If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.
- Ernest Hemingway

I have so much to say. So many things that I would like to weigh in on. Whenever I get the urge to blog, I map out the post in my head. I start writing the blog post and then after writing for quite a while, I save the post as a draft and never get around to publishing it.

The problem I have is one of “insecurity”, for lack of a better word. In most of my posts I strive to get a point of view across. However once I near the end, I start to attack my own post from the point of view of someone with a differing opinion. I then try and close all the gaps in the post in order to prevent someone from counter arguing or arguing with semantics. It becomes too tiring and eventually I give up on the post.

The real motivation for me preventing confrontation is not out of fear but rather me being too tired to justify myself. So I take the time to try and prevent that. I guess it’s kind of pointless in a way as the post never ends up being published. Perhaps I should just disable comments?

Another minor problem I have is that I assume what I want to write about is pretty obvious and that people already know what I’m writing about. I know this isn’t always true. However, I spend a lot of time consuming content and I often get the impression that I might not be really adding anything new – even when I add my own opinion or insight.

I don’t know, perhaps somewhere I just got some kind of writer’s block. It’s going to stop though. I am going to make time and publish posts that might not be bullet proof (IMHO). All I know is that I really enjoy blogging and I shouldn’t make it anymore complicated than it really is, because it isn’t. Expect some drafts to be published and a whole lot of opinion and insight from me, whether you like it or not.

I remember when I bought my Nokia N95 8GB. I can compare the feeling to when I got my first iPhone. In fact, it took me a while to switch from my N95 to my iPhone. I really wasn’t sure about the whole touch screen interface and everything on my N95 just worked. It had a better camera, it worked as my 3G modem, it had apps I used often, and it also just felt right. I can’t explain it, but I was emotionally attached to this device because it was just brilliant.

I’ve used many Nokia devices since the N95, either as a testing device or by playing around with a friend or colleague’s phone. I have yet to experience a Nokia device as magical as the N95. I know most people have heard that the Nokia Lumia is a wonderful device but quite frankly it’s not!

You see, the N95 came from years of both failure and progress with the long line of mobile phones Nokia had created over the years. It’s as if they took the best features from their range of phones and put them into one device. It had no real competitors, it was in a class of its own. Nokia led the pack and everyone else was playing catch up (until the iPhone 3G).

I just don’t get that feeling with the Lumia or any other Nokia device. I love the fact that the N95 was so bold, so different and so great. When it comes to Nokia’s current offerings, I can tell they are constantly playing catch-up. All they’ve been able to achieve with the Lumia is better sameness.

Why was the N95 Nokia’s last great phone? Well, it might not be and I hope I am wrong. However Nokia are playing catch up by creating devices they think people want due to Apple’s success with the iPhone and other handset manufacturers’ success with Android. I also think that the decision to run Windows Mobile on their devices was a bad one. I really think Nokia could do better without Microsoft.

And lastly, because I don’t think they have anyone internally who is willing to create the next curve, to trail blaze, to be bold and create the next truly great device. They are playing it safe. Like I said, I hope I am wrong.

Side Note: Firstly, this post was inspired by Stephen’s suggestion to get a Nokia Lumia as replacement to my now broken iPhone (dropped it). Secondly, I am aware of the African smartphone, feature phone and dumb phone dilemma where the the smartphone doesn’t really feature – but that’s not important here.

When I was a 35 year old CEO, I knew everything. Now I’m a 58 year old CEO and there’s rafts of things I don’t know.
- Howard Diamond

If you have attended an event where entrepreneurs are bound to be lurking, you will undoubtedly notice they are the most optimistic people ever. It’s their job to be right? They have to exude confidence in what they are doing because they are always selling, even when they aren’t.

However what you probably might not know and rarely see are the moments when the most confident and even the most successful entrepreneurs doubt themselves. The reason you don’t see it often is because they are masters at hiding it. In fact, I doubt myself quite often but you wouldn’t notice it because I never show it. I’ll explain in moment how I deal with doubt and uncertainty.

It’s an unwritten rule that entrepreneurs should always show that they are certain about what they are doing. Unfortunately doubt and uncertainty could be seen as a weakness and if customers, employees or investors sense that the entrepreneur is not in control it could lead to disaster (or so us entrepreneurs think).

