Some popcorn? Yes, it’s real. Tesla opened a robo diner and drive-in in California, and people are queuing down the street to buy food and merch (no robo burgers just yet), but mainly to have popcorn served by the company’s Optimus robots. OK, that’s it, we’re going… ✈️

In Today’s Open Letter

Feeling recognised at work? This startup lets your colleagues reward you – and it could drive up engagement 92%…

For all the buzz around workplace culture, most recognition systems still revolve around HR (and the key performance metrics they measure), not humans. 

Shockingly, around 30% of employees have never received any form of recognition, 37% receive it only annually or quarterly, and just 11% get it weekly.

The problem is that recognition isn’t embedded into daily workflows. 

It's put on the back burner of quarterly reviews, annual awards (“The Shareholder Val-YOU Award” anyone?), buried in HR emails no one ever reads, and the hope someone gets a birthday cake for the whole office rather than the awkward solo-candle-cupcake you’re left holding while the team belts out an off-key Happy Birthday that’d make Simon Cowell cringe.

Why it’s an opportunity

Three modern workplace shifts make this a now-problem:

Companies are waking up to the ROI: teams with strong recognition programs see 92% higher engagement and 31% lower voluntary turnover. 

The local startup solving it

Zuzo is a tool that helps companies build a culture of more regular, habitual appreciation among their teams by prompting colleagues to celebrate and reward each other for a job well done. You get actual rewards sent to your (digital) Zuzo card, to spend anywhere that accepts digital cards, or via dozens of gift card options in-store.

Zuzo isn’t trying to overhaul your HR stack; it’s plugging recognition straight into Slack and MS Teams. Companies set a budget, the team gets monthly Zuzo credits to reward peers, and every recognition triggers an instant payout onto a virtual Mastercard.

Peeps can then spend online (looking at you, Takealot), in-app (are you an ASAP! or Sixty60 person?), or choose from 50+ gift cards and a world of SnapScan/Zapper merchants for in-store spending – it’s rewards you’ll actually want to use.

Zuzo’s head of growth, Geoff Forbes, explained that in hybrid work, culture might be set top-down, but Zuzo’s betting that it’s built bottom-up and lived out peer-to-peer. So we got Geoff on the latest episode of the How Would You Build It podcast, where he talked about setting the right foundations for growth at early stages, including:

Check it out

Who has time to re-engage survey participants for more context?

Yazi built an AI-driven survey tool on WhatsApp that can dynamically add extra questions and deep-dive with respondents to get businesses better insights on the fly.

It’s already allowed one research institute to cut their research times by 90%, and even helped FinTechs like Yoco and Stitch get a competitive edge in record times.

The combination of AI and WhatsApp is what’s really smart here:

✅ The AI adds a smart level of interactivity (and deeper insights)
✅ While WhatsApp’s amazing reach and engagement boost response rates
✅ Giving businesses better quality data.

We at The Open Letter even used it to gather insights we needed to boost our event attendance by 50% in places like Stellenbosch, Cape Town and Joburg.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

Here are 5 things SMEs can do to thrive in the next decade

This month, Lula turns 10. And it’s been an amazing journey…

Founded as Lulalend in 2015 by CEO Trevor Gosling and CTO Neil Welman specifically to address the country’s SME credit gap, Lula used alternative data sources and AI-driven credit scoring algorithms to see what the banks just couldn’t… SA SMEs were worth backing.

That’s how they dropped small business funding processing times from days to mere hours, attracting Series A and B funding in 2019 and 2023 to expand and leveraging SARB approval to partner with Access Bank to launch the country’s first all-in-one digital business banking solution dedicated to SMEs, the Lula banking platform.

Looking ahead: 5 key SME trends

SMEs employ 60% of the workforce, producing 40% of GDP, and SA’s economy is poised for growth. Lula believes SMEs that do these 5 things will be best positioned to capitalise on that potential:

1. Know your processes inside out: Traditional banking is evolving as new financial tools and AI-driven insights offer more flexible and scalable options. If you know where you’re at and what you need, you’ll be better positioned to leverage these flexible new financial tools.

