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The Founder Files
By MetavolveBusiness
The Founder Files episodes
- How to Properly Navigate Leadership Handovers - Nemanja Stabic & Dawie de Klerk, Digiata
Every business eventually reaches a pivotal moment: transitioning away from being heavily dependent on its founders. This phase often involves leadership handovers, which can be both challenging and transformative.
In this episode, we dive into this very process with Digiata, where Nemanja, the new CEO, joins us alongside Dawie, the co-founder and former Managing Director.Together, they share how they've successfully navigated this transition, from restructuring the organization and redefining decision-making processes to maintaining and evolving the company's culture. We also explore the dynamics between the CEO's vision and the founder's original vision for the business.This insightful conversation is packed with practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to manage leadership transitions effectively.Enjoy the episode!----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
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To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
02:58 What is Digiata?
10:28 How Digiata Got to This Point
18:56 Navigating Lockdown and How The Business Changed
29:30 How Nem Made it Easy to be Chosen For Leadership
33:30 What are the Leadership Traits That Dawie Saw in Nem
39:14 How Did the COO Role Turn into a CEO role
46:39 What Happened to Dawie’s MD Role Now That There is a CEO Role
50:14 What’s it Like to Take on So Much Responsibility?
59:25 How to Structure a Co-founder Relationship for Longevity
01:04:04 The New Organisational Structure and Where the Founding Team is Moving to
01:12:02 Power and Authority Challenges During This CEO Handover
01:18:14 Navigating This Change in Terms of Culture
01:20:22 Other Challenges Nem and Dawie Are Facing
01:23:35 How Does the Approach Towards Vision Shift Now?
01:26:01 Dawie’s Plans for the Future of Digiata
01:28:26 Advice to Anyone Going Through This Process
01:30:57 Conclusion
1 hr 34 min - How Two Entrepreneurs are Bringing Connectivity to Millions - Calvin Le Mottée & Wesley Dorning, Sebenza
Sebenza is making it possible for commuters to get free wifi in taxis and busses, in exchange for interacting with their platform. Whether that’s watching an ad, playing a game, or filling out a survey, users get rewards Sebenza bucks which they can they use to access the wifi in these vehicles.
In this episode, we chat with Calvin Le Mottée and Wesley Dorning, the co-founders of Sebenza.
Expect to learn:
- How they were able to find the fit in the market
- The balance between software and hardware
- How they navigated the complexity of building these offerings
- How they manage so much hardware in so many locations with such lean team
- What the 4 verticals that drive Sebenza are
And much more!
This is a very uniquely South African story, but one that is quite complex as well. Enjoy!
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This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
02:46 The Scale of Sebenza Today
03:50 The Business Model of Sebenza
08:27 The Founding Story
10:30 Where Does Revenue Come From?
12:43 How Sebenza Competes With Other Advertising Methods?
16:10 How Did Calvin & Wesley First Launch Sebenza?
21:40 The 4 Verticals That Drive Sebenza
35:25 Finding Product Fit
38:57 Managing Identity As Complexity Increases
41:00 How To Maintain Focus With so Many Opportunities
51:35 Becoming The Digitisation Partner For SANTACO And What That Unlocked
56:19 What Have The Investors Brought To The Table?
01:00:43 Managing Operational Complexity With A Small Team of 50
01:08:00 What Does The Organisational Structure Look Like?
01:09:07 Sebenza’s Sales Processes
01:12:45 How to Hand Over Relationships as You Scale And Remove Sales Dependence From The Founders
01:16:52 How Managing Culture Changes as You Grow
01:21:41 Sebenza’s Plans For 2025
01:24:22 The Importance of Having a Strong Network to Help You Solve Problems
1 hr 31 min - Pioneering Earned Wage Access in South Africa - paymenow
Welcome to the first episode of The Founder Files where we have 4 guests at once!
Today we get insights from the founders of paymenow, a fintech that has pioneered earned wage access in South Africa.Learn how they chose private equity over VC to secure the right investor, hit key milestones for early profitability, and simplified an incredibly complex product to unlock growth.We also dive into hard lessons from geographical expansion and how they turned mistakes into a scalable model.This episode is packed with insights on scaling smarter, staying lean, and building for success.----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:51 What does paymenow do?14:08 The founding story of paymenow19:44 Challenges in the 0-1 journey27:32 How does the money flow in the business?30:22 paymenow’s first investor48:49 Staying focused on the right thing before breaking even53:45 Paying school fees when expanding to Namibia01:02:07 Pros and cons of using a licensing model01:13:12 Product development approach to deal with complexity01:25:24 Complexities of having a multinational customer base01:29:36 Making the app data-free01:31:42 The future of paymenow01:34:12 Why paymenow has no COO1 hr 43 min - Biggest Challenges and Successes From South African Entrepreneurs
The last season of The Founder Files has seen some amazing success stories, but behind every success are the many challenges you often don’t hear about.
