Andy Hadfield

2025 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2026-01-12T14:07:00.006+02:00

Here we go, onwards with the playlist of music encountered, discovered or rediscovered during the year. Apple Music introduced AutoMix this year, so make sure to turn that ON. Songs meant to be played in order, from start to finish.

Unprecedented. Part I and Part II available for 2025 ;)

Andy's MixTape 2025 Part I

Andy's MixTape 2025 Part II

Here are the songs for Part I:

With Each Other - Aalson

the devil - Stephen Wilson Jr.

Roll The Credits - Danielle Ponder

Monster - Willyecho

I'm Only Joking - KONGOS

Cowboy - Kid Rock

Rob a Bank - Confetti

Elevator Down - Theodore Shapiro

California Dreamin - 33Tours

Floodlights - Marsh

Lullaby - Jean Vayat

Boreal - Massane

Back On 74 (Rework) - Betical & Arper

Universal Love - Hannah Fernando

What Have You Done To Me? (feat. Arctic Lake) - Lane 8

Close To You (Nicky Elisabeth Remix) - Nicky Elisabeth

The Lights - Nicky Elisabeth

Fading - Nicky Elisabeth

Diamonds (Further Than I Ever Was) - Tinlicker & The Boxer Rebellion

Children (Edit Mix) - Tinlicker & Robert Miles

Knight Rider - Michael Cassette

Mirage - Henri (BR)

Water Sports - Michael Cassette

Brick by Brick - Ovadia

Age of Discovery - Passenger 10

Skyfall - Alex Breitling

Ready Or Not (feat. Esthero) - Mischa "Book" Chillak

7 Seas - Phaxe & Morten Granau

At the River - Groove Armada

Plagwitz - Duo Stiehler/Lucaciu

Better Together - Jeremy Loops

Loveblood (feat. Amistat) - Jeremy Loops

Rushmere - Mumford & Sons

When We're High - LP

Lost on You - LP

Stand By Me (Live at The Print Shop) - Stephen Wilson Jr.

The Devil Is All Around - Shovels & Rope

Old November - Matt Heckler

Another New World - Punch Brothers

September Doves - Lost Dog Street Band

Son Of Tennessee - Lost Dog Street Band

Home - Trout Steak Revival

Guitar Town - Steve Earle

Carnage - The White Buffalo

Dearly Beloved - The Black Cat Bones

Hail Mary at 99 - The Black Cat Bones

Truth - Mumford & Sons

Unknown Legend - Shovels & Rope & Shakey Graves

The Water Is Fine - Chloe Ament

One Last Time - LP

Regulate (feat. Nate Dogg) - Warren G

I Got 5 On It (feat. Michael Marshall) - Luniz

Area Codes (feat. Nate Dogg) - Ludacris

Big Poppa (2005 Remaster) - The Notorious B.I.G.

Drop It Like It's Hot (feat. Pharrell Williams) - Snoop Dogg

Still D.R.E. (feat. Snoop Dogg) - Dr. Dre

Mo Money Mo Problems (feat. Ma$e & Puff Daddy) - The Notorious B.I.G.

All of the Lights - Kanye West

Hate It Or Love It (feat. 50 Cent) - The Game

You Say You Love Me (feat. Tawanna Shaunte) - The Kiffness

Samsara - Tungevaag & Raaban

Safe and Sound - Capital Cities

Never Let You Go - Third Eye Blind

Cornflake Girl (2015 Remastered) - Tori Amos

Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell

Chaise Longue - Wet Leg

No Pressure - The Kooks

A Rose for Emily (Alternative Mix 2) - The Zombies

Leaving England - John Murphy

Kashmir - 33Tours

Spitting Off the Edge of the World (feat. Perfume Genius) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Here are the songs for Part II:

Amekara Nijie - Woodkid

Minus Sixty One - Woodkid

Woods - Magnolian

Any Love of Any Kind (feat. Bryce Dessner) - Woodkid & Bryce Dessner

Indigo - Magnolian

Chariot I Plead feat. Tim Smith - SILENT POETS

Smoke - Alex Who?

The Deep - Lane 8 & Art School Girlfriend

Storm (feat. Maiken Sundby) - Papercut (GR)

Set Me Free - Tommy Farrow

Should Have Seen It Coming (feat. AETHO) - Franky Wah

Promenade - Michael Cassette

I Want My Freedom (feat. Hero Baldwin) - Tinlicker

Weightless (jamesjamesjames Remix) [Mixed] - Ben Böhmer, jamesjamesjames & Panama

Another Riff for the Good Times - YOTTO

Memory - SG Lewis

Late Night - Marten Lou & Foals

Lovely Day (feat. The High) - Raaban

Nemova (Antaares Remix) - Geju

Bensonhurst Blues - Oscar Benton

Carolina Honey - Marcus King & The Marcus King Band

Watermelon Moonshine - Lainey Wilson

Dead At The Honky Tonk - Post Malone

Mountain Music - Alabama

(What This World Needs Is) A Few More Rednecks - The Charlie Daniels Band

Soul Fever Blues (feat. Muddy Waters) - Parov Stelar

Love Your Guts - HAPPY LANDING

Feed the Machine - Poor Man's Poison

Pots and Pans - The Kills

Pretty Slowly - Benson Boone

Novocaine For The Soul (feat. Sir Chloe) - Portugal. The Man

Steal My Sunshine (feat. Cherry Glazerr) - Portugal. The Man

The Sound - The 1975

Love Runs Out - OneRepublic

Hold On - Animal Fiction

Stepping In - Above & Beyond

Start A Fire (feat. Richard Bedford) - Above & Beyond

Carry Me Home - Above & Beyond & Zoë Johnston

When You Believe - Above & Beyond & Victoria Horn

Beautiful Things - Andain

Agoraphobia - Corren Cavini

Only Road (feat. Sub Teal) [Cosmic Gate Remix] - Gabriel & Dresden

Heaven Scent (Marsh Remix) - Bedrock, John Digweed & Nick Muir

Red Flags and Long Nights - She Wants Revenge

House of the Rising Sun (with the Forest Rangers) [Season 4 Finale Version] - The White Buffalo

I'm On Fire - The Staves

Rolling Over - Low Roar

Just How It Goes - Low Roar

To the Wilder (feat. Elle Fanning) - Woodkid & Elle Fanning

Nightmares - CHVRCHES

Deathly - Grimm Grimm

Brown Eyed Bird - John Butler Trio

Rubber Band Man - Mumford & Sons & Hozier

Spirits - The Strumbellas

Wings (Live) - Josh Ritter

From The Start - Laufey

Lumière - Lorien Testard & Alice Duport-Percier

Blogs?

2025-11-24T11:08:00.002+02:00

Really not sure what to do with this property anymore. It's an amusing history book at best. It's funny - the older you get, the less personal branding matters.

2024 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2025-01-27T12:27:00.001+02:00

Weird year. Tough on all fronts, this playlist came out a little more introspective - but still with a few bangers!

Songs that were encountered, discovered or rediscovered in 2024. These playlists are designed to be played in order, with the cross fade set to 12s.

Some highlights:

- Deep House (Nora en Pure, the opening track to Ben Bohmer's Johannesburg Open Air set - GOL by Martin Kohlstedt in original and Ben Bohmer remix format, Jody Wisternoff and more)

- Deep into Country (Geronimo, Tyler Childers, The Panhandlers, The Brother's Comatose and more)

- Some Teddy Swims!

- and a good funky acoustic folk section, including the theme to Welcome to Wrexham

- and the best story songs I've ever come across at the end.