2. Maintain good financial records: Access to more data is giving lenders more insights into every part of the economy, which makes more funding accessible. Good records ensure you’ll virtually always have access to capital. 

3. Focus on mobile-first digital commerce: The digital economy looks set to produce 15-20% of SA’s GDP this year. Invest in user-friendly, mobile-optimised e-commerce platforms to expand your reach and capture market share.

4. Ensure smoother digital payments: We’re headed towards a cashless SA by 2035. Adopt mobile wallets, QR code payments, EFT services and contactless terminals now to keep up with consumer demands.

5. Invest in digital infrastructure and tech: Technologies like IoT, AI and cloud computing offer SMEs opportunities to enhance efficiency and customer experience, while automating tasks to increase competitiveness. Assess your current digital capabilities and address skills gaps now to stay ahead of the curve – cloud services offer a cost-effective way to start.

Lula, behind the scenes

Happy 10th birthday, Lula. Thanks for standing behind SA’s small businesses.

And, if you haven’t opened your Lula business banking account yet, get yourself a free one, with zero monthly fees, right now…

🚫 AI Image Filter Showdown. DuckDuckGo is throwing the AI switch, allowing you to filter out those pesky AI-generated images from your search results. They've introduced a new AI Images dropdown to obliterate the "AI slop" online, but don't bring the popcorn just yet — it's not foolproof. Manually curated open-source blocklists are being used, but some cheeky AI felines still sneak through. Hmm... Seems the battle between humans and AI just found its newest frontier.

🌍 Passport Power-Up. South Africa's passport jumps back into the top 50 global rankings for the first time since 2014, now at 48th place. Despite this climb, the 103 countries offering visa-free access haven’t changed much – rather, it’s other nations slipping. Keep an eye on those destinations and keep your bags packed. Hmm... travel aspirations on the rise?

🎓 Humans Trump AI at Maths Challenge. In the battle of wits at the International Mathematical Olympiad, some sharp-thinking humans outscored AI titans, Google and OpenAI. Despite the bots earning coveted gold-level recognitions, they couldn't match five young prodigies who clinched perfect scores. Google’s Gemini and OpenAI's latest brainchild managed to solve five out of six problems — but close doesn’t cut it. Tis the season for human genius to shine, or perhaps just a friendly reminder that brains still have game over brawn.

🚨 SA’s SIM-Swap Swamp. South Africa's telecom sector is bleeding R5.3-billion annually due to cunning SIM-swap fraudsters. However, only 3% of the 3’600 SIM-swap requests were flagged as fraudulent, in stark contrast with higher reported fraud stats in the banking sector, revealing some serious gaps in security measures. Goodness gracious…

😎 The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with cloud services and solutions for Azure, AWS, security and AI by Cloud on Demand, 90% off your first 6 months’ accounting with Xero, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you how to rent out your garage on Keyp’s peer-to-peer storage platform, asking why paying for storage is a little ridiculous. Most say it’s just retirement for clutter…

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏠 I’m paying more per m² than I do for rent (0)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📦 I have no idea what’s even in there anymore (32%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚪 There’s probably a friend with a garage I could’ve used (5%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔐 The storage place has better security than my actual house (18%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🪑 I’m basically funding my clutter’s retirement (45%)

Your 2 cents…

He he, we have a feeling you’re not the only one, Inprint. 😁

Yes, we mean US dollars — as in R17.6M+

The first leg of qualifiers in Joburg set the bar pretty high for StartupClubZA’s The Big Pitch 2025 competition, where the best business pitch will win $1M.

But it’s not over yet. The Cape Town qualifiers are coming up on 13 August — but you have to enter before 30 July to get a spot to pitch for the million.

Check it:

Don’t miss your shot at winning what’s probably SA’s biggest new startup comp yet.

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