In this special montage episode, we highlight some of the biggest challenges and successes, and the lessons we can take away from them.Sit tight and enjoy the last episode of 2024!----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
01:10 Simon Hartley, Wumdrop04:06 Donald Valoyi, Zulzi12:29 Paul Cook, Silvertree Brands28:16 Why we created The Founder Files31:43 Steve Uria, Switch Playground41:18 Luke Jedeikin & Luke Hanan, Bash52 min - Moments That Blew Us Away - The Founder Files Highlights
Over the past episodes of The Founder Files, we've been inspired, amazed, and completely blown away by the stories and insights from some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in South Africa.
This special montage brings together the most jaw-dropping, game-changing, and unforgettable moments from our podcast.From Melvyn Lubegas's unique approach to B2B outreach that always gets a response, to Daniel Guasco going from 0 to exit in 156 days.This is sure to be an entertaining episode filled with the most awesome things we've heard this year.----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
01:47 Melvyn Lubega, Go109:20 Daniel Guasco, Team Africa Ventures29:43 Why we created The Founder Files33:10 Jan Parmentier, Supernova Brands39:58 Paul Raphaely, NOMU53:04 Greg Blend, Africrest Properties1 hr - Scaling a Non-profit Organisation - Tracey Chambers, Taking Care of Business
Today we're doing something different as we hear from a non-profit organisation for the first time on the podcast.
In this episode, we chat with Tracey Chambers, the co-founder and CEO of Taking Care of Business. TCB helps families escape the cycle of poverty by equipping unemployed and aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to unlock their full potential.
We get into the philosophy of why Tracey left her corporate job to start an NPO, and why you would start something where you’re helping other people with their wealth creation with a model where you are not able to create wealth for yourself—A fascinating perspective about fulfilment that will remind you why you are doing all of this.
We get into the practicalities of scaling this organisation—what made it unique, why it needed funding, how she set up her leadership team, the importance of systems, developing culture in new locations, and much more.
This is a great episode filled with practical lessons and great philosophies to shift your thinking.
----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:10 What is Taking Care of Business?20:16 Why choose to run an NPO32:02 Tracey’s mid-life crisis and why she left her high-paying job45:37 The mindsets and beliefs that hold first-time entrepreneurs back01:00:49 How Tracey scaled this from starting out of the back of an orphanage01:07:52 The most important things to consider when scaling01:16:00 How to ensure the culture is right in new branches01:21:57 What Tracey has in place to be able to personally role model culture at new branches while being CEO01:24:36 What does Tracey’s day-to-day look like?01:29:07 What does the future hold for Taking Care of Business?01:31:42 Would you take that jump again?1 hr 37 min - Bootstrapped to R2 Billion and Disrupting Banking Oligopolies - Harry Scherzer, Future Forex
Welcome to the 100th episode of The Founder Files!
It’s amazing to hit this century milestone and we’re excited to keep releasing more episodes and providing valuable conversations.Harry Scherzer, CEO and co-founder of Future Forex, joins us today to talk about his company which has grown to almost 100 people in just 4 years, processes R2 billion in transactions a month and is completely bootstrapped.In this conversation, we cover:- How have they managed to grow something so quickly out of the gate?- How their focus on customer service and experience has helped them stand out in the market while challenging the banking industry's oligopolies- Harry’s views on leadership, and how he navigates the uncomfortable parts- Finding the balance between gratitude and ambition, especially while his identity is so tied to the business.This episode looks at entrepreneurship both through a business lens and a human being perspective.----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:29 What is Future Forex?07:26 Scaling to 100 people in 4 years10:46 Developing a product with a lot of demand15:10 What is Future Forex’s competitive advantage17:29 How Future Forex started21:16 Is it possible to scale this internationally?27:00 Developing a second product and competing with major banks35:37 How to make better decisions when things are going wrong47:40 The importance of leave for the business52:48 How to tackle difficult conversations01:06:08 The importance of being grateful and achieving happiness01:13:39 Future Forex’s plans for 202501:18:58 Are you happy?1 hr 23 min - The Distributor Behind The World's Biggest Brands - Jan Parmentier, Supernova Brands
What does it take to become a trusted supplier for the world’s biggest brands and retailers?
In this episode, we sit down with Jan Parmentier, CEO and co-founder of Supernova Brands, a value-added distributor that supplies nearly all South Africa’s big retail chains.With over 1,500 products in circulation, Jan has spent the past decade building a deep understanding of the import/export industry. Now, they’re expanding into six Southern African countries while navigating the complexities of supply chain operations and market dynamics.Jan shares the challenges of shaping a strong company identity, the pivotal rebrand that unlocked new opportunities, and the personal journey of his co-founder stepping away and bringing on a private equity partner. From navigating industry complexity to lessons learned along the way, this episode offers a fascinating dive into the world of retail and distribution.Tune in to hear Jan’s insights on growth, resilience, and what it takes to succeed in one of the most demanding sectors of business.----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:38 What is Supernova Brands?11:13 The reason behind the B2B vs D2C approach19:12 Who is the main customer?24:32 Getting Disney and other big brands onboard and how it works31:21 How Jan scaled such a complicated business?41:31 The founding story of Supernova Brands49:00 Finding your identity as a business54:26 Rebranding to Supernova brands and what that changed01:00:11 Navigating co-founder share exit to private equity01:07:46 How did the private equity firm help?01:12:40 Choosing the right investor01:25:24 What’s in store for Supernova Brands01:27:53 Keeping entrepreneurship exciting1 hr 39 min - Rapid Scaling South Africa’s Largest D2C Solar Provider - Andrew Middleton, GoSolr
In just 3 years, GoSolr became the biggest direct-to-consumer solar provider in South Africa and has invested billions into rooftop residential solar.