Play on Apple Music

Here are the songs:

GOL - Martin Kohlstedt

Satori (feat. Abi Ferraresi) - Analog Jungs

Mui (feat. Siobhan Wilson) [Mixed] - Jody Wisternoff, James Grant, PROFF & Takeshi Furukawa

Prophets of Hope - Nora En Pure

Emerald Skies - Nora En Pure

Nightflower - Nils Hoffmann

Personal Space - YOTTO

Upside Down (feat. Poppy Baskcomb) - MEDUZA

Stimulus - Vandelux

The Railroad - Goodnight, Texas

Bar, Guitar and a Honky Tonk Crowd - Whiskey Myers

Closer To Fine - Indigo Girls

Feathered Indians - Tyler Childers

Lady May - Tyler Childers

The Captains Daughter, Pt. 1 - Marty O'Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra

All I See Is You - Shane Smith & the Saints

Tishomingo - Zach Bryan

Stay Wild - The Bones of J.R. Jones

Country Again - Thomas Rhett

West Texas in My Eye - The Panhandlers

Harvest Moon (feat. AJ Lee & Blue Summit) - The Brothers Comatose

Mercy Now - Mary Gauthier

The Killer (feat. Jaida Dreyer) - Kevin Costner & Modern West

No Use - John Hawkes

Fast Car - Luke Combs

You Should Probably Leave - Chris Stapleton

Chasing Cars - Ryan Waters Band

Hey You - Kitchen Dwellers

Ahead By a Century - The Tragically Hip

Shortline - RY X

Martin - Ben Böhmer

Rust - Ben Böhmer

In The Cold - Jerro & Familiar Faces

Moth - Heard Right

Run From The Night - Trills, Harry Diamond & Adz

Cappadocia (feat. Romain Garcia) - Ben Böhmer

Brick by Brick - Ovadia

Seva - Sounds Of Rituals, Augusto Yepes & Darmon

Come Together (Extended Mix) - Nox Vahn & Marsh

Infection - Tresh

Sham System - Al-Qasar

Bang! - AJR

What I Want - Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings

You're the Voice - John Farnham

Beautiful Things - Benson Boone

Too Sweet - Hozier

Lose Control - Teddy Swims

I'm Just Different - Joshua Radin

Into the Wild - Lewis Watson

False Confidence - Noah Kahan

Take Yours, I'll Take Mine - Matthew Mole

Homecoming - Josh Ritter

Something's Gonna Go Our Way - The 502s

Honeymoon Bay - Xavier Rudd

Long Train Runnin' (2016 Remastered) - The Doobie Brothers

Ain't Nobody Got Time for That - Rubber Duc

Friday Night - The 502s

Getting Ready to Get Down - Josh Ritter

Stick Season - Noah Kahan

Sail - AWOLNATION

Oh My Dear Lord - The Unlikely Candidates

Novocaine - The Unlikely Candidates

Heathens - twenty one pilots

Highs & Lows - Chance Peña

Don't Forget (Welcome to Wrexham) - Jon Hume

People (feat. Ayra Starr & Omah Lay) - Libianca

Letting the Cables Sleep (Remastered) - Bush

Jenny's Tale - Ren

Screech's Tale - Ren

Violet's Tale - Ren

Claudia's Theme (Version Eight) - Lennie Niehaus & Clint Eastwood

2023 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2025-01-27T12:19:00.002+02:00

A good, rowdy year. Songs that were encountered, discovered or rediscovered in 2023. These playlists are designed to be played in order, with the cross fade set to 12s.

UPDATE: Or AutoMix set to ON (Apple Music introduced this in 2025).

Some highlights:

- Old school rock (The Band, Grand Funk Railroad)

- Drinkin' Country (Zak Brown Band, Josiah Siska)

- Deep House (Tinlicker, Leaving Laurel, Above & Beyond)

- Memories from the Imagine Dragons Concert...

... and more.

Play on Apple Music

Here are the songs:

The Greatest Show - Panic! At the Disco

New Kings - Sleeping Wolf

Money Run Low - The Score

Take Me to the River - Connell Cruise

My Hero - Foo Fighters

Come and Get Your Love - Redbone

Some Kind of Wonderful - Grand Funk Railroad

The Weight - The Band

From Now On - Zac Brown Band

Davy Brown - Ben Nichols

Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key - Billy Bragg & Wilco

Little Red Rooster - The Rolling Stones

Can't Have Mine (Find You a Girl) - Dylan Scott

Toes - Zac Brown Band

Knee Deep (feat. Jimmy Buffett) - Zac Brown Band

3 Tequila Floor - Josiah Siska

Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band

Country Girl (Shake It For Me) - Luke Bryan

Harvest Moon (feat. AJ Lee & Blue Summit) - The Brothers Comatose

You're The Reason (feat. Zooey Deschanel) - Ben Lee

Morning in Deira - Above & Beyond

Take Your Time - Leaving Laurel

Rebirth (feat. Hero Baldwin) - Tinlicker

Horizon - Banaati

Hollow Talk (Lane 8, Jody Wisternoff & James Grant Remix) [Mixed] - Choir of Young Believers

Afterglow - Bob Moses & Kasablanca

Good People (feat. Richard Walters) - P.O.S., anamē & Ercola

Let You Go - P.O.S.

Overcome - Fideles

Jam - Above & Beyond

The Drift - Khainz

Amnesia - Remains of Silence

Lay Low (Argy Remix) - Tiësto

Fire in My Soul (feat. Shungudzo) - Oliver Heldens

Yoros - Yusuf Alev

Masters of War (The Avener Rework) - Bob Dylan

White Rabbit (Marcel Dettmann and Gabriel Mounsey Remix) - Jefferson Airplane

vampire - Olivia Rodrigo

La goffa Lolita - Vincè la petite culotte

Lovely Day / Good as Hell Mashup - Pomplamoose

Tainted Love - Milky Chance

If Anything's Left - Jamie Fine

Lina - Hayit Murat

The Search - NF

HOPE - NF

Sleep Deprivation - Chance Peña

Think Fast - Dominic Fike & Weezer

Ted Lasso Theme - Marcus Mumford & Tom Howe

Candyman - Loverman

Whatever It Is - Ben Lee

Good Things - Skout

Sorry - The Intermission Project

First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

Missing Piece - Vance Joy

Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

The Poet and the Muse - Old Gods of Asgard

Johnny Calls the Chemist - Falling Mirror

Saint John the Gambler - Townes Van Zandt

Feel It - Arno Carstens

Blood Upon the Snow - Hozier & Bear McCreary

The Fade Out Line - Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws

Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap

My Life - Imagine Dragons

Walking the Wire - Imagine Dragons

You'll Never Walk Alone - Marcus Mumford

2022 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2023-05-15T10:46:00.001+02:00

Forgot to post this, better late than never. If you follow these slightly self indulgent experiential playlists, this one worked out pretty well. To be fair, I think they all work out well.

All the songs I discovered or rediscovered in 2022. It's designed to be played in order, so start at track 1 and enjoy!

Play on Apple Music

2021 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2022-04-21T10:09:00.003+02:00

2021. Still the pandemic. Humanity, struggling to break free of the grips of melancholy and background music. This was one of the harder mixes to put together. When all the music in the world is available at your fingertips, curation and discovery becomes almost impossible.

Every year, I put together a "DJ" mix of songs - wanted to share them here. There is only one rule: the music has to be released or discovered by me in that year. That leaves it open to new music and a couple of old favourites that slip in under the radar.

In addition, the playlist is designed in "DJ order". It's meant to be an experience. So start at the beginning - and play through in order. If you're playing on the Apple Music Mac App, set the crossfade to 10 seconds.

Here's the 2021 journey.

Moody Electronica
Deep House
Pop Folk
Local SA stuff
Soft covers
Indie and Rock
Electronica
Trance
Downtempo
... and ending off quite reflective.

Hope you enjoy. If someone is inspired and wants to recreate this for Spotify, happy to link and credit.

You can add the Apple Music version here.

Skunkworks. Global Finder Africa. Mapping the African Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.

2022-03-07T12:49:00.001+02:00

Here's a little skunkworks project. An entrepreneurship directory. But more than that. A map of the entrepreneurship ecosystem across the continent - not just funding data. All IP-led product-driven players and the ecosystem that supports them.

