Feeling peckish {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A team of scientists claim they found a way to turn plastic waste into edible cookies. Not sure how we feel about it, but we suspect LEGO might be able to have a field day with that kind of thing. 🍪

In Today's Open Letter

If there's one company that can teach SA about surviving painful failures and pivots, it's Cell C — perhaps the first company to properly figure out the MVNO market in SA…

Cell C's first-ever results as a listed company are very positive: R12.6bn annual group revenue, debt cut by 64% and 19% subscriber growth (up to 8.8 million now).

But the part we don't always see is the pains, pivots and lessons in between. Because, remember, on top of their 8.8 million subscribers, they actually serve a whole other 5.7 million additional subs on behalf of the likes of Capitec, FNB, Shoprite, Mr Price, Standard Bank, Nedbank, etc. And the story of how they got here has some lessons for everyone in business…

Twist 1: A long, hard road of painful lessons

Remember that Cell C:

And we all know how hard it is to build MVNOs in SA: Cell C pioneered MVNO with Virgin Mobile in SA in 2006, struggling until they finally cut Virgin off in 2021. And remember in December when Melon Mobile founder Calvin Collett told us how MVNOs struggle to raise funding and battle to get traction because it's so hard to get people to switch.

Twist 2: The move that won Cell C the deals on the back end

Break down the numbers: Cell C grew wholesale a healthy 20%, but MVNO data traffic jumped a staggering 131%. And it might be the genius part, because on the retail side, they can get outpaced by SA's big high-trust retailers and banks (Capitec's free voice calls are reportedly affecting demand for voice airtime), so instead of fighting the big institutions, Cell C set out to become their service provider; that's where those Capitec, FNB, etc. clients come from.

And we suspect they're gonna push MVNO hard. MTN and Vodacom won't/can't service those brands directly, because they're all direct competition on their retail side (Connect literally takes their own customers away). Cell C only has 9% mobile retail market share in SA, so about 1 in 10 (Vodacom about 36%, MTN circa 31% and Telkom at 19%). But Cell C has around 80% of the MVNO market.

Now the math becomes simple: For every 10 people Cell C helps convert to MVNO, they lose maybe 1 direct customer but gain 8 on the backend (the big two each lose about 4). Also worth noting, Cell C is a customer of MTN and Vodacom, so everyone still makes money somewhere; it's just a matter of where and who owns the relationship.

We're watching this space…

You know retail revenue leaks between marketing and checkout, and you've seen how Chat Inc's Gloss fixes that. But did you know it's just as fast to set it up?

Gloss runs on a web-based platform, no developer required. You can build an experience yourself from scratch (or start from a template), connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store, and drop in the modules you need: Personalised Shopping, a Catalogue Lookbook, a curated collection for VIPs.

Your products sync across automatically.

From there, Gloss generates the QR codes and trackable links that carry customers straight into checkout: whether they're coming off a WhatsApp campaign, an Instagram ad or a code on your shop window. Reporting and a customer data store are built in, so you see precisely what sold.

If you're paying for traffic into a checkout that leaks, this is the week to fix it.

Your Google ranking doesn't guarantee AI recommendations. Out of 15k prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, only 12% of links on Google's top 10 appear in AI results. Looks like optimising for both discovery systems is needed after all. Read the study.

Assemble an AI dream-team of the best venture advisors in the world. Superdojo (by SnapScan, OfferZen co-founder Philip Joubert) turned the frameworks and voice of 43 operators into skills you drop into Claude or ChatGPT to advise you on growth. Build your panel.

Optimising business finances is easier with a banker on it. Capitec's team works with business owners directly, building personalised solutions around how your business actually runs. It helps optimise your setup and speed up credit and financial tool access. Speak to a business banker.

🔆 Another Lekker SA Raise. Cape Town-run Yellow closed a Series C led again by Convergence Partners, with no amount and no valuation given. It finances solar systems and smartphones, past a million across seven markets, with the phone book more than doubling year on year.

🤗 Buying It Is What Breaks It. Hugging Face is considering acquisition interest at $13bn (R211bn), nearly triple its 2023 round. It hosts 3 million models for 13 million users, and it's where most SA AI startups pull open weights because dollar API pricing doesn't work against rand revenue.

⚠️ Visa Checks Are No Longer Enough. The new Employment Services Amendment Bill ups the R10k fine for hiring undocumented foreigners to up to R1 million per worker or 10% of turnover. The bigger shift is evidence: you'd need to prove you looked for a South African first and keep a skills transfer plan.

💰 R200m For Your Junior Hires. Collective X has made it so you can apply any time for their Digital Skills Impact Fund, which co-funds entry-level hires. It pays on verified outcomes: a qualification plus permanent employment, not training inputs. Lekka.

💡 SMEs No Longer Flying Blind. If you're running a business without financial direction, you're taking unnecessary risks. Finvoke gives founders on-demand CFO support, strategic, tax-smart and priced for SMEs.*

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

We featured Verifyd's scam checker and asked whether a scam has ever got you. And most here say they've caught themselves mid-tap…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😎 Never. I can spot one from orbit. (29%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 😅 Almost. I've caught myself mid-tap. (46%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🫠 …we don't talk about that R19. (25%)

Your 2 cents…

Phew, close one, Jus, good for spotting it. 🎣

If a machine wrote half your product, under certain SA laws, you might no longer own it outright. So we asked an SA legal pro who runs a firm's IP and trademark practice where the line actually sits.

And it turns out, there are 4 specific steps to make sure you own the work your AI produces before it matters.

SA startup building with AI? Google's 2026 Startups Accelerator: South Africa offers 15 growth-stage ventures up to R1m in equity-free funding, Gemini access, cloud credits and 1-on-1 mentorship. Closes 28 Aug. Apply now.

Young entrepreneur with a business plan? Business Partners' SME Toolkit SA Competition puts R100'000 behind the national winner, R50'000 cash plus a R50'000 mentorship voucher. Closes 31 Aug. See details.

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. Register for free.

🐐 Next Level: This mountain goat takes no prisoners.

🧊 Wow Site: Every Cube lets you scroll through all 43 quintillion possible states of a Rubik's Cube. Yes, all of them.