Six Cape Town-based startups all making revenue presented their business models and visions at the first ST4GE event last night.
Organised by Jess Green, founder of Perk and a board member at Silicon Cape, the evening at Bandwidth Barn was designed to celebrate and give further exposure to small businesses which are now in the revenue stage – stage four, according to Green.
He said: “In South Africa it is difficult to get investment if you just have a good idea. What you really need to have is revenue. It is a very good sign that what you are offering is real.”
Elodie Kleynhans, managing director, presented from Blink Tower, which creates “animated explainer videos” for businesses.
Their clients already include Mxit and Zando, while Vodacom commissioned another nine videos after being impressed by a shotgun production from Blink Tower.
Here is one of their videos explaining what they do:
In an effort to produce a scalable model, the company has now launched a marketing service alongside their video production which will place the video in front of the right audience at the right time
Kleynhans said this is how they expected to grow the business.
Next up was Sebastien Lacour, managing director at PayGenius, which provides payment solutions for e-commerce websites.
Their products include the PayGenius digital wallet and a certified payment gateway called Smart Payments. The company, which was founded in 2010, already has a partnership with Absa.
Leen Remmelzwaal, director at Santiware, explained how his company offers product development support to startups and entrepreneurs at cost price, but take an equity share in the business.
Remmelzwaal said: “We love visionaries. We take these guys idea and help them take it to market.
“A visionary needs capital and development and the latter is where we come in.”
Santiware has already partnered with Perk and Howzit in South Africa.
Another business targeting startups is Dylan Kohlstadt’s marketing and digital agency Shift One.
Kohlstadt said: “We partner with entrepreneurs who want to develop their product, but don’t have time for their marketing.
“Most of these clients have this faith, which is quite touching, that if you build it they will come.”
Shift One’s clients include webafrica, the Bandwidth Barn and The League of Beers.
Also presenting was Clandestine Insights’ latest product Secret Agent and Stribal, a portal which connects international buyers and companies to hand made African craft artists.