More news on this soon. But explore Global Finder Africa and let me know what you think :)

Interview with Saray Khumalo

2021-09-09T13:22:00.005+02:00

Really enjoyed this wide-ranging chat with our all conquering South Africa hero, Saray Khumalo. It's a fun wander down memory lane, as I handover the leadership of forgood to a new team - and just before transitioning into The Room. We cover leadership, social entrepreneurship, the youth, startups, mentorship and a whole bunch more.

The Next Chapter: From forgood to The Room...

2021-08-11T17:46:00.014+02:00

When you've helped grow an organisation from Helpless Baby to Cocky Adult, there's never a good time to leave. But if that organisation is stable, growing and has a world class team behind it - then there's no better "bad" time than this.

Forgood is now South Africa's biggest employee volunteering SaaS business. We're still fairly small in reality, because employee volunteering is a small market (for now). But we dominate the space, both in the quality of our offering and the impact we create.

This entrepreneurial journey has been a labour of love and scars - as many of them are. But it has to come to an end at some stage - because until senior leaders/founders step aside in a small business, there's no room for the next generation of talent to take over.

After almost 7 years as the CEO of forgood, it's time to hand over the baton. Really excited to announce that Romy Heldsinger (our current COO) will take over the reigns, with Mashadi Letwaba rising up to take over as Programme Director, running the biggest team in the business. Josh Lewis remains as CTO.

Girl power! Richly deserved. And apt, considering 75% of the impact on forgood is created by women. The company is safe in their hands, ready to continue its exciting journey of being one of the few profitable high impact social enterprises in the country. A company that makes money and helps people at the same time? For many of my 7 years, that seemed like a pipe dream. No more.

I'm delighted to remain on the Board as Chairman. I said moving on, not letting go!

Some highlights?

The best team a good culture can buy! It's taken time and there have been some bumps along the road... But Garth, Aphelele, Romy, Mashadi, Busi, Faye, Bokang, Josh, Rudi and Nerissa (along with the 3 new forgood'ers we're busy hiring and all our investors) - without you, this company would be nothing.
Raising an incredible mix of philanthropic angel investment, institutional social impact grants - and traditional VC. We raised just under R15m during my tenure - which is quite astonishing in a risk averse capital market like SA. Social entrepreneurs out there - this proves it's possible.
Breaking even. Turning a profit. Issuing our first dividend. All things that seemed so far out of reach at times.
18 pioneering blue chip corporate clients, including our first presence in the UK. Forgood's client list reads like the who's who of the JSE, couldn't be prouder.
25k+ employees currently registered on the platform, with a steadily increasing participation rate (averaging around 20% in non pandemic years).
More than 41k connections facilitated between people and charities - around skills-based volunteering, goods donations, money donations and social impact events.
A slick, stable and scalable B2B SaaS product - that's got through more than 20 corporate IT Security Audits. A product used every single day by charities and volunteers alike - to make the world a better place.
The press generated by our long term PR agency - regularly pinging above R5m/year in coverage - forgood is a good story to tell after all!
The upcoming redesign, essentially the 5th major iteration of our product.
And finally, surviving and even thriving during the pandemic (a rare privilege). The birth of mainstream virtual volunteering was quite something to behold.

Where to now?

Thinking back, so much of our initial success was dependent on forgood's original founder, Garth Japhet - and his network. First funding. First client. All those important firsts. And so much of our subsequent success was due to my network. Subsequent clients. Subsequent funding. Talent. Strategy. PR. Marketing. Mentors.

Networks matter.

On a continent where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not, unlocking the power of the network to accelerate people and businesses seems like the right place to be playing. I am very honoured to be joining Fred Swaniker and a world-class team (from 29 different countries already) at a new startup, The Room. I'll be heading up the Entrepreneurship Tribe, and you'll hear a lot more about this in time.

You may know Fred and his team's work already. The African Leadership Group is made up of some pioneering organisations including the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership University.

The Room has a few interesting parallels to forgood, the biggest in that it's a for profit social enterprise. Using capitalist models and value creation for social development outcomes. The future.

What are we trying to achieve with The Room? Oh. Just to create 2 million jobs on the African continent by 2030. Think of this as a capstone project to ALA and ALU, who have perfected how to select, develop and connect top talent. We now need to select and connect even more talent - at low cost and real scale. With this goal, entrepreneurs (small business or large) represent the greatest lever we can pull to create opportunity. They will be my Tribe. It's funny, I've often enjoyed helping entrepreneurs more than being one. Perhaps that bodes well for this adventure.

The Room is a purpose-driven, high touch, opportunity network - for the top 5% of global talent.

Imagine we took everything wrong with LinkedIN? The spam (the life coaches!). The endorsements that mean nothing. The meaningless follower count. The inflated, unverified talent indicators. The melodramatic language. The image crafting. What if we made it better. Because we were deliberately smaller and deliberately high touch and had a deliberately crafted meaningful relationship (physical, virtual and data) with our members. We were push. Not pull. In the right way.

Why? Because anyone who's been around the blog knows that networks actually matter most. 75% of jobs aren't advertised. Warm intros rule business. Few people have become successful without the leverage of their network. We need to be the network for those that don't have it - and be a better network for those that already do.

I don't want to give too much away, because I'm still learning. But I highly suggest you go check The Room out - and watch this space. It's a big, audacious and scary goal. Perhaps I'll see you "in The Room"?

AN ACTION: I'm really interested in speaking to Pan African Entrepreneurs right now - to see how we can build a proposition for you at The Room. Reach out on Twitter - @andyhadfield!

2020 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2021-06-10T12:14:00.001+02:00

2020. The pandemic. It was always going to be a year where different music became the norm - because we all had different environment, needs, stressors and experiences. It appears I needed a lot of downtempo and deep house to get me through. Add that to the experience of playing Death Stranding (probably the best game sound track ever created) during the worst of lockdowns - and you get this eclectic mix.

Here's the 2020 journey.

Moody Electronica
Deep House
Folk
Country
Indie
Downtempo Folk and Electronica
Back to Deep House (the one with the dirty fat bass)
Vocal Trance
Oddball Funk
Zol by Max Hurrell (of course)
Pop
... and ending off with some soundtrack scores and Leonard Cohen.

Hope you enjoy. If someone is inspired and wants to recreate this for Spotify, happy to link and credit.

You can add the Apple Music version here.

2019 Playlist. A mix for the year that was...

2021-06-10T12:05:00.006+02:00

Music is something of a hobby. From playing it, to cataloguing it (oh how the days of MP3's fed the OCD soul) to collecting it.

Apple Music and Spotify have made this a bit harder, with the sheer overwhelming amount of choice. But with great power, comes great playlists. I hope.

The 2019 mix goes on quite a journey.

Deep House
Folk
Indie Rock
Country
Movies
Electronica
Vocal Trance
A bit of festival EDM
70s Rock
Indie
... and ending off with a few oddball bits of awesome.

Hope you enjoy. If someone is inspired and wants to recreate this for Spotify, happy to link and credit.

You can add the Apple Music version here.

Running an SME during #CoronaVirus...

2020-03-18T08:40:00.001+02:00

Thought I'd share the philosophy and set of short term decisions we came up with at forgood. Feel free to copy/paste/steal whatever you feel is relevant. Tough times - but that's when humans are usually at their best.

These were all crowdsourced and developed by the forgood team. Thanks to the team - we're only a few days in - but everyone is displaying emotional maturity, patience and humour. All that and more are critical to getting through this.

Hope this content helps in some way. Stay safe out there 👊

Our Philosophy

1. Don’t panic. Get a flu shot.

2. We’re a small team - if someone gets sick - we’ve got your back.

3. Help our ecosystem wherever we can, given our fortunate position and ability to ride this out.

4. Keep moving forward! OKRs stay in place wherever possible - we just find new ways to get there and new ways to add value to clients.

5. Timescale. Plan in 2-4 week bursts. But understand this could last till October 2020 and beyond.

6. On any outbound communications (public or private) - if it feels icky, don’t do it.

7. Don’t lose touch with each other. “Happy Hour on Hangouts” every Friday. Grab a drink and talk shit.

8. If you’re bored, learn.

9. We understand kids will invade video calls from time to time!

Our first set of quick decisions...

