🍿 SA's School Play Revolution…

Enjoying The Open Letter? Some thought we were crazy for trying this 2 years ago and now people are saying this is "like being at a startup event without leaving home" and "an absolute must-read for anyone building a business in SA".

Well, we're about to do it again. In a few days, we're launching another revolutionary new SA startup tool that's gonna help boost our ecosystem to the moon, by boosting your startup to the stars.

Want in? Hit reply to this email right now and tell us about your business and your progress. The first 20 replies get exclusive first dibs on early access.

In this Open Letter:

• Revenue streams: A new way to earn from content in SA.

• Uber’s free job rides, SA’s top employers & City Power’s chatbot.

• Start strong: How to thrive in your startup’s first few months.

• Things in SA you’d like optimised: The results are in.

• Plug & play: 100 Startup ideas in Rbn industries.

Together with

TRENDING NOW

A New Way to Earn from Content

Creating content in SA? Making money is quite tricky…

After all, nowadays it is possible to script, shoot, and ship your content pretty quickly…

But can you really eke out a living (never mind living large) as a content creator when you’re properly up against it? Kajabi's State of Creators ‘24 report makes for some interesting reading:

• 96% of creators earn very little – chasing virality and battling the algorithm all while raking in ad spend for the platforms.

• Most 6-figure creators have multiple income streams ranging from digital products, platform payouts, physical products, consulting and coaching.

• The real money lies in monetising with your own products.

In South Africa, YouTube, for example, can pay out max R300 per 1’000 ad views on your videos via AdSense, but you need to reach a set number of views before they pay anything.

At that rate, you would only need to achieve 100k ad views just to earn R30k. But it’s not that simple, either…

See, Google pays out more or less for different audiences and topics. An African audience is worth 3 times less than an Asian one. And news, gaming, fitness and beauty content is worth but a fraction of law, government and homemaking content – you can actually calculate projected incomes on YouTube here. 

Making a buck on smaller audiences

Why so little? Well, all the big platforms are geared toward global audiences, so you need millions of views just to get a small cut of the money that’s in content creation.

Creators in the US and Europe have more options because they simply have more people with disposable income. That’s why so many overseas creators can earn ad revenue, get sponsorships and report that selling their own products is quite easy.

So when you’re focussing on building an audience in a small niche in South Africa, well, it's gonna be tough to make money on those platforms.

A new way for SA creators to earn

Enter Ohkayi, a local content streaming service where content creators upload their content, choose how much they want to sell it for, and how long a viewer has access to it.

There are no ads (which let's face it, we love ads), no ongoing subscriptions, and no random algorithms serving up whatever content it feels like – just the content your viewers are looking for. 

With content creators getting 90% of the income from their content – Ohkayi takes a 10% processing fee – you can already start making money from your first view.

Check out their Afrikaans promo vid (sorry, no English version yet):

One of the early use cases that caught our eye was school concerts. Schools used to make and sell DVDs of concerts or performances. Well no one has DVD players anymore and YouTube doesn’t give them the option to sell it. So this might just be the platform for it.

With 12.8 million kids, if 10% of them do a concert listed on the platform and 30% of those parents buy at R200 view, that’s a cool R76.8 million in revenue.

And while it’s still early days for Ohkayi, they’re onto something unique and we’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

☂️ Under one Umberella. Ukheshe, a local FinTech startup has rebranded to EFT Corporations after acquiring them in January. The rebrand combines the offerings of both companies under one unified identity.

⚡️Joulene. Joulene. Joulene. Joulene. Joburg’s power utility City Power has launched its customer-facing AI chatbot Joulene (Geddit? Joule is a unit of energy). PS: Good luck getting that Dolly Parton song out of your head.

🎶 AI Music Rip Off. Some of the world’s biggest record labels, including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Records, and Capitol Records, are suing popular AI music generator platforms like Suno and Udio for using music from their top artists to train their generative AI engines without permission.

💼 Top Bosses. A list of South Africa’s top employers has been updated to include the Shoprite Group, the country’s largest private sector employer, who received their certification based on an independently audited and fact-based HR Best Practices Survey.

🚙 Rides for Jobs. Uber and Metropolitan Collective Shapers are partnering to bring 500 free rides for job seekers between 18 and 35 in South Africa attending job interviews, training sessions, or induction programmes during June and July.

Add Digital Gold to Your Product Stack

When it comes to storing value, gold bullion has stood the test of time.

For the last 93 years, gold has outperformed SA Bonds, Global Bonds and Cash.

In fact, only equities could match it for performance — and that’s a way riskier asset class.

However, buying and storing gold is not practical for most people. That’s why Troygold lets you buy fractions of gold bullion — purchasable in fractions from R10 and up, and stored on your behalf with their partner, RMB Bank.

What’s more, Troygold now offers access to this service to partners via API.

This means businesses across Africa can now offer their customers gold savings and gold-based financial products within their own platforms.

Imagine your customers’ response when you offer them secure wealth-building gold as a value-add or benefit…

Reach out to Troygold today to learn more.

THE BUILDER’S TOOLBOX

How to Ace The First Few Months of Your Startup

Hit the ground running and need some pointers? No worries, we got you with a few copy-and-paste guides to doing all the right things in your first few months of starting up.

1. Learn to Outbound Like a Boss 

Master outbound strategies for effective customer acquisition by personalising your outreach efforts, tracking the most NB metrics, and continuously refining your tactics – here’s how to nail your startup outbound.

2. Create a Killer Pricing Page in 5 Steps 

Optimise your pricing page to highlight value and benefits. Ensure clarity, focus on customer benefits, and use compelling calls to action – here’s the guide to crafting a standout pricing page.

3. Maximise Your Onboarding with 3 Core Principles 

Enhance user engagement through effective onboarding processes by creating a seamless, empowering, and continuous onboarding experience – check out these principles to perfect your onboarding.

4. Boost Your Public Image 

Implement PR strategies to enhance your startup’s visibility and reputation by focusing on strategic communications and targeted messaging – elevate your public image with these essential PR tips.

5. How to Scale This Thing to Its Maximum Potential 

Assess your startup’s scalability and implement growth frameworks using structured growth strategies and scalable business models – here’s how to maximise your scaling potential.

6. Avoid the 8 Biggest Startup Mistakes 

Learn from common early-stage mistakes to ensure smoother growth by managing hiring and marketing expenses wisely and avoiding over-reliance on PR – steer clear of these startup pitfalls.

Plus: For 70+ more in-depth guides like these, check out our builder’s toolbox.

YOUR VOICE

We asked what you’d like computers (AI) to optimise, and wow, it’s pretty unanimous…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📝 Home Affairs – no way IDs and documents take that long to prep. (95%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤡 The intern who keeps copying the boss on office memes. (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌳 The gardener who accidentally prunes the neighbour's plants. (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧽 The dishwasher that never gets the dishes clean. (0)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍕 The fridge that hides my fave snacks in plain sight. (5%)

Your 2 cents…

Oh, yes, Nicholas. Like especially AI was made for that!

Well, don’t leave us hanging — now we have to know!

Yes, Panache, I mean a simple algorithm for just handling peak times would go a long way already.

Hey, Vakele, you just gave us an idea — imagine if getting your ID/passport/documents was like going to an ATM. Beep, beep, print, done.