Bad weather? Thousands of runners flew into Mother City this weekend, only to have the Cape Town Marathon cancelled last minute. Local WhatsApp-integrated tool Yazi is running a survey here so organisers can understand how people were affected — share with any affected peeps you know, responses go into a R5’000 travel cost refund lucky draw.
In This Open Letter
Next Tech: One device to help 10 million SA women.
Local: Town of the year & HealthTech acceleration.
Global: Goodbye, WhatsApp bots & cyber students.
SA Businesses: SA founders help each other. You in?
Tech events: AI agents, women founders & more.
Win a brand-new iPad!
Refer a friend to sign up for The Open Letter during October and get an entry into a lucky draw to win an Apple iPad 11-inch (A16 chip).
Share the link below with a friend and when they use it to sign up to The Open Letter, you get one entry👇
TRENDING NOW
Helping 10 Million SA Women
SA Healthcare can’t cope with a condition affecting 10 million women – this tech’s looking to solve that…
Did you know one in three women experiences Abnormal Uterine Bleeding (unusually irregular, frequent, voluminous or for too long) at some point in their lives?
It should be treatable with a 10-15 minute doctor’s visit, but it’s not that simple. Parts of the process today require legacy in-theatre equipment (hysteroscopy) and routines that hurt enough to need anaesthesia, access to which has a long waiting list, causing an average wait time of 9 months for treatment.
The local startup rewiring neighbourhood gynaecology
FlexiGyn™ is a portable, steerable hysteroscope with a flexible camera tip that can navigate inside the uterine cavity while the rest of the scope stays still, reducing the pain of rigid scopes and shrinking the setup from a cart-based video stack to a hand-held unit.
No, it’s not for playing laser tag…
We chatted to Chris K Meunier, co-founder of Vas MedTech (the team building FlexiGyn™) and their origin story traces back to the late Dr Carol Thomas, a leading South African gynaecologist who argued that many women waiting months for relief could be diagnosed and treated in 10–15 minutes, if the right tool existed.
And now the Vas MedTech team is continuing on that mission to develop a solution that provides answers and treatment in minutes, not months. What’s more, it can be done right in the convenience of a patient’s community.
Bring the tech
Complementing the hardware is DigiGyn™, a visual-first AI scribe that turns spoken findings into structured visual reports in minutes, ready to share and bill; helping reduce doctors’ admin, too.
They’ve already got four working FlexiGyn models, a published head-to-head trial beating a market-leading device, a $300k raise to start a pilot with The Innovation Hub at Mediclinic Victoria, and SA, US and EU patents already granted.
And with regulatory progress to follow shortly, they’re two steps from market, aiming for 3 million women by 2030, where FlexiGyn could become the new treatment default, shaking up SA’s R3.9 billion gynaecological device sector – not to mention open the doors for ENT, urology, even bedside pulmonology applications.
We’re watching this space.
IN SHORT
While you were weekending…
🇿🇦 Flying The Health Flag. Two local HealthTech startups, AI Diagnostics and hearX Foundation, have clinched a spot in Turn.io’s exclusive 2025 Chat for Health & AI Accelerator, beating out over 400 contenders worldwide. Nice one.
🔒 Locking It Down. Kaspersky has just launched Cybersecurity: Entry Level, an online course for first and second-year uni students to combat Africa's rising cybercrime. Whoa…
🏆 SA’s Best Town. The tranquil town of Bloemhof in the North West has snagged the 2025 title for SA’s Town of the Year. *Checks LekkeSlaap for a spot in December.
🚫 WhatsApp Giving Bots The Boot? WhatsApp says no to general-purpose chatbots, banning them from its Business API by January 2026, sending the likes of OpenAI and others scrambling for alternatives. Very interesting…
✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you the best in IP offshoring and global market access with Finance Isle of Man, all your VC and startup legal sorted by Dommisse Attorneys, and loads more vital startup tools & services.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS
Get one entry into the draw for a brand new iPad for every friend you refer to sign up to The Open Letter.
BUILDING A BUSINESS IN SA
4 things we learnt in The Founder Collab
We learnt how to sell before you build: Jaco Wasserfall from Benefit Counsellor showed how just the right slides, focus and early validation can land your first paying customer.
We found Darryn a HubSpot pro fast: One quick comment on our “Asks & Requests” channel and Darryn had a pro contact he really needed in minutes.
We helped Chris spread the word about a digital marketing intern role: he dropped it into the chat, and it got circulated across networks before the morning ended.
We learnt how to boost app rankings and source smarter: founders swapped tips, shared supplier contacts and made warm intros.
Find your founder community. Join The Founder Collab, it’s where 100+ real SA founders help each other to build better, faster every day.
WHAT YOU SAID
Order up…
Last Friday, we told you about prescription-vending opportunities, asking about the best part of chronic med vending. Most like the 24/7 access…
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💨 No more waiting in pharmacy queues at month-end (20%)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 📱 Order and collect via app, just like a Sixty60 (32%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🕒 24/7 access — even after work or on Sundays (39%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👣 Closer to home, no clinic return trip needed (2%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤝 Less awkward small talk when you’re not feeling great (7%)
Your 2 cents…
“Also less awkward conversations when the pharmacist tells you (at the top of his lungs) about their uncle who also struggled with the same condition, and the meds worked wonders for him...”
True dat, T. Sometimes, you just want to grab your meds and go. 🗣📢
LOOKING TO NETWORK?
Upcoming SA Tech Events
The Future of E-Commerce — CPT 30 Oct, 17:00 — Come join The Open Letter team as we hear from Takealot Group CEO Frederik Zietsman on the future of E-commerce in SA. Get tickets here.
Notion AI & Agents Intro — Online 28 Oct, 19:00 — Build a multi-profile agent inside Notion you can start using tomorrow. Register here.
AI in Digital Transformation — CPT 27 Oct, 17:30 — Panel + lightning talks on using AI in project & product orgs. Free hybrid event. Book here.
WWBA Founders Day — CPT 23 Oct — Apply now to join a curated day for high-growth women founders across Africa. Apply here.
Hosting a demo day, panel, founder meetup or tech event? Let us know, and we’ll feature it for FREE.
AROUND THE WEB
Bored? This is the way
🛠 Tool to Try: History Sleep generated endless ancient history lectures to bore you to sleep faster.
🎬 That’s Interesting: A commuter train passed while Robert Patrick was filming his nude T-1000 (liquid metal) arrival in Terminator 2. His “most embarrassing moment” of his career.
🪂 Next Level: An 83-year-old granny jumping off India’s highest bungee jump.
😬 Hack: Anxiety and teeth grinding? Remember to unclench your jaw.
🎮 Wow Site: Floor796 is a massive interactive GIF world filled with some of your fave characters.
THANKS FOR READING
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