I think that doubt should be seen as an asset to entrepreneurs and can be leveraged as such. Every entrepreneur should have a core group of people around him that he trusts to share his doubts with, who can often add valuable advice and perspective. However if you don’t have that core group yet or don’t want to bother them with every case of self doubt, here is how I often deal with doubt internally.

1. Dealing with Fear & Worst Case Scenario

I think most entrepreneurs’ doubt stems from the fear of failure. Am I good enough? Will this work? What happens if it doesn’t work? We all ask ourselves these questions, it’s only natural. At some point you need to get comfortable in dealing with fear and the best way to do this is to understand your worst case scenario. I have already experienced my worst case scenario before and I would be comfortable experiencing it again – therefore the only way for me is forward!

2. Knowing What You Don’t Know

I often find that I only doubt something because I am uncertain about a specific area of expertise or how something works. I will then spend time figuring out what I need to know and educate myself, thanks to Google University. If I am unable to educate myself sufficiently I will then seek out someone who can assist. Over time I have become more aware of what I don’t know and have realised that it’s impossible for me to know everything and always have the right answers – and I have become comfortable with that.

3. Play Devils Advocate

When I am in doubt I like to play devil’s advocate in order to asses the reason for doubt. Often attacking issues from different perspectives can add clarity. It’s not an easy task because you have to be honest with yourself and it will take time for you to become better at it. It’s definitely a skill worth teaching yourself.

4. Forget the Hype & Don’t Take Things Too Seriously

I know this isn’t easy but sometimes you need to realise that you can’t control everything. Don’t take everything too seriously. Let things go and let the world figure it out for you, which can often work out better. Remove yourself from the environment that is causing you to doubt yourself and go do what makes you happy. You can always come back to it later but constantly fretting over something will only cause you to stress more which isn’t conducive to solving your problems.

In closing, don’t be afraid to doubt yourself. I think there is something wrong if you don’t experience doubt every now and again. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be certain about things, I’m just saying don’t be afraid to doubt yourself. Once you become more comfortable with doubt, it will be easier for you to be more optimistic as you will be more confident and secure in yourself as an entrepreneur.

What I have realised is that Aduity was much like a first girlfriend, you know – your “first love”. However, once you have parted ways, you realise that you never really knew what love was but you now have a slightly more mature understanding. I think somewhere along the line the long term vision of Aduity was lost and therefore it ultimately never made any meaning (nor was it going to based on the new direction).

I’m not sure I want to build a startup around another “me too” idea. I’m not sure how important aggregating social commerce status updates from multiple platforms via mobile is (hint: sarcasm)? I’ve learned that startups are an order of magnitude harder to build than you expect.

I’ve slowly stopped exploring the ideas in the first category and have started thinking more deeply about the ideas I have placed into the second category. If I am to pursue an idea in the second category, I know that I will need to emotionally and psychologically prepare myself for the long haul. While the beginning might be humble and there might be no justification that I am on the right track for some time, I still need to maintain conviction that I am on the right track. I know it’s not easy because I’ve been there before.

I know ideas are a dime a dozen and that it all comes down to execution. However at the same time great execution on a crap idea still makes it a crap idea. And that is why I want to ensure I pursue the right idea. The idea that inspires me every day, the idea that I can build a great team around, the idea that makes meaning and then money, the idea that I fall in love with.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
- Michael Jordan

It was mid 2008 and Younique was doing reasonably well. However, I had an itch that I needed to scratch. I wanted to build a mobile advertising platform – think DoubleClick meets AdMob. At the time the mobile advertising market wasn’t as competitive as it is today. Towards the end of 2008, I decided to forgo the R3m+ revenue Younique was likely to generate for 2009, shut it all down and found what would today be known as Aduity.

Unfortunately things haven’t turned out as planned. I’m not going to go through exactly what went wrong, it’s still a little too early. However, as the founder, I have to take responsibility for the failure irrespective of what went wrong. I am publishing this because I want to force myself to become more comfortable with failure and to also encourage other tech entrepreneurs to share their failure(s).

