So the truth is REALLY out there? The FBI accidentally in this article made 2 shocking revelations to the world: 1) They totally have a secret UFO and paranormal investigation unit (The X-Files?) and 2) They're pretty worried its agents (Mulder and Scully, we presume?) could be purged by Trump and Elon’s DOGE. 👽

And then it hits you — smack! — another Fast-Five Friday: 5 things in startups every South African should know. Let’s go…

Together with:

1. FIND THAT GIG

Scaling Startups, One Task at a Time

Ever since Covid (and everything it brought to the world of work) there’s been a rise in fractional employment (hiring employees on a part-time or per-project basis, rather than full-time)...

In fact, there’s been a 57% increase in fractional jobs since 2020. And it benefits both employees and employers, offering flexibility in working schedule, and diverse projects contract workers can work on at the same time. 

Organisations, of course, can save on salary and benefits costs while leveraging experienced workers’ skill sets for a shorter time (and lower cost).

No wonder we’ve seen this fractional trend in a number of local startups we’ve chatted with recently.

Rafiki is a platform aimed specifically at freelancers and fractional workers in Africa, that aims to connect these workers to opportunities in international organisations.

Covering a host of digital specialisations including UI, UX, graphic and product design, as well as digital marketing & strategy, and frontend and low-code dev, Rafiki helps connect freelancers, founders, agencies and SMBs with fractional talent, and relevant fractional opportunities.

2. DUUUH DUN... DUUUH DUN...

7x Less Deadly than Eating a Hotdog…

Humans are way scarier than sharks and rays — whose numbers have decreased by 71.1% in the last 50 years… Despite their evolutionary ancestors existing 200 million years before the dinosaurs, and them surviving 5 mass extinction events, there seems to be one thing they might not survive: mankind.

Overfishing, bycatching, habitat degradation, and climate change all contribute to the decline in shark numbers. But there’s also the negative connotation with sharks thanks to flicks like “Jaws”, and as a result, coastal tourism hotspots around the world have for decades tried to implement measures (like shark nets) to keep beachgoers safe.

Not to knock shark nets, but they are deadly to sharks and other marine life who get stuck in them and die horrible little deaths just so that we can sun lounge and barely go in the water anyway. We really need a smarter solution…

The SharkSafe Barrier is a South African eco-friendly product born from a genius observation: sharks never swim through kelp forests when hunting cape fur seals.

The barrier is made up of a bunch of vertical tubes (made from recycled HDPE) that biomimics – you guessed it – a kelp forest. And then it takes it one step further: The “forest” itself features ceramic magnets that create a magnetic field – ‘cos sharks are super sensitive to that stuff and never go near it. Noice!

3. CONNECTING THE DOTS

Protecting SA’s Unbanked Rands

Many, and we mean MANY, people in South Africa are still hustling with cash…

Some reports say that 9 out of 10 transactions in SA are still being made in cash, with customers buying from informal small businesses, and even formal businesses opting to pay in cash 95% and 63% of the time respectively.  

But this creates a disconnect between cash and digital/tech-enabled payment users. In fact, whether you pay a painter or pool guy with cash from the ATM, or send them an e-wallet, they end up walking around with cash either way – risky business in SA. 

6DOT50 is a local FinTech platform that’s bridging the gap by letting anyone without a bank account store value in a free, voucher-based, transactional wallet. The Digital Rand Voucher and ZAR are 1:1, and they never expire. Plus the person can use it to transact at any of the merchants in 6DOT50’s network of 90k+ stores and online retailers.

You as the payer, simply buy Digital Rand vouchers and add them to your 6DOT50 Wallet by bank card, EFT, paying with cash or crypto at a retailer, which is then sent to your voucher wallet. You then send the Digital Rands to someone using their phone number, use a merchant code for merchants, or use your Digital Rands to buy groceries, airtime, data, Takealot vouchers, or even purchase a car…

6DOT50 is also doing some interesting things in the Digital Cash space with their kasiCash, CryptoPMTS, and 6DOT50 Pay applications. We’re watching this space…

Want to connect, learn from or build with Chris from 6DOT50 and other cool founder peeps? Come join our Open Collab community.

4. BUILDER FASTER THAN EVER

A FullStack Engineer in your Browser…

Two Christmases ago, festive table chats about this “cool ChatGPT thing” thrust AI into the mainstream. 

And it’s grown so fast that 2025 is being dubbed the “Year of the AI Agent” as companies like Salesforce, Microsoft and (according to Forrester Research) 400+ other vendors are already building AI Agents – or offering to do so for their customer base.

We recently stumbled across two US startups using AI Agents to build bespoke apps in minutes…

Loveable (aka gptengineer) is an AI Agent that can help you build a software product without writing a single line of code. Now you could do something pretty simple like build a landing page or something a little more complex that allows user inputs like dates and times etc. 

