitMyMom that can be hired for a few hours a day. That experience is worth a lot and many companies only need it (and can afford it) for a few hours a day – a perfect match.

And businesses are loving it, feeling they get more bang for their buck. Highly focused, professional, and experienced women contributing positively.

And then there’s WomHub (check out our podcast guest Victoria Jackson from WomHub), championing the cause for mom entrepreneurs, especially in the STEM world.

• Their workspaces? Designed just for female entrepreneurs.

• Their accelerators? Supports female founders through maternity.

• Their funding? Modelled to help female founders succeed.

Bottom line? The workplace isn't just about adding more chairs. It's about reshaping the entire table. Let's get flexible! After all, not even all men are the same and these changes could greatly benefit everyone involved, leading to healthier families and more fulfilled adults…progress.

Come across a female founder changing the game? Hit reply and let us know.

OVER TO YOU

IN SHORT

🪨 Janky Internet. Wondering why your favourite show is buffering or work video calls seem to be shaky? Turns out some undersea cables in the West African Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic 3 (SAT–3) systems have been damaged by a rock fall in the Congo Canyon.

👨‍🔬 Check your science. A prominent scientific journal is set to retract a paper containing controversial claims about the discovery of room-temperature superconductors due to ”possible data fabrication”. It’s also not the first paper by this specific physicist that’s been retracted.

💩 Causing a Stink. The long-time issues in Cape Town’s most polluted waterway – the Milnerton Lagoon – are set to see a Multibillion-Rand intervention by the City of Cape Town, including aerating and or bio-remediating the lagoon, upgrading the non-compliant discharges from the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works, as well as cutting off other pollution sources.

👌 More than OK. The Shoprite group’s franchise offering, OK, has just launched OK Urban with a bold new look hinting at taking on Woolworths, continuing the relentless onslaught by Checkers. All of it is cashless tap and go (which makes sense considering 80% of you prefer to tap to pay as voted in Tuesday’s Open Letter poll).

🍔 Good News Burger. In the latest update to The Economist’s Big Mac Index the Rand undervalued by 50% and should be trading at just under R9 per dollar. The index compares the price of a Big Mac burger in different countries to determine how currencies are valued. A Big Mac costs R49.90 in South Africa and $5.58 in the US.

🔪 Sharp Investments. Knife Capital raises a $50m fund to address the funding gap in critical growth stages of startups in the Series B stage. The fund is currently invested in startups like DataProphet and Kasha and plans to invest in another 10-12 firms primarily in the South African ecosystem.

THE THREAD

3 Women-First Founder Thoughts to Share

If you’re still hunting for new ideas, you probably haven’t seen this week’s How Would You Build It yet. No worries, you can still catch our chat with Victoria Jackson of WomHub – which has grown to so much more than just co-working, btw. They’re doing all kinds of amazing stuff: from igniting STEM passion in young women to female founder journeys, accelerators and funding support.

Our fave highlights

1️⃣ Female STEM Engineers Make Great Founders

In fact, it seems to be part of a natural journey/progression: Get STEM-educated, graduate, work in engineering, and then a lot of women naturally end up choosing to go the entrepreneurial route.

And WomHub focuses very much on helping founders in engineering, mining, green technology, software and tech through incubation and accelerator programmes specifically catered to women – see more here.

2️⃣ Women May Have a Different View of Sucess

And therein lies many opportunities. As Victoria mentions here, women might not have the unicorn-level goals of building that IPO in lieu of building a stable, sustainable family business. Not always, though, but often enough that there might be opportunities in helping more women unlock just that – how do we help fund that, how do we connect people there to realise value?

Another point that goes back to our main feature is that you do often find women in extremely high-profile positions, with decades of valuable domain skills, who exit the workplace to build a family. And then you have companies in need of that level of skill, who can’t afford to acquire it full-time, but would pay handsomely for just an hour or two a week of her insights.

Figure out a way to bring more of those two together, and you could have a very neat solution.

3️⃣ Unlocking Opportunities in the Circular Economy

It’s often hard to see how you actually make money out of reuse and upcycling etc. but Victoria points out here that there could be unique opportunities in building products or vehicles for the ESG space that can help smaller green companies get access to voluntary carbon credits because there’s a lot of good work happening there that’s maybe not getting the support it deserves.

Another worthy thought is that as Economic Social Governance marches on, there might come a tipping point of adoption. And if you were to start developing a software solution now to help those hard industries who are currently building in the space, you could benefit when that opportunity unlocks – more on that here.

BONUS: There will be way more unique women founder insights like these in two weeks’ time at Innovation City’s Digital Divas Summit. In fact, Victoria will be there, along with an amazing line-up of female founders and founder supporters.

Oh, and we organised for you to get R500 off your ticket down below…

If podcast app is your vibe, catch them here:

Like our podcast? Remember to subscribe and never miss an episode.

THE EVENT

R500 Off Your Ticket to Digital Divas Summit

We have a confession to make. We didn’t just incidentally have Victoria on the podcast – we chased that interview because we knew she’s leading a panel at an upcoming Innovation City event on 25 August.

It’s around female founders’ experiences through the years and decades (following the evolution of the movement), which includes the likes of Loop CEO and algorithm creator Kimberley Taylor, Zindi Africa’s Celina Lee, Endeavour South Africa MD Alison Collier and legendary female founder and IDF Capital chairperson Polo Leteka.

And that’s just the warm-up act to a masterclass on negotiation by venture capitalist and Knife Capital partner, Andrea Böhmert. Which then leads to the keynote by international journalist and The Female Quotient founder, Shelley Zalis.

It’s such a cool opportunity, we stalked, begged and bothered Innovation City endlessly until they agreed to give The Open Letter readers R500 off tickets to the Digital Divas Summit on 25 August in Cape Town.

So there you go. If you want in, or if you know a female founder (or soon-to-be), all you have to do is use the code YFP74EE8 when you checkout here.

THE RESULTS

Wow, we just kinda proved the main stat from our last letter on digital payments. 40% of us use tap-and-go and 39% Apple Pay/Google Pay – that’s a cool 80% for the future of payments. (Poor PayShap needs some love, though.)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 Cash (2%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Chequebook (2%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💸 Tap-and-go with card (41%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨 📱 Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay (39%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💳 Chip and Pin (6%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚡ SnapScan or Zapper (4%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👍 PayShap (0)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😎 Crypto (6%)