The Naked Economy

Mamakashaka, started by Nandi Dlepu, is a creative agency based in Johannesburg. They have made it their mission to create beautiful, authentic and meaningful experiences and content for individuals, brands and communities within the arts, culture and lifestyle spaces. Listen to Nandi's story of how she got started on the journey of transforming events. Naked Insurance

Vula is an app that puts primary healthcare workers directly in touch with on-call specialists. It's the brainchild of Dr William Mapham, who conceived the idea while working in rural Swaziland and experiencing first-hand the difficulties faced by rural health workers when they need specialist advice. Listen to his personal journey and what inspired him to dedicate his career to giving health workers – particularly those in remote rural areas – a tool that helps to get patients quick and efficient specialist care. Naked Insurance

Art class takes on a new meaning when it’s designed to equip kids for thinking outside the box, and for being relevant in future. But what makes this business really special is the innovative franchise model, with all the prep (the curriculum) and the admin (payments etc.) automated and built into a smart online system. This business is booming because they make it so easy for other people to become entrepreneurs. Naked Insurance

“Build a business that solves a problem you have”. This age-old advice served to be critical for these young mavericks who believed there had to be a better way of connecting investors with aspiring entrepreneurs. And using new tech it simplifies, refines and accelerates the process of both - finding investment for entrepreneurs and finding investment opportunity for investors. Naked Insurance

Shane turns the tables on Ernie and gets him to tell his own story – how he learnt from the inside why there is usually so little love for insurance companies... and how he discovered that it could be so much better. It's a redemptive tale of second chances and finding opportunities to do something different and meaningful. Naked Insurance

Got milk and bread? Spaza shops solve many people's problems every day. So what happened when the spaza shops realised they had a problem? One man had the perfect solution. Imagine how powerful the inspiration is if seeing the struggles of your dad leads you to build a business that directly solves those problems for the community you're from. Naked Insurance

All coffee shops are more or less the same, right? Well... maybe not. Discover the story of a business producing quality as a direct result of the way it treats its staff. In this first episode we explore whether The Whippet meets the criteria to become part of the Naked Economy. Naked Insurance

Hosted by successful tech entrepreneur Ernest North, together with rocker and all round whacky creative Shane Durrant (lead singer of the band Desmond and the Tutus), each episode of the Naked Economy involves the raw, behind-the-scenes story of a business that thinks outside the box, and the people that make it work.