expert views

Donovan Neale-May

Founder, SABLE Accelerator, CMO Council

Navigating B2B Marketing's Future. CMO Council founder and executive director, Donovan Neale-May, joins Leadtail TV’s Bryan Kramer to share insights on the evolution and future of B2B marketing....
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Kathryn Sharfman

CMO and Chief Platform Officer, Sun Exchange

South African platform-as-a-service innovator invites individual investors to warm up funding for solar installations that have social value and impact in developing countries....
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Bernard Wolfsdorf

Founder & Managing Partner, Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group

America’s top immigrations attorney makes headlines as time runs out for wealthy South Africans who seek new lives and opportunities in the US...
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Herman Mashaba

The following is an extract of a speech delivered today by DA Mayoral Candidate for Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, at the launch of the DA’s electoral campaign for Johannesburg....
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Pieter van Schalkwyk

CEO, XMPro

Lessons on the Challenges of Entering the North American Market from an Expat Entrepreneur who is Bringing Value to the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) ...
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Steuart Pennington

CEO , South Africa - The Good News

Correction Mike Schüssler! Mike Schüssler recently wrote “Welcome to the decline South Africa – It is much easier to become poorer that richer.” I made a few corrections...
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Pumela Salela

SABLE Advisory Board Member, Global Sourcing Council

Doing Business in Africa. This was the title of the breakfast session in which Brand South Africa was asked to participate in, at the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) held in the Malta Island this week. The topic was opportune because as Brand South Africa we acknowledge that South Africa is not an island of its own, it is a country located within the African Continent. We recognise that for South Africa to succeed, Africa must first succeed....
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Prof. (JD) Jonathan Jansen

Vice-Chancellor and Rector, UFS UV

How to be white and happy in South Africa. Be better than us, your parents - if your generation cannot make this society normal, we‘re screwed...
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Pieter de Villiers

Founder and CEO, Clickatell

Pieter de Villiers is a South African born, Silicon Valley based entrepreneur with a passion for mobile and the empowerment it leads to. Pieter is an advisor to the SABLE Network, and recently sat down for a Q&A on his innovation insights. ...
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Anthony Stonefield

Managing Director, Gramercy Millennium Group

SABLE’s Kerry Swift caught up with serial technology entrepreneur Anthony Stonefield in Johannesburg recently to discuss his personal journey, his eventual return to South Africa and his views on innovation entrepreneurs and what they need to do to turn their visions into reality....
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Pumela Salela

SABLE Advisory Board Member, Global Sourcing Council

The SABLE Accelerator’s Kerry Swift in Johannesburg posed some questions on South Africa’s global competitiveness to Pumela Salela, board member of the Global Sourcing Council and a member of the SABLE advisory board....
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Crunch Time for China Boosts South African Fruit Industry

Charles Hughes, Managing Director of Fruit Marketing, Tru-Cape

After 23 years in South Africa’s R6bn fruit industry—many of them as Managing Director of Fruit Marketing for Tru-Cape, South Africa’s biggest producer of apples and pears—Charles Hughes, 60, is retiring without having fulfilled his ambition of gaining access to China’s vast market. He blames it on the South African government....
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To Become a Superstar, Improve Your Strengths (Not Your Faults)

Auren Hoffman, CEO, LiveRamp

To Become a Superstar, Improve Your Strengths (Not Your Faults)...
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Faheem Kajee

Co-Founder, Found (Previously Pashash)

David Kitley spent some time with Faheem to understand more about Found and how it evolved from Pashash, as well as his skills, background, passion and some of the cultural differentiators between Silicon Valley and South Africa....
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Jake Davidow

Founder, Teach Me Sushi and Teach Me Chocolate

Jake Davidow, an avid supporter of the principles of The Lean Startup, launched his first app, Teach Me Sushi, over a six-week timeframe. He believes that in order to get an idea to product, you must keep a strong focus on the end goal and not be tempted by other fancy options available along the way...
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Eran Eyal

Co-founder, Springleap

Eran Eyal, co-founder of Evly.com and Springleap, an online platform connecting designers, brands and agencies to enhance creative ideation and social media marketing, has learned what it means to almost lose an entrepreneurial idea after having to buy his business back from its shareholders due to limited development and a lack of realizing the true worth of the opportunity at hand...
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Bradley Smith

Co-Founder, BusinessOptics

Bradley Smith, co-founder of BusinessOptics, was recently in San Francisco to promote his business, seek additional funding and obtain valuable feedback from experienced players in the start-up and funding industry. His ability to break down a complex approach to problem-solving, business modeling and logic mechanization is inspiring, and such a capability is characteristic of Business...
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Nick McCreath

Co-Founder, Super Simple Survey

As startups globally tackle the issue of developing lean organizations and stretching funding as far as possible, they reach for consulting guides like The Lean Entrepreneur and The Lean Startup for lessons critical to the execution of a startup idea. Two South Africans, Kevin Rademan and Nicholas McCreath, co-founders of the Super Simple Survey, are shining examples of the ideal entrepreneur....
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Gary Boddington

Co-Founder and former Executive Vice President and General Manager, Alchemex Pty Ltd, acquired by Sage in October 2011

