New cohort starts March 2025 – Early access to financial planning workshops for founders
Real talk about bootstrapping, raising capital, and managing cash flow when you're building something from scratch. We've been there—nervous bank meetings, pitch deck revisions at midnight, saying no to things we really wanted because the numbers just didn't work yet. This is what we learned along the way, written for founders in South Africa who are figuring it out as they go.
These pieces come from real questions we get asked regularly. Some of them reflect mistakes we made ourselves. Others are patterns we noticed working with early-stage businesses across Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria over the past few years.
Equity splits cause more startup deaths than most people admit. Here's how to have that uncomfortable conversation before it turns into a legal nightmare—or worse, a friendship-ending blowout.
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We've watched companies pull through with six weeks of cash remaining. It required brutal honesty, quick decisions, and letting go of plans that felt essential just days before. This isn't theory—it's what actually worked.
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Most founders think investors aren't replying because their product isn't good enough. Usually that's not it. After reviewing hundreds of decks from South African startups, we noticed the same fixable problems showing up again and again.
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Both options are painful in different ways. Bootstrapping means slower growth and personal financial stress. Raising money means giving up control and living with quarterly pressure. Here's how to pick your poison wisely.
Read moreThis gets awkward fast. One founder has savings and can go six months without income. Another has a bond payment due every month. Pretending everyone's situation is the same creates resentment.
We've seen teams handle this openly by documenting different salary needs upfront and adjusting equity accordingly. It's uncomfortable but way better than the alternative—which is usually one founder quietly burning through savings while pretending everything's fine.
Your first paying customer feels incredible. Then you realize you didn't discuss payment terms, your bank account isn't set up properly, and SARS registration is still pending.
Set up the boring administrative stuff before you need it. Business bank account, invoicing system, basic bookkeeping structure—even if you're still working your day job. Future you will be grateful you did this on a calm Tuesday instead of in a panic when money's actually on the table.
You don't need to become an accountant. But you do need to understand what your burn rate actually means, why profit and cash aren't the same thing, and how to spot trouble before it becomes a crisis.
Spend an afternoon learning the basics. Know the difference between your income statement and balance sheet. Understand what gross margin tells you about your business model. This knowledge pays for itself the first time you catch an expensive mistake early.
Taking money from people you know can save your business. It can also ruin relationships if things go sideways—and statistically, things often go sideways with startups.
Be brutally honest about risks. Put everything in writing. Make sure they can genuinely afford to lose what they're investing. If hearing "I lost all that money" from your uncle at Christmas would destroy you emotionally, don't take his check.
You need a financial model before you can have intelligent conversations with potential investors or make smart decisions about hiring. It doesn't need to be complicated—just realistic enough to help you think through scenarios and spot problems.
Don't guess at everything. You know your current costs. You know what you're charging customers or planning to charge. You know your co-founder's salary requirements. Start there and build out from real numbers, not aspirational ones. Your model should reflect reality as it exists today, then show what needs to change.
How much cash leaves your account every month just to keep existing? Include everything—salaries, software subscriptions, office space, that coffee meeting budget you keep exceeding. Then track how this changes as you grow. Burn rate isn't static, and pretending it is will get you into trouble.
Your realistic scenario should be what you genuinely believe will happen based on current trajectory. Optimistic assumes a few things break your way. Pessimistic accounts for Murphy's Law—delays, higher costs, slower sales. Most businesses end up somewhere between realistic and pessimistic, so plan accordingly.
At what point do you run out of money in each scenario? When do you need to make a hire to keep growing? What revenue level makes the business sustainable without outside funding? These inflection points determine your strategy and help you avoid crisis mode decision-making when the pressure's on.
A financial model from three months ago is fiction. Reality never matches predictions perfectly. Update your model monthly with actual numbers, adjust your assumptions based on what you're learning, and recalculate your scenarios. This discipline catches problems early when you can still do something about them.
We publish new insights every week based on real challenges facing founders in the South African startup ecosystem. Some posts come from our own mistakes. Others come from patterns we notice working with businesses at different stages. All of it is written for people who are building something real and need practical answers, not textbook theory.
Our learning programs start accepting applications in September 2025 for those who want more structured guidance on the financial side of launching and running a startup.