Feeling pumped {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? The Enhanced Games took place yesterday: Like the Olympics, but steroids and banned substances are totally welcome. Hey, we saw at least one South African entered the comp… 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

Send this to a friend to challenge them to a foot race in Las Vegas. 👟

In This Open Letter

Nkosinathi Temba watched his younger brother get discouraged at maths, because no one ever recognised his hard work – that’s why he built a new way to motivate SA learners…

Our schools have a weird secret: The country celebrates a record 88% matric pass rate in 2025, but keeps quiet about the fact that 4 out of 10 learners who start Grade 1 never make it all the way to matric.

Why? Well, most parents really want their kids to do their best in school, but they have no way to motivate each child (who is constantly bombarded with bad influences all around) to study their hardest. Especially as children get older.

The app turning homework into a savings account

Nkosinathi saw the crushing lack of external motivation in his own brother, who worked so hard to raise his math grades, with so little recognition for the effort, he almost gave up and slid back into his old, underperforming ways. That’s why Nkosinathi built Thuto, a learning app that converts academic effort into real money.

Students earn Thuto coins (one coin equals one Rand) through daily curriculum-aligned content. Coins they can cash out, save and earn interest on, or redeem for airtime and data.

How it works: Every day at 3 PM (exactly when phones become a distraction), Thuto drops content aligned to what was taught that day in class, synced to the CAPS Annual Teaching Plan. Learners who complete the tasks earn coins, an AI tutor identifies gaps and delivers personalised intervention, while parents get something they never had: quick and easy proof that homework and learning are happening.

Using the app costs R50 a month to use. But parents can think of it as: "Did you do your homework?" "Ja." "Ok, here's R10." Except now you know they actually did the work, the content matches the curriculum and the learning is tracked. It’s real motivation to work for a reward and practice delayed gratification — for a generation who’s not been taught that equally across society.

Here's the stat that surprised us most

Thuto was piloted with 320 students, and fully 70% of them chose to save their Thuto coins rather than spend them. That’s a behaviour driven by a gamified FQ Score (Financial Quotient) where higher savings unlock coin multipliers.

The pilot also recorded a +14.5% average improvement in assessment scores over two school terms. Mega. And Nkosinathi is now in conversation with SA corporates to sponsor student access through CSI budgets.

When your child's effort earns real money, gets verified by AI, and quietly teaches them to save, homework stops being a battle and starts being a system.

We're watching this space…

You generate leads, they go into a CRM, and then… nothing.

Why? The average cold email reply rate has dropped to 3.4% in 2026 as sales teams let slip nearly half the leads marketing sends them. And 65% of B2B companies don’t even have a documented nurture workflow anymore.

The problem isn’t lead generation: Most scale-ups with product-market fit can get people onto a list, just fine. The problem is actually converting them.

You need to stay visible, useful and trusted in front of your ideal buyers (not once, but every single week) so that when they’re ready to act, you’re the first name they think of. That’s not something another ad can fix.

It’s about building a relationship where they actually love talking to you.

📲 PayShap Pivots to Merchants. 3 years after nailing peer-to-peer payments, PayShap sets its sights on merchant payments, e-commerce and mobile. A crowded space, but, honestly, we just want to still be able to use PayShap at the bank, too.

🇿🇦 5 SA Founders Building Great Things. The fin-crime specialist dropping compliance costs, the engineer keeping municipalities honest, and the civic consultant boosting SA fashion. See who made the weekly watch list.

🐴 A Spot of Amish-GPT. Large Amish communities (no smartphones, no internet at home) now use AI to write business emails, review contracts and design software. We always said agriculture and business are the best uses of this tech.

📞 TrueCaller Wants to Be Your Travel SIM. The caller-ID app is pivoting into travel eSIMs, launching in SA this week. The big ask is probs whether an ads-and-premium platform can convince people to change phone behaviour (which SIM they use) at scale.

💬 WhatsApp That Converts. The channel with 85%+ open rates, 2'000%+ ROCS — and it’s free to try, no credit card needed. Chat Inc is how SA's top brands are doing WhatsApp marketing. Your turn.*

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

Most SA founders don't know that other companies can run ads on their company name, or that not running brand and non-brand campaigns properly can eat away at their budget. So we asked a 16-year paid media veteran to show us how to set this up properly.

Turns out, there are 5 practical steps to set up ad campaigns so there's no confusion about your name online.

☝️ Send this to a friend who needs better leads.

Stablecoins are powering Africa's real economy. Sub-Saharan Africa processed more than $54bn in stablecoin transactions between July 2023 and June 2024; 43% of all crypto activity in the region. The users? Small business owners managing cash flow, freelancers getting paid across borders and families receiving remittances.

Binance is hiring 380+ while tech lays off 92'000. While the broader tech sector cut 92'000 jobs in the first five months of 2026, Binance is recruiting across engineering, compliance, product and AI research. One in five new hires will be dedicated to AI.

Africa is where crypto is happening now. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng writes that Africa is becoming a crypto leader: Developers are building mobile-first tools, freelancers are accessing global income, and 9% of Gen Z Binance users already qualify as VIPs.

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 7 SA operators building with AI, asking if AI has actually made you any real money yet. For most, it’s a big time-saver…

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 Yes, it's directly increased revenue or cut costs (16%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🔧 Not yet, but it's saving me serious time (40%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌱 I'm experimenting, too early to tell (15%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤷 I've tried, but can't point to real ROI yet (9%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 😅 I'm still figuring out how to use it (20%)

Your 2 cents…

Solid start, Terry — the ROI usually clicks once the workflows those docs describe start running on AI too. 📈

Leads & Lattes: GTM Strategies for African Markets – 27 May, CPT: Marlon Dickerson breaks down how to build a sustainable revenue engine for the African context. Stop chasing clicks, start building a pipeline. Register now.

The Lekker Network: Storm Rider with Matt Bromley – 28 May, CPT: Big-wave surfer Matt Bromley on building a mindset for storms, followed by a live panel on riding chaos across AI, coaching and BPO. Get tickets.

AI in Action: How SA Teams Are Using It – 4 Jun, CPT: Three live AI demos, a deep panel and proper networking at Innovation City. Drinks on us. Grab tickets.

Leadership Lessons: Q&A with Mike Fisher – 10 Jun, Online: The CEO of MyFitnessPal and ex-CTO of Etsy on escaping the output trap, building outcome-driven teams and why shipping fast in the wrong direction is still the wrong direction. Hosted by OfferZen. Register free.

Stop Building Things Nobody Wants – 11 Jun, CPT: Annu Augustine (NedRock) on product discovery — why 80% of features go unused and how to test assumptions before you burn budget. Save your spot.

🧩 Tool to Try: StocksBrrr sends you a text the moment a stock hits your price.

🌍 That's Interesting: Obi-Wan Kenobi's home planet is called "Stewjon" because George Lucas was joking around in a Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart and made up the name on the spot.

🐸 Next Level: They spent three years building the ultimate frog palace.

🔒 Wow Site: Website Safety Checker does free HTTPS, blacklist and phishing scans.