AI losing it {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? The trend of torturing AI interviewers is alive and kicking, but here's one of a man speaking gibberish (Simlish?) that gives the AI's emotion approximation a real workout. "Stop. Just stop." 🤭

In Today’s Open Letter

72% of SA shoppers say they prefer to buy from brands that remember their preferences, but only 5-10% are willing to supply that info – so this startup's jazzing up the submission method…

If you haven't heard us say it before, listen up: e-commerce today is a logistics and data game, more than anything else.

Why? Well, acquisition costs have spiralled so much that online stores cannot become sustainable if they continually need to go fetch new clients out there on the web. You need to build a database and repeat business to survive – and one of the simplest ways to do that is with the classic web pop-up: enter your details and get X per cent off your first purchase.

The problem is those things have at best a 5-10% conversion rate, 'cos people don't like 'em, meaning growing is just too slow.

Learning the hard way

It was a lesson local founders Nick Hoare and Richard Braithwaite learnt tryna build an e-commerce brand selling into the States, when they kept hitting the same wall: pouring money into ads to reach people without ever really knowing what those people actually wanted.

So they shut down the e-commerce brand and spent the better part of two years on the psychology of the swipe, landing on what the dating apps worked out a long time ago: a 3-second visual decision carries real preference with almost no effort from the person making it.

And it led to a data-collection method you can actually get behind…

The local startup getting shoppers to play ball

SVYP (like swipe) replaces your standard sign-up pop-up with a quick stack of swipe cards, so a new shopper tells the brand who they are on the way in: not just an email addy but insights like their preferred products and channels through easy swipes (like a dating app) that land right in your CRM or email service provider's data.

It cross-references new answers against a brand's existing list and spins up segments and email flows inside Klaviyo at the click of a button. Oh, and the whole thing's low-code – no dev needed.

What we like is how simple it is to test for yourself: If you haven't done so already, head to their website, paste your website URL in there and hit "build my demo". Their AI will analyse your site and make you a mock-up of what your pop-up could look like.

We did one for The Open Letter — check it out here and stand a chance to win yourself a R1'000 Takealot voucher. For reals. PS: Tell your friends.

We're watching this space…

Your team's AI, trained by your whole team. SpaceXAI's new Team Bots are shared Grok Bots: everyone works from the same context, each person's chats stay private, and every correction a colleague makes improves it for all. See more here.

Can we keep control of AI by plugging in our brains? A new manifesto, Phase Lock, argues brain-computer interfaces are humanity's best shot. Researchers can already reconstruct an image a person is looking at from their brain activity. Check it out.

Why do most AI pilots never make it to production? Praelexis says it comes down to order: map the work before you buy the tool, build the platform once, then connect it to what your business already knows. Read it here.

You've seen that small businesses have a data safety problem (and the regulator's threatening a R1m POPIA fine because of it), and that it's actually rooted in connectivity. And you've seen that Cell C has this new tiering system that helps you be as data-safe as a corporate.

But which tier does your business actually sit in?

On one end, a trader running everything off a single WhatsApp number. On the other, a company juggling five sites and a stack of cloud systems. The right setup depends on where you are, not on whatever bundle someone tried to upsell you last.

That's how Cell C Business built it:

And you don't have to work it out alone.

Cell C rebuilt their business offering so that you talk to a human on the other end.

🔐 Lock It Before They Call. Digital banking crime hit R2.41bn last year, much of it from scammers talking customers into moving money. Orca Fraud's Carla Wilby gives 4 sharp tips for setting up your defences now.

🪙 Bitcoin at the Bank. FNB now lets you buy crypto from R10 in its share-trading app, powered by VALR. The catch: your coins never leave FNB. No wallet, no transfers out. Bitcoin, on a bank's leash.

🧴 Made in Durban. A R100m new line at Unilever's Maydon Wharf factory means one Durban plant will make 80% of the world's Vaseline jelly. Opened in 1912, still running a global supply line. Lekker.

🏭 Hard Products, Shipped. Anyone can prototype. Far fewer can turn a broken device into 40'000 reliable units a month, then stay on to keep them shipping. Got a hard product to build? Octoco is the team to talk to.*

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

Come build with Elijah and founders like him at The Founder Collab: where SA founders find their people, with weekly accountability, honest feedback, and founders who actually understand what you're going through.

Yesterday, we showed you Uniq's cashierless stores, asking if you'd shop at a store with no cashiers. Most here say most definitely…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🛒 Yes, I'm done with queues forever (78%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤖 Only if it stops saying "unexpected item" (14%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😅 No, I need my Woolies cashier banter (8%)

Your 2 cents…

Fair point, S. Would love to know the local figures... 🔍📉

SA's poorest households spend over four times more of their income on cash than the richest.

💡 Households earning R1'250 a month or less spend 5% of their annual income just getting and using cash. Those earning R20'000+ spend 1.2%.

💡 Bank fees are only part of it. Taxi fares to the ATM, time lost queueing and the risk of carrying cash all fall hardest on the poorest, who tend to make many small withdrawals.

Cash is the most expensive way to pay in SA, and the people paying that cost can least afford it.

Scaling Globally, Managing Locally, 15 Oct, CPT: OCFO, Sudor, Ruby Digital and Travelstart on growing offshore without losing control at home. Get tickets.

Biotech & Beers, 23 Oct, CPT: OneBio's quarterly evening for scientists, founders and anyone into biotech, drinks on OneBio, in Salt River. Get tickets.

Crisis in Real Time, 29 Oct, CPT: SnapScan CEO Paul Nel on leading a business through a high-stakes incident while it's still unfolding. Get tickets.

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🧩 Tool to Try: Co-Found connects developers, designers and creators to build startups together.

🦸 That's Interesting: Shazam was once the #1 selling comic book, lapping Superman in sales, until DC took the publisher to court, claiming it’s a Superman rip-off.