📿 AI Bling For Your Memory…
📿 AI Bling For Your Memory…
Plus: High-tech taxis⚡, 2026’s heater gas, SA’s super cyber sleuths & the matrix your B2B startup.
Counter-intuitive? Ha ha, companies looking to use AI for customer service might be in for a shock. Gartner just published a survey showing 64% of customers say they “hate AI” and would “move to another business if they have to talk one”. We sense a perfect storm brewing here.
In this Open Letter:
AI memory: Wear this, and never forget anything again.
High-tech taxis, 2026’s heater gas & SA’s super cyber sleuths.
Solid start: The metrics to max any B2B startup.
The hardest pre-sale to make: The results are in.
The lead: 100+ SA business ideas — get access.
TRENDING NOW
Did You Really Say That?
Ever forget to take out the trash, and now the wife’s upset?
Or that thing you committed to in that meeting, and now everyone’s hissy fitting?
You’re not alone.
Forgetfulness is human. But what if you need a good memory to keep doing your job well?
bliss
Introducing Compass Wearables. A low-energy Bluetooth microphone device you hang around your neck to listen in on conversations (if you allow it) and then upload the transcript from your phone to the cloud so that AI can pull out the important stuff to create reminders:
You promise to call your wife later in the day. So Compass reminds you: “Call your wife” later in the afternoon.
Or you told a mate about The Open Letter and how you’d love to be considered for a feature. Compass will hit you up… “Remember to email Renier and tell him about the awesome SA startup you are building”.
A couple of use cases here… you can also go back through your day and reflect on anything that was said, plus see key summaries of interactions with people. Great for work, but even better for accurate recall and winning arguments: “No, no, what I actually said was…“
To be honest, it's what we all expected Siri to be before she let us down so spectacularly.
The SA connection
Okay, okay, this is a San Francisco-based startup, but with strong South African connections, which makes it a cool story to cover today.
Co-founder Shai Unterslak, is a UCT grad who started his first business, Dado, while still studying.
That business eventually exited to Yoco, which set Shai on a journey to the US to work on something big. That’s where he started working on Everything Bagel — an AI startup that plugs into all your online profiles (think Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok) and then analyses your content to show you how much you’ve changed or grown over time. This didn’t work, and Shai explains why here on this week’s podcast.
However, a random engagement with someone who stayed over at their commune in San Francisco led to them merging companies to develop Compass.
The device sells for $99, and it does a limited number of minutes of transcription per day, forever free. Alternatively, you can upgrade to premium, which allows unlimited recordings and transcriptions for $20 a month.
The future
Right now, they are building on workflows. Wanna be more positive in your communication? It will listen in and give you pointers. They’re also working on auto-creating diaries and digests you can keep or make TikToks from. Pretty neat.
AI all up in all our conversations is quite new, and many people might have concerns about “are you recording this?”. But to be fair, it's very easy to record anyone using your mobile phone these days. With an AI wearable, at least, you are showing respect by making it obvious…
We had Shai on the podcast this week, and apart from sharing his interesting journey, he shared some gems like:
How to get more opportunities in the startup world
Why going all in is the way
And many more… it's a good one… go check it out.
🔥 The Open Letter Pro Members Only 🔥
Open Letter Pro members get access to bonus insights on this trend and startup:
The real (hidden) growth opportunity in this trend
Startup metrics & business model deep dive — learn how this startup makes money and grows.
Plus: Auxiliary opportunities – businesses and deals you can start now and begin earning from day one.
Plus:
SA-focused startup building tips and insights.
Join our online community when you go pro.
Subscribe today - Starting from R250 - Cancel anytime.
IN SHORT
📱Trading Open. Investec’s no-admin-fee, zero-commission share trading and investing platform Clarity is open to the public with beta testing made available to non-Investec Private Bank Account holders.
🚐 Taxi Cash Platform. The Wealth On Wheels platform was unveiled by the South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) (and a bunch of other partners) at the 42nd Southern African Transport Conference. The platform allows digital cash payments, advanced fleet and vehicle management systems, camera monitoring, and more.
💰It’s CEO Tyme. Local digital bank TymeBank has just appointed a new CEO. Karl Westvig will take office on 1 October 2024, with the bank's current CEO Coenraad Jonker focusing on driving the growth of the multi-country digital banking group.
💨 Hit the Gas. A non-exclusive joint venture agreement amongst about 30 local piped gas users is being concluded to ensure gas supply to the country after Sasol stops its gas supply in 2026.