1. Work from home 17 March 2020 to 14 April 2020. Re-evaluate as we go.

2. Google Hangouts and Slack are our platforms of choice.

3. All hiring paused for 1 month, then we’ll re-evaluate. It would be unfair to bring someone new into the team until we know how the CoronaVirus situation shapes up.

4. Daily standups for Dev Team / Client Team, inviting management when required.

5. Team Standup every week.

6. All visual boards we have at the office (Kanban, trackers etc.) move to Google Slides. Dev Team posts Kanban to Slack daily.

7. Social Media continues, rotating between team members in 2 week bursts to keep it interesting... We amplify good stuff. For the moment, we’re no longer as worried about driving traffic to our site - we just amplify whoever is doing good stuff. Don’t share any CoronaVirus material at all. If we have to, it should only be from an official government channel.

Andy’s 10 Rules for Tech Businesses

2020-03-11T09:19:00.000+02:00

I've been collecting these for years. The scars and triumphs of experience. Thought I'd share...

#1 // Always get 5% better

Revolutionary leaps happen from constant evolutionary pressure. Getting 100% better overnight is often impossible, but getting 5% better every day, week, month and year will lead to radical progress.

#2 // Users can be idiots – but we love them anyway

Users will always do what you don’t expect them to. They’ll click where you don’t want them to click. They’ll struggle with everything you think is simple – and breeze through everything you think is complicated. They'll have the system configuration or set of IT policies that you'v never encountered before. Remember, you’re building systems for THEM. They will always follow the path of least resistance. And without them, you don't have a product.

#3 // Get shit done

What gets done, deployed or delivered to a customer is infinitely more important than the process you took to get there. Outcome trumps effort, every time.

#4 // Be more transparent than you need to be

This rule applies to leading a team, dealing with customers, handling a problem or just creating experiences for users – in fact it just applies to life. There are very few instances where hiding something from someone results in a better outcome than declaring it, saying what you’re going to do to fix it – and then fixing it. People like truth, despite evidence on social media to the contrary!

#5 // Fail fast

The best way to learn is to fail. Don’t be scared to fail. And when you fail, fail quickly – no one likes a slow tortured death. Iteration will always trump innovation.

#6 // Do better than 1/9/90

Typically, in a digital ecosystem: 90% of Users will lurk/consume, 9% will contribute in a small way and 1% will create original content or “convert” (do what you want them to do). If you can do better than that, you’re on the right path.

#7 // Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences

Change one thing in a product or a business and you’ll affect another. Always be aware of the chain of dependencies – but don’t let it drown you. Magical ideas often cause necessary disruption to old entrenched features or ways of thinking.

#8 // There is no shallow end

The world moves at such a pace that often it’s best just to dive in. Making mistakes = gaining experience. Just don't make the same ones twice.

#9 // Make it work. Make it right. Make it fast.

Too many people only "make it work". The more you focus on just making things work, the more technical and business “debt” you incur – and the harder the future becomes. Alternatively, being a perfectionist too early on in the process often means you miss the market.

#10 // F!@#ing customers!

They’re slower than you (because they have different priorities). They're bureaucratic, intensely frustrating, will cancel meetings on you at will and often aren’t properly incentivised to execute what you’re selling them... But you aren't a business without customers. Get the relationship right. Be a breath of fresh air to your customers - working with you should not feel like work. Discover the nuance between what they need, what they want and what actually got briefed.

Disclaimer: Many of these have been copied, pilfered and adapted. I claim no copyright!

The "Tour of Duty" approach to management and hiring...

2019-04-04T14:41:00.000+02:00

This concept popped up on the Masters of Scale podcast and hasn’t gone away. It's been gnawing at me, mostly because it fits with a lot of my hiring experiences. With hindsight, this metaphor has gone a long way to explain why some staff stay, why some leave and what time commitment to expect from them.

The best form of learning is writing - so
here we go. A crash course in Tours of Duty.

Let's start with the academic overview of the concept from Harvard Business Review.

What is a "Tour of Duty"? It's a mapped out journey for both employee and employer. By setting expectations up front, you can manage the intergenerational conflict that occur between people who tend to stay in jobs for longer vs people who do a series of jobs for experience. It is an ethical contract, not a legal one - an undertaking by both parties of "what you want to get out of this".

When you hire someone, the idea is to define their Tour of Duty with them - what is the mission they're signing up for and how long is it likely to last. This tactic helps manage expected outcomes of a job - which is the most important element of any employer/employee relationship.

An overarching principle in management, at least for me, is...

Outcome > Effort

But it's also the trickiest one to implement. Humans naturally want to be rewarded for effort. Businesses naturally only survive on outcomes. Outcomes almost always take longer than expected. If both parties understand this and deal with it upfront, a better career journey can be mapped.

With its combination of military-style "work missions" and some good geeky Star Wars character references - the Tour of Duty metaphor seems to make sense in this new world of work.

Here's a 4 minute video with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh explaining the concept.

Critical to understanding Tours of Duty and applying them to your team management and hiring strategies is mapping the 3 types of tours. Here they are.

ROTATIONAL Tour of Duty

timeframe: +-2 years (unless you die/defect on the field of battle)
it's a set of experiences to add richness to a career
it's usually undertaken by entry-level or junior staff
it usually has a defined end (e.g. graduate programme, first role or when you just know you’re not going to at a company forever)
it's usually single mission, you're a soldier helping to get the company from A to B
here's a 2 minute summary video on Rotational Tours of Duty

TRANSFORMATIONAL Tour of Duty

timeframe: 2 to 5 years
a personalised mission(s) that transforms both the employee and the business
from a business perspective, this could be: building a product, launching a project, entering a new market
has nothing to do with job titles, it’s about the mission, the outcome
could be multiple missions but preferably ends when the mission is achieved
here's a 5 minute summary video on Transformational Tours of Duty

FOUNDATIONAL Tour of Duty

timeframe: much longer, often “for life”
your values and the missions of the business are aligned and intertwined
this is your core team - they'll have multiple missions in multiple roles in multiple departments
to retain them, the business needs to provide continuity, the ability to move from role to role and grow with the company
here's a 7 minute summary video on Foundational Tours of Duty

If you're into Star Wars, Reid makes the metaphor even easier to understand.

Princess Leia = Foundational. She's inextricable Alliance.

Luke Skywalker = Transformational. His ultimate journey is to become a Jedi, to get their he takes on the Alliance's fight.

Han Solo = Rotational. Until the end, he's a hired gun, a soldier on a contract.

Finally, if you like visuals, there's a great slide deck of the Tours of Duty concept here.

What Tour of Duty are you on?

What Tour of Duty are your staff on?

More importantly, are you on the same Tour of Duty?

Open Source Startup: The Open Startup Movement

2019-03-12T15:03:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 10 of Open Source Startup: The Open Startup Movement. This is the last chapter. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Ever since I wrote the epitaph for Real Time Wine, I've been a strong supporter of more honest sharing in the South African startup landscape. There's a lot of ego floating around. Everyone is a CEO. Every CEO is a Rock Star. Until they fail, then they go away quietly.

Failure is stigmatised - and the result of this is we have a skewed view of what constitutes success and more importantly, we can't learn from other attempts in our ecosystem.

There's a movement in the US that may have particular relevance to our local ecosystem as we slowly grow up and de-stigmatise failure. Quoting here from a HackerNoon article...

"The Open Startup trend is a transparency and openness movement seemingly initiated by Buffer, quickly adopted by Ghost, capitalised by Baremetrics, and recently popularised in the Indie Maker community by Pieter Levels.

There’s no official definition yet, and the Oxford dictionary weren’t available for comment, so let’s write one; A product or company which operates in the open and shares their statistics publicly.

