Tagged and chipped {{ FIRSTNAME | there }}? If you have a new doggie or kitten in Cape Town, there's a PetTech doing free vaccinations and chipping this weekend. You have to apply and bring Fluffy to the Sea Point Promenade on Sunday. 🐶🐱

In This Open Letter

How many more of the top new startups that Y Combinator (YC) invested in would work here in SA?

Three weeks ago, we told you we sifted through the 682 names in YC's 2026 cohort lists and found the first 5 startup ideas you should steal and replicate in SA. Judging from the comments, you loved it – and, of course, there are a few more that can work lekker (better, even) right here in SA.

So steal these and build them locally, too…

1. AI tariff checks for exporters

Tarifflo uses AI to put products under the right tariff codes, finds duties that were overpaid and maps where goods really come from. Since 24 July 2026, US tariffs on some SA exports have gone up to 12.5%, and EU buyers now want verified carbon data on SA steel, aluminium and cement, so getting codes wrong costs money on both sides.

Anyone tried it yet? Not that we could find. Clearing agents still do it by hand, and DHL offers a basic tariff code tool.

Where to start:

2. Early warnings for failing transformers

Talos clips sensors onto large transformers to track heat, vibration and magnetic fields, and warns teams before the unit fails. 771 transformers failed across SA in a year, and one damaged by overloading can leave an area without power for up to six months.

Anyone tried it yet? Not as a product. Eskom engineers are building their own wireless sensor system for substations hit by cable theft.

Where to start:

3. AI visa applications

Veeza AI prepares tourist visa applications, checks documents and books embassy appointments, with a visa expert reviewing each case. South Africans need visas for the UK, Schengen and the US, and the most common reason SA applications get rejected is incorrect or missing documents.

Anyone tried it yet? Not with AI. Visa agencies like Midlands Visa still do it by hand, and VFS Global only handles appointments.

Where to start:

4. Water leak detection for buildings

AquaShield finds and pinpoints water leaks inside buildings using a few sensors and AI, before they cause damage. Nearly half of SA's treated water is lost or never billed, and Joburg, eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay are in a critical state, so every hidden leak is a growing cost for property owners.

Anyone tried it yet? A few small local players (Ontec, JR Prodigy Venture), but nobody has focused on big property portfolios yet.

Where to start:

5. Drones that herd cattle

Brumby uses AI drones to herd cattle on their own, checking weights, grazing, water and fences on every flight. Stock theft costs SA farmers over R1 billion every year, and many still rely on manual labour and vehicles to move cattle.

Anyone tried it yet? Not locally. The Sernick Group is researching cattle drones, and Haevic builds drones that spot predators, but nobody sells autonomous herding.

Where to start:

Know someone building one of these? Let us know — perhaps they can cop a feature.

Cos, you know we're still watching this space…

It happens quietly: every tool prices per seat, every seat is small, and each new hire adds five subscriptions that nobody ever revisits.

Then you add it up in a bad month and find the number is a junior salary, spread across products where half the features have never been opened.

A stack audit is one of the cheapest exercises a growing business can do, and the most affordable local alternatives are the ones you probably haven't heard of, because they aren't spending overseas ad budgets to reach you.

They are changing the game for local companies, though.

And they are on the Founder Stack instead.

A remote employee kept noticing the same colleagues getting stuck with awful early or late slots in recurring meetings across time zones. So they built a small meeting app add-in that rotates the time instead, so the pain gets shared around the team.

The lekker clever part:

✅ The awkward slot rotates between time zones automatically
✅ It lives right inside the app, where the meetings already are
✅ It’s an example of how tech can help teams manage with grace

They're still testing the edge cases, like daylight and working hours, but could be safely deployed without breaking the company’s tech stack.

What's your team building, and where are you hosting it?

Magic Safari spent two weeks building custom AI agents for its data work. Then it tried an off-the-shelf tool with a few text files and got about 90% of the result on the first attempt. So we asked the founder behind OfferZen why waiting often beats building.

And it turns out, there are 5 steps to run repetitive work without building your own AI agents.

🛒 Black Friday Starts Wednesday. Amazon SA kicks off an early Black Friday sale on 21 October, five weeks before the real thing, with up to 50% off. The discounts are great, but what you’re signing up to might be even better.

🚗 Your Bakkie Can Listen In. Researchers hacked a BYD Shark 6, the same bakkie sold here, to track it and switch on its microphone. Don't panic about steering just yet — the real risk is a lot closer to home.

💰 R811bn for the Public Good. Anthropic is putting 5% of its shares into a public benefit fund, worth about R811bn on paper, partly to tackle AI's impact on jobs. Big number, but the details that matter most haven't been published yet.

🎯 One Mom, Real Bookings. Udok targeted "families" and got nowhere. Then it zeroed in on the sandwich-generation SA mom and started booking real appointments, fast. DoubleShift shows you how to refocus on the one person who can't afford to ignore you.*

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

Yesterday, we featured Renier-Dot, Renier's personal AI agent, asking whether you'd let an AI assistant run your inbox. The bar, it turns out, is low…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤖 Yes, it can't be worse than me (45%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🙈 Only if it never replies as me (41%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👻 It'd quit after seeing my unread count (14%)

Your 2 cents…

Phew, Candy, that’s half a working day handed back to you. We'll take that trade. 📬

On 20 October 2016 (exactly 10 years ago), Uber's self-driving truck unit Otto and Budweiser completed the world's first commercial delivery by a self-driving truck.

So why isn't every truck driving itself today? Months later, Waymo (Google) sued Uber, claiming Otto's co-founder had walked off with its self-driving tech. Uber settled in 2018 by shutting down Otto and destroying all their tech. The idea survived, though: Aurora bought Uber’s self-driving unit in 2020, and rebuilt the tech.

It’s doing driverless truck runs across Texas as we speak, with more than 200 planned on the road by the end of 2026.

Optimising Operations in Notion with AI, 27 Oct, CPT: A live Notion and AI build session for ops people, at BBD in Century City. Apply here.

Biotech & Beers, 29 Oct, JHB: OneBio brings its informal biotech networking night to Joburg, no panels or pitching, at The Frog in Illovo. Get tickets.

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

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🧩 Tool to Try: AdsBench tracks millions of Meta ads and shows how many a store runs with the same creative, a real signal of scale the Meta Ad Library doesn't show.

🌍 That's Interesting: China has had several unauthorised Harry Potter books, including fakes like Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll, the Golden Turtle and, our favourite, the Big Funnel. What?