Is Hollywood about to announce its first AI actress? News reports are going mad, actors are up in arms, and we can’t tell if anyone’s being serious anymore. 🎬

In This Open Letter

With society so fragmented and digital disconnecting more than linking us, this startup’s making a play for real human connection…

The global loneliness epidemic is no longer theoretical or a “first-world problem”.

As many as 28% of workers in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from loneliness, which is higher than the 22% global average. And we’re not talking about trendy teens on TikTok. These are adults in their working prime.

And while the study is from 2021 and 2022 (Pandemic Season 2 & 3), nearly 20% of respondents said they had chronic loneliness.

What went wrong?

The shift to hybrid work, urban apartment living and pandemic-era social breakdown exposed just how fragile our networks really are. 

Not to mention, digital platforms offer “connection” by scrolling feeds instead of actually meeting people IRL.

And South Africans are perpetually online, spending 52 hours, 18 minutes on the line every week, compared to the global weekly average of just 33 hours, 42 minutes. (Also spending 4 hours more scrolling the socials than the global average.

People have information in a steady supply; it’s a sense of belonging they’re missing. 

The local startup working to reconnect people

The Sociable App is designed to make it easier to find real communities with shared interests in your local area. It all works around IRL events: Users can host and attend events all from the same account (one day you join a running club for an afternoon run, the next you create your own).

Events are tied to people, not faceless pages, so you can follow hosts and get notified when they post again. Paid events use passes, with QR redemption built natively into the app.

We caught up with Sociable co-founder Jason van Dyk recently, and the core insight here is that people don’t stick around because they’ve joined a platform; they stick around because they care about communities. 

Sociable leans into this by investing in “hero hosts,” the organisers who consistently create authentic spaces, and then helping them grow, building a community of communities.

With over 20’000 registered users and currently scaling in Cape Town, Sociable is working to build the local infrastructure to use digital to make IRL communities happen. And it might be a B2C play that clearly requires network effect and adoption (which has proven hard in the past for SA), but the team seem up to the task and determined to make it work, which you can’t help but want to support.

We’re watching this space…

Smarter value showcases: Brainfish is an AI specifically designed to explain your product properly to potential customers, using deep, complex conversations to surface real insights. Learn more.

AI for finance teams: Join Outsourced CFO’s Dana Pretorius on Oct 15 for a LinkedIn Live on automating finance with AI. Register here.

Finally, SEO anyone can understand: Just like GPT’s Deep Research changed info gathering, Jello SEO lets you deep research and find the keywords you should really be targeting. Try it.

Lebo was a brand manager with vision, but every time she pitched a big idea, her team would ask, “What do we do this week?” The momentum fizzled because there was no bridge between ambition and action.

When she enrolled in Red & Yellow Creative School of Business’s Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Leadership, the rhythm of her work changed:

✅ Meetings shifted from endless debate to sharper conversations, grounded in human-centred leadership.

✅ Customer truths began to outweigh assumptions, and tiny experiments replaced risky leaps.

✅ Even the coursework fed directly into her team’s projects, turning assignments into measurable wins.

It only took ten hours a week, studying on campus, and Lebo’s plans started leaving the whiteboard and landing in results. Fewer maybes. More evidence. Momentum that compounded.

The outcome is leaders who define problems precisely, act on proof and create value where others aren’t looking.

This diploma shows you how to effortlessly step into this role.

🧠 Digital Dynamos. Applications for iHub Africa’s 2026 10-month digital marketing & web dev program close on 3 October 2025. The program is open to youth aged 20-30, offering hands-on experience in crafting live campaigns and websites, sharpening strategic, creative and coding chops. Apply here, now.

🔌 Kusile Powers Up! Eskom's Kusile unit 6 has kicked into full gear, closing an era of R160 billion overruns and late-night budgeting. With 800MW more on the grid, this power behemoth is ready to blend with renewables and cut emissions. News almost as good as a Bok win.

🎉 Linden Lands on Lekka List. One of Jozi’s oldest suburbs, Linden, has taken 17th place in TimeOut's coolest neighbourhoods with its leafy charm and buzzing creativity. Once a sleepy suburb, it's now a hotspot for hip cafes and eco-conscious living. Ag lekker man, man.

🥤 Soda-lightful. SA's PURA Beverage Company has landed a R260 million investment to expand its healthier soda alternatives into the US. Very cool.

✅ The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you full-funnel tech content marketing by Stream, hardware, software, acceleration and funding for remarkable builds with Octoco and loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you how GoBuddy is boosting township e-commerce deliveries and earnings, asking if you’d do deliveries for extra cash. Most say yay, if fuel’s covered…

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ ⛹ Maybe, if it’s actually on my route (21%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⛽ Yes, if it covers petrol (29%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🛡️ Only with insurance + in-app payout (11%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌞 Daytime, sure. Night, no thanks (14%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🙅 Nope, my car isn’t Mr D (25%)

Your 2 cents…

Spoken like a true side-hustler, Godfrey. Bank Man approves. 🧗‍♂️

On 30 September 1980, DEC, Intel and Xerox published the Blue Book, a specification for Ethernet cables, just in time for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ project to try and standardise local area networks (LAN).

They weren’t the only ones: IBM pushed Token Ring and General Motors, Token Bus. But in the end, Ethernet won out and became the standard for LAN, becoming a R276 billion industry by 2010.

🛠 Tool to Try: Budera is an AI business partner that can help with sales, marketing, finance and compliance.

👃 That’s Interesting: In 2009, a student won a 10-year legal battle to say the university had no right to kick him out because he had smelly feet.

🏁 Next Level: This pro racing team showed pure sportsmanship by fixing a competitor’s tyre.

💬 Hack: Struggling to name what you’re feeling? This guide helps you put words to emotions.

🧭 Wow Site: Priority Compass helps you focus on what’s really important.

Hey, Renier here 👋, co-founder of The Open Letter.

I’ve spent 17 years in SA tech and seen hundreds of startups rise and fall. The ones that made it all had one thing in common: a strong community.

That’s why I started The Founder Collab — a space where 100+ SA founders connect for:

☕ Meetups & events

🎓 Weekly masterclasses

📚 35+ expert sessions on-demand

🤝 A network unlike anything else

Come build your startup alongside me and 100+ other SA founders in The Founder Collab.

Spaces are limited — new founders join weekly.

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