Hi there,

Think a tinkle in the pool is bad? NASA just announced its environmental systems are now so good they recycle 98% of astronaut sweat, breath & urine on the ISS for consumption by those onboard. A huge leap for space exploration further out from Earth, but not something we’d include in their recruitment brochures.

In this Open Letter:

• One hot iron: 6 Opportunities in SA’s Great Energy Gold Rush.

• Big money, GameStop à la Hollywood & about that cage fight.

• Owning ideas: 5 Keys to finding your ideal co-founder.

• Free downloads: 25 lekker AI tools, 50 founder’s tools & a coffee on us.

TRENDING NOW

SA’s Great Energy Gold Rush

Our grandkids will be learning about this in school – want in?

Every generation or so, a massive opportunity opens. A chance for fast movers to build mega-companies virtually overnight. Mega-corps that rule entire industries for decades – if not centuries to come. (Think Google for search, Facebook for social, Space X for, well, space.)

It’s important because it’s happening again right here in SA, right now. The crown(s) are ripe for the taking… in the Energy Sector.

And a lot of late-sleepers gonna wish they had a time machine…

And we know it’s happening because it’s happened before…

Like back in 1994, when the old state-owned South African Telecommunications Corporation (SATCC) was dissolved and its assets transferred to Telkom – at that time, pretty much your only option for making a telephone call.

But with the development of GSM networks, things were set to change.

The Monopoly comes to an end

1994 Set off the SA telecoms arms race, with mobile network licenses issued by the government for MTN and Vodacom. And now, 29 years later, it’s still hard for newcomers to make a dent in that space – just ask Cell C about its net loss of R2.5 billion last year.

That’s Opportunity 1: Be the Big Dog.

But there’s also Opportunity 2, and that has legs…

See Vodacom and MTN became large successful operations with market caps in the R250 billion range and operations in multiple countries. But they are still using an array of service providers for optimal function. One such company that started out by servicing telco operators is Stellenbosch-based EMSS Consulting.

EMSS Consulting provides products and services for telecoms to comply with regulations — a lucrative business. And a few years on and Alphawave was born. It is the holding company for innovative technology startups such as Skynamo, Inrange and Fanfire (to name but a few).

And it’s happening right now

Back in 2019, the South African government announced that Eskom will be split into three entities:

• Generation – make electricity

• Distribution – connect it where applicable

• Transmission – move it to where it gets consumed

And, of course, the wheels turn slowly, but the recent loadshedding-and-solar saga seems to have created way more urgency. So private power generation is starting to look a lot more likely in SA – it could mean a private power plant could sell electricity to a municipality using the newly formed Transmission entity of old Eskom.

Why does this matter? Because just like in the case of mobile network operators, we anticipate two things to happen if we can start producing and selling power:

• Large companies to be formed that will build power stations and renewable energy plants. These companies will become well-established and likely do really well — the big dogs.

• The part we are most excited about: The supporting services, software, consultancy and supply that these private companies will consume — the opportunity for the smaller guys to build massive companies.

So if you are not busy becoming the big dogs, some of the opportunities to consider include:

• A B2B Marketplace for buying and selling electricity.

• Electricity generation and management solutions for manufacturing and mining that would see them supply themselves with cheaper electricity when their usage and supply back into the grid is offset. Not to mention the software to manage this in a smart, efficient manner.

• Software that manages the supply and consumption contracts of electricity using Eskom’s distribution like a Cape Town Based Startup, Open Access Energy does.

• Software and services to comply with regulations – The producers of electricity will have to conform to certain guidelines and regulations, i.e. build software to help them do this efficiently and it could be big business.

• Hardware devices that service the entire value chain – from metering to IoT devices for management.

• Revenue protection – helps producers get the most out of their production and detect anomalies through data analysis.

• Big Data and AI software that accurately predict and purchase from suppliers to ensure demand needs are met most effectively. It is anticipated that suppliers will have variable tariffs, at different dates and times and different ranges of consumption. Get software to automatically manage the purchasing of power from the suppliers to optimise spending and you could save a large organisation millions.

If you want to get some ideas, check out the UK energy sector – it deregulated in 1989 and there are loads of really competitive players in that space (lots of them are probably eyeing the SA market as we speak).

So hurry: If all goes well and those that Eskom owes money to agree to the restructure, we could see all of this kicking into gear as early as August this year.

Let’s hope that this is not only the beginning of great new software enterprises in SA, but also an end to loadshedding. We are watching this space.

Got an energy focussed product idea? Hit reply and connect, we know some people…

IN SHORT

🥂 Good news. Despite what you may think about the cost of living in SA, none of our cities are anywhere to be found on the list of most expensive cities for luxury living.

💰 Big Meta Money. Wanna earn a cool 5.5 million “rondt” this year? Join Meta where its median pay is now $296k per annum. And they’re not the only ones – most of the US’s top companies are dolling out increases like candy to attract top talent.

🇿🇦 Youth Jobs. Ever wondered how long young SA workers will stick it out at their companies? According to data revealed by PNET, youth aged between 14 and 35 are unlikely to stay much more than 3 years – a fascinating insight into the ever-changing jobs landscape.

🍿 On the Big Screen. Remember the GameStop Short squeeze orchestrated on r/wallstreetbets? Well, Hollywood jumped on the story and a movie is coming – with a pretty impressive, star-studded lineup.

🥊 Head-to-Head. Yes, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are indeed set to fight in a cage match. Meanwhile, former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate has offered to train Musk as revenge for Facebook booting him off their platform, UFC’s Dana White will put on and promote the fight, and we’d like to know where the flying Deloreans are and how exactly we slipped into this particular bizarro timeline/dimension.

­BUILDER’S CORNER

5 Keys to Your Ideal Co-Founder

Building a startup solo is as tough as it is risky. Your chances of success are just so much higher when building with teammates. That’s why over 90% of YC’s startup intake are teams, not solos. And the reason is typically as simple as: building a startup is too much work (and too complex) for one person.

But how do you find co-founders?

In the consulting work we do, we get this question a lot. You have an idea, but you lack some of the skills and know-how to get it going. And therein lies the problem.

Co-founders need to “own” ideas together. Before you can own shares, you need to conjure up and own the idea together. Why?

• If it's your idea, it's your baby. You want to see it grow and you care deeply. Another person? Not so much. They will look after your child, and pass the bottle when you ask for it, but when it cries at night, you will be the one to get up.

• If it's your idea, there is healthy pressure to make it work. You told your family and friends about this enthusiastically and now you gotta make it work. If it’s another guy’s idea, no big reputational risk if it fails. Off to the next one.

• If it's your idea, it came from combining experiences, observations and passions. Meaning there is substance to your contribution and it’s often what’s needed during the tough times. If your co-founder didn’t help come up with the idea, chances are there is a mismatch between what they can offer and what the startup really needs.

Maybe instead of pitching a potential partner your idea, get in a room and ideate.

1. Find like-minded people that share the same passion as you do for the said industry you want to work in.

2. Spend a lot of time together – ask questions and learn about what they see as problems in the space.

3. Get to understand their skills, experience and abilities.

4. Ideate together and figure out if you can build something simple together and get a customer.

5. If it works, it will grow organically from there anyway.

So instead of trying to convince someone to join your company that’s building your idea, find great people to ideate with from the get-go.

Still looking for your ideal co-founder match? Hit reply and share, we know some people in the space…

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