Hi there,

Hip, hip hooray?! Almost exactly a year ago we set out to create the most meme-errific startup & business newsletter in SA. And you love it, so we keep going & growing.

To celebrate our first birthday? Some new threads – check out the all-new and improved Open Letter website and brand.

Hit reply and tell us what you think…

Plus: A big shoutout to Redeem Studio who did the work for us. They’re a startup & scale-up advisory agency that helps founders grow ARR & become investor-ready by offering Product Consulting, Unit Economics Analysis, GTM strategy and implementation & UX – go check them out.

In this Open Letter:

• Your niche: Building a business on your passions.

• A new dimension, Zuck goes meta (again) & how to lose R500m.

• Smart ways to incorporate AI into your product/business.

• Share this: Get free tools and stuff for your business.

TRENDING NOW

Cashing In on Passions

More reasons to build in the niches you love…

If you remember our recent discussions around e-commerce, you’ll know the stats show mass-market approaches battle a bit in SA. But the niche space definitely has some legs. Take LEGO for instance.

While the global toy market was down almost 7% in the first 6 months of 2023, LEGO grew by 1% – off the back of 17% growth in 2022 and 27% in 2021.

And it’s a good investment, too. Those simple colourful bricks from your childhood rise in annual value by about 11% like clockwork. In fact, studies show investing in LEGO is more lucrative than gold, art or wine. And you know some locals have picked up on the trend…

The pre-loved LEGO scene in SA

The folks at Block Shop sell pre-loved LEGO sets, minifigures and pieces (a great way to complete older sets). They’ll also buy any old sets (if you’re selling).

Rarity Bricks started as a family’s lockdown hobby – refurbing and completing old classic space sets – and quickly turned into a business. They specialise in rare, retired and vintage LEGO sets and minifigures.

Oh, and if you’re really into LEGO investment, check out Retired Sets. Featuring sets from 1987 to 2022, their inventory is locally held (so no drop shipping), sealed (original LEGO factory seals) and expertly curated using statistics and machine learning. 

Looking at those prices, we wish we never opened our Lego as a child… then again, we’re glad we did for all the playtime we got out of it.

Find your niche

The point is not LEGO per se, but rather to show you how something you love can become a niche business. It’s easier than ever today to spin up a quick e-commerce website and start targeting people who share your passion(s).

You can use anything from Shopify to Webflow, WooCommerce on WordPress or even Wix, with loads of templates and pre-built features and functions, to create something fairly quickly and test to see if you get some traction.

With people always more willing to keep aside a little extra for the things they love, you know this is a space to watch.

OVER TO YOU

IN SHORT

🐇 Bunny Virus. First, it was bird flu. Now our rabbit population is under threat as Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus sweeps through SA after first being detected in the Northern, Western & Eastern Cape late last year.

🚪 WhereIsMyFunding. After over R500m in initial rounds, local mobility startup WhereIsMyTransport has been forced to close its doors after it did not receive the necessary funding to continue operating.

⛽ Petrol Relief. After significant increases in the last 3 months, we could be in for a bit of a breather at the pumps in November as petrol and diesel prices are expected to come down.

✏️ Another Dimension. Dimension Data (one of SA’s biggest IT companies) will be renamed to NTT Data from 1 April 2024. It was sparked by Japanese telecoms company NTT Group, which acquired Dimension Data in 2010.

💸 Empty Wallets. SA government is expected to collect R52 billion less in tax revenue than initially projected back in Feb. The finance minister’s medium-term budget statement tomorrow is expected to outline measures to trim spending and raise borrowing.

❤️ Caring Man. Looks like the modern man is doing more care work (household domestic work and child care), and would like to do even more, according to the 2023 State of the World’s Fathers Report.

🥽 Weird Cool. Wondered why Zuck was so bullish on the Metaverse? Check out this interview with Lex Friedman, hosted on Lex’s podcast in the Metaverse as photorealistic avatars.

BUILDER’S CORNER

Smart Ways to Incorporate AI into Your Product/Business

Generative AI and LLMs are of course unavoidable. We showed last week that AI investment increased by 27% globally while all other startup investments dropped by some 31%.

So, much like we were all asking; “Will AI destroy…” Google, your job, the stock market, the world…? at the beginning of the year, we now need to ask how can you use all this AI hype to bolster your product/business.

We’ll let you in on a little secret – you don’t have to re-engineer your entire product around AI to start reaping benefits. Just start using it in small ways that make sense…

3 Super-fast ways to incorporate AI

1. Use AI for personalisation

Personalised experiences are key to driving user engagement, but it takes quite a bit of analysis, segmentation, interviews and A-B testing to set up. Enough for it to be nice to have a robot do it for you.

Amazon’s been touting its machine-learning (ML) product recommendations for a while, for better or worse. But you can get a similar vibe straight from Google – great because they already have so much of your user’s data from elsewhere. You can also check out Recombee as an alternative.

2. Get a chatbot/virtual assistant

OK, chatbots have been around for a while, but now you don’t have to spend that much time programming every possible interaction/flow. With AI and ML tools, the machine can adapt on the fly.

Zendesk’s answer bot, for example, gives you an AI that “learns” your FAQs and help section content and then handles a bunch of support tickets automatically. Otherwise, check out Wonderchat or Landbot for no-code web-based options, or build your own with ChatGPT. 

3. Predictive analytics for sales & marketing

AI is not just customer-facing; if it can help you understand and qualify your leads better, that’s great. A great example, even though it’s not pure AI is Hubspot’s predictive lead scoring which helps you know which leads to follow up on first.

Also check out Salesforce’s Einstein, Zoho’s AI tools in CRM Plus and, for a completely independent option, check out InsideSales for AI lead scoring coupled with a huge library of playbooks of how other founders did what you’re trying to do.

That’s all apart from using ChatGPT to inspire and refine all your content ideas – which we really hope you’ve nailed by now.

Got a startup AI hack? Hit reply and let us know…

THE RESULTS

We asked if you ever get annoyed when having to hire a tradesperson to help around the house, and who knew most of us “know a guy”…

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🚒 All the time (33%)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔨 Nah, I do it myself (24%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 👨‍🔧 I know a guy (38%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🦾 I only use those that use ServCraft (5%)

Your 2 cents…

FOR THE MEMES

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