All a company needs to declare themselves an Open Startup is to share their metrics such as revenue, users, and traffic. This is usually done on a dedicated page with lots of numbers and charts hopefully showcasing growth, and it can sometimes tells a story of the company (like Hacker Noon’s)."

- - -

BareMetrics has a summary page of Open Startups they're currently tracking. Click through to their page. Isn't that refreshing? Isn't that quite the opposite of most closed ecosystems?

Sure, these aren't unicorns. They're not even babycorns. Politics intervene when a company goes past a certain size, with Boards and Shareholders unwilling to share metrics. Of course, that all changes when a company lists and you're forced to once again be transparent.

It doesn't really matter either way, the learnings all happen in the $0 - $1m monthly turnover space. That's where the gold lies.

Even forgood isn't totally ready to go open. Perhaps one day... Are you?

The point is simple. Through transparency and honest sharing, we can learn. Through learning, we can leapfrog and build better businesses.

It's for this reason that I wrote Open Source Startup.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Andy Hadfield. 2019.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Codifying Company Culture

2019-03-12T14:57:00.005+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 8 of Open Source Startup: Codifying Company Culture. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Company culture. It's both the most frustrating, fluffy, intangible element of your business - and the thing that will sink you quicker than a bad VAT month. Startups are hard enough. Rather not spend your time with the wrong people following the wrong mission in the wrong way.

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to culture besides talking about it. Choose a model, choose a template and talk about it. Then talk about it with every new employee. Then talk about it monthly. And keep talking.

Here are a few tips and templates to get you started.

Start with WHY. The famous Simon Sinek talk is a useful (and tough) process to go through. It forces you to think hard about why you're doing what you're doing. If you take the process seriously, it's also one of the best bullshit tests for a crappy vision or product.

Understanding your WHY is the basis of your culture. It's why the people you hire will buy into your vision, why they'll believe your company is going to grow - why they'll stick around.

Don't worry if you don't get to answers right away - this isn't easy.

After you've had a stab at why you're doing what you're doing - then have a go at writing down a few of your values and what they look like in real life. You're aiming for WHAT YOU VALUE and then how those values MAKE YOU BEHAVE.

Again, not easy, but a valuable exercise. Avoid ticket-to-the-ballpark values like integrity and honesty. You don't get to play if you don't have those base values. Strive for something that sets you apart.

Here's an example of the forgood culture slide, one we're not scared to tweak and iterate to keep relevant.

Values at the top. Behaviours and descriptors at the bottom. Keep sweating this and you'll be well on your way to codifying and managing your culture.

A local employee engagement company has developed a free tool called ValuesCreator. Give it a try if you're looking for some inspiration...

While it's not technically a template, I wanted to give you full access to the forgood Culture & Vision Deck. It's something we show to every new recruit (that makes it through to final round interviews) - and something we have plastered all over our walls. It's not perfect. It can be a little introspective. It sometimes needs a little extra context. But it's a codex for culture - and that's better than rolling the dice and letting your culture develop by itself.

DOWNLOAD THE FORGOOD CULTURE AND VISION DECK

Of course, this is all based on the famous Netflix Culture Deck case study. If you want to see a real culture deck (100+ pages) and explore some other famous attempts at codifying culture - start here.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Tools, Tools Everywhere and You Probably Only Need a Few

2019-03-11T20:22:00.003+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 8 of Open Source Startup: Tools, Tools Everywhere and You Probably Only Need a Few. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

The tools required to build a startup, to test an idea, to get from 0 to 1 - are not as complex as you may think. In fact, it's quite easy to over-tool, to get carried away with the process rather than the outcome. Remember, there's a whole segment of startups just designing tools for other startups. Makes your head spin a little, doesn't it?

Here's good introductory set of tools - useful for companies up until 10 team members. After that, you may want to relook at your toolset to ensure it scales with the team. Many of these will work, though.

You're going to tempted to go for "everything free" - and I wouldn't blame you. But sometimes it's better just to pay. There is nothing more frustrating than spending time fixing your tools instead of building your business.

Here we go...

DEVELOPMENT

FreshDesk. The free version can be useful for a team logging support tickets, bugs and feature requests into a development team.
GitHub. Code repository and ticket management / Kanban interface. Back this up with a bunch of sticky notes on the wall - keep it transparent and visual and you'll get further than any tool out there. Some may like to log tickets straight into GitHub, but I've always found it's nice to have some kind of buffer between a client-facing/sales/marketing team and the developers. The buffer is FreshDesk - and it's fairly easy to grab a plugin that integrates FreshDesk and GitHub.
Google Analytics. GA has become something of a beast, but using the basics and setting up some clever Conversion Goals should allow you to do 80% of what you need to understand traffic and test features. Google Analytics is useful across your organisation - all team members should be comfortable with it.
Azure/AWS. Hosting often depends on the product. If you're B2B and plan on selling to large corporates, using Azure as a platform can be the primary reason you get through Procurement and IT Security teams. You'll pay 10x for the pleasure - but you'll be able to pass on Azure's SLA. Cute trick. For anything else, go as cheap as you can without sacrificing performance.
Other interesting tools: PreRender (used primarily for single-page-applications) and JetBrains (developer tools).

CUSTOMER SERVICE / BRAND / MARKETING

FreshDesk (Paid or Free). Many may argue for ZenHub or a more integrated tool - fair enough. FreshDesk has worked nicely for us - at a reasonable price. Integrates nicely into Facebook/Twitter. The most important trick with any ticket management tool is to set and measure a First Response and Resolution SLA. How quickly you respond to and resolve customer queries sets the tone of the product/business.
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/LinkedIN. Jury really is out on social media for startups - at least for me. There are three exceptions: you are a brilliant content writer OR your content/product/business is hilarious OR your content/product/business/story is very unique, preferably with an emotive or controversial hook. If you aren't the exception (most of you aren't), then my humble advice is to reduce social media to a customer service channel. Opening yourself up to feedback and customer engagement is critical - posting fluffy content every day is not.
Mailchimp. You only pay from 2000 emails upwards. And even then, for the functionality and the reputation (because Mailchimp is quite serious about spam and opt-in, you'll find it has a fair reputation from mail servers around the world) it's good value. Mailchimp comes with Mandrill, a transactional email engine that your development team can use. Mandrill is... ok. But it's largely free with even a small Mailchimp account.

OPERATIONS

GSuite (Google Apps). If you're a non-profit, you get this for free. Otherwise it's under 10 Euro per month per user - and it's a no-brainer. Email. Calendar. Collaborative Documents. Shared storage (disclaimer, see next point). Done. There are some arguments to use Office 365 - especially because you can get Word/PowerPoint/Excel included. Slightly more expensive - and obviously depends how dependent you are on the OG's of Computer Software. Just make a call, go with one of them, they're both good - and move on.
DropBox. This may be controversial, but Google Drive has never worked for me. Primarily it's the way it encourages everyone to have their own file structure, sharing required documents rather than accessing a logical structure of existing documents. Yeah, I might sound old-school, but nothing creates a mess like multiple people trying to organise digital files. Google Drive also seems to have problems when you have a large existing set of documents. Getting those to sync properly across 8-10 computers just never worked. Oh, and it doesn't like existing Mac file structures, getting very confused with the hidden files Macs have. Dropbox just works. Full admin control. Selective sync. No mess, no fuss.
Evernote. A few well-structured notebooks that are shared between team members makes Evernote a useful status-tracker or info-tracker tool. Dump any interesting and relevant research into a RESEARCH notebook. Keep track of clients and sales in a CLIENTS notebook. It's simple, text-focused and if used carefully, without creating clutter, can provide a nice central repository for important information. Wiki's are a bit out of fashion - and sometimes require too much effort. Evernote doesn't.
Canva. The easiest design tool out there. For everything.
Pixabay. Free images. That's it.
Slack. Yeah, ok, fine. It can be useful. It can also be distracting - so turn off notifications. And think carefully about the structure of channels/chat rooms. Don't be scared to tweak your channels - keep them as relevant as possible, kill unused ones.
LastPass. Don't wait for a security event to happen. Just get ahead of the game. Force everyone in your company to use a password manager and create a policy requiring everyone to 12 character or more, strong, generated passwords. No exceptions. Don't share passwords. Don't have central documents with passwords on them.

