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Client Stories
Strategy Resources
The Founder Files
Client Story
10
Mar 2024
March 10, 2024
How agriBORA’s Founder Achieved Clarity in his Strategy with Metavolve
Kizito Odhiambo dove into the SAIS AgriTech Accelerator with a clear goal for agriBORA: get investment-ready through sharp market positioning and solid competitive analysis. Yet, a deeper dive with our strategists revealed a pivotal insight: the tech focus was blurring agriBORA’s true essence.
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Strategy Resources
17
Oct 2024
Oct 2024
Why Scaling Feels Chaotic: Understanding Growing Pains
Scaling your business is exciting, but it often brings chaos—communication breaks down, decisions drag, and processes fall apart. Discover practical, strategic insights to regain control and scale sustainably. Dive in to learn how to turn growth challenges into opportunities for success.
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Strategy Resources
07
Oct 2024
Oct 2024
Burnout and Fatigue: Why Scaling Too Quickly Takes a Toll on Leaders
Scaling too quickly can leave you overwhelmed, exhausted, and disconnected from the vision that started it all. Burnout, decision fatigue, and stress can hit hard, putting your health—and business—at risk. Learn how to avoid these pitfalls and keep your energy high in this article.
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Strategy Resources
24
Jun 2024
Jun 2024
A Revenue Target Isn’t a Strategy
In this article, we will explore why a revenue target isn’t a strategy, what a real strategy looks like, and how to align your goals and actions for lasting success.
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Strategy Resources
20
May 2024
May 2024
Your (Strategic) Direction is More Important Than Your Speed
As your business grows, complexity becomes inevitable. With each new offering, team, or location, the challenges multiply. Without a clear Strategic Direction, the journey becomes uncertain and fraught with misalignment and inefficiency.
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Strategy Resources
05
Dec 2023
Dec 2023
Strategy Setting vs Strategic Planning – What’s the difference?
For most founders, understanding the difference between “Strategy Setting” and “Strategic Planning” can be like trying to tell two nearly identical shades of blue apart...
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Strategy Resources
20
May 2024
May 2024
The Essentials of Effective Strategy Execution for Entrepreneurs
For entrepreneurs, the shift from setting a strategy to executing it marks a crucial phase in business development. It's one thing to design a visionary strategy, but the real challenge—and indeed, the opportunity—lies in bringing it to life. This article aims to demystify the process of strategy execution, offering insights into the key concepts and benefits that can help you turn your strategic plans into tangible results.
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Strategy Resources
20
May 2024
May 2024
Why Business Strategy, Not Just Marketing, Drives High-Growth Entrepreneurship
While marketing is often seen as the engine of immediate sales increases, it’s the broader business strategy that ensures long-term sustainability. This article explores why a comprehensive approach to business strategy, rather than a sole focus on marketing, is crucial for sustainable growth.
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Strategy Resources
20
May 2024
May 2024
Market Positioning from a Business Strategy VS a Marketing Lens
Understanding your company's position in the business world is not only beneficial; it's crucial for survival and growth. This holds true across both business strategy and marketing, though these areas often use similar terms with differing meanings. This article aims to clarify these important concepts.
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Strategy Resources
06
Nov 2023
Nov 2023
Grow or Perish – The Trap of Unplanned Growth
“Grow or perish”. It’s this enchanting illusion among entrepreneurs that all growth is inherently good, a sign of success and prosperity. As a founder scaling to new heights, you might have felt the thrill of initial success, it’s magical. But let’s pause for a second—because when your company’s size balloons to that 30-person mark, the enchantment can quickly turn into a sobering reality.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 23
October 14, 2024
Scaling One of South Africa's Biggest E-Commerce Exits - Justin Drennan, Parcelninja
Justin Drennan shares how Parcel Ninja scaled its logistics services for e-commerce, tackled international expansion, and built a strong team, while also offering insights on post-exit life, product-market fit, and the importance of entrepreneur communities.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 21
September 30, 2024
Unlocking Growth for SMEs - Dov Girnun and Daniel Moritz, Merchant Capital SA
Dov and Dan discuss how Merchant Capital grew from zero to R10 billion in loans for SMEs over 12 years, their innovative business model, financing, scaling through partnerships, hiring top talent, navigating culture shifts, and key strategies for hiring and culture in your business.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 22
October 7, 2024
Building and Scaling Africa's Largest Last Mile Delivery Service - Simon Hartley, Wumdrop
Simon shares insights about WumDrop’s acquisition by MassMart in 2021, what it’s been like navigating a three-year earnout period, and the lessons learned along the way–everything from leadership, hiring senior executives, or dealing with corporate politics and stakeholders.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 20
September 23, 2024
Scaling Efficiently, Building Systems and Hiring a Management Team - Cheri Afonso, HouseHoppers
Cheri Afonso, the CEO and co-founder of HouseHoppers—a relocation concierge business that's revolutionising the moving industry–shares her powerful story of building a business that thrives on operational excellence
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 19
September 16, 2024
Zulzi’s Secrets to Rapid Growth and Quick Delivery - Donald Valoyi, Zulzi
Donald Valoyi, the founder and CEO of Zulzi shares how he navigated hypergrowth and cash flow challenges while turning the retail world on its head with total control over its supply chain and top-notch customer experience.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 16
August 26, 2024
Building a Fintech for Financial Inclusion - Thomas Brennan, Franc
Only 7% of South Africans invest, but Franc is on a mission to change that. Thomas Brennan, the co-founder and CEO of Franc, explore how they cracked the code to product-market fit in a market where investing is rare.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 15
August 19, 2024
Scaling A Cybersecurity Company Worldwide - Sam Hutchinson, Sendmarc
Sam shares how he built out the sales function of the business, his honest accounts of scaling internationally and the struggles they've faced, how to target the right partnerships and how he is still learning about his channel and distribution partners.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 13
August 5, 2024
VC Strategies & Startup Growth in Africa - Bongani Sithole, Founders Factory Africa
Bongani Sithole, the Co-founder and CEO of Founders Factory Africa (FFA) has made significant strides, investing in over 70 startups in under six years. Bongani shares the innovative approach that sets FFA apart from traditional venture capital firms. Instead of relying on the conventional LP model, FFA used corporate partnerships for their capital.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 12
July 29, 2024
Deep Dive Into Venture Capital & What It Takes To Succeed - Clive Butkow, Conducive Capital
Clive is the ex-founder and CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, which he left to Start Conducive Capital. He is an expert in building, scaling and investing in businesses, and he has a Silicon Valley exit, a VC firm and more than 10 highly successful startups under his belt!