🕵️♀️ Stopping the Leak. SA’s State Security Agency is finishing assessing the government’s cybersecurity strengths (or lack thereof). This was after it came to light that over R300 million had been lost from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) over ten years through cybercrime.
😎 The Stack. Founders need great tools and service providers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack. It is packed with tools like Make that help non-developers connect different apps via APIs and Dommisse, which can protect you from making bad deals.
BUILDER’S CORNER
The Metrics You Need for B2B Startups
And how to get going…
by Renier Kriel – co-founder and Ideas Guy at The Open Letter
If you hang around at a startup event long enough, you’ll hear someone saying ARPU or CAC (no, they are not swearing.) Those are some of the metrics that show how well (or bad) a business is doing.
But for many, understanding which metrics matter, how to measure them, what to do with them in the early stages, and finally, how to benchmark themselves against them is a bit of a myth.
get them right…make it rain
So today, we are diving into key metrics for a B2B SaaS business in South Africa and how to use these metrics to determine where you should focus your efforts.
🇿🇦 Sign up to The Open Letter Pro to see how to calculate these metrics; use this metric specifically in the local South African setting PLUS a benchmark calculation to measure your progress.
1. YoY ARR growth: Tracking Expansion and Investor Appetite
Why it matters: YoY ARR Growth indicates how well your startup is expanding its customer base and revenue, which is crucial for attracting investors. Consistent growth in ARR shows that your business is scaling effectively and that there is increasing demand for your product or service.
2. Gross Rand Retention: Assessing Customer Loyalty and Product Effectiveness
Why it matters: Gross Rand Retention helps assess the loyalty of your customer base and the effectiveness of your product or service. High retention rates suggest satisfied customers who see value in what you offer, reducing churn and promoting long-term revenue stability.
3. Net Rand Retention: Measuring Revenue Growth Potential from Existing Customers
Why it matters: NRR provides insights into your revenue growth potential from your existing customer base. By including upsells and cross-sells, this metric highlights your ability to expand revenue from current customers, which is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.
4. Gross Margin-Adjusted CAC Payback: Assessing Customer Acquisition Cost Efficiency
Why it matters: This metric tracks how long it takes to recoup customer acquisition costs based on gross margin. It helps you understand the efficiency of your spending on acquiring new customers and how quickly those investments are paying off.
5. Magic Number: Measuring Sales and Marketing Efficiency
Why it matters: The Magic Number measures the efficiency of sales and marketing spending in driving new revenue. A higher Magic Number indicates that your sales and marketing efforts are yielding significant returns, which is vital for scaling your business.
6. Rule of 40: Balancing Growth and Profitability
Why it matters: The Rule of 40 combines growth rate and profit margin to assess overall business health. A Rule of 40 score above 40% suggests a balanced approach to growth and profitability, making your startup more attractive to investors.
7. Revenue Burn Multiple: Evaluating Capital Efficiency
Why it matters: The Revenue Burn Multiple indicates how efficiently a startup is using its capital to generate revenue. A lower multiple suggests better capital efficiency, which is crucial for sustainability and growth, especially in the early stages.
8. ARR per FTE: Measuring Employee Productivity
Why it matters: ARR per FTE measures productivity by calculating ARR per employee. It helps you understand how effectively your team contributes to revenue generation, guiding decisions on hiring and resource allocation.
 | Today’s Builder’s Corner was written by Renier Kriel from The Open Letter, who is an expert in SA startup strategy & growth. |
YOUR VOICE
We asked what’s the hardest to sell before it's built, and startup ideas are toughies…
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 💻 Custom software (36%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💡 My startup idea (45%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌐 A web-based service (14%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙊 My latest purchase to my spouse/partner (5%)
Your 2 cents…
“Trying to explain my ideas to the possible investors is like selling ice to Eskimos”
Ah, man sorry Vakele, just don’t lose hope — you only need 1 right investor to believe in you. Don’t have a specific resource at hand, but basically getting investor buy-in is showing them how much money they are going to make out of it. It’s kinda the beginning and end of the story, ‘cos investors are usually also founders themselves, and they’re in the game for benefit — either making money or gaining some sort of strategic advantage.
Lead with what’s in it for them, and you hopefully get a better response.
Here’s a deep dive into what it takes to get VC backed, if that helps.
“I even struggle to sell my startup idea to myself.”
Ha, FJ, that’s us like every 5 seconds. If it helps, we overcome the self-doubt by launching things that don’t exist yet, just to gauge the response, and then only build it once you see actual interest. You’ll be surprised at how much faster you learn.