1. Great Technology isn’t the Silver Bullet

We built some great technology. I think the most impressive piece of technology we developed was a version of iAd for Nokia devices, which was no easy task. Unfortunately you need more than technology. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. It is important to pay attention to market timing, sales and marketing that equals, if not trumps, your product development efforts.

2. Release Early, Release Often

It’s something that has been said over and over again, but when you’re in the driving seat it’s easier said than done. I am a perfectionist and want things to be perfect. We had our first trial run after 3 months of development but it took us almost a year to put out our first major release (and quietly too). After a few months it was clear that our mediation layer feature was most used, so we ended up ditching everything else and turning the mediation layer into the product. If we released earlier, we would have known that sooner and saved ourselves precious time and wasted code.

3. Raising Capital is Time & Energy Consuming

I wasn’t 100% familiar with the process of raising capital until I actually did. It takes time to find the right investors, never mind those who will actually back you. It takes time to negotiate the term sheet. Once you’ve got a signed term sheet, there’s still due diligence, then drafting of agreements and once those are signed, you finally get the money. In an ideal world it should take less than 3 months (once you’ve got a yes), but it can take up to 6 months and in some cases longer. It is time and energy consuming and will affect you and your team as it remains top of mind.

4. It’s a Priceless Learning Experience

I can only become a better entrepreneur by learning from both success and failure. Arguably you learn more from failure. I would have preferred to fail faster, but then I would have missed out on some of the other learning opportunities. I have definitely learned to manage a team of developers and designers much better. I am now more intimately familiar with the process of raising capital. I have also picked up a few more skills along the way and more importantly have learned and grown more than I had expected to.

Conclusion

One might think that I have wasted almost 3 years and the large sum of capital I personally committed. One might think I was foolish to even attempt it in the first place. I like to look at this way. I have no regrets. I was able to pursue an idea that allowed me to meet incredible people along the way that have contributed to my growth as an individual. I have failed at a young age, and might do so again, but everything I go through now makes me a better entrepreneur – like wine I get better with time!

We chatted about how both iThawt and Compass came about and how they convinced an impressive client list to host important documentation in the cloud. We also discussed how they solved their problem of subscription billing and how they went about determining their monthly subscription prices for iThawt.

I was particularly interested to hear how iThawt pivoted and their future plans of introducing social business into the platform. Even though iThawt has only recently launched, I was impressed with it after playing around with it for a while. Chris and Jean would really love feedback so they can progress in the right direction, so sign-up and give it a go.

Before I go any further, I would first like to commend Herman Heunis who certainly risked it all. I am personally inspired by him and after 6 years of hard work, I hope he enjoys his well deserved break.

Since news of the acquisition broke there have been more questions than answers. Why did Naspers sell? Is it because they don’t see a future for MXit? What will Alan do at MXit? Is he aware of BBM, WhatsApp and all the other competing mobile IM services?

I am going to take a step back and first look at how BBM ate MXit’s lunch and why it lost out on smartphones. Essentially there are two important reasons why MXit lost ground to BlackBerry’s BBM.

1. Device Integration with Push Notifications
2. BlackBerry Internet Services

MXit’s biggest problem was that you had to keep the application open in order to receive messages. They tried SMS notifications in the early days, but that obviously became too expensive. And this is where BlackBerry moved in. BBM has tight integration with the device and therefore they have made BBM work just like SMS. I can close the application and receive a notification (just like SMS) when I receive a new message. Obviously this is coupled with their BIS offering which gives you unlimited data for around R59 per month (although that might change).

I used to be an avid MXit user until I got an iPhone. MXit’s biggest strength was (and still is) in being able to support thousands of devices, predominantly low-end devices or feature phones. However they were very slow to adopt smartphone platforms (iOS and Android) and when they did, the experience could have been better in my opinion. It felt as if I was still using an old application, it just didn’t feel as easy to use or as well designed as the competing applications. However, their metrics didn’t show that smartphone platforms where that important did they?

