Self-Taught MBA Podcast

In this episode I sat down with Hermann Vivier, founder of Bitcoin Ekasi. We discuss the limitations of government handouts in alleviating poverty, and Hermann emphasises the importance of capital accumulation for true empowerment. He highlights how Bitcoin can serve as a tool for financial independence due to its accessibility and ease of use, allowing individuals to store value and save for the...

Max Cuvellier, writer of Africa: The Big Deal , joined me to talk about the venture capital ecosystem in Africa. We talked about the next big sectors in venture capital, why it can be important to group African countries together when looking at data, and the importance of the energy, logistics, and fintech categories for investment in Africa. Links:  Africa: The Big Deal — (1) Africa: The Big Dea...

In this episode, Minenhle tells us about his exciting adventure while forming NT Media Group, and how he measures success as the Chairman of the Durban Chamber of Commerce Youth In Business Forum. We also talk about The Big Shoutout — an initiative to help grow youth-led small businesses in Durban, what makes a great entrepreneur, and more! Important links Minenhle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedi...

Alex Lutz felt that a lot of potential was being lost when high school learners weren’t able to access quality additional learning material and resources, so she built an online platform to revolutionise learning. In this episode we talk about her platform, Milani Education, the challenges of studying while building a business, how we could improve education in South Africa, AI in learning and mor...

Warren Wheatley and I talked about Altvest Capital, their mission to democratise access to great investment opportunities, his unique bid for the Springbok Rugby brand, why he likes China's innovations, his thoughts on bringing bitcoin to South African institutions, and more! Important links: subscribe to the newsletter: https://selftaughtmba.substack.com/ https://altvestcapital.co.za/ Warren...

To Investors, “Capital flows to where it’s treated best.” I’ve been pondering why the venture capital ecosystem in South Africa isn’t as vigorous as it is in other regions globally. We can talk about politics, demographics, and any of the many social issues; but I think that, although the space has grown significantly over the years, the South African venture capital ecosystem isn’t surging becaus...

To Investors, Last year I wrote a letter to this group suggesting that the South African government should intentionally make Eskom smaller, reduce Eskom’s market share in the energy supply chain, for the benefit of Eskom itself – and for the benefit of South Africans. I wanted to re-publish the letter to reach out to more industry insiders and capital allocators for comments on the idea. I’ve cop...

To Investors, Today’s letter features a guest post by Ross Jenvey , a former Partner at Kingson Capital, with eight years of experience as an operator in the South African venture capital industry. As an insider who's seen a fair amount in the South African VC space, I asked Ross to answer four key questions that can help someone trying to understand more about venture capital in South Africa and...

To Investors, I’m always intrigued by innovative ways of doing traditional things. I’ve increasingly been intrigued by how companies are looking at bitcoin and deciding on how to participate in the bitcoin market. Today I want to talk about what it means to run a company on a Bitcoin Standard. So, for starters, if a company runs on a bitcoin standard it means that the company adopts bitcoin as its...

To Investors, Last week investors and fans gathered for another Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting. Towards the end of the meeting Warren Buffett announced that he’s stepping down as Berkshire CEO and will remain only as Chairman. This marked the end of an era and I’d be remiss to not note this in a letter to investors as we all ponder why he retired. But before we get into why I think Buff...

To Investors, In previous letters, while researching and writing about the significance of the recently imposed U.S. trade tariffs and various trade dynamics, I’ve also become increasingly aware of companies or projects which are deemed national champions. One example that I can’t get out of my mind is a rare earths producer and soon-to-be permanent magnet producer called MP Materials — a U.S. nat...

To Investors, The other day I came across a post from Steven Bartlett about how there isn’t enough of a discussion about AI agents and how they are disrupting every industry. I wanted to discuss how these agents apply to the fields that I’m involved in, and even though I’ve tracked a lot of this activity for years, I’m continuously mind-blown at the information that I come across. What are AI agen...

To Investors, By chance I came across some lessons about how the Yale Endowment grew from $1 billion to $30 billion between 1985 and 2021. The architect of that achievement was a guy called David Swensen, who was the Yale endowment’s chief investment officer in that period. His strategy for running the Yale endowment is referred to by capital allocators as a case study called the Yale Endowment As...

To Investors, In a previous letter I had mentioned how one of the main reasons for the U.S. imposing tariffs on imports is to create supply chain resiliency in key industries. I glossed through the specifics in that letter, but today I want to double-click on the rare earth minerals supply chain, why it’s important globally, but especially for the U.S., and how a company called MP Materials may em...

To Investors, Yesterday I did something a little unusual, I asked Perplexity to give me the three South African stocks that it thinks are the most attractive to buy right now. I also told the model to optimise for companies that can be resilient in any market condition, but that also have significant future upside. The first stock that Perplexity recommended is The Foschini Group (TFG) . The reaso...

To Investors, The last 12 or so days have been wild. Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement shook everyone. Global stock markets were down, then went back up, tensions were high as some national leaders felt the need to announce retaliatory tariffs, and other leaders such as the Vietnamese President and President of the European Commission quickly jumped right to suggesting zero tariffs for th...

To Investors, On April 2nd President Trump announced a wide range of tariffs on goods imported into the United States. This day was called “Liberation Day”. But you might wonder: ‘liberation from what? The United States of America is not a slave to anyone, or constrained by anything?’ Today I want to explain Liberation Day, break down what all of these tariffs mean, how we got here, and to highlig...

To Investors, In any business, in any industry, revenue growth can be a dazzling figure, until you look behind the curtain. One term that I recently understood is “round-tripping revenue,” a practice where companies inflate their top lines through reciprocal deals that don’t always create real economic value. Today I wanna look at what round-tripping revenue means, whether it's legal or not, and h...