That's it. You may find your business requires a unique tool or two. But don't over-tool. Focus on getting to market, acquiring a few customers, listening to their feedback and iterating.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Disciplinary Policy Template

2019-02-05T19:59:00.003+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 7 of Open Source Startup: Disciplinary Policy Template. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Ah. South African Labour Law. We all know very well why it's as employee-friendly as it is. Because capitalism can be nasty and there are plenty of people that need to be protected. But it does make it quite hard to build a business in this beautiful country of ours.

As a nation, we choose not to sacrifice protection of lower-income workers, therefore we need to figure this out and find a way to play the cards we've been dealt.

The first step is to have an Employment Contract. The second is to have a Disciplinary Policy (which is specifically referenced in said employment contract) - and to make sure every employee of yours has received it and read it.

A Disciplinary Policy is a safe guard against an enormous amount of time spent in the CCMA trying to get rid of a bad egg. And trust me, everyone is going to end up hiring a few bad eggs. Usually more than a few. It happens. And that's all it is - most of the time you'll never need to refer to this document. It's an "in case" strategy.

The reason a policy works so well is that it lays out the rules, suggests a process, sets expectations and makes it easy for you to document the "performance management journey" should you have to implement it.

The golden rule of firing someone in South Africa - is that you need to make every reasonable (sometimes a bit more than reasonable) effort to provide feedback and help correct that person's performance before terminating them. And don't forget to: DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

DOWNLOAD A DISCIPLINARY POLICY TEMPLATE

(a big thanks to Ferdie Bester who did a lot of the original work on this template)

Offences can require a variety of interventions, including but not limited to: Verbal Warning (which needs to be written and emailed anyway), Written Warning, Final Warning and Dismissal.

Remember that turning a struggling team member into a high performer is one of the most rewarding things a manager/founder can ever do. So don't give up on people. And of course, be very careful who you hire!

Sidebar.

There is another little way to get rid of someone who just doesn't fit anymore. If you retrench, you're basically not allowed to fill that same position. But you can sign a "separation agreement". Be warned though, this will usually involve you shelling out 1-3 months (sometimes more) salary. So you'll have to balance the damage of an employee who doesn't fit vs the money you need to pay to correct your mistake (because never forget - you hired them in the first place).

Let me know in the comments if you want a bit more on that approach...

Enjoy. Hope you never have to implement this template. But make sure you've got it.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Extra Disclaimer for this post: I'm not a labour lawyer. Consult one if you can.

Open Source Startup: Shareholders Agreement & Memorandum of Incorporation Templates

2019-02-04T20:21:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 6 of Open Source Startup: Shareholders Agreement & Memorandum of Incorporation Templates. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

This is Chapter 6 for a reason. These documents should be one of the first things you get straightened out in your startup - but often aren't. Sometimes, you need to get a feel for the environment first. Sometimes, you just procrastinate.

Be warned and be warned well: you make contracts in case of divorce, not in case of happy marriage. You need contracts when people fight, not when people get along. The longer you leave these documents, the harder they get.

And they get hard. They get complicated. But this is just a nut you're going to have to crack.

Let's start with a few definitions and some scare tactics...

What is a Shareholders Agreement? It's used to govern the relationship between the various parties in their capacity as shareholders (and often in their positions as directors) of your company. Any aspect not covered by your Memorandum of Incorporation needs to be covered by your Shareholders Agreement.

What is a Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI)? This sets out the rules, duties and responsibilities of shareholders, directors and others in relation to your company. The Companies Act imposes certain requirements on the content of a MOI - a few default company rules / alterable provisions, which companies may accept or alter as they wish as long as it's in line with the Companies Act (that last bit is important).

Did you know that an MOI is public? You can hop along to CIPC and have a look at any company's MOI. On the other hand... a shareholders agreement is private - it contains the rules you don't want in the public domain and the express written agreement between the current and future owners of your business.

What can go wrong? Shall I list the ways?

Shareholders tend to think that because they know each other and have a good idea, they'll be successful together. Not always.
Shareholders think that when they start out there's no major value in the business – so they'll get to the shareholder’s agreement once value is created.

Problem 1. That often comes with a tax burden as shares in a company with value are seen as an asset and immediately taxable.
Problem 2. Negotiation gets trickier the deeper you get into the business. It can get ugly. Trust me.

If a shareholder dies, their shares could form part of an estate and a family member could become your new business partner. How much do you love Aunty Pat?
If a valuation has not been determined in your shareholders agreement, it's often impossible to get two parties to agree to a value at a later date. Cue legal battles.

OK, let's hop straight into the templates - and a few things you need to think about...

DOWNLOAD A SHAREHOLDERS AGREEMENT TEMPLATE

DOWNLOAD A MEMORANDUM OF INCORPORATION (MOI) TEMPLATE

To think through:

Shareholder Agreements vary a lot. Precious little snowflakes they are. Just make sure you understand them - and make sure you feel they're fair. In my experience, the shorter the better, just cover your bases.

Forced Sale clauses. You'll see these pop up quite often, usually in investor-backed startups. In their simplest form, they exist to protect 51% of the shareholders from being blocked during an exit or major funding event by a minority shareholder. Sucks for the minority - but often necessary to get an investor on in the first place. They can also be used to get rid of troublesome shareholders (but, yeah, cue legal battles).

Your MOI is YOUR rule book. You've got a fair bit of latitude to tweak the rules of how you operate, when you meet, how many directors you have and what their mandate/liability is. The trick is not to contradict the Companies Act. And so going with something basic and simple like this template is usually the best way to start.

Agreements need to be entrepreneur-friendly. If something feels wrong, question it. I've seen 75-page monster agreements that were designed to only protect the investor. Remember, an investor is an enabler. If the founder gets locked out, so does his/her incentive to grow the business. Agreements betweeen shareholders, founders, investors and staff need to be fair and friendly.

Watch for the point of dilution when you lose control. Many a whiskey was required during the effects of a founder dilution. There's usually 2 points to watch out for. Ordinary Resolutions (read your MOI) which require 51% of votes/shares to pass. Special Resolutions which require 75% of votes/shares to pass. Keep an eye on your percentages. It's like parliament for business - coalitions can occur in the unlikeliest of places...

Say it with me: "a clean company is a good company". One day, you might want to be acquired. Do not underestimate how much easier it'll be if you've got your compliance ducks in a row.

Enjoy going down the rabbit hole!

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Extra Disclaimer for this post: This is probably enough to get you started, enough to offer a little protection if you can't afford a lawyer. But consult a lawyer as soon as you can. They're the experts. And hire a company that offers outsourced secretarial services. It may feel like an unnecessary expense in the beginning, but trust me, it'll cost a lot more to fix down the road.

Open Source Startup: Investor Reports

2019-01-25T12:30:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 5 of Open Source Startup: Investor Reports. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

You've got investors and shareholders. Now you need to keep them in the loop and leverage them to grow your business. If you start with the simple premise that most investors simply don't have the time to read all your detailed information - then you're on the right track. Less is more.

Start by asking investors what information they'd like to receive and how often. If you don't get good guidelines, I've always found the following approach works well. And in the spirit of keeping this brief (which you should do) - this will be the shortest post in the Open Source Startup series.

Investor Reports should usually include:

Management Accounts

Aged Payables (who you owe money to)
Aged Receivables (who owes you money)
Balance Sheet
Cash flow Summary (preferably nicely categorised)
Profit and Loss (Monthly and/or Year to Date)

All of these can be easily generated by an accountant/bookkeeper out of a package like Xero. Don't skimp on good financial management, especially when you grow beyond the founders. It'll hurt you in the end.

Finally, I use the simplest email template in the world to keep shareholders and investors in the loop.

What's going well?
What's going badly?
What you can do to help.

