Good breakfast {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Not for this one woman who is suing McDonald's, claiming their Sausage McMuffin is so bad, it left her seriously and permanently injured. Hope she doesn’t try the coffee. 🤭
☝ Send this to that friend who dreams of getting rich off a lawsuit.
In This Open Letter
LegalTech: Helping SA lawyers 2x their billable hours.
Local: Breaze raises R20M & CPT’s big tourism boom.
Global: Why Google’s AI is on trial & Botha joins SpaceX.
Tech Jobs: 6 new local data & dev roles up for grabs.
Work Smarter: How to oversell your pitch without lying.
Stuck on something in your business? 🤖
We built an AI advisor trained on SA business — tell it your biggest block, and it connects you with the people and tools to solve it. Still in beta (so roast us gently), but give it a go and let us know what you think.
TRENDING NOW
Helping Lawyers 2x Their Billable Hours
Tracking hours is hard; less than 3 out of every 8 working lawyer hours are actually billed for and 3 quarters of SA businesses seeking finance keep no formal accounting records – so this SA lawyer built the tool to automate the whole deal…
Did you know that attorneys bill their time in six-minute increments?
It splits the hour into ten clean units, making calculating rates easy. The problem is, come month-end, a senior attorney somewhere in SA is trying to reverse-engineer their calendar to figure out what they did three Tuesdays ago.
It’s something SA founder and practising lawyer Ricky Klopper was acutely aware of while working in lending, where he also saw many viable small businesses turned away because their books were an absolute shambles (in fact, they lacked any kind of formal records).
So he did something about it…
The startup turning a lawyer's lost hours into invoices
Bill is an AI billing assistant for South African attorneys that pulls billable time from WhatsApp, email and their calendar, and generates draft entries for lawyers to approve.
Connect your inbox, and Bill reads every billable email and meeting, matches it to the right matter and case, and writes the entry for you. Fire off a voice note from the car, and it logs against the file before you reach the office.
Of course, they keep the “Lawyer in the Loop”. The human is the final pass to approve everything, but you can already invoice straight from Bill or push to your existing accounting software, with every client, legal matter and rate in one place, and your POPIA-compliant data migrated for you.
Launched just a couple of weeks ago, Bill is already at work daily at a handful of firms, with the first trial users having converted to paying.
More coming soon
Together with Oliver Harrison (the best software engineer Ricky knows), Bill is actually building a full accounting system, so a firm can run its books inside Bill without accounting software.
After that, the harder swing: not a prettier dashboard to do your accounting, but AI that actually does the accounting for you, with an accountant signing it off.
We're watching this space…
Have your say…
CHECK THIS OUT
If your product isn't pulling its weight, start here
Here's the logic: The experience is your product. The teams that fix friction early are the ones that scale. The question is what to do about it.
Isoflow partners with teams at every stage: Already in-market? They uncover the experience gaps limiting adoption, conversion or retention — then turn those insights into journeys that actually work. Pre-launch? They help founders prioritise high-impact flows, listen to users and data, and define the experience before too much budget goes into the wrong build.
Either way, it starts with a conversation: Isoflow embeds with your team, focuses on the product decisions that matter, and gives you the clarity to build with confidence.
WORK SMARTER
There's a way to oversell without lying…
Most SA founders lose pitches by being too humble — they make a real business sound like a hobby. So we got the co-founder of one of SA's most active venture firms in to show us how to build genuine momentum in the room without inventing traction you don't have.
Here are 4 specific steps to build momentum in your pitch →.
IN SHORT
Easing you into the weekend…
🚚 R20M for Deliveries. The Vumela Enterprise Development Fund (FNB Business Banking x Edge Growth) has invested R20 million in Breaze Delivery, SA's tech-driven logistics platform, to scale its tech, grow its driver network and expand nationally.
⚖️ Google's AI on Trial. A German court has ruled Google directly liable for false claims in its AI search overviews, treating them as Google's own content. Google's defence that users should fact-check the results was rejected. Well, well, well…
🛠️ Octoco's Hiring. The team that's built everything from smart coffee machines to agricultural GPS tools to AI strategy is looking for Project Managers. Software and hardware exposure under one roof? Probs the best place in SA to cut your teeth.
🚀 SA on the SpaceX Board. SA-born Roelof Botha, who worked with Elon at PayPal and has led Sequoia Capital since 2003, is joining the SpaceX board. SpaceX completed its record IPO last week and has a market cap of $2.5 trillion. Not a bad board to sit on.
🌊 CPT Tourism Booms. Cape Town's tourism sector hit R24.5 billion in 2025, with international visitor spending reaching an all-time high of R19bn and 1.44 million overnight visitors. Domestic tourists are still coming — just spending more carefully.
📊 Brand Clarity Secured. Stellenbosch's Sonic Fund and Sonic Trader needed to serve very different audiences without brand dilution. So DoubleShift built two distinct brand systems, giving both the clarity to scale globally with sharper investor and customer traction.*
🧭 AI That Actually Ships. It's not theory. Kwanda has automated proposal drafting, weekly CRM updates and Xero invoicing for SA firms — and is now helping a law firm auto-draft the documents it sends clients every week. The Roadmap shows you where to start.*
* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.
Get the best in SA tech and business news →
WHAT YOU SAID
One dashboard to rule them all…
Yesterday, we featured Yoco's new SME OS, asking what would change your business most right now. Nearly half here just want the tools in one place…
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 An AI assistant that actually knows my numbers (17%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💳 Lower transaction fees (17%)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔄 Loyalty that works without an app (18%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📊 All my tools in one place (48%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 A savings account built into my business platform (0%)
Your 2 cents…
"Someone closing sales contracts faster 🤣"
Honestly, same. If anyone's building that, you've got a customer base reading this right now. 😂
READY FOR A MOVE?
Jobs in Tech
OfferZen proudly sponsors Jobs in Tech
The name in SA tech employment for over a decade, OfferZen needs no introduction, and their ability to get you placed is only as legendary as the time, energy and money they save employers in finding top skills.
AROUND THE WEB
Have some fun…
🏄 Tool to Try: Spotties connects adventure sport travellers with locals at kitesurfing, climbing and paragliding spots worldwide.
🐒 That's Interesting: After learning to comprehend English, a bonobo named Kanzi started trying to speak, producing high-pitched, distorted versions of the symbols he was using. Bonobos don't have the voice box for it, but he tried anyway.
🌧️ Next Level: Watch a wall of rain advance from 500 feet away.
🥚 Wow Site: Eggspression lets you create and shape interactive 3D eggs.
SOUTH OF SERIES A
A slice of SA startup life…
Gulp!… our beloved Cape Town startup now only has 5 weeks of runway left to become a unicorn. Will they make it? Find out: There's a new comic strip every Friday, only in The Open Letter.
Got a favourite? Meet all the South of Series A characters here.
☝ Send this to a friend you'd build a startup with. 🦄
