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Loving AI? Investors, not so much: A new report by MIT has scared the stock markets, leading to a dip in tech stocks on Wednesday (Nvidia, Google, Meta, etc.). Why? It found that 95% of companies aren’t seeing any returns on gen-AI investments. Maybe they doing it wrong? 🤷‍♀️

In Today’s Open Letter

Several international startups are benefiting from the quest to beam solar from space down to the planet – are there any opportunities for it here in SA?

South Africa’s solar boom is well documented: In 2024 alone, we imported some R17.5 billion worth of solar panels, just about 50% of the entire African continent’s, and the market’s set to grow by R66 billion over the next 3 years.

But the First World is already exploring new frontiers: Rogue stock-trading platform Robinhood’s co-founder Baiju Bhatt’s startup Aetherflux is building a constellation of solar satellites, while this year UK’s Space Solar announced it’s working on advanced beaming technology.

In the US, Reflect Orbital wants to reflect sunlight straight onto your panels at night – wild. And Japanese teams have also had successful ground experiments and are launching satellites soon. In fact, a whole bunch of countries and universities are working on this.

Why? Solar supplies 7% of the world’s power now. It’s by far the cleanest and cheapest, but the whole day-night thing is hampering real adoption. But you don’t have that problem in space at all, where solar power gen is 13 times more effective than on the planet.

It’s not as crazy as it seems

The science behind space-based solar power is solid: There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of geostationary orbit space around the Earth where you get full sunlight 24/7 – except for 3–6 months of the year when there’s a short 72-minute nighttime, that’s it.

There’s no atmosphere there, so you get the sun’s full power, and we already have the technology to beam it back to Earth: Microwaves, it’s tested and works like a charm.

So you could technically unfurl a 15km2 array of panels in orbit and, using NASA’s RD1 model, a 2G system that produces about 1.5–2.0 TWh/yr per km2 in a tenth of the space, and deliver 10% of SA’s entire power supply for the year (R49bn at Eskom standard price and R60–R100bn at end-consumer price).

Enough math, is there opportunity?

Locally, SA certainly has the need – Eskom just announced a drive to try up SA power generation. But the microwave beaming tech is a little advanced and you’d need ICASA licensing and proof you can protect the public from such high-powered microwaves.

SKA in the Northern Cape might also be an issue – the areas around the observatories are strict radio-quiet zones. And, of course, funding; we have to pay international prices to get to orbit.

But it doesn’t mean you can’t develop in SA and ship overseas: We’ve already shown how local startups like CubeSpace are building crazy advanced satellite tech for use elsewhere. And there are a host of star players in that field in Stellenbosch alone.

What does the industry need?

There’s a lot of work to be done (and patents to be filed) in the solar power race, including:

Not to mention managing the relationships needed to supply and deliver all that power into a country’s grid.

It’s space-age stuff, but we’ve seen local startups play in some insane spaces. So we’re watching this one.

In SA, 81% of people are lactose intolerant (well above the 65% global average). So with dairy such a common source for protein supplements — both whey and casein proteins are derived from milk — SA needed some smarter options.

It was actually his own lactose intolerance struggles that sparked Wessel Coetzee to search for a clean, vegan protein that didn't leave him feeling bloated and sluggish, but still tasted good. Not finding anything suitable in SA, he started experimenting, testing his own blends of better-quality ingredients he sourced himself.

And, like many founder stories, Wessel hit upon a couple of lekker recipes and saw the gap to launch supplement company 13 Nutrition.

With science-first formulations, a loyal fanbase and new product lines dropping summer 25/26, 13 Nutrition is on a mission to make clean, effective supplements for high-performance athletes and everyday movers alike.

Grab a sneaky 13% off your first order from 13 Nutrition using: VIP13.

Social and search are rented: Important, yes, but controlled by algorithms that decide who sees you. Email is the last truly direct line to your buyers — if you do it well.

We’re Stream (yes, the team behind The Open Letter 👋😊). We’re tech natives who build startups, so we get B2B tech. We do plenty of copy, but our unfair advantage is newsletters: list-building, voice, cadence and content that people actually want to open and engage with.

We’ve helped brands shift real effort into owned email, to:

✅ Grow a database of ideal customers
✅ Talk to them regularly, voluntarily and with charm
✅ Build trust and genuine relationships

It takes commitment, but if you want stronger customer relationships in 12 months, start building your emails now.

🐺  Name Game. Our friends over at Community Wolf have launched their new intelligence platform that takes raw data and translates it into actionable insight for security companies to use in their community safety initiatives. But they need your help in naming it: Go vote here.

👗 One Time. House of One, a budding South African fashion brand, stitches its way into history as the first to seal a deal with Shein. Debuting 100 unique pieces monthly, they're set to hit R1.75 million in sales by month three, weaving digital patterns into global fashion stardom. Nicely done.

🎓 Robo-Teacher. A multilingual robot named Iris is teaching in SA’s 11 official languages, launched to tackle educational gaps in KZN. With voices in 11 languages and a goal to reach every classroom, Iris boasts some serious AI prowess, promising to solve teaching shortages and boost homegrown innovation. Interesting…

🪪 Another One. African Bank just jumped on the smart ID bandwagon, joining ABSA, Nedbank, and others to offer this service through the Home Affairs collaboration. Looks like HA ain't here to take part, they're here to take over.

😎 The Stack. Founders need reliable tools and suppliers. That’s why our Founder’s Stack gives you cloud services and solutions for Azure, AWS, security and AI by Cloud on Demand, B2B tech marketing strategy and execution by Stream, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we showed you how ButtaNut built a milk-alternative range for major retail shelves, asking about your go-to milk. Most say they prefer good old bovine milk.

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐮 It’s still the OG for me, thank you (53%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌰 Almond milk (19%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🥣 Oat milk (13%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🫛 Soy milk (0)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☕ Milk only dilutes the strength of my coffee (15%)

Your 2 cents…

Oats, hey, Samantha? OK, now we gotta try it. 🥛

Didn’t know that, Ghalia. Looking into it now… 🥜

We feel you, Charmaine. R15 is like half the price of a litre of ButtaNut. 🫣

🧑🏼‍💻Full-Stack Developer @ The Awareness Company

🎧 Customer Support Manager @ Jem HR

🎨 Product Growth (Localisation) Lead - Africa @ Canva

👕 Senior Account & Content Manager @ Bash

🏡 Head of Marketing @ ooba

✍️ UX Writer @ Luno

📢 Marketing Manager @ Capitec

💻 IT Support Intern @ Ozow

Hiring? Let us know here and we’ll feature it next week.

🛠 Tool to Try: Rill is a (kinda) social network where you meet people nearby who love the same outdoor adventures as you.

🤔 That’s Interesting: In 2023, a Kenyan man entered a women’s chess tournament disguised in a burka to win prize money.

🔥 Next Level: This cat can dance around a snake all day long.

🍔 Hack: Want to learn something new? Ask a passionate person — they love sharing.

🌐 Wow Site: StoryTerra is a world map that lets you explore movies, books, games and shows by where and when they take place.

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