We played around with it a little and it’s really easy to input prompts and have it spin out a pretty decent v1 which you can then iterate on.

The other is Replit, which also helps you build software products with no coding knowledge. What was really interesting was once it had built and deployed the project, it asked us to confirm if certain functions were, in fact, working – a really clever way to help prompt the user to prompt the AI.

5. WHAT WE’RE READING

A Front Row Seat at a High Growth Startup

There is nothing quite as exhilarating as building a high-growth tech startup, and when a founder shares their learnings of that journey, it’s worth gold.

And that’s exactly what Tyler Denk, Founder of beehiiv is doing with his newsletter Big Desk Energy.

Tyler was the tech guy behind The Morning Brew, a popular US-based business newsletter, then spent some time at YouTube before founding beehiiv.

From raising a $33 million Series B round to hiring his first salesperson and hitting ±$20m in annual recurring revenue in only its 4th year, Tyler shares it all in his weekly newsletter.

If you are a founder or someone interested in the journey of a founder of a high-growth tech startup, sign up for Tyler’s Dig Desk Enegery here.

IN SHORT

What’s the happs?

🤝 FinTechs Assemble. Local FinTechs Float and Peach Payments are teaming up to bring Float’s buy now pay later (BNPL) offering to thousands of Peach Payments merchants. This will enable merchants to offer more consumers around the country access to interest-free monthly instalments. In this cash-strapped economy, we’re sure it’ll be quite helpful.

🛰️ 3.2.1. Disengage. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has formally withdrawn Starlink from participation in SA’s communications regulator Icasa’s public satellite hearings into the proposed new licensing framework for satellite services in South Africa. On Wednesday night SpaceX notified Icasa it would no longer participate in the hearings. Curiouser and curiouser…

🔋Megabattery. Local energy company Megamillion is set for a JV with China’s Dr Henry Mao to launch the Giga-Africa 1 battery plant. The partnership will see Dr Mao transfer technology, equipment, and skilled personnel to operations in SA over the next few years. Very nice.

🇿🇦 Digital Growth. South Africa has jumped 6 places to 66th in the world in Surfshark’s Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) 2024. The annual study measures a country’s digital wellbeing based on five core pillars: internet quality, internet affordability, e-security, e-infrastructure, and e-government and is conducted in 121 countries. So, average then?

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with super-smart business banking from Lula, your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO and 12 more vital startup tools & services.

CHECK THIS OUT

The Founder’s Trap: Are You Holding Your Own Business Back?

Scaling should bring freedom — not burnout…

Many founders reach a breaking point where they feel like they’re the only ones who truly understand the business, the customers, and the decisions that matter. The result? An unscalable, high-pressure role where every problem lands on your plate.

Metavolve helps founders escape this trap by shifting from being the central problem-solver to building a team that can think, decide, and execute with confidence. 

Because scaling isn’t just about more revenue — it’s about freeing yourself from the daily grind without sacrificing quality.

Join Cameron Coutts from Metavolve for an exclusive masterclass on breaking free from the Founder’s Trap — so your business can scale without you being the bottleneck.

🗓 Friday 7 February (Today), 12-1 PM, Google Meet (online)
🔍 The scale-up trap we all think is normal — and how to escape it

What you’ll learn:
💡 Why founders feel like the only ones who truly understand their business (why this is a trap!)
💡 How decision bottlenecks create chaos, not growth
💡 The strategies to build a team that thinks, decides, and executes without you
💡 How to stop being the "Chief Problem Solver" so you can scale sustainably

PS. Can’t make it today? Reach out to Metavolve and book a personalised session.

JOBS IN TECH

Full-time, not Fractional?

📊 Senior Product Manager @ Luno

🤖 Data Engineer @ iKhokha

🎨 UI Designer (with UX experience) @ Free Grape Society

💼 Account Director @ Engage Video Group

🧭 Director of Operations: Energy @ Zutari

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

GAME TIME

3 Startup Lies and a Truth

WHAT YOU SAID

Electric play things…

On Tuesday we asked about your favourite STEM-related school project, and you guys are such a hoot…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐣 Egg-drop container (0)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☀️ Solar cooker (11%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⚡️ Electric circuit board (45%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚰 Water-filtration system (15%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤳 App/website (11%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Nah, I had an even better one... (18%)

Your 2 cents…

Ai, Danei, ja sometimes we wish we had cool stuff (like Finmaster) at school 🎲.

Ooo, Lethabo, then you’ll love having a chat with our resident LEGO legend, Jason 👷.

Ha ha, William, you’re not suggesting that all projects are… LOL ❤️‍🔥.

Spice rack, Enrico? Ours is still standing in Mom’s kitchen after all these years. He he 🪚