Fool us once {{ FIRSTNAME }}? Someone created a fake retirement home, raking up 120k followers on Insta and TikTok (combined) before peeps realised it’s all AI. What? 👵🏻

In This Open Letter

SA’s freelance economy pretty much runs on coffee, spreadsheets, email threads and unpaid invoices – but this startup’s looking to get SA paid…

Despite only making up 0.17% of the world’s freelance market, SA’s freelance numbers have grown by 9% between 2019 and 2024. Unsurprising, ‘cause COVID and SA’s 33.2% unemployment rate forced a lot of skilled pros into the freelance game.

But cash flow is oxygen. 

By Government’s own admission, persistent delays and non-payment of invoices are a big risk to freelancers/businesses, with a knock-on effect further down the supply chain that echoes into the broader economy as well.

The opportunity

Somehow, we’ve struggled to get everyone in the freelance value chain to play nice all the time.

Procurement and finance teams want docs to remain compliant. Project owners want fewer emails between different role players. And freelancers? Well, they just want to know where their money is (or at the very least, in whose inbox their invoice is sitting).

And we’re looking for a smart solution to tackle all of these at once…

The startup speeding up freelance payments

Bloo Money is a two-sided web app for SMEs and their freelance suppliers that streamlines invoices and those all-important payouts. 

Businesses onboard their freelancer network in Bloo Money, set up custom invoice templates and approval flows, then issue a single portal link to invite suppliers. 

Freelancers submit invoices through the app and can see exactly where each one sits in the process (who’s approved it, who’s paid it and when). Payments are made to the freelancer via EFT or embedded links, with built-in analytics and exportable reports for compliance.

Time for a national roll-out

We caught up with Bloo Money Co-Founder, Thulani Masebenza, and he tells us they’ve already got roughly 300 pilot users, about one in five from SME teams, with the rest invited freelancers.

And now that they’ve proven the concept amongst their pilot users, Bloo Money is ready to roll it out to the rest of SA and beyond, with their official launch today (11 November 2025 – you heard it here first!).

If Bloo helps make “where is my invoice” a dashboard rather than a weekly “Hey, just bumping this to the top of your inbox” mail, it could be the thing that helps streamline SME ops and get freelancers paid faster.

We’re watching this space…

Pause payments, not growth. Lula’s November offer lets you secure funding now and only start repayments at the end of Jan ’26 — use code GROW2025. Apply here.

Test once, automate forever. FYQA Today records a single test session and runs it automatically thousands of times, to give your QA superpowers. See it here.

Build visually, edit instantly. Dazl lets you vibe-code apps in chat and then edit them visually (or with AI help); design, tweak and launch an MVP all in one place. Try it now.

We are taking three founders to AfricArena in December to pitch on the main stage in front of 50+ investors from across the world! Not only that, all three will receive:

All you have to do to enter is fill in this form. But hurry, entries close Monday, 17 November!

If you’re building something bold in FinTech, fund admin or blockchain, ask yourself this: What would your life look like if the commute took 10 minutes?

If your kids walked to school past wildflowers?

If every Friday felt like a soft launch into a long weekend?

The Isle of Man isn’t just another jurisdiction. It’s a global finance centre with a real community. You’ll find serious firms, world-class infrastructure and opportunities trusted by investors and clients worldwide. But what sets it apart is how it feels.

It’s safe. It’s close. It’s easy to meet people. And it’s built for balance.

Founders here are growing companies while still making time for trail runs, sea swims and school plays. Because when you’re not stuck in traffic or chasing bureaucracy, you can focus on what really matters: your startup and your life.

Thinking about a move?

🤝 Get Connected. This Saturday, 15 November 2025, our friends at Founders Café are hosting their latest power-packed morning for Founders, CEOs and MDs, including micro-talks by industry experts, guided speed networking and quick-fire consults. Grab your tickets here.

☎️ Ring Ring. SA's oldest teleco, Telkom, is gearing up for a mega earnings leap with expectations of headline earnings jumping up to a whopping 115%, following a tough year of financial hits. Nice one.

🚀 Let’s Get Innovative. The African Impact Initiative is landing in Cape Town with its 8th Built in Africa Garage showcase, spotlighting bold startups and fearless founders. Expect raw discussions, a pitch face-off, and numbers that show Africa's rising global impact. Lekker.

📵 Another Teen Social Ban. Denmark is gearing up to become the next country to ban teens from social media, with potential teen TikTok escapades only happening via parental approval. Interesting.

✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools, so our Founder’s Stack gives you your own CFO with Finvoke, WhatsApp marketing with 2'000% ROI powered by Chat Inc and more.

From 15 October 2025 to 15 November 2025, each friend you get to sign up to The Open Letter gets you one entry into a draw to win a brand new iPad Air!

Yesterday, we showed how The Invigilator is bringing advanced invigilation tech to SA, asking how you pass exams. Most thrive on organised notes…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🗺️ Map out your studies across the full term (37%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☕ Coffee and Red Bulls the night before (11%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🎒 Consolidate my notes into bite-sized chunks (44%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📚 Not my fault my books are open on my desk (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 Got Chat on my phone and ready to ask it Qs (4%)

Your 2 cents…

Awesome, Gwenda! Love faster, better ways to learn. 📝

On 11 November 1970, Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs, while working at Xerox’s R&D department, invented the Ethernet by connecting some computers using a method they’d been working on since March that year.

It would become the de facto standard for all wired networks (LANs, MANs, WANs) by the 1980s, enabling older millennials to experience legendary LAN parties with Gen X siblings for a sweet few years before the interwebs properly took off.

✈️ Tool to Try: Building an aviation/travel product? SkyLink API gives you global aviation data in real time.

🌕 That’s Interesting: Turns out moon dust is toxic: astronauts report getting very sick from inhaling it.

🐘 Next Level: Watch this elephant save a drowning gazelle.

🎥 Hack: Check out this visual guide ranking the best movies with a weighted mix of reviews, awards and earnings.

🕹️ Wow Site: Doing a lucky draw? Pickaball lets you enter the names and then plays a randomised pinball physics game to see who wins.

We are always keen to get reader feedback to help make The Open Letter the most useful of its kind for you. So please select