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No filter? We’re not sure why, a week after it went “Mechahitler”, Musk’s xAI chose the anime character route with Grok 4’s $300 subscription, or why they have “bad” modes (one even called a Wired reporter a twat), or why the US military just awarded xAI a $200m contract. But we do know Musk is using SpaceX to fund xAI ($2bn) and wants Tesla to join the party.

In Today’s Open Letter:

Price discovery is a tough game with food costs in SA spiralling – that’s why these guys built a tool for tracking SA’s best deals…

Last year, we learned that South Africa’s lowest-income earners spend 50% of their monthly income on groceries. The middle class: 34% and higher-income households: 11%. But it could be even more now as prices keep climbing.

We’ve seen food prices skyrocket in the last 5 years as the average household food basket nearly doubled from R3’199.86 in 2019 to R5’383.38 in 2024. Sure, there are great deals every now and again, but how do you find them?

The other side of the till

Retailers often use basket pricing (or loss leaders) to draw in foot traffic to convert on higher-margin sales. For example, a retailer might price a daily item like milk super low in a specific region or store (whatever its data indicates) to attract a specific customer – Soccer Mom with 3 kids in tow, maybe? – because they know that the person comes for the milk but ends up spending more on other higher-margin items.

That’s where they make their real money. And it works: Some products are sold at near-cost or sometimes even at a loss, to get feet into the store and looking at higher-margin options. And with every chain store, and even some local stores, having different pricing strategies, there are bound to be cheaper items in your area, if only you can find them.

Tilting it in the consumer’s favour

EasiShop is trying to streamline price discovery for SA consumers with a great-looking tool (check it out for yourself) that’ll literally show you a product’s pricing across major retailers like Checkers, Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Woolworths, indicating which is cheapest, so you can choose to go get it there instead. You can even build a repeatable shopping list to constantly price the items you actually buy.

Final-year Stellenbosch Uni students, Tinashe Madanire and Tendai Katiyo, built the tool first to help themselves save a buck on groceries (ah, that takes us back!) before opening it up to others – they’ve got about 3’300 users and a lot of big plans, from brand partnerships and delivery integrations to a potential freemium model.

It’s early days, but the adoption of online grocery shopping and the savings a tool like this brings could lead to the development of an independent grocery delivery service that hunts the best prices for users. Smart. We’re watching this space…

Raising funds? VC fundraising is down 33%, but AI’s share is climbing in the US, with 64% of all new startup deals so far this year. Big drivers include Meta’s $14.3B stake in Scale AI and OpenAI closing a $40B round. And it’s not just capital — Meta’s also building an AI data centre the size of Manhattan Island with enough juice to power an entire city.

Designing in Canva? You can now create and edit designs directly from ChatGPT and Claude — just describe what you want, and it builds the visuals for you. It’s part of a broader wave of AI integrations (HubSpot, Google Calendar, Stripe, Dropbox, Teams, and more) turning chatbots into full productivity agents. Check all your GPT connectors here.

Smarter scheduling? Smart Calendars AI is like giving your calendar a brain. Speak, snap a pic or paste text and it auto-creates events and reminders. It syncs with Apple, Google and Outlook calendars, pulls info from posters and invites, and even lets you share events by link or QR code. If you live by your calendar, it’s worth a look.

👋Goodbye, web traffic? Google has rolled out AI summaries in Discover, the tool that natively gives news it believes the user will find interesting, on Android phones (and iPhones that use the Google App). For many publishers, this was a major source of traffic and AI summaries could lead to even less traffic to their content.

📈 Transaction Surge. South Africa saw a hefty R1.361 trillion in electronic transactions this June, a 13.5% increase year on year. This is hinting at a promising economic turnaround after a shaky start to 2025, which saw only 0.1% GDP growth. Average transaction values for electronic transactions in SA sit at R7’747.

🚀 Pump It Up. Engen's "The Making Of" competition returns for its second season, where creativity meets crunch time. With R800’000 on the line, ten enterprising minds, armed with only four hours, must transform concepts into commercial gold. Last season, a comeback kid turned R225’000 into entrepreneurial rocket fuel.

📈 Can You Take Me Higher? There’s a R28 billion green wave on the horizon as South Africa’s cannabis industry gets ready to take off. Air treatment company Solenco is highlighting the game-changing potential of AgriTech, like dehumidifiers to boost quality and yield, as local growers eye 25’000 new jobs. Looks like humidity control might just be the secret sauce.

✅ The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with your own CFO for a fraction of the cost with OCFO, WhatsApp marketing with 2'000% ROI powered by Chat Inc, and loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we told you how OfferZen is working to streamline SA dev hiring, asking what skills matter most for devs in a post-AI world. And most agree it’s critical thinking…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛠️ Problem-solving & systems thinking (61%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📚 Business acumen (11%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤝 Collaboration & communication (28%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧪 Deep technical specialisation (0)

Your 2 cents…

True dat, Enrico. And we’d actually prefer if it stayed that way. 🤜🤛

Right on, Haupt. And don’t forget PMs — we need great PMs now more than ever. 🤹🏻‍♀️

Important point, Baf. AI news tends to overshadow the reality of a lingering loneliness/depression epidemic. 🥺