Orbiting Factories? Humankind has 3D-printed a metal part in space. This is a significant step since many manufacturing processes are set to be a LOT cheaper and more efficient in zero-G.

In this Open Letter:

• Cold ones: Getting SA bars fresher brews & 30% more revenue.

• Startup suppers, AI’s service & A peek at the latest iPhone.

• Keeping the pace: How to keep your focus in a hyper-growth startup.

• What’s wrong with our mobile contracts: The results are in.

• Startup fuel: Share this 10 times and get Pro membership.

TRENDING NOW

Fresher Brews + 30% More Revenue

Still buzzing from the Boks’ historic Freedom Cup-earning (first time since 2009) win over New Zealand over the weekend, we’re celebrating champagne rugby like most South Africans, with an ice-cold beer…

It’s not only South Africa’s preferred beverage but a major contributor to the local economy – employing 250’000+ people (1 in 66 jobs in SA is a beer job) and adding around R71bn to the country’s GDP (1.3%).

And the can or bottle’s good at home, but when you’re out on the town for dinner or going to a bar, people tend to opt for draught beer for a few reasons:

• it’s fresher

• has better flavour

• served at the ideal temperature

• produces a better head and carbonation

• and it’s socially more fun – a wider variety of craft and speciality beers make draughts a vibe. 

Not all that glitters is Gold…

Every beer drinker’s had the experience before though, where you get your draught at the bar, maybe take a sip or two and something’s just not right – it’s not cold enough, tastes stale, or upsets your stomach later that night or the next day.

Quality lapses happen, because, let’s face it, working in a bar can get crazy.

The barman battles to keep track of when last they poured from which tap, when exactly the keg was tapped, or even when last the hose was cleaned and sanitised.

Not to mention missing that the cooler’s malfunctioning.

But what you don’t always consider is how this leads to losses for the bar – anywhere between 10 and 30% of draught beer losses come from overpouring, incorrectly pouring, spillage, theft, and spoilage from beer sitting in a keg for too long. 

And it compounds: Busy outlets serve as many as a thousand draughts per weekend (especially if the Bokke win), and at around R70 a draught (R70’000 in revenue) 10-30% can lead to losses of up to R20’000… big numbers.

The local player putting better beer in your glass… 

Gap Draught is a smart draught monitoring system that provides everyone from beer brewers to bars and restaurants with a desktop and mobile reporting platform that gives real-time data to help eliminate theft, minimise wastage and reduce over-pouring of draught beer.

And it’s not a massive hardware investment: Their system plugs in directly with existing draught taps, offering instant answers to questions like:

• Does the establishment sell as many draughts as it’s pouring (are the draughts being paid for)?

• Are bartenders overpouring or pouring outside of operating hours?

• How efficiently are they pouring – using data from the platform’s precise variance calculator.

• Which draught brands are popular, (or not)?

• When was the last time a draught was poured from a specific tap?

• How fresh is the draught?

• Is it being poured at the right temperature?

You can build in preset alerts to notify you if the cooler gets switched off; when the beer temp rises; or if a draught has not been poured in either 48 or 96 hours (typically when it starts to lose its fresh flavour).

The platform can also establish if a draught line has been cleaned and sanitised (every 21 days according to SA’s big beer players) – this is a pretty important one: Remember that lady who went viral on TikTok after the soda fountain water she got from her local Wendy’s started forming spores after she left the container in the car?

You can also integrate Gap Draught into your bar or restaurant’s POS system to match pours with sales and better manage your stock levels since you can determine when a keg has reached a minimum threshold (so you don't have to weigh kegs after closing time).

You also have access to benchmarking reports from other places using their system, to help you compare bars & beer brands; locally, regionally and nationally.

For brewers, the system helps them troubleshoot potential issues with a particular draught, using specific data around temperature, freshness, etc. 

Ultimately, everyone, including the end-consumer wins with the perfect, ice-cold pour to enjoy with friends watching the game. We’re watching this space…

IN SHORT

🍽️ What’s for dinner? Metavolve has created The Supper Club to bring entrepreneurs together to connect outside the business context. It’s a fine-dining experience by The Test Kitchen’s Chef Luke Dale-Roberts and The Potluck Club, with tables being rotated between courses to maximise the number of founders you can meet.

