Ventureburn

Q&A: What Africa needs to do to build the next Facebook

I recently sat down with Seedstars World’s Marcello Schermer (pictured middle) and Gregory Pepper (pictured left). We spoke extensively about the startup pitching competition…

13 things I wish I’d known before starting a startup

I have been blessed to own several businesses in my time, working across industries and sectors, from sports to hospitality and property development. I…

LexNove is almost like Tinder for legal services

The founders of new South African attorney-to-client match-making platform LexNove have been involved in a couple of online legal-oriented ventures in the past few…

Building merchant-consumer trust is vital for ecommerce success

Trust: It may be a two-way street regarding interpersonal relationships, and challenging enough to maintain between human beings. But shift this intangible quality to…

Who will win the battle of Nigeria’s online classifieds?

First it was ecommerce with Jumia and Konga fighting neck-to-neck, then the attention went to the online marketplace space with the likes of Kaymu,…

Cracking the nut: An indie game startup’s mission to balance passion and profit

Starting your own video game startup is a tough nut to crack. Given South Africa’s relatively small online community and few investors looking at…

Springleap’s Trevor Wolfe talks agencies, startups, and pivots [Q&A]

For a long time now the line between startups and agencies has been blurring. With tech and product becoming so incorporated into daily operations…

10 tips for keeping your online shopping safe this festive season

‘Tis the season to be jolly careful when it comes to online shopping… South Africa sits in third place as one of the leading…

Meeting two worlds: iono.fm is your personal radio station on-demand

In today’s Uber-inspired world, everything seems to be on-demand. So why shouldn’t your radio be? After turning down three potential acquisitions, South African PVR-for-radio…

Can i-Pay boost SA’s ecommerce by making EFTs cool?

Online payment gateways play a crucial role in driving ecommerce in South Africa and the whole world for that matter. The right gateways can…

Here are 5 tips to make your biotech startup leaner

Building a biotechnology startup is a lot like getting a private university education: To make progress, you have to get past the high-cost barrier…

Startup 90: SA’s new accelerator looking for the startup recipe of success

Startup accelerators are tricky things. The idea of putting together some business fundamentals for a company in a couple of months sounds crazy, yet…

How can online retailers optimise operations this Christmas season?

With festive season shopping now in full swing, some online retailers are discovering too late that they can become victims of their own success….

Just how badly does your startup need that investment?

Quora raises millions (both dollars and questions). Facebook buys WhatsApp for billions. Uber gets another trillion in investment and is now “worth” a quintillion….

Dragons’ Den SA episode 12: going out with a bang

The first season of Dragons’ Den SA is over. Throughout its course, the dragons have given away millions, laughed some horrendous ideas out of…

DroneScan: the startup using flying ‘copters to manage your stock

Data management can make or break a business. Especially when it comes to big companies, refining a simple process could save you millions. It’s…

Guns and Rain: an art gallery that inhabits the contours of online space

Guns and Rain founder Julie Taylor’s oldest art memory is of drawing dinosaur stencils. That memory, wrapped up as it is in the imagination…

10 tips for keeping your ecommerce startup safe this festive season

It’s the end of the year and it’s time to shop. If you own an e-commerce platform or sell stuff online you are probably…

Euphoria Telecom: the startup that’s bringing cloud calling to SMEs in style

With the popular David and Goliath theme of a hungry tech startup looking to disrupt, Cape Town, South Africa-based VoIP (voice over internet protocol)…

Beyond the handshakes: Ventureburn goes behind the scenes on SA Florist’s Dragons’ Den deal

When it was announced that the international phenomenon that is Dragons’ Den was coming to South Africa I, for one, was sceptical about how…

Dragons’ Den SA episode 11: stop and smell the flowers

As an entrepreneurial show, Dragons’ Den SA is mostly there for the entertainment value. You only have to look at the similarities between the…

3 ways to go about hiring foreign skills for your SA startup

Even before I was involved in the tech entrepreneur scene in SA and before I ran an immigration and visa services firm, I noticed…

Vouch wants to change the face of mobile advertising in SA using rewards

Apart from the heaps of phones active in the market, South Africa’s mobile space is becoming more and more exciting. With a growing middle…

ASUS and AMD Launch AI-Driven Expert P Series PCs for South African SMBs

Calls vs Puts: Understanding the Two Types of Options

HONOR celebrates Amajita’s AFCON win with 400 Lite smartphone drop