Squeaky clean {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Not everyone’s teaching robots to fight. Here’s a new bot loading and unloading a dishwasher. Apparently, it can also sort boxes and do the laundry. What you think? 🫧

In This Open Letter

Companies are wasting weeks of productivity on appraisals that don’t do much – but this startup wants to help SMEs hit performance overdrive…

Performance reviews…

Employees despise them: Only 14% think they work, perhaps because of their backwards-looking nature.

And so do businesses: 98% of CHROs say they’re outdated and costly, since employees can spend up to 40 hours a year on reviews and managers over a month – that’s a lot of lost productivity. 

But, research shows that companies that focus on their people’s performance are 4.2 times more likely to outperform their peers, realising an average 30% higher revenue growth.

So, whatcha gonna do?

A R450 million opportunity

Is it worth optimising reviews with tech, though? Well, most corporates are already sunk into expensive SAP, Oracle or Sage. And small companies (50-odd) employees might not care. But what about your high-growth mid-corp/scale-up businesses (100–500)?

There’s a sweet 3–5% of SA’s formal businesses (between 20k–30k) that are too big for informal chats but too agile for SAP. For them, an agile performance system that:

Could be a game-changer. And at, for example, R100 or so per employee per month, in that slice, you have a potential market of around R450 million a month.

Which is what this local venture is building for…

The local startup rethinking performance reviews

Workspark is an AI-powered performance management platform that captures performance continuously, with little to no friction.

Instead of relying on annual memory tests, Workspark’s design engages workers by prompting them smartly for continuous measurement. This gives managers a near-real-time view of what’s going on, helping them align better.

It provides best-practice guardrails for HR teams so that any size company can plug in, and uses an AI benchmarking layer that helps synthesise a year’s worth of accomplishments into objective summaries.

Future of high-performance

Workspark was founded by veteran team-scaler Duncan Phillips, who says the platform is less HR theory and more of what fast-growing organisations actually need. That’s why it’s already being used by local teams that each manage 100+ employees.

And it’s expanding quickly; in the coming weeks, Workspark is launching OKR and engagement survey integrations to complete the picture by linking individual accomplishments directly to company strategy with real-time monitoring. 

30% off your first year: The Workspark team gives you an exclusive Open Letter sweet discount on the platform – click here to claim yours.

We’re watching this space…

Small is the advantage. Lula CEO Trevor Gosling shows how your small company can outwit and outplay big companies by changing how you think about competition. Listen here.

Get new website variants at the speed of thought. Variant generates hundreds of website designs in parallel as you scroll, acting like an AI creative director for your ideas. See it here.

Company memory, unlocked. You don’t have to wait for stand-ups to get progress updates. Momo auto-tracks work across Gmail, GitHub, Notion and Linear so you can monitor progress without constant check-ins. Check it out.

Because every law firm has its own documents.

In the US and UK, standardised templates mean faster closings and less legal bloat. In SA, we’re still redlining Word docs for weeks.

That’s why Dommisse Attorneys worked with SAVCA to create open-source model investment documents for South Africa – faster deals, more clarity, less cost.

Want in?

🏆 Mzansi’s AI Surge. Add AI adoption to the long list of achievements South Africa has made in recent times. Apparently, we are adopting AI into our daily lives at “higher than the global average” rates. Here’s what most South Africans use AI for today.

🛵 Sixty60 Securing The Bag. Shoprite Holdings keeps seeing its on-demand delivery platform, Sixty60, delivering the goods, after a bumper sixth-month period to close out 2025. Sales on Sixty60 rose by 34.6%, outperforming the overall group growth. Here’s how they did it and what it means for SA e-commerce.

🥐 A French Affair. Applications are open for African startups to enter VivaTech’s AfricaTech Award. Six finalists will be invited to pitch at VivaTech 2026 in June 2026, with the winner getting the opportunity to pitch during the VivaTech Global Awards Ceremony. Previous category winners include our friends at Plentify, so get in…

🩴 For Flip’s Sake. Apple is reportedly working on a square, clamshell-style foldable phone, and while it might not even see the light of day, it’s interesting to note that Samsung already has multiple foldable smartphones in the market. Knowing Apple, you’ll probs need to pay a monthly sub to access the flip functionality…

💡 SMEs No Longer Flying Blind. If you’re running a business without financial direction, you’re taking unnecessary risks. Finvoke gives founders on-demand CFO support — strategic, tax-smart and priced for SMEs.*

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

Yesterday, we showed you Yenza’s career-pathing tech for SA, asking if you knew what you wanted to be at 16. Most say not a chance…

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎯 I knew exactly what I wanted (and I’m doing it). (8)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷‍♂️ I just picked the subjects my friends picked. (3)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🎓 I chose based on "prestige," not personality. (4)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🌀 It was a complete shot in the dark. (13)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧢 A family member told me what career to pick. (3)

Your 2 cents…

Sounds like the start of all our favourite founder stories, Kelebogile! 🚀

On 3 February 1966, the first Earth spacecraft successfully landed on the moon. It was the Soviet Luna 9, the first human tech on another planetary body, and it gave us the first image from the moon’s surface…

It was Russia’s 12th attempt at safely landing anything on the moon, and as we all know, the US would beat them to getting people on there eventually.

🗺 Tool to Try: Global Threat Map tracks global security threats with live maps, AI analysis, filters, and exportable briefings.

🕶 That’s Interesting: Students built a low-cost invisibility cloak that fools AI cameras.

🐕 Next Level: A diabetes alert dog detects a medical issue from across the street.

🍺 Hack: A visual ranking of the countries that drink the most beer.

💸 Wow Site: Spend lets you try to blow all of Bill Gates’ money.