Young forever? Scientists studying heart health “accidentally” stumbled upon a way to extend the lifespans of mice by up to 25% and make them look younger for longer. Not surprisingly, everyone wants to know when human trials start (some say it’s quite soon).

In this Open Letter:

• Smart starts: Getting 2.5M hustles online in minutes.

• AI war drones, Cape carbon cash & Lula’s big new moves.

• Roadmaps and Trello boards: What you missed this week.

• How you spot email scammers: The results are in.

• Big plays: Share this and get 100+ SA business ideas.

Together with

TRENDING NOW

Getting 2.5M Hustles Online

When tech entrepreneurs start a business, most whip up a website as their first priority long before doing any actual work…

But it’s likely that an online presence is not so high on the agenda for most of the 2.6 million SMEs (1.75 million informal and 710k formal ones). 

There are roughly 1.35 million .co.za domains in SA and that includes domains for non-businesses and larger organisations. So, we think it's safe to say that more than 1 million small businesses don’t have a website.

But does it really matter?

Many small enterprises trade in their communities. People know them; they know the people; why do they need to be online? 

Well, Xero has been doing some research on small businesses in South Africa and in 2023, 43% reported that technology has enabled them to reach new customers – up 13% compared to 2022. 

What’s more Google Search, which is the dominant search engine in South Africa with 90%+ market share, globally caters for 8.5 billion searches a day. 

And whilst there is no available data on how many searches they do in SA per day, taking into account that 0.8% of the world’s online population reside in SA, that's roughly 68 million searches per day – 2 billion a month.

If you bake cakes, fix pipes or offer dance classes, you wanna rock up when someone searches for it.

And that's only search… social is likely way more

91% of people say they trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations.

And 28% of users discover brands through social channels – the kind of behaviour that’s said to be driving the US social commerce economy to $79.6 billion by 2025.

So, if you are a small business in SA, being online and being able to convert successfully from social into sales online is a massive opportunity to get ahead. 

That’s what local startup Savvy Site is building for.

More advanced than Linktree, easier to set up than Wix, and way less painful than WordPress, Savvy has seen more than 3’000 South Africans go online since they launched their platform in 2020. 

It's perfect for both “link in bio” conversions and being found on Google. And, if you hook that up with WigWag, which lets you accept card payments within a day, you could be printing money by Monday.

If that’s what you are doing by Monday, let us know so we can cheer you on!

Plus: We had Savvy Site’s founder Trevor Swart on the podcast this week, and he shared some enticing insights on moving fast, including:

• How important that early presence really is

• The true potential of an MVP

• Why it pays to keep things local

• And so much more – check it out:

IN SHORT

🇿🇦 Crypto Randelas. Local FinTech NeoNomad has launched ZARcoin (ZARC), a stablecoin pegged to the South African Rondt. Whilst this isn’t new (ZARP has been going for some time) it is built on the Solana network which is poised for major mainstream transacting.

💰Carbon Cash. Cape Town has auctioned off R36 million in carbon credits that the city generated by reducing gas emissions at landfill sites around the city. The funds are going towards further improving urban waste management.

🕹️ Drone Wars. More than 200 startups in Ukraine are developing AI systems to operate drone fleets in hopes of helping in the ongoing war with Russia. The drones will primarily be used to identify targets and fly drones into them, do terrain mapping, and enable drones to operate in interconnected “swarms”.

🚐 Hop on Board. Local ride-sharing platform Lula has acquired the SA operations of UK-based Zeelo for an undisclosed amount. Zeelo is exiting SA after launching in 2018.

🌬️ Wind Power. Phase 1 of a R25 billion wind farm has just kicked off in Mpumalanga. The biggest wind farm of its kind in SA, this 900MW project will supply 75% of the power needs of Sereti Resources’ coal mines.

👌 The Stack. Founders need great tools and service providers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack. It is packed with awesome project management tools like Notion and smarter business-essential services like OCFO, your instant CFO (when you don’t have one yet).

Intercom for Startups

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ENGAGE

What You Missed in the TOL Community

We had a blast connecting and working together during Wednesday’s Office Hours…

Timo King even inspired Jason with a new song idea…

And we couldn’t resist, we had to let AI make the track for us…

Coming Up This Week

• Friday 12-13:00: Online Gathering: we all get together for an online AMA-style session on mastering growth metrics.

• Next Wednesday, 10-11:00: Office Hours, where we all log in and work together, + the whole Open Letter team is at members’ disposal.

• Plus: All day, every day: unlimited introductions, recruitment, service provider referrals and business-building insights.

Want to join a group of South Africans building high-value tech-enabled startups? Start your free trial now!

Your Voice

We asked how you recognise scam emails, and the domain is the big giveaway…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👑 When it's from Nigerian royalty. (14%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤬 Poor spelling and grammar. (18%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🥸 When the domain and URL mismatch. (47%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✏ Poorly photoshopped/photocopied company logo. (2%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍭 When they ask for bank details to verify your identity. (7%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✊ Anything that's not from The Open Letter. (12%)

Your 2 cents…

Jason, we literally just received an email from “the president of the world bank” opening with “Hello Dear”. Lol.