So yes, it is widely known that MXit has faced some stiff competition in the smartphone space, especially from BlackBerry. It also appears that BlackBerry will continue to grow in South Africa. Ah, South Africa? We shouldn’t forget that MXit is a global company. We need to take the other markets they operate in into account. I don’t have statistics available, but I know they have experienced massive growth in Southeast Asia and other developing markets over the last few years. With 40 million users and 14 million of them in South Africa, you can do the math.

The MXit Opportunity

Alan has mentioned that there is a window of opportunity to get MXit’s “ducks in a row”. And this is where some people ask isn’t it too late? I definitely don’t think so. Essentially MXit are in the perfect position to stage a comeback over the next few years and become a dominate player in mobile IM space globally (yes, I am ignoring the “social network” part of MXit).

I think that Alan will be looking to the rest of Africa for new growth (without excluding the rest of the world). Using MXit’s biggest strength, support for thousands of low-end / feature phones and now Alan’s network too. What about smartphones? I mean feature phones won’t be around forever right? This is the comeback opportunity I’ve been alluding to. Smartphones are becoming cheaper and will become more widespread in developing markets over the next few years. MXit will need to leverage this change over. With their large user base, if done right, they can make it happen.

I don’t know why Naspers sold, maybe Herman wanted to leave and they didn’t want MXit without him? Perhaps Alan made the right offer. All I know is that the future potential of MXit is immense. If somebody had to ask me if the acquisition was worth the money, I would reply by saying definitely! Remember, I touched on the instant messaging service. MXit has additional products, and as they grow the potential for solving problems like mobile banking throughout Africa (even globally) become possible. Maybe they will go head-to-head with Facebook.

Update: Arthur Goldstuck has interviewed Alan Knott-Craig on the future of MXit and it seems I wasn’t too far off on my analysis.

Now before I carry on, I’d like to reiterate the definition of innovation I subscribe to, which can be found in a recent post where I share my thoughts on innovation in South Africa. I would also like to mention that I think Koos is probably one of the few high profile executives in South Africa that “get” this space. One just needs to look at the Naspers tech investment portfolio to understand that.

I agree with Koos’s sentiment. Almost no transformational innovation in the online space has come from South Africa. We only see incremental innovation, clones of services from abroad. Now I maintain that a market will justify clones and that there is nothing wrong with them. However, I think Koos (and myself) would like to see the next Facebook, Twitter, Square or PayPal come from South Africa and more importantly more tech entrepreneurs along the lines of a Sean Parker, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Serg Brin (to name but a few).

I would like to explain why we haven’t seen this transformational change come from South Africa. I hope my perspective from the front line as a tech entrepreneur will add some context. I think the problem doesn’t lie with every tech entrepreneur but more so our conditions and circumstances.

Koos outlines the characteristics of internet entrepreneurs as “young, men, who are geeks and engineers”. Now that describes me. So why haven’t I invented the next big thing that will take the internet world by storm? Even if I did come up with the ideas, and trust me I have bag full, unfortunately the gate keepers are still older people – guys like Koos, except they don’t “get” it.

Do you really think Facebook, Twitter or YouTube would have survived and become as successful as they are if they came from South Africa? I will wager anyone that they would have all done much worse. Can you imagine somebody actually investing in a website that allows people to post what they are doing in 140 characters? I can’t.

And that’s the point. Often we don’t even know what innovation looks like until it succeeds. It requires failure, as Koos mentioned, and it requires betting on unknowns. I have yet to see a South African investor or startup that is playing in the unknown, because our culture is too risk averse. And more importantly, we have no eco-system to support the anomalies and those who fail.

The reason Silicon Valley is so successful at producing innovative internet companies is because it has rich people and nerds who take risks (coupled with great education and bandwidth). However the culture is all about moving forward, building the next big thing and everybody works in tandem to achieve this. Nerds have ample access to capital, even for the dumbest ideas, and are allowed to fail time and time again.

I know there are many factors that contribute to the success of an innovative startup or technology. However I feel strongly that access to the right capital and culture (pro-risk / acceptance of failure) are the biggest hindrances to our internet innovation. Everybody is too focussed on being precise when what we need is the ability to experiment, which would be far more progressive and probably more capital efficient too. And I’ll say it again, we need more technology incubators (like Y Combinator and TechStars).

