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Tenth time the charm? SpaceX had a successful 10th test (mostly explosion-free) of the Starship this week, deploying some Starlink satellites for the first time. Just in time, too, Elon’s investors were getting fidgety. 🚀

In Today’s Open Letter

SA doesn’t get many international big act tours, but this one Big Concerts-Spotify trick might just change that…

In South Africa, like anywhere else, the opening day of ticket sales is chaotic: High demand causes ticketing websites to crash, bots and scalpers scoop up tickets (to sling online months later with a stiff markup), and OG fans are left disappointed. 

In case you didn't know, American alternative folk band The Lumineers are set to arrive on SA shores for four shows in Cape Town & Pretoria in February 2026 as part of their world tour. And, originally, the plan was for tickets to go on sale at 9 AM on Friday, the 15th of August (yeh, sorry if you missed it).

But then something interesting happened the day before. 

Spotify sent out an email to The Lumineers’ top SA fans (flagged as “top listeners”), giving them pre‑sale access to their favourite artists’ shows.

In other words, tickets landed in loyal hands before the masses (and sketchy scalpers), and Cape Town sold so well that by 9:57 on Friday, 15 August, when tickets were meant to go on sale, they were practically gone, so the organisers added an extra show.

The same happened in Pretoria – by 11:46 AM, Pretoria got an extra show.

Flippen genius. A masterclass in personalisation and let’s face it, ticket sales in a country that doesn’t get a lot of international acts, mainly because of the belief we can’t muster the sales in big enough numbers.

It was a solution hiding in plain sight, built on Spotify’s deep usage data. 

Why you should take notice

South Africa (or the rest of Africa, for that matter, in case you haven't guessed), isn't exactly top of the list for touring artists’ “World Tours”.

Let’s face it, South Africa is an extremely hard dog leg to justify for a world tour. North America and Europe are a no-brainer, given how easily accessible major cities are to one another.

So tix are gonna be pretty coveted.

Data-rich platforms like Spotify already know your play habits, your skips, your searches, your playlists and even how long you linger on a certain track. 

The Spotify‑Lumineers example shows how using behavioural data to predict, pre‑sort and pre‑serve. 

What Spotify (and Big Concerts) could do next

One of the main issues raised on Big Concert’s social posts is why they don't bring concerts to Durban.

Granted, there are “infrastructure and logistics challenges”, but if they can resolve these, a platform like Spotify can provide serious insights into specific audience cohorts across SA, indicating the types of shows that can do well for Big Concerts and artists alike.

Spotify turned chaos into loyalty; giving Lumineers fans pre-sale access proved personalisation sells tickets faster, fairer and scalper-free.

It does make us think, though, if this can be used to get one to buy concert tickets, what else can Spotify (and similar pervasive tech platforms) use their data for?

Every Friday, we feature a new, exciting and unique (sometimes niche but always lekker) SA e-commerce venture, like Donkey Long Tong…

Braai tongs are one of the hardest-working tools around SA braais.

High heat, getting dropped, left in the rain and cracking open an assembly line of beers, all in the name of safely moving your steaks, chops, boerie and more from flame to plate.

So you need something that can handle the heat…

Local e-commerce store Donkey Long Tong makes high-quality, handmade braai tongs, led by their extra-long 80cm flagship Donkey Long Tong.

What started as an inside joke between three friends wanting a longer tong to avoid burnt hands soon took on a life of its own. As a laugh, they built an 80cm prototype and quickly realised it was a head-turner.

Since then, their mission has been to create innovative, handcrafted fire tools made 100% in South Africa.

Shop their entire collection, or grab an 80cm Donkey Long Tong and a 69cm Donkey Tong combo.

Who says only big brands can have power WhatsApp tech?

Most new and small businesses don’t have time to sit through demos or figure out clunky enterprise software. You’ve got products to ship, customers to talk to and zero patience for red tape.

But what if you could just… start?

That’s why flEX by Chat Inc is such a game-changer:

✅ The first pure SaaS WhatsApp marketing platform in SA
✅ No subscriptions. No platform fees. No gatekeeping.
✅ You sign up, connect your WhatsApp channel, get credits and send

Whether you’re a boutique store, local brand, or solo founder, flEX gives you the same broadcast and automation tools the big brands use — without needing a whole IT team to run it.

🎵 Singing for Their Supper. TikTok for Artists has landed in SA. Artists can pre-release tracks directly to Spotify or Apple Music, and track song buzz with snazzy dashboards. Viral dances not included.

🐔 Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. Rainbow Chicken’s earnings soared over 200%, with revenue at R15.8 billion. A historic dividend after lower input costs and less load shedding. Now we know why it crossed the road.

📱 Another One. Nedbank has rolled out its own MVNO, Nedbank Connect, with plans from R169 for 3GB. Interesting...

📈 EU Unicorns. More than 10 European startups have crossed the $1 billion valuation mark in just the first half of 2025. This includes rapid risers like Lovable, which achieved unicorn status in just eight months, and oldies-but-goodies like Mubi. Sjoe, ne…

😎 The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you cloud services and solutions for Azure, AWS, security and AI by Cloud on Demand, B2B tech marketing strategy and execution by Stream, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you that new Checkers smart trolley, asking what you think its biggest plus is, and most want the shorter checkout…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎁 The spin and win freebie (20%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏃 Skipping that checkout queue (36%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📍 Taking me directly to the product I want (24%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🪫 Minimising my interactions with others (7%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💸 Helping me stick to my budget (13%)

Your 2 cents…

Ha ha and can you imagine how much they're gonna wanna prevent peeps from taking that trolley home, Ruan? 🛒

And if it works here, Alister, they might kick off SA’s great trolley tech wars. 🚀

🦖 Head of B2B Sales @ OfferZen

🚧 Chief of Staff (/COO) @ admyt

🌮 Full-Stack Developer @ The Awareness Company

💎 Customer Support Manager @ Jem

💵 Graphic Designer & All-Round Marketer @ NjiaPay

🔎 Senior Research & Insights Analyst @ Ogilvy SA

📱 Principal Product Owner @ Vodacom

Hiring? Let us know here and we’ll feature it next week.

🛠 Tool to Try: Nomados AI ranks nomad-friendly cities by budget, Wi-Fi, visas & lifestyle — helping you sort housing, eSIM, insurance, lounges and more in one launchpad.

🤔 That’s Interesting: Michael Bay was nearly tapped to direct Saving Private Ryan before Spielberg took it.

🔥 Next Level: She quit her job and became a professional sand sculptor. Insane.

🍔 Hack: Five military lessons for startups: protect your team, aim outward (not at each other), train hard, improve systems and sleep when you can.

🌐 Wow Site: AreWeTrekYet tracks how close we are to having Star Trek tech.

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