Blending in {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Scientists have made a paint so black it absorbs 99.9% of light. Here's what it looks like when you cover a car with it. Incredible.

Send this to a friend who needs a car that black.

In This Open Letter:

SA's R1.4 billion concerts and festivals scene is just the tip of the total live music market (corporate gigs, school fundraisers, private affairs), yet booking live acts is stuck in the stone age, so this muso founder's bringing SA acts to the party…

Let's face it, in the age of AI, actual human music is the thing everyone's going to be clamouring for. We saw it in 2024 when SA concert and festival-goers happily dropped R1.4 billion on live acts.

But that's the tip of the iceberg: SA's R30-R50bn annual events industry is where musos and acts are really needed, and it's currently ridiculously hard to book one. Basically, a game of finding emails on websites, sending requests and hearing nothing for weeks.

Which is why this local artist-turned-founder is changing the tune…

The platform making the booking, without the begging

Booka is a new online marketplace for booking musicians, DJs, and event suppliers. It lets you check an artist's availability, see the price, and book and pay all in one place.

The radical part is almost boring: the price is just there. From R2'000 for a newcomer to R36'000 for a full band, with prolific artists like Kurt Darren and Spoegwolf already on there.

The two questions that used to take weeks now take just seconds.

Founder Herman Kleinhans is an Afrikaans musician with 14 years on the road who built Booka to handle the admin he couldn't stand: requests come in by WhatsApp, invoicing is automatic, travel is costed by distance, and once all is in place, it generates a call sheet for the artist with all the key info in minutes.

A new way to book and make bank

There are already over 600 musos, DJs, photographers, speakers, and even spaces, caterers, and sound equipment providers who signed up before Booka officially launches today (yes, today, 1 July 2026).

Herman says Booka isn't trying to cut out an artist's manager. In fact, it now gives them a backend to run their whole roster from one place, so they can win more shows instead of drowning in admin.

Most of those gigs were never lost to budget; they were lost to silence. And Booka's working to make them happen.

We're watching this space…

You might not expect a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea to be this invested in South Africa's business ecosystem. But Finance Isle of Man (the island's government-backed promotional body) has built partnerships with four of SA's most active business and innovation networks: The Open Letter, Innovation City, The Lekker Network and ASBN.

It's not a coincidence. The corridor between SA and the Isle of Man goes back over a century. The first mayor of Johannesburg was a Manx man; DF Corlett, namesake of Corlett Drive. In the 1980s, Derivco set up on the island. Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec followed and are now among the island's biggest employers. Today, over 35 SA companies operate there, and South Africans make up the largest foreign population on the island.

Finance Isle of Man isn't sitting offshore waiting for enquiries. They're here, embedded in the networks you already trust, because they believe SA's next wave of global businesses should have a clear path to international markets.

Who still puts off writing a will because it feels too complicated?

4Will is a self-service will builder that runs entirely inside WhatsApp, turning the most-avoided admin job into a 15-minute guided chat. Answer the questions, and it generates a document you print and sign.

But here's what's really clever:

✅ Guardians for your kids, an asset schedule for your executor
✅ Flags when your beneficiary allocations go over 100%
✅ Includes a basic living will for free, plus a full template for premium

No lawyer's office, no R5'000 consultation fee, no excuse left.

What could you build on WhatsApp today?

⛽ Fuel Drops Despite the Levy. Petrol 93 falls R2.01/L to R25.94 inland. Diesel drops up to R3.59/L. The twist? The full fuel levy is back, R4.29/L on petrol, R4.16/L on diesel, but global oil prices collapsed so hard that they absorbed the tax.

📊 AI Scoring is Big Business. Arena, the scoreboard everyone now uses to compare two anonymous AI models side by side, just hit $100M in annualised revenue, just 8 months after launching its paid product. It’s now valued at $1.7bn. Blikskottel.

🎰 Whoops. Hollywoodbets put up a billboard on the R21 near OR Tambo that reads: SA's biggest online casino. Problem is, online casinos are illegal in SA. These platforms argue they offer "betting on outcomes" not "playing games," using bookmaker licences instead of casino licences. That billboard just said the quiet part out loud, and now the whole industry might be in hot water. Vatso!

📱 Usernames, Not Numbers. WhatsApp is letting users reserve their username inside the app before the feature officially rolls out later this year. When it launches, you'll be able to ditch your phone number entirely and choose whether anyone can find you by username. Grab yours now.

🥾 Safety Sorted. Hospitality, construction, retail, manufacturing, logistics and agriculture teams need workwear that lasts. Jonsson Workwear supplies safety boots, PPE and branded uniforms built for demanding environments, with 70 years of experience kitting out SA teams.*

📐 Adoption Over Everything. Three weeks, one message: adoption is what turns a build into a business. Isoflow has done exactly that for Yoco, Luno, iStore, Virgin Active and Pick n Pay. Your move.*

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

Yesterday, we showed you RingCode’s smart QR doorbell, asking what happens when someone knocks and you're not there. For most here, that’s a non-issue…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😔 They leave. I lose the lead. Story of my life (22%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📱 I've got a camera and an app, sorted (6%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 📝 There's a sign with my number on it (old school, I know) (33%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤷 I work from home, I'm always here… in theory (39%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔔 I need this RingCode thing yesterday (0%)

Of course, you forget to update the CRM after every call. That’s why we got an SA GTM engineer who's built 85+ AI sales systems to show us he does.

And it turns out, there are 4 specific steps to auto-update your CRM after every sales call without ever opening it.

☝ Send this to a founder whose CRM is a graveyard of half-remembered conversations.

Purpose-driven SA entrepreneur? Nedbank Business Ignite wants 15 finalists in WC and Gauteng, showcase live on 702 or Cape Talk, R200k cash plus R200k in airtime. Closes 3 July. Enter now.

Need more than just advice? The Founder Collab bundles R40k+ in tools, cloud credits, legal sessions and a curated founder community into one membership for SA tech builders. Join now.

Want free AI skills training? Google Hustle Academy 2026 offers one-day bootcamps and 60-min webinars for SA entrepreneurs and SME owners. Zero cost. Register free.

Nature-first enterprise in Africa? The Nature-First Innovation Lab is a 12-month accelerator for businesses generating revenue from biodiversity, ecosystem restoration and regenerative supply chains, with grant funding and investor matchmaking. Closes 8 July. Apply now.

SA small business ready for the national stage? The NSBC Small Business Awards open on 14 July, with free entry for NSBC Platinum Members across 4 categories, including Startup Champion of the Year. Gala on 12 November. See details.

Research team solving alt-protein taste? Coefficient Giving is investing up to $10M in R&D grants ($100k-$1M each) for projects tackling off-flavour, fat alternatives, egg replacement and fish replication. Global applicants. Closes 10 August. Apply now.

🧩 Tool to Try: EnsembleData provides real-time APIs to scrape public social media data across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, Reddit, X, Twitch and Snapchat.

💻 That's Interesting: CPU manufacturers don't actually make "low-end" and "high-end" chips. Every chip of the same design is manufactured identically, then tested and sorted into performance tiers based on how well it performs.

🐉 Next Level: Watch how participants make a sharp turn during a traditional dragon boat race in China.

🎵 Wow Site: Text as Music shows the rhythm of your writing in colours. Paste something and watch it play.