That's it. One email with a few attachments.

How often should you send it? Depends on the investors/shareholders. Some prefer monthly, but usually every 2-3 months should do. And always remember a great piece of advice I heard on the Jason Calacanis Podcast - when you get into trouble, communicate more, not less.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Investor Pitch Decks

2019-01-25T12:18:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 4 of Open Source Startup: Investor Pitch Decks. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

You've hired outside of the founders (or haven't). You've got a handle on a simple strategy and a set of goals for you and your team to explore. You've even modelled your business from a cashflow perspective and so you know what revenue you need to hit by when. Time to raise funding?

Not always. If you don't need to raise funding, don't. Funding comes with a bunch of strings attached. It is not the cure-all that the developing world believes it to be. Outside of very early stage seed funding (usually from friends, family and fools) - only look to raise funding if you have proof of traction, proof of revenue and you want to grow FAST.

Here's the ugly truth. If your business model doesn't show a 5x to 10x return for investors in 5 years... Don't bother. Think that through. If an investor puts in R1m, you need to give them between R5m and R10m back in 5 years time. Now do the maths. It's not easy.

There are always exceptions to these rules, but they're exceptions - which means they usually aren't you :)

Pitch decks are one of the easiest things to research - and US versions translate perfectly well into the local market. For instance, start here: Sequoia Capital's Guide to Pitching to Investors and end here: Pitch Deck Examples from a Bunch of Unicorns and Other Wild Investment Beasts.

If you're looking for locally relevant insight, you can't get much better than the minds at Knife Capital. Read their Playbook for Raising VC in South Africa. And use the template below...

All of this is very similar to a list I've drawn up over the years - useful for judging startup competitions and putting together pitch decks.

ASSESSING THE TEAM:

Team includes a Hustler and a Hacker - or at least 2 of different skills
Team has Domain Expertise
Team has Career Scars / Grit
Advisory Board, Supporters

ASSESSING THE BUSINESS:

Solves a real problem
Scalable business model
Understand unit economics (cost of acquisition, lifetime value of customer etc.)
Understand customer
Understand how many customers (size of addressable market)
Proof of traction
Proof of revenue and/or paying customers
Customer and User Feedback (from stakeholders that will give you/have given you money)
Industry Partnerships you have so far...
Wow moment / emotional connection or reaction

The point of Open Source Startup though, is to share. So here's a few of my pitch decks laid bare.

Real Time Wine Pitch Deck. Although it ultimately failed, for some of the reasons indicated here, this startup raised R625k in a fairly immature early stage investment economy. Here's a 1 Page summary, sometimes a useful trick to "get through the door" of investor conversations. This isn't my prettiest work - but it was effective.

Forgood Pitch Deck. This may be one of the exceptions, as we play in the social enterprise space (for profit company with social impact mission), allowing us to raise both equity and grant funding. We have raised over R10m so far (and hopefully will continue to do so!).

We took a slightly different approach here, so view these more as technical valuation documents than your standard, simple pitch deck. An independent valuation and overview of the scalability of the model was better evidence to social impact investors at the time - and we could pitch the business (as per the guidelines above) pretty well face to face. You'll also see how tricky it is to achieve the 10x VC returns target in the social enterprise space. This business is not suited for traditional VC.

Looking back, the output was a lot more technical than any pitch decks I've worked on previously - probably due to the change in target investor. It's also interesting to see how close we were to the original model. In some ways - pretty close. In other ways - far off. All those diversified revenue streams look great in PowerPoint, don't they?

Keep your pitch deck as simple as possible because you need to believe the old cliche: no business plan survives first contact with the customer.

Proof of traction and a great founding team will always win over fancy valuations or pitch decks.

NOTE: There are quite a few slides redacted/removed in the forgood pitch deck, just to protect IP and confidentiality of involved parties.

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot guarantee that it'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Cash Flow Template

2019-01-22T16:13:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 3 of Open Source Startup: Cash Flow Template. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Cash flow. The lifeblood of any business - and a tricky little devil to keep under control.

Something I've always struggled with is a solid, simple, cash flow (or cash forecast) template. Accounting can get cloudy for everyone except accountants - and all entrepreneurs need a tool to tell them whether this idea or business they're testing has a chance of succeeding.

DOWNLOAD A CASHFLOW TEMPLATE

I particularly like this template because it can be used to test an idea and estimate revenues. It can also be used to run a business - it provides a very clear picture on whether you're making or losing money every month and how many months runway you have before you run out of money.

I've included some of the more common cost categories to get you started. Out of interest, the test data I've included shows a small business that's generating revenue and angel investment, but is doomed to fail after a year without growth. The story of many I suspect :)

Things to think through:

Monthly management. It's all fairly easy. At the beginning of each month, hide the previous month's column (this allows you to go back to it if you need) and put your bank balance in the top left cell. Every cell that is shaded grey is calculated for you, every other cell is for your cashflow inputs.

Cash (in bank) is King. Payment terms can play havoc with cashflow - both corporates and government aren't known for expedient payments. Put your income down in the month's where you expect it to be paid into your bank account, NOT the month you invoiced it.

There is a useful line near the top to put in the amount outstanding (or outside of payment terms) from current revenue streams. Just make sure you've got a plan to actually get it!

VAT, UIF and other such fun. All these numbers (revenue and expenses) exclude VAT - you may want to put a VAT control line item in here to make sure you're putting it aside. Many a good SME has been sunk by the VAT monster.

The UIF line is a rough calculation of 1.5% of your salary bill - just an indicator to be aware of.

Salaries include PAYE - think of them as straight cost-to-company of yourself and your people.

Cost of Sale. This particular cash flow also excludes Cost of Sale, but it's fairly easy to turn the Debt section into a place for a simple Cost of Sale. A more retail or unit based business may want to tweak the template even more as it can be useful to work on unit sales and profit margins - not combined income. This template is better suited to consulting, agency, retainer or license-fee based businesses.

Enjoy populating the template - feel free to share your (clean) versions in the comments!

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot and will not guarantee that they'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Performance Management Framework (OKR's)

2019-01-22T13:14:00.002+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 2 of Open Source Startup: Performance Management Framework (OKR's). For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Once you start building a team, the single most important thing to do is get them aligned with the vision and get them moving in the same direction (as fast as possible). Do not underestimate how difficult this is. You may think everyone is in the same boat simply because they arrive at the same office. More often than not, everyone is rowing in a different direction and the cox (you, the person in charge of the boat) keeps changing the orders.

You can read for months on how to set up a performance management framework (we prefer to call it Goals, far less authoritarian) - and by no means do I think ours is the best. I've just always liked to go for something that is simple, something that can be created and moulded together with your employees and something that errs on the side of transparency.

There is a movement towards competency-based performance reviews - which is largely fancy talk for actually engaging with your employees around performance. Figure out WHY a goal was hit or missed. Include skills and personal development goals in expected outcomes. Don't be scared to remove goals that are irrelevant, especially when the goal posts change. Be fair. That's how you grow people.

The real buzzword at the moment is OKR's. Objectives and Key Results. And partly by luck, partly by research and iteration, the framework we built at forgood fits perfectly into an OKR-based approach. Here's a great intro post on OKR's by Niket Desai.

DOWNLOAD A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT / OKR TEMPLATE

Notes and things to think through:

Have a strategy. You can't expect everyone to move in the same direction if you can't codify the direction. The simplest way to do this is to come up with 3 or 4 strategic drivers that best describe what you're trying to achieve in this cycle (usually a year). Strategy grows and morphs, but if you can't keep it consistent for a 6-12 month period, you're probably not giving yourself enough time to test it - or you've got the wrong strategy.

A strategy can be as simple as you like. It's a direction pointer, nothing more. Remember the framework.

Strategy (which way you want to go) ==> Objectives or Goals (the things you want to do to get there) ==> Key Results (how you're going to measure that you actually got there).

Here's an example of some of forgood's strategic drivers.