In closing, I think we will get there. It will just take time, everything is slowly coming together. I know that I am hungry and my ambition for tech startups will never fade – I hope to play a role in the tech scene, both in continuously founding startups whether I fail or succeed and at some point investing in them too.

Side Note: I tried to be a bit controversial on purpose and some statements were absolute but please try and read between the lines and not troll on every single point. Also, this was written between 02h00 and 04h00 so be kind on spelling and grammar mistakes.

In this first episode of withTy I sat down with Jaco van Wyk and Josh Yudaken the founders of SnapBill, an automated billing system, based in Pretoria (and soon Cape Town).

We chatted about how the company was founded, how they were able to finance the company and some of the challenges they have had along the way. I also asked them about their recent experience of pitching at Y Combinator and TechCrunch Disrupt.

Side Note: It is the first recording, so it isn’t perfect. I have learned a few lessons, the first being that cellphones should be switched off as there is some cellphone interference. I’ve also edited out some banter. I’d love to hear thoughts and feedback though.

Before I go into detail, I would like to state that I subscribe to the definition of innovation as defined by Douglas Merrill (former CIO of Google) which is:

1. Incremental Innovation – Small changes to a process or system, for example evolution.
2. Incremental Innovation with Side Affect(s) – Small changes to a process or system with side affects, for example the opposable thumb.
3. Transformation Change – An introduction of a new process or system that fundamentally changes the way things work. Alternatively, a change to a process or system that has significant impact. For example Google’s introduction of the auction / pay per click model for online advertising.

Even though it is a few years old, I suggest watching a video on innovation by Douglas Merrill. It will certainly give you insight into innovation at Google (a few years back).

Firstly, the internet has brought about a wonderful opportunity, not only to South Africans, but to anyone around the world with access to it. It allows individuals and organisations to communicate and transact across borders with ease (compared to even 25 years ago). Therefore I don’t believe anybody should be discouraged from attempting to satisfy a need in a foreign market, if they have the ability and resources to do so.

Mark Shuttleworth was able to cure a global itch from his garage in Cape Town and it certainly paid off for him. I am extremely glad nobody discouraged him from focussing on Thawte, to rather focus on “African problems”. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had the capital to start Canonical, the company behind the Linux based operating system Ubuntu (now the most used Linux distribution globally).

Secondly, I agree that mobile has a larger presence in South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world. And if we go a step further, I also agree that smartphones have less penetration in Africa than feature phones. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t significant market opportunity in the smartphone space locally.

I think FNB has shown the above to be true by launching a mobile banking application for Android and iPhone. A move that has allowed them to tap into a market of around 250 000 people, and once the BlackBerry version is available that figure will be over 1 million. By 2014, it’s projected that 80% of South Africans will own smartphones. We all know how fast Android is growing.

I need not say much more, a good innovation focused towards future potential. Not everything needs to make complete sense today in order to make sense tomorrow. In fact many could argue that most innovation doesn’t seem to be innovation at first.

Thirdly, I think South Africans are innovators by nature. I could cite Elon Musk, but that won’t make my point. In fact, I’d like to make a different point. Innovation isn’t always cheap. Many large organisations see innovation as a tax, because innovation is often prone to trial and error. Innovation isn’t often achieved in the first iteration.

Therefore if we couple the lack of or intense requirement of resources (capital, skills, infrastructure, etc) and high failure rates within innovation, we can easily see why many people and organisations are prone to ignore their natural calling to innovate and take the safer option, which is to do what works (perhaps imitate?).

I personally don’t see anything wrong with imitating what works. Zynga is notorious for imitating and they haven’t done too bad (different topic though). Let us not forget that Facebook was not the first social network and Google was not the first search engine. I think that a market will justify a clone. In most cases the clone offers some kind of incremental innovation, albeit be it localised only (see Baidu).

Lastly, I think South Africa is heading in the right direction. We are slowly seeing changes in regulation and our internet infrastructure has made leaps and bounds over the last few years. I believe we are slowly making progress with regards to capital, although I would like to see more technology incubators. I think we have some great innovations out there, in the works and better yet – still to come!