⛳ When Hobbies Finally Pay Out…

Adding up? Apple blew a few minds at their developer conference yesterday. We especially love the new iPadOS 15 scientific calculator. Here’s to never doing long division again.

In this Open Letter:

• Game on: The tech to make golf hobbies pay off.

• Amazon’s SA trouble, 1-hour Apples & SARS klaps Temu, Shein.

• Check it: You’ll never guess who won this week’s lucky draw.

• Way ahead: How to spot new business opportunities, early.

• Industries you want gamified: The results are in.

• The lead: 100+ SA business ideas — get access.

Together with

TRENDING NOW

Finally, the Golf Hobby Makes Sense

With over 420 locations, South Africa ranks 12th in the world for golf courses. 

And the sport’s a biggie: Golf contributes an estimated R49 billion to the economy – roughly 4% of GDP – whilst also providing 40k jobs annually. In the USA, it’s even bigger: R1.8 trillion to the US economy in 2022 and created over 1.65 million jobs.

Within this industry, there are major opportunities to help the three major roleplayers do more:

• Golf courses want to sell more rounds of golf at better prices.

• Equipment and gear manufacturers want to engage the players to sell products.

• Golf players want to play more rounds, for less.

It's complicated…

Golf courses have fixed expenses, and pricing every round is tricky. 

Once courses cover their fixed cost, the cost to accommodate a player is minuscule… pure profit. 

So, for many courses, it would make sense to get the courses filled up, even if it means dropping the regular price somewhat.

Golfers, on the other hand, are likely to play more should it become more rewarding or cheaper to do so.

So how do you drive benefits for all 3 role players?

It’s time to Golf 2 Earn

South Africa has long been a major player in global golf. And it's only fitting that a local startup pioneers another golf first.

Introducing Wunderpar. It’s a blockchain-based reward program where golfers earn Wunder tokens by activating their app before playing a round. The app then tracks movement on the course and rewards the player with tokens. 

These tokens can then be used to redeem entries into raffles, claim discounts or even redeem for physical goods.

By rewarding golfers for playing, Wunderpar can capture an audience of golf enthusiasts which then allows them to:

• Get golf courses to boost the amount of Wunder earned on their course, effectively increasing traffic to the course.

• Get brands onboard to engage the audience and sell through their store.

• Build a golfing community with leaderboards and prizes that drive playing and engagement.

They’ve been active in South Africa for 8 months and have seen 67’627 rounds being played on the app and 8’708 items purchased using Wunder. They have also onboarded Callaway as a partner, driving more value to users while also expanding their offering to the Middle East and Sweden.

The gamification of physical world actions is on the rise and it's exciting to see a local startup get in on the concept in golf. We are watching this space…

IN SHORT

🦥 Sloth-like Launch. One month in and it looks like Amazon is struggling to make inroads in SA with one local marketplace seller saying they sell 2 or 3 products a week on Amazon vs 10 a day on Takealot.

🛒 Booming Bash. The Foschini Group’s online shopping platform Bash is set to break even ahead of schedule. With the release of TFG’s annual financial results, the online retailer grew by 44.4%, and became the No. 1 fashion and lifestyle app in SA.

🍏 1-Hour Apples. Riding the on-demand wave, Apple’s iStore has introduced free iStore ”RightNow”, a one-hour delivery service available in the Sandton and Cape Town CBDs, and set to expand to Tshwane and Durban soon.

👗 Taxing Threads. Your Temu (and Shein) order is about to get ±39% more expensive starting in July. From the 1st, imported items of clothing valued at under R500 will carry the same duties as bigger orders which carry a 45% import duty plus VAT.

💰German FundFest. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has launched a new funding scheme develoPPP Ventures for African startups including South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Applications for the R2 million in grant funding close end of June.

AND THE WINNER IS…

Congratulations, Kunal! You’ve won a R1’000 in Troygold (remember you need an account to claim) and a copy of SA startup must-read, The First Kudu. We’ll contact you personally with your prize, but we just wanted to share how your big win went down…

We’re putting together another lekker comp, so check back for details real soon.

BUILDER’S CORNER

How to Build For The Future

by Renier Kriel from The Open Letter

Want to be good at spotting startup opportunities? Become a futurist.

Startups are essentially bets on how the world is changing and how that change will create the opportunity for a business to capitalise. They then build for this new world and, if all goes well, are ready to capture the market when the anticipated change goes mainstream.

Examples: 

• Holidaymakers wanted entire apartments/houses, not hotel rooms: Airbnb was born

• Use tech to drive down insurance premiums: Naked Insurance

• Boost the booming coffee industry’s supply chain: Henlo Coffee

• When banks won’t do small business loans: Lula

• Unlock the township economy with payments infrastructure: Kazang 

Sure, it makes sense in hindsight. But how do you spot opportunities like these BEFORE the time? 

Let’s dive in…

1. When new tech emerges

After using ChatGPT for the first time, many asked “What will this do to job X?”. And it's a good question to ask. But to find the opportunity, you need to go a few layers deeper. Ask “What will happen once AI actually kills job X”. 

This will lead to a whole host of anticipated happenings. I.e. People skilled in job X will be out of a job, but those people will pivot careers or find a niche that AI can’t do, or it will result in a social dilemma. Each of those brings forth its own set of opportunities (help them find jobs, help them pivot, help them find AI-proof niches etc.).

If you play out these scenarios it could lead to finding a big market…

2. When the law changes

NHI, Bela Bill and many other legislative changes bring forth a new set of rules. Anticipate how these laws will play out and what some of the associated challenges will be, then start building to solve that!

I.e. the Bela Bill proposes that homeschooling should be regulated. This will likely mean a host of reporting for homeschoolers. Be the first to build this tool and you are set to have a bunch of customers.

3. When there are big problems

Big problems mean big opportunities. Anticipating that Eskom will not be able to resolve loadshedding in the short term led to a boom in renewables. Could the same happen with clean water supply?

Imagining the future and how it will impact the world is a great way to find startup ideas. If you need some inspiration, check out our list of 100+ startup ideas for South Africa.

Featuring multi-billion-Rand opportunities across 25 industries, including:

- 15 too-hot FinTech opportunities
- 12 Groundbreaking B2B & ecosystem ventures
- 11 Entertainment & Sports businesses waiting to be built
- 11 Insanely cool tech companies to start
- 9 Disruptive E-commerce plays to change the game

Plus: PropTech, InsureTech, EdTech, HealthTech, Automotive and so many SaaS opportunities just waiting to be built…

Share your referral link with a friend and get them to sign up and we will email the list to you!

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YOUR VOICE

We asked what industries need some gamification, and a lot of eyes are on home affairs…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🚨 Doing your taxes – blegh! (19%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🪪 Applying for ID, passport or vehicle licensing. (27%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🩺 Waiting for the doctor or at the hospital. (14%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📸 Tourism and hospitality should be way more fun. (19%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧺 Laundromats and just doing laundry in general. (11%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💵 Banking – cue the “banking royale playoffs”. (10%)

Your 2 cents…

Exactly, Bobby! And free quality collectable stickers and board games at Caltex on the way to your holiday destination.

Nogal, Jason. It’s like the doctors are all Googling, WebMDing or asking ChatGPT “What the heck did that patient have?”

Ha ha, yeh getting money for almost nothing and creating jobs (which the employees apparently hate). Shame, though, we’d all benefit if only they’d embrace some new tech and approaches.