Think big {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? Instead of fighting data centres, one startup has figured out how to build smaller, modular data centres that they can drop off at a customer and connect up, fast (watch the vids in the link). They've also learned how to connect them and are working on mass production. If you were looking for a business idea to do in SA, this is as on-fire as it gets. Go build the Africa version. 🔥

In This Open Letter

When we first featured Thrif in Nov '24, the team collected, sorted and sold pre-loved clothes for you – now, it's an app with super-smart features that lets anyone buy and sell in 30 seconds…

Second-hand clothing is estimated at R10 billion a year (~10% of SA's total R108bn clothing market), and it's usually a fragmented, messy and unsafe experience for both buyers and sellers.

One of the first to see the opportunity in building trust and experience in this was Yaga, the Estonian-built venture that came to SA and drew R80m investment from H&M last year. That was before AI, though, so it took from 2017 to 2025 to go from build to investment (8 years).

Now, a local team's managed to make scanning stock in 30–60 seconds, in just 24 months (a quarter of the time), and they're moving mega fast with the power of AI:

The all-new Thrif

Last month, Thrif co-founders Nick Rout and Micaela de Gouveia relaunched as a marketplace where individuals and small resellers sell straight to shoppers. Sellers snap a few photos, AI drafts the listing in under 30 seconds, and Thrif books the courier. Selling is free: buyers pay 6% + R15 and get up to 70% off on branded gear.

The team only grew to five in this time, and on the app, most sales are driven by bulk resellers who buy bales of branded excess stock.

The 4 lessons Nick took from two years of building

1. Run a scrappy version while you build the real one: Thrif's pilot reused tech from its old store. It gave the team market research, a place to test features fast, a reputation for trust and an audience ready to move to the app.

2. Trust moves users, not features: Nick, an ex-GoDaddy engineer, believed people would come if the product worked. What actually carried sellers across to the app was the trust and relationships built during the pilot.

3. A marketplace makes small money before it makes big money: On 6% + R15 a sale, revenue only arrives with volume. Some investors wanted bigger numbers first; others wanted revenue that made no sense at this stage. Raise from people who understand how your model makes money and where the true value lies.

4. Know when to drop what isn't working: Nick says optimism can go blind. Thrif ditched the model it started with and kept going, because it still believed there was room for what it was building.

What's next for Thrif

Naturally, the next part is growing the end-user base: they successfully brought the same number they had as pilot users along to full launch, but now the next test is scale. On the roadmap is adding ratings, reviews, Q&As on listings, growing beyond fashion and bringing back a trusted web version.

We're watching this space…

Every ticket you sell tells you who showed up. That list is the most valuable thing your event creates, because it's how you fill the next one.

So ask a simple question about your ticketing platform: is it helping you build your audience, or building its own from yours?

On Radi, the people who buy your tickets are your community. Your event, your attendees, your relationship with them.

Radi gives you the tools to grow it:

Host your next event in a trusted place, and keep what you build.

🧬 AI Is Cloning Office and Photoshop. One developer used AI to release free versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and a tool called Reverse Engineer Anything rebuilds almost any app. Features are cheap now, so what are you selling?

🏛️ SA's AI Policy Slips to 2027. The first draft was pulled over fake, AI-made references. The rewrite only reaches Cabinet by March 2027, and a law comes later still. Until then, existing rules already apply.

🛰️ Google's Data Centre Is in Orbit. Its first space satellite runs one AI chip for about 20 minutes at a time, and it wrote a haiku. Space is a long way off, but the demand for compute is right here.

🌾 Operations Simplified. InteliGro struggled with fragmented data and manual admin in their agri software. So Octoco built a unified system that cut admin, standardised crop recommendations and enabled faster, data-driven decisions for farmers and advisors.*

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

Jem put an AI voice agent on its sales follow-up calls, saw it make mistakes and switched it off. Its CEO now calls deactivating it “a massive mistake”. So we asked him what every team should know before their first AI experiment goes live.

And it turns out, there are 5 things to know about running AI experiments from day one.

Bitcoin fell below $80'000. BTC dropped to $78'420 on Friday with $1.54 billion liquidated, hit by the hack and a Fed hold where two officials dissented in favour of an interest rate hike in the US, but the Federal Reserve gave no December signal.

The biggest crypto hack ever. Unfortunately, a compromised engineer's laptop let suspected North Korean attackers make $6.3 billion in unauthorised withdrawals. Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals, froze about $3 billion and pledged to cover all losses.

Binance is now also helping police across Africa catch scammers. By tracing where scam money goes, it's turning victims' reports into arrests. And traders can now prompt, test and trade with Binance AI Pro.

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 the local election tools, asking how ready you are for 4 November. The verdict? Fingers ready for the ink…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🗳️ Quizzes done, ward checked, finger ready for ink (84%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤔 Still googling who my ward councillor is (5%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍖 I'll decide in the queue, honestly (11%)

Building Relationships for Funding, 13 Nov, Online: Zimi CEO Michael Maas on how he built angel relationships on the way to raising R50m. Join to access.

Startup Stories: MariHealth, 17 Nov, CPT: UCT spinout MariHealth on reading 3,000 fish proteins in one sample to help aquaculture farmers, over lunch at OneBio. Get tickets.

Meet Your Co-Founder, 19 Nov, CPT: OneBio brings scientists, clinicians, engineers and business minds together to form biotech founding teams. Apply here.

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

🪓 Next Level: Check out this insane wood-splitting trick shot.

🏕️ Wow Site: Planning a December camping trip? KampScout lists campsites across SA that you can filter by what you need, from wild bush camps to caravan parks with a pool.