"A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is" - Seneca

July, 2011

TrustFabric – Most Ambitious Startup Ever

I think TrustFabric has to be the most ambitious and most important tech startup to ever come out of South Africa. I’m not going to lie, I am in love with the idea. However, the challenge it faces is huge and I believe its over night success will be measured in years.

TrustFabric aims to solve the sweet spot of CRM and VRM, but from the consumer side. Essentially, you keep your personal data up-to-date in one place and TrustFabric allows organisations you have a relationship with to sync that data. Additionally, you can limit what information organisations have access to and TrustFabric will also verify organisations to ensure they are legitimate.

Before Pitching Venture Capitalists

It’s easy to romanticise about starting a tech startup. We all know there is significant opportunity for technology startups to make a difference across all industries, and even to create new ones. Isn’t that why we start them? We stumble upon a grand idea and pursue it with entrepreneurial optimism. We do all the math, we convince our friends and family that we are not crazy and that our goals are achievable.

When it comes down to executing on your idea, you will most likely require some form of startup capital. It would be ideal for yourself and your fellow co-founders to self fund. If you can bootstrap your way to success, then by all means go ahead as you might be better off. However some ideas need a little more capital to get going in the early stages (and maybe even more later on).

I thought I would share a few pointers on how to prepare before you go on the venture capital hunt. A few might seem obvious or even a waste of time, but I assure you when things get going it’s easy to slip up and you will be glad you were prepared.