Knew it was coming {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? A new report suggests that in large companies, AI agents and tokens for most jobs cost more than employing humans to do the same work.

Send this to all the friends you’d rate limit🍦.

In This Open Letter:

A Cape Town-based agency just ran the marketing behind the highest-funded game in Kickstarter history — The Official Cyberpunk Trading Card Game, which closed at $26.97 million (R446M). And now they want to help you build a more successful business from day one…

You should know that, before that, they worked in collaboration with other agencies and companies on the previous record holders: Cosmere RPG at $15.15 million (R248M). And before that, Frosthaven at $12.97 million (R15M), too.

The team is Pulling Power Media, led by Capetonian Kyle Puller. And in the process of building those campaigns, Kyle kept hitting the same wall: They were renting audiences. The backers lived inside Kickstarter's ecosystem, meaning they don't own that relationship; the platform does. 

So, when every campaign ends, they get a list of email addresses and not much else. No way to know which ad brought your best customers, which message resonated or which market segment converted hardest.

So Kyle and co-founder Sherlic White built the tool that should have existed all along.

The pre-launch layer nobody's building

Launch Oracle is a pre-launch intelligence platform that lets founders build an audience, validate demand and go to market with momentum — all before a single unit ships.

See, most founders treat launch day as the starting gun. Launch Oracle treats it as the finish line. They help you test lead capture, A/B testing, referral tracking, attribution, page builder and CRM integrations, all built around the window of time most founders either rush through or skip entirely.

Here's why that matters: SA has an 86% startup failure rate, the highest tracked globally. Nearly half of all startup failures stem from poor product-market fit. Founders built something, launched it, and discovered too late that not enough people cared.

Building record-breaking launch days

Kyle's analogy for the too-LEAN approach: Imagine a nightclub where people keep popping their heads in to see an empty room and walking away. Launch Oracle is the queue that makes the room look full before the doors open.

Still in early access and pre-revenue, the platform has already captured 317k leads across 83 campaigns, so for those that want early traction, the queue is already forming.

We're watching this space…

Who still thinks WhatsApp is just for group chats and voice notes?

SA founders are building serious businesses on the platform that 30 million South Africans use every day. We rounded up 10 SA companies building on WhatsApp, and the range is just wild:

✅ WhatsApp-native HR systems and market research tools
✅ Public safety platforms and township lending services
✅ AI tutors and calorie trackers — all built right here in SA

From fintech to edtech to community safety, the builders aren't waiting for permission — they're shipping products where the users already are.

What would you build on WhatsApp today?

If you're running a growing SA business, you've probably asked yourself: Do I need a bookkeeper, an accountant or a CFO?

The answer, for most companies between 10 and 200 people, is all three, but not as full-time employees.

Finvoke gives you the full stack: Daily bookkeeping, monthly management accounts, payroll and SARS compliance, tax strategy and CFO-level advisory. But without the hiring risk.

Getting started takes days, not months. Their onboarding process migrates your books onto Xero, connects your bank feeds, and sets up your reporting — so you have visibility from week one.

🩺 Turning The Corner. Local messaging platform Turn.io announced its 2026 Chat for Health accelerator with Anthropic and ElevenLabs. The 24-week programme will see 10 Global South healthcare organisations build AI-enabled chat and voice services on WhatsApp. Mega.

🥊 AI Court Showdown. Elon Musk and Sam Altman head to court this week as their public feud goes down the legal route. Elon is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for a cool $134 billion in damages, while OpenAI and Sam Altman have accused him of harassment. Jinne.

🪦 RIP Crypto Arbitrage. For almost a decade, South Africans exploited currency exchange rules to buy crypto cheaper elsewhere and sell it locally for a premium. But it seems that era is at its end. Join us as we ask if this is the end of crypto arbitrage in SA.

🤖 Pick up Your New RoboFriend. We’ve shared a bunch of clips of Unitree’s R1 humanoid robot in recent weeks, and it looks like you can get your hands on one for a cool R85’000 (sans shipping, though). Wonder when we’ll start seeing these in the wild on SA shores…

📰 Your Audience, Owned. The team behind The Open Letter now builds done-for-you newsletters for B2B tech scale-ups: strategy, content, growth and platform, all handled. Your job? Watch your audience grow. Learn more.*

🌍 Thinking Offshore? For SA founders going global, the Isle of Man offers 0% corporate tax, 0% capital gains tax, 0% withholding tax, UK VAT access and a business-friendly legal system. Finance Isle of Man helps companies move, structure and scale internationally — sans the usual friction.*

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

Few things kill sales momentum faster than a prospect shutting down and asking you to just email them the price. So we brought in an SA sales leader who’s built partner networks and sales teams across 24 African countries to teach us how to do founder-led sales properly.

And it turns out there are 6 specific steps you can use to answer “what’s the price” questions in sales to actually seal the deal.

Yesterday, we showed you Ruka’s growth tools for small businesses, asking about the most useful thing an AI tool can do for your company. Most want on-time intel…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🧠 Real-time business intelligence on WhatsApp — 37%

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📅 Automated bookings and follow-ups 24/7 — 16%

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 💰 Enterprise-level CRM at an affordable price — 26%

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌍 Built for how African businesses actually operate — 21%

Scaling with 3+ years of revenue? Africa's Business Heroes is offering up to $300k in grants from a $1.5m pool — plus mentorship and global exposure. Applications open.

Got a big idea and a bold pitch? The Pitch by Deel is hunting for the world's next breakout startup — with a $1 million investment prize on the line. Apply from SA.

Building something early-stage? The Founder Collab gives SA tech founders R40k+ in tools, strategy sessions, cloud support, legal vetting and a high-trust community to build with. Join now.

African startup or MSME with a working MVP? GEC+Africa 2026 selects 10 finalists to pitch live in Cape Town in front of investors and ecosystem enablers. Register now.

🧩 Tool to Try: The AI Agent Index is a searchable directory of AI agents for sales, support, marketing, coding, HR and more.

🐔 That's Interesting: In 1963, a man renovating his home in Turkey noticed his chickens disappearing into a crack in his basement wall. He dug it open and found Derinkuyu, an 18-level ancient underground city, built to shelter 20'000 people.

🦸 Next Level: Just a reminder that real-life Iron Man suits already exist, and you could be flying around right now.

✍️ Wow Site: NASA has a page where you can write your name in Landsat satellite images.