Beat the traffic {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A university police force just bought a Jetson ONE flying machine for about R2.5 million. We're looking at it thinking, doesn't everybody need one of these to beat the N1 at 7.30 am? 🚁

In This Open Letter

Around 1.3 billion people (~16% of the world) have a significant disability, and a surprisingly large number physically battle to use a smartphone – so this SA mom's building a fix…

We don't always think about it, but out of that 1.3bn:

So you're probably looking at ~700+ million people worldwide.

The SA mom pushed to find a solution

It's a reality Emmica Brits had to come to terms with when her son was born with FOXP1 syndrome, a very rare genetic condition (only ~1'000 people around the world have been diagnosed) that impacts growth and development, usually in speech and muscle movements.

For Emmica's son, this includes the swipe: what most 3-year-olds can do on a phone, he simply can't.

Now, she's not a developer – she studied engineering but worked in business intelligence and ventures at Capitec. But one thing she does know how to do (thanks to some years as a product manager) is brief a developer. So, while on holiday in July, she opened Claude and started building…

The app built for little hands that can't swipe

FumbleAway is a free iPhone and iPad app for photo and video browsing that removes the precision a normal photo app demands so that young children, older people and those with disabilities can engage with it more easily.

It gives you a Tap Anywhere mode that moves to the next photo on any touch; Button Mode offers three big, high-contrast buttons: back, play/pause and next. Parents point the app at one album or hand-pick photos and videos, so little fingers can't wander through the camera roll or delete anything. There's even an optional viewing timer, too.

The app is private by design: everything runs on the device, with no uploads, no account and no data collected.

Not stopping there

Kids like her son often rely on special augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices that cost R20k+, so she's building a 2nd app (currently in beta) with a photo-and-voice AAC tool that lives on the phone you've already got on you. And a key focus will be to develop it with more local languages.

We like that it's being built by someone who gets to watch and learn from her most important user every single day, so every feature answers a real problem rather than a guess.

We're watching this space…

We recently showed you how a Cape Town manufacturer got a 20% performance lift simply by optimising their tech. And how a telco secured its remote workforce with cloud desktops and company data that never left the data centre.

But how can you do the same?

Not by sitting and waiting in a call centre queue… (Shh… don't tell anyone) but we organised a link for you to book directly with the tech strategists at Cloud on Demand. So you can ask the top dogs directly about:

They'll unpack with you exactly what your business needs, develop a strategy to get you there and hook you up with the tools and services you need to get it done, fast.

📚 AI Books Earned Her R16.55m. SA author Coral Hart says she's published 370+ books with AI since February 2025 and sold over a million copies. The bigger business may be selling her method to other authors.

📦 Amazon Overtakes Temu and Shein. Amazon is now SA's 18th most visited website, with only Takealot ahead among online stores. Visits aren't sales, but for local sellers, listing on both is starting to look like the default.

🛰️ SpaceX Throttled Ukraine's Starlink. For over a week, a network one company owns limited service on a call the customer didn't make. The business lesson: know who owns your infrastructure, and have a backup ready.

💼 Investor-Ready Finances. Founders raising or reporting to lenders need clean management accounts, not month-end panic. Xero gives you P&L, cash flow and analytics visibility your accountant can plug into. 90% off for 6 months for TOL readers.*

* From our partners. Find all the best service providers for your business in our Founder Stack.

What we should hand to AI is a hot topic, but Jem already resolves 92% of the company's maintenance tickets through AI. So we asked Jem's CEO how they got to the point where they could trust it that much.

It turns out, there are 5 steps to be able to confidently hand routine engineering tickets to an AI agent.

Treasury and the Reserve Bank are rewriting the crypto rules. Godongwana says the draft is shifting away from pre-approvals toward checking transactions for legitimacy and tax compliance, and some reckon SA can become Africa's regulated crypto gateway.

Bitcoin broke below $80'000 on Saturday. BTC fell to $79'280 before recovering to about $80'100, with $436 million liquidated in four hours and 93% of that from bets on rising prices.

Binance helped take down West African scam centres. The operation it helped disrupt led to 28 arrests in Ghana and Nigeria. It's a reminder: Binance will never ask you for funds, so anyone claiming to be Binance who does is a scammer.

Disclaimer: Digital asset prices can be volatile. The value of your investment may go down or up and you may not get back the amount invested. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions and Binance is not liable for any losses you may incur. Not financial advice. For more information, see our Terms of Use and Risk Warning.

Last week, we showed you Refreshi's surprise bags, asking whether you'd buy a surprise bag of food. The verdict? Bring on the mystery…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🥐 Yes, I live for the mystery (74%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🕵️ Only if I can peek inside first (18%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🙅 No surprises. I'm a control freak, thanks (8%)

Biotech & Beers, 29 Oct, JHB: OneBio brings its informal biotech networking night to Joburg, no panels or pitching, at The Frog in Illovo. Get tickets.

Crisis in Real Time, 29 Oct, CPT: SnapScan's Paul Nel and RelyComply's Brad Elliot on leading a business through a high-stakes incident while it's still unfolding. Get tickets.

Payment Gateways Masterclass, 30 Oct, Online: NjiaPay CEO Jonatan Allback on choosing the right payment stack as you grow from R10k to R10m a month. Join to access.

Powered by Radi. Want your business event in front of 36,000 The Open Letter readers? Host it on Radi, and it lands here.

🧩 Tool to Try: Green Pages builds a WhatsApp app for your business from a plain-language description, from bookings to orders and FAQs. Made in Stellenbosch, free to build and test.

🦐 That's Interesting: A 1cm crustacean called the sea sapphire can turn invisible. Crystal plates in its cells reflect ultraviolet instead of visible light when tilted, so it vanishes from predators for a moment.