Gary Boddington, a former South African national hockey player with Olympics experience under his belt, recalls saying to then-teammate and now co-founder of Sage Alchemex, Charles Teversham: “One day, we will play on this stage again; let’s try our hand at business after this.” In 2001, five years after the Atlanta games experience, Boddington, Teversham and Darryl S...
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Stormhawks

South Africa and Wits University can once again hold their heads high as a group of students known as the Stormhawks represent the country in the second round of the biennial Airbus Fly Your Ideas competition. The Stormhawks, drawing inspiration from the TED Talks platform, are proposing an adapted visible light communication system for aircraft control. The crux of this, for non-technical folk reading this, involves transmitting da...
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Barry Kayton

Founder and CEO, Cognician

Barry Kayton has a passion and drive to experiment with channels commonly associated with learning. Unlike other tech spaces where entrepreneurs are drastically looking for the solution to solving some of society’s major pain points, there is no silver bullet or final answer to addressing the local and global educational space....
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Michael Leeman

Entrepreneur and Investor, RunwaySale, Gyft and Miombo Consulting

Michael Leeman has been touted as one of South Africa’s most noteworthy angel investors in the Internet and mobile. He currently resides in San Diego, California, keeping his eye out for opportunities on both the North American and African continents....
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Piet Barnard and Dr. Andrew Bailey

Piet Barnard, Director, Research Contracts and Intellectual Property Services, UCT and Dr. Andrew Bailey, Intellectual Property Manager, Research Contracts and Intellectual Property Services, UCT

Sable’s Dave Kitley met with Piet Barnard and Dr. Andrew Bailey from UCT’s Technology Transfer Office, known as ‘Research Contracts and Intellectual Property Services,’ to discover why the University is recognized as one of the national leaders in enabling technology transfer and IP commercialization among higher education institutions....
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Anita Nel

CEO: Innovation and Business Development, InnovUS, Stellenbosch University

Anita Nel is the CEO of InnovUS Technology Transfer (Pty) Ltd., the wholly owned technology and short courses commercialization company of Stellenbosch University. She started her career as a math and science teacher at Paul Roos Gymnasium and went on to work at Thawte, one of the most successful and well-known South African IT companies, which was sold to VeriSign in 2000...
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Sam Paddock

Founder and Co-managing Director, GetSmarter – High-Touch Online Education Company

With the recent publicity and global interest in Online Education, SABLE reached out to GetSmarter, a high-touch, online education platform based out of Cape Town that is causing much disruption to South African Universities, traditional and correspondent, and whose results and unique 'personal-trainer' model speak for themselves....
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Laurie Olivier

Partner - 4Di Capital, Board Member and Chairman, HealthQ Technologies

Laurie Olivier, a South Africa and Global venture capitalist and entrepreneur with a shopping list of deals, titles and accreditations to his name, is high in energy about his latest venture with HealthQ Technologies, a Health and Wellness start-up out of Stellenbosch, South Africa....
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Kirsten Leute

Senior Licensing Associate, Office of Technology Licensing, Stanford University

Sable's David Kitley met with Kirsten Leute from Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing to discover more about Stanford, the Technology Licensing process and to enquire about entrepreneurial characteristics at the university....
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Spencer Fleischer

President, FFL Partners – Venture Capital and Private Equity (San Francisco)

A global investment banking leader and private equity fund innovator, Spencer Fleischer is President at FFL Partners. FFLP was recently awarded the 2012 HEC-Dow Jones Private Equity Performance Ranking's top spot for the world's top PE firm in terms of aggregate performance based on all funds raised between 1999 and 2008, answering the question of which firm is generating the best perf...
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Stephen Bell

Biologicals, Vaccines & Pharmaceuticals & Trade Commission Trustee, Federal Trade Commission

Dr. Bell is an accomplished entrepreneur, having formed a start-up company and built it up for 10 years, taking it from invention and patenting of the lead technology, all the way through R&D, Business Development, Clinical Development, Out-Licensing, IPO and finally Partnering. Additionally, while serving in various consulting roles over the preceding 25 years, he has collaborated...
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General Counsel: Accelerating Growth, Minimizing Risk and Protecting Businesses

Stuart Blake, co-founder and partner of InnovaCounsel and David Blackwood, partner at InnovaCounsel

Stuart Blake, founder and partner of InnovaCounsel, is an attorney with more than 30 years of in-house corporate legal experience. He has vast knowledge of the legal issues involved in consumer products industries, for which he has counseled on general business, commercial contracts, employment matters, litigation mergers and acquisitions, and corporate compliance and government. He ha...
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What You Know Now Beats Who You Know

Auren Hoffman, CEO, Rapleaf

Auren Hoffman is the CEO of Rapleaf, an automated search service that enables companies to become more knowledgeable about their consumers. He is also the author of a blog entitled...
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Devin Drake

CEO, Virtuvent

Devin Drake is involved in product development, business development, legal, and finance. On the product side, he has experience managing the build process of LAMP stack-type products, user experience, mobile frameworks such as Appcelerator, analytics, third party product integration (API), and e-commerce. Drake has a bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town....
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Vinny Lingham

Advisory Board Member, SABLE Accelerator; Co-founder and CEO, Gyft; Founder and Board Member, Yola

Vinny Lingham, a technology entrepreneur with an educational and professional background in South Africa, offers his thoughts on the various aspects of entrepreneurship, including the global entrepreneurial environment, start-ups, and insights for others along their entrepreneurial journeys....
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