The Founder Files

With textile waste management, Esethu Cenga and Tshepo Bhengu, co-founders of Rewoven are proving that sustainable fashion is not just a trend, it's the future! In this episode, we discuss the nitty-gritty of building a circular economy in the South African fashion industry. Listen now to learn everything about:- how their active listening skills have helped them nail their value proposition and p...

Personal branding isn't just for social media influencers and celebrities. As a leader, a founder, a CEO, your personal brand can do wonders for you and your business: establish credibility, attract new opportunities, differentiate from competitors...To discuss the importance of branding yourself, I invited Emma Donovan, co-founder of Become Dapper.  In this episode, she shares practical tips and...

Get ready to dive deep into the impact of AI on the workforce. In this episode, Cameron Coutts discusses the Future of Work in the age of AI Disruption and ChatGPT with Jonathan Elcock, Co-founder of Comparisure. Together, they explore how AI, Automation and ChatGPT are already changing the job market. Join the conversation to get mind-bending insights that will leave you pondering all the possibi...

You might think that copywriting is an overrated skill, that you don't even need to bother with learning it because you can "ask ChatGPT, it knows everything." Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but even ChatGPT can't turn your soulless copy into a masterpiece without a little effort on your part. That's why I had a chat with Jason Bagley, Founder of CopyCheck. He dropped some truth bombs on the im...

Struggling to get your people back to the office? Even wondering whether or not you should keep an office and switch to total remote? Get the answer to all your questions in this episode with Bentolina Nnadi, Head of Talent for Mama Money. She shares her best practices on:- how to design a hybrid work policy that meets the needs of both employees and employers- how to maintain company culture and...

In this episode with Andy Dickens, founder of Virtual Sales Limited, we discuss how to develop a sales capability within a scaling business. We dive deep into the nitty-gritty of sales strategy, from setting clear sales targets to cultivating a culture of excellence. And the best part? Andy's insights are applicable to businesses of all sizes, from startups to established enterprises. But here's t...

Getting your business from 0 to 1 can be challenging. Truth is, the first challenge is to define what 0 and 1 mean to you, your business and your industry. Find out how you can evaluate this progress with Higgo van Diljon, co-founder of FinMeUp. In this episode, Higgo takes you back to the basics of entrepreneurship and shares his practical insights on overcoming the common obstacles faced during...

Ready for your next dose of entrepreneurial inspiration? Join us as we chat with Steve , the mastermind behind iFLYflat, who's helped thousands of Aussies fly business class at unbeatable prices. In this episode, we delve into Steve's journey and learn how he found his niche in the business world. Get ready to learn the insider tips and tricks to:- become a resourceful founder,- discover your nich...

Are you a founder with ADHD?Discover how your unique brain can drive success in the world of entrepreneurship with Joseph Pack, who is:- the ADHD whisperer on Linkedin, - the Scattered Founder podcast host, - the Director of Growth at The Tech Dept- also a founder who started and exited Nativve, a marketing agency. From overcoming daily distractions to harnessing the unique strengths that come wit...

Recruiting the right employees can make or break a company, but the process can be a challenge. That's why I'm excited to bring you this new episode of The Founder Files podcast with Christiaan Van Den Berg. He is the co-founder of JobJack, a revolutionary platform that connects entry-level workers with opportunities in South Africa and beyond. In this conversation, Christiaan shares his expert in...

What's worse than hearing a "no" from investors? Not knowing why you got rejected. Maybe you didn't know:- what you needed to do as a founder- what venture was the most appropriate at that time- what kind of stages and phases your business needed to go throughAnd maybe you've burnt out after this negative answer. Well, now is the time to prepare yourself to be really enticing and compelling to you...

Scaling a business is a complex but detailed endeavour. So this special episode is going to dig into the details of how to scale a business with Ariel Navarro. He is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of OneCart, an e-commerce aggregator platform that allows consumers to pick and choose multiple things from different companies and brands that get aggregated onto one platform and delivered...

Entrepreneurs want to get their business to the point where it's no longer operationally dependent on them as the founder. Why? So they can actually work on it rather than in it, or plan their successful exit strategy. And these things can take years to get right with so many mistakes and handing over. But our next guest, Joshua Cox, who is the CEO and founder of Fix Forward, was able to reduce th...

What motivates people to become entrepreneurs? What makes them succeed with their business idea? This episode tries to figure out how we can adapt to our changing circumstances as people, professionals and leaders. Our guest is David Jacobson, CEO and Founder of SYNAQ, a tech company specifically focused on email security and Linux software. From his experience, we’ll learn how we can connect the...

You’ve built a startup with an idea and you already have new features in mind. You’ve backed its feasibility with loads of research and data. Now it’s time to pitch it to investors, stakeholders and potential partners. Your pitch deck has everything: charts, impressive numbers, mockups... But none of them are convinced. Instead they decide support the other team that showed less certainty. How did...

You had this million-dollar idea. You built a business out of it and turned it into a success story. Now a listed company offers to buy you out for a lot of money. You’ve achieved what many startup founders set as a goal, now what? What happens after your so-called entrepreneurial successful exit? What are your next milestones to reach then, as an entrepreneur and as a human being? Mark Ross-Smith...

You can have the best offering and thousands of ideas for the future, but it isn’t worth much without backing your objectives with relevant data. So, how can you measure success for your business? How do you plan your next tangible milestones to reach? How do you keep track of your progress? Ayanda Mtanyana, CEO and Co-founder of Data Innovators, explains how to use human-centric data science to c...

You can have the best quality product, the best packaged service, the greatest idea ever, it isn’t worth much without people ready to buy it. So, how do you plant your flag in your target market’s mind? How do you elevate your brand to become top of mind? How do you create demand for your offering? Ditch your marketing hacks now and listen to the pieces of advice Ross Munro Williams, CEO of Invers...

Change is uncomfortable, especially when it’s imposed on you. The pandemic has drastically changed our ways to socialise, share experiences and consume. How does a business adapt itself to this new landscape? How to engage with your audience when in-person events have become difficult to run? To answer our questions, we invited Dillon Jearey, the Founder of Kilowatt. Kilowatt is a South African sp...

When working from the office or from home, we develop sedentary behaviour that leads to many health issues, impacts our productivity and decreases our overall well-being. In South Africa, most employees don’t meet the WHO recommended activity guidelines of 150 minutes of exercise per week. How to approach health and well-being in the workplace? To answer our questions, we invited Chris Brucchausen...

Market Positioning, Competitive Advantages and Customer Experience - and in that order. These are the three pillars that make generating and converting leads significantly easier, which in turn provides the engine for your scalability. This week we speak to Brett Perlstein, the CEO and Founder of SearchKings Africa. SearchKings is a Premier Google Partner that specialises in Google Ads and their m...

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Working on your culture is not the same as doing team-building events or social engagements like after-work drinks. These are connected, but culture is truly the collective behaviour of the people within your organisation. Now this is an inherently intangible topic and can be really complex or even "impractical" for certain people, but the simplest way to understand and unpack culture is to focus...

Building a business is more complex than just having and selling a product or service. The first step towards having a business is to make sure that you're well positioned in the market so that your target customers know that you can address their need(s) and/or solve their problem(s). The simplest way to do this is to find out why your target customers DON'T want to buy from you so you can unders...

What does scaling a business actually mean? How do you know that your business is getting ready to scale and you're not just on a growth curve? These are questions we ponder with Rob Nichol, the Founder and CEO of Centr. (an off-site monitoring and surveillance company). The difference for him is that he can see a "hockey-stick" effect in his revenue growth. He's also confident he has problem-solu...