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 17
September 2, 2024
Lessons From Years Of Success & Failure - Daniel Guasco, Team Africa Ventures
Best known as the co-founder and co-CEO of Groupon South Africa, Hyperli, and Team Africa Ventures, Daniel has also made his mark as the founder of Click2Sure and an investor in many businesses.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 18
September 9, 2024
Scaling a Property Business from Scratch - Greg Blend & Grant Friedman, Africrest Properties
From starting with nothing but ambition and a few naive assumptions, they scaled their property business to managing over 3.3 billion rand in assets!
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 11
July 22, 2024
Transforming Enterprise Payment Systems - Nolan Daniel & Shadab Rahil, Payment24
Payment24 is a fintech SAAS business that services the oil & gas industry. Their growth has been impressive and they currently operate in 20 countries, across 4 continents.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 10
July 15, 2024
Unlocking Entrepreneurial Success - Allon Raiz, Raizcorp
Allon Raiz is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp, an incubator that is focused of growing entrepreneurs in all life cycle stages, they offer programs from pre-entrepreneurial education right through to scaling.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 9
July 8, 2024
Building A Business With Social Impact - Jonathan Berkowitz and Elan Band, Motion Ads
Jon Berkowitz and Elan Band join me to share insights about their business, that provides delivery drivers with extra income by turning them into moving billboards.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 8
July 1, 2024
Scaling A South African FinTech Company - Thomas Pays, Ozow
Thomas is the co-founder of Ozow, the South African market leader for account to account transactions. He takes us through the founding story of Ozow and the dark times he endured in the first 2 years.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 7
June 24, 2024
How To Build A Billion Rand/Year E-commerce Business - Luke Jedeikin & Claude Hanan, Bash
Luke Jedeikin and Claude Hanan, the founders of Superbalist and Bash, take us through the journey of building the most successful e-commerce businesses in South Africa, discussing its inception, growth to an impressive 1 billion rand per year, and eventual exit.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 6
June 17, 2024
Y Combinator, B2B Sales & Strategic Partnerships - Melvyn Lubega, GO1
Melvyn offers valuable insights on B2B sales, the importance of growth through partnerships, and finding the balance between product-driven and sales-driven growth.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 5
June 10, 2024
Simplifying Legal Complexities for Startups - Patrick Rogers, Clara
Patrick’s journey from corporate lawyer to startup founder highlights the need for accessible legal solutions tailored for venture-backed businesses.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 3 Episode 4
June 3, 2024
Personal Growth Journey of a Twice-Exited Founder - Mike Scott, SMB Mastery
Mike Scott shares his practical lessons from his impressive career and personal growth journey, from his debut in entrepreneurship to exiting Nona Digital (acquired by Yoco)
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 3
May 27, 2024
Fundraising and Scaling a SaaS Business - Christiaan van den Berg, JOBJACK
Christiaan returns to share their impressive journey from pre-product market fit to scaling a successful SaaS business. In just a year, JOBJACK, now a leading recruitment platform in South Africa, has attracted over 3 million users, raised significant funding, and doubled their team.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 2
May 20, 2024
Investing in Consumer Brands with Purpose - Paul Cook, Silvertree Brands
Paul Cook, the co-founder and managing director of Silvertree Brands shares his incredible journey of building not just one, but a portfolio of purpose-driven, direct-to-consumer, and niche e-commerce businesses.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 4 Episode 1
May 13, 2024
Scaling from South Africa to USA - Steve Uria, SWEAT1000 & Switch Playground
Steve Uria, the founder of SWEAT1000 & Switch Playground recounts his journey from Cape Town to New York, sharing key lessons and missteps in scaling a business internationally.
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tHe Founder Files
Season 3 Episode 10
Navigating Founder-Investor Relationships – Lisa Illingworth, FutureproofSA
In this episode with Lisa Illingworth, we dive deep into the intricate dynamics of founder-investor relationships.
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