🍏 How you like them Apples? Last night Apple announced a bunch of new products and upgrades, including the full iPhone 16 line-up, iOS18’s AI-related updates, Apple’s thinnest watch to date (plus an update to detect sleep apnea), and also an interesting mention that Apple Intelligence will be able to understand “South African English” — great now we can finally ask it to make that “braai shopping list”.

🔫 Shots fired. Gunfire detection technology ShotSpotter recorded 7’400 rounders fired in 10 km2 outside Cape Town in 8 months. That amounts to one gun fired every 47 minutes. However, authorities say only 1 in 13 of these incidents are reported to the police.

🤖 AI-Powered Customer Service. Local customer service software startup Cue has launched AI Agents, which help clients automate routine inquiries, personalise customer interactions, and deliver better services at scale. AI Agents are trained on content from websites and company documents provided by businesses.

🛒 Going with the cash flow. Shoprite is planning on doubling down on SA’s informal economy with the expansion of its Usave store footprint over the next 5 years. This comes off the back of the group's lower-income segment’s revenue results increasing by 10.7% in the most recent financial year to hit R90 billion in sales.

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with newsletter and automation tools like Beehiiv and sound startup legal advice from Dommisse Attorneys.

CHECK THIS OUT

Never Make a Co-Payment Again

A definite pain point in SA healthcare is having to make additional out-of-pocket payments when you’re already paying a monthly medical aid contribution.

Sure, you don’t mind paying a bit extra for better service or products, if you can afford it…

But studies show that most people are confused by co-payments; people feel it’s unclear why exactly medical aids don’t just cover the full amount, and it’s a huge reason why people in lower-income brackets either don’t adopt medical aid or simply forego care.

SA medical aid prices range from around R1’000 to R10’000+ per month, yet there's always a chance you have to pay extra when visiting the doc — why?

It’s tech to the rescue…

Since Udok has such a vast (and growing) national network of doctors and patients and the preferred online doctor solution of Clicks, they’ve used their clout to negotiate better terms with many SA medical aids.

To the point where you can now do a virtual doctor’s consult via Udok and charge it to your medical aid with no co-payments whatsoever.

Don’t have medical aid or not covered for GP visits? No problem. Udok online consults are 40% cheaper than normal doctor consultations. Plus, you save time by being able to see a doctor right now.

All you do is register with Udok, ask to see a doctor and select “medical aid” as your payment option. Then, the system will confirm your scheme’s “no co-payment” status.

Don’t delay, the doctor will see you now, only on Udok.

Engage SA’s Most Vibrant Startup Community

On Friday 20 September, we’re getting a lesson in startup growth from Ben Shaw, founder of SA’s would-be unicorn HouseMe (killed by Covid) and author of The First Kudu. This is a Pro community exclusive.

Want to unlock valuable opportunities on tap?

Last week in our online community, we…

• Learnt some insane startup scaling from the strategy pros at Metavolve.

• Had some honest discussions on the value of peer-to-peer networking.

• Discovered a go-to-market & sales accelerator solution.

• Kicked off weekly accountability check-ins for pro builders.

• Helped Justin discover some contacts for setting up an offshore entity.

Coming Up This Week

• Wednesday 10-11: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.

• New: Free monthly startup strategy calls for all pro members.

• Support: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

What You Said…

We asked what you dislike most about your current cellphone situation, and costs are a problem…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💸 The high costs (41%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💀 Long contract duration (21%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙉 Spotty reception (11%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⛰️ That I even have one (11%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😡 Poor customer service (16%)

Your 2 cents…

Ja, gotta keep on keeping on. 💪

Preach, brother. 🙌

Ha ha, fire FJ! ❤️‍🔥

Well, that’s what the MVNOs’ll get started we hope, Renaldo. 🤞

Hmm, maybe we also need a bit of a phone package structure innovation, hey Rene? 💡