Startup Circle South Africa

Episode 11 : Ekaya Just where is the line that separates success and failure? Joining Steve in studio we have Justin Melville and Ruark Ferreira, founders of Ekaya, a tech platform that solves the pain of property rentals in South Africa. At 35,000 searches each month Ekaya is a established tech business; but today we'll also be talking about Airborne a concept that today can be likened to Patreon - tech platform that streamlines the revenue model for content creators. Justin and Ruark founded Airborne before Ekaya. Airborne shut its's doors in 2011 after just two years of operation, although it had a number of early adopters. Join us as we find the line that separates success and failure as we explore the differences in the journey of Ekaya and Airborne. To find out more about Ekaya: www.ekaya.com Reach out to Steve : steve@rentcraft.io / Instagram: iSteveZA

Episode 10 : WEEF In one of the most inspirational episodes to date, Steve caught up with founder of Handmade leather tie phenomenon, WEEF, Dévan Swanepoel. Naming inspired by the Afrikaans translation for the word "Weave", Dévan has taken a simple product, such as leather ties, bow ties and pocket squares and built a global brand for his business, with a founder story that'll inspire you to follow your dreams without wasting another day. Keep a close ear out to our podcast competition, where we are giving away WEEF items to the value of R1,500. To find out more about WEEF : za.weefwear.com To contact Steve: steve@rentcraft.io / Instagram: iSteveZA

Episode 9: PetHeaven The .com bubble has inspired many budding entrepreneurs to create their own e-commerce platform, but in South Africa just how profitable is e-commerce and the dream of building an exponentially growing business without a physical store. Steve catches up with Schalk Kearney, founder of a SA e-commerce company PetHeaven on how he turned the business of pet food into a profitable operation. To find out more about PetHeaven: www.petheaven.co.za To find out more about Startup Circle: www.rentcraft.io/podcast To reach out to Steve: hello@rentcraft.io / instagram: iSteveZA

Episode 8: The origin of AlwaysOn Few would be unfamiliar with the hotspot name AlwaysOn, commonly found in your local coffee shop, restaurant or while traveling within South Africa. Today AlwaysOn is an ISP, there are many others out there just like it - but in the early 21st century before, before wifi was common place, AlwaysOn was founded making it one of the earliest tech businesses in South Africa. Steve caught up with Founder Nico Pretorius on how he built one of SA's earliest tech businesses, a company that has stood the test of time and is still in existence today. To see more Startup Circle episodes and content: www.rentcraft.io/podcast To reach out to Steve: hello@rentcraft.io / instagram: iSteveZA

Episode 7: Custos Solving online piracy through leveraging digital watermarking tech and blockchain. In this episode of Start-up Circle we focus on how to launch a state of the art tech product to a market that doesn't yet know what the solution to their problem looks like and how an SA founded business geared themselves to expand their product offering and close an investment round in the USA. Founder Gert-Jan Van Rooyen joins us via Skype. To find out more about Custos: https://goo.gl/Zktcmk To see more Startup Circle episodes and content: www.rentcraft.io/podcast To reach out to Steve: hello@rentcraft.io / instagram: iSteveZA