2017:

Make forgood for Business work
Get more clients (or fail fast at this model)
Prepare for SCALE (build process and structure)
Build cool shit (that people actually want) as quickly as possible
Create an Ecosystem of Value
Keep the public site growing
Add value to Causes above and beyond volunteers/goods donations

2018:

Increase stability, runway and revenue
Grow the platform (bigger, better and more engaged activity from users)
Better Giving Experiences. Improve the quality of Volunteers.
Better Giving Experiences. Improve the quality of Causes and their level of engagement.
Create New Giving Experiences.

2019:

Increase platform activity on corporate clients by X%
Reduce cash gap from X to Y per month
Ensure 70% of experiences had by volunteers and Causes are 4* and above.

You can see how these slowly mature with the business and as certain approaches are successful or fail. You want to get to more specific numbers-based goals as quickly as possible (amount of revenue, % growth, % engagement/uptake). We tended to add these numbers into the detail of each driver - but increasingly brought those numerical targets into the core strategy. It's liberating.

Once you've got a strategy, you now have a framework to align performance management to.

You can't set a goal (or OKR) or require an output that doesn't fit under a strategic driver. Common sense, no? If you find that you're setting goals for employees that don't really fit under one of your strategic drivers, you're doing something wrong. Don't delude yourself, it's easy to do - allow this check and balance to help you set the correct outcomes for your team.

Think about the scale you're going to use. The scale you'll find in the template is quite complex, but that's why I like it. It allows for nuance.

There are two levels: achieving the outcome and quality of output. On this scale, anything above a 6 is good. 6.5 is really good. 7+ is great. This obviously introduces its own set of complexities, as people are trained to think that 6 out of 10 on a 10 point scale is pretty crappy. So consider yourself warned.

This approach does solve many of the problems typical rating scales have: lack of nuance, too easy to choose a midpoint and too hard to defend your position (my 4 out of 5 could be very different to your 4 out of 5).

We've also aligned the scale to a typical OKR approach (which merely measures objective completion, from 0% to 100%) - have a look. And feel free to substitute any scale you feel comfortable with.

3 point scale: below expectations, meets expectations, exceeds expectations (bleh)
5 star scale (easy midpoint)
Out of 10 scale (easy midpoint, anything less than an 8 feels awful)
4 point scale (has no midpoint, useful)
Pure OKR scale of "objective is 0% to 100% achieved"

Weighted scorecards help create focus. A simple weighting against each of the strategic drivers then provides an effective way of carving out roles. Sales roles will look very different to support roles - and will focus on different parts of the strategy.

The template allows for 3 strategic drivers and a Personal Development section - and generates an overall score based on the weighting attributed to each driver.

Think about how often you're going to do performance reviews. Many big companies do performance reviews once a year. It simply isn't enough in the world of fast-moving companies - the goal posts change too often. Currently at forgood, we do "goal reviews" every 4 months, with check-ins at least every 2 weeks. This provides enough time to get a good chunk of work done, but also allows for outputs to shape against the changing nature of business.

Link performance management to incentives. Here's the real trick: there's no point putting so much effort into performance management (and the requisite coaching and communication it requires) if you can't link it to incentives. Create a policy where scores affect bonuses (or incentives like additional leave if you're not profitable) - then you make it real.

Don't know if you can afford a bonus for your team yet? Just use the phrase "% of available bonus" when describing it. If you're not profitable, then there is no available bonus. You can get innovative with incentives to fill the gap - just beware - incentives are powerful drivers of behaviour... Sometimes they drive the right behaviour, sometimes the wrong - and they can be hard to undo.

Go forth, have those "tough conversations" and get everyone rowing in the same direction!

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot and will not guarantee that they'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Employment Contract Template for South Africa

2019-01-22T11:45:00.004+02:00

Welcome to Chapter 1 of Open Source Startup: Employment Contract Template for South Africa. For a table of contents, head over to the Introduction here.

Handshake employment is fine. Until something goes wrong. Two out of the three businesses in my immediate vicinity have been visited by the Department of Labour for an audit. And everyone has hired a bad nut.

Covering yourself with a simple but effective employment contract is really important - both for you and the team you're building. Here's a nice, solid employment contract example for you to use.

DOWNLOAD EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT TEMPLATE FOR SOUTH AFRICA

Notes and things to think through:

Clause 4: Job Description. This is important and should be updated every year, even if just to reconfirm role and responsibilities. Startups have lots of role creep, so make sure you account for that in the job description.

Clause 5.2. Termination time frames. You might want to double check this - the wording on Basic Conditions of Employment can be a little confusing. It's designed to protect the employee, not the employer - regulatory blow-back from horrible labour practices in South Africa.

Clause 7.1. Termination. This refers to a Disciplinary Code - which means you have to have one. Look out for an upcoming post on this.

Clause 8. Remuneration. Feel free to structure this however you want, but I've found it's simply too much admin for a small business to undertake fancy salary structures. Really depends on your access to a qualified Finance Team. Even with a great one at forgood, we've tried to keep things simple (cost to company).

Clause 9. Hours of Work. I know this sounds ridiculous. But remember who South African labour law is trying to protect - it's not developers! I've been told my my legal team that, by law, you have to have these in place. Even if you're planning on working longer hours. That's the beauty of an output-based culture - you don't clock watch.

Clause 10.3. Leave. This is quite a nice trick to find ways of using additional leave as an incentive. Pre-warning, it's quite a complex path to go down and you have to be careful that you don't drive the wrong kind of behaviours. Personally, I believe that 15 days leave isn't enough for anyone to refresh themselves. Although, you do need to count the exorbitant amount of public holidays South Africa (13 at last count - meaning everyone typically gets a minimum of 28 days leave). If you want to give extra leave, you can link it to outputs and overtime. I prefer outputs, although this template deals with overtime. Whatever you do, make it clear to avoid confusion in your team.

Clause 12. Maternity Leave. This is another tricky one - how to find a balance between supporting your female team members through one of life's most important experiences - and putting huge pressure on your cashflow. I understand how corporates can give 4 months off, full pay - that's the perk of working for the man/woman. I'm not sure small business can sustain that - so here's my middle ground.

Remember to add an Annex B that includes your employees Job Description.

All done!

Disclaimer: The information in these posts work for us. I cannot and will not guarantee that they'll work for you. Consult the right professional to make sure.

Open Source Startup: Contents & Introduction

2019-01-22T09:32:00.003+02:00

This is something I've been wanting to write for a while. One of the frustrating things about a South African startup journey is the lack of open source material to help you along the way. I'm not talking about code - there's plenty of that. I'm talking about the nuts and bolts of building a business: contracts, cashflows, policies and procedures.

In the US, you can download a term sheet, pitch deck and employment contract - from multiple sources. Here, it's a little tougher.

Over the next few months, I'm going to be sharing some sanitised versions of some of the documentation and processes that we've used to build forgood into SA's largest corporate volunteering platform. It's a fairly typical SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) SME - just playing in the new social enterprise space.

Hopefully these posts help you in some way. I'll answer any questions I can on @andyhadfield and if there's something in particular you'd like me to cover, leave a comment. I'm not going to claim that these are perfect. And they might not be perfect for you (in fact, apply a broad disclaimer that if you're unsure, consult the right professional before implementing anything). But the more we share, the more we grow the startup scene in South Africa.

Our challenges should be creating the right products for the right markets at the right time, not agonising over a Department of Labour audit.

This introductory post will also serve as a Table of Contents for the series. I'll update it as we go along...

Open Source Startup: Templates & Processes for Building Businesses in South Africa

1. Employment Contract Template for South Africa

2. Performance Management Framework

3. Cashflow Template

4. Investor Pitch Decks

5. Investor Report Templates

6. Shareholders Agreement and Memorandum of Incorporation Templates

7. Disciplinary Policies - Surviving South Africa's Labour Law

8. Tools, Tools Everywhere and You Probably Only Need a Few

9. Codifying Company Culture

10. The Open Startup Movement

Image used in this series from HackerNoon.com