Today, we have the privilege of hearing from Andrew Middleton, the CEO and co-founder of GoSolr. He'll share insights on how they've achieved their remarkable success and the key lessons he's learned along the way.We discuss the surge in demand during South Africa's worst load-shedding period and how the company had to pivot its sales approach as urgency declined.We explore the challenges of fundraising for a business with high-cost inventory—an intriguing conversation, given Andrew's background in investment banking.We get more into what the journey has been like rapid scaling to a 130-person business in just 3 years:- How to get teams thinking like founders, inspired by purpose, mission, and vision and the significant impact this alignment has had on Andrew’s business.- Managing outsourced installers.- Keeping up with high demand.- Maintaining stock levels.- Ensuring a quality customer experience while scaling rapidly.Amongst all that, Andrew shares his personal experiences within the company, including what turned out to be easier than expected, the toughest challenges, and key lessons learned along the way.----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
As we gear up for Season 5, we want to make sure each episode is as valuable as possible for you. Your feedback is key, so we’ve put together a quick survey to hear what you think.
So if you'd like to help make The Founder Files even better, please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey: https://tally.so/r/wgZ2d4
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:27 What is GoSolr?06:11 How did GoSolr fund this subscription model?15:22 What Andrew did to make it easy for investors to say yes19:57 Reopening the investment round to secure funding from African Rainbow Capital and its subsequent impact30:34 The impact of load shedding ending35:24 How GoSolr’s sales approach changed after load shedding ended?52:29 Why B2C and not B2B?55:37 The scale of GoSolr57:14 Challenges faced while scaling GoSolr01:04:55 Keeping up with high demand and rapid scale01:15:45 Maintaining a good customer experience working with external installers01:20:46 Creating a culture of ownership, care and intrinsic motivation01:29:39 What does the next 6 - 12 months look like for GoSolr?01:31:25 Where can you sign up for GoSolr?01:31:53 Outro1 hr 35 min - Scaling Africa's Largest Click and Collect Network - Lars Veul, Pargo
Online shoppers, stores and retail companies all love Pargo, a South African logistics company transforming the e-commerce landscape with over 4000 pickup points in South Africa and a recent 500 more in Egypt.
Today we are joined by Lars Veul, the co-founder and CEO of this rapidly growing business.Lars shares Pargo's journey—from founding to scaling—offering insights into their successes and missteps along the way.We explore how the Pargo team initially lost focus by trying to tackle new problems that customers brought to them. Lars explains how this shift impacted the business and, despite a financial setback, why they chose to double down on their core identity instead.Spoiler alert—the payoff was huge.We also delve into the strategic decision to expand into Egypt and the process of establishing 500 locations and appointing a managing director.This episode packs many lessons and experience-shares from an amazing entrepreneur running a great business. Enjoy!----
This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
----
As we gear up for Season 5, we want to make sure each episode is as valuable as possible for you. Your feedback is key, so we’ve put together a quick survey to hear what you think.
So if you'd like to help make The Founder Files even better, please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey: https://tally.so/r/wgZ2d4
----
To support The Founder Files:
🔔 Follow The Founder Files EVERYWHERE
⭐ Leave a review right here
💭 Share your thoughts on Linkedin and tag Cameron Coutts
----
00:00 Introduction
03:09 What is Pargo?19:00 The founding story of Pargo20:56 A look into Lars’ environment21:43 Finding product-market fit29:51 The difference between growing and scaling33:38 International expansion into Egypt41:43 The consequence of losing focus55:14 The mindset mistake South African founders make01:03:35 How Pargo decided which country to expand to01:07:18 How did Pargo actually expand into Egypt from the other side of the continent?01:14:40 What the next 6 - 12 months look like for Lars and Pargo1 hr 20 min
About The Founder Files
From the publisher's feed
Rated #1 Podcast for Entrepreneurs in South Africa in 2023 by Feedspot.
The Founder Files is where founders come to explore proven growth strategies and real entrepreneurial challenges.
Hosted by Cameron Coutts, each episode unpacks the complex journeys of scaling businesses, delivered by entrepreneurs who've walked the path. No script, no filter – just a fireside chat between growth-driven founders.
If you’re seeking practical advice and relatable stories to fuel your growth journey, this is your go-to resource. Subscribe now!