Category: Link Worthy

Websites I’ve found that deserve a mention

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Link Worthy Personal Ramblings

CCTV Lockdown

Today calls for a tiny celebration. It marks the official end of South Africa’s hard lockdown… We’ve now entered into a “Stage 4” lockdown, which is much the same, except we are now awarded morning exercise hours…

I helped Sentian put together a little light-hearted video showcasing some CCTV family keepsakes of the past 5 weeks, that their customers had sent in. It’s been a memorable chapter for all of us.

These are tough times, much tougher for some than others. South Africa always dishing out a fair share of perspective. Us with CCTV have the privilege of a house that requires protecting.

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Link Worthy

Disrupt Africa interview

A recent interview with Disrupt Africa covering:

  • Life as a 🇿🇦 early stage investor…. after bootstrapping @WooCommerce
  • My growing curiosity in social impact investing & low-income markets
  • The startups I’m backing to succeed + what an “active” investor role means to me
Meet the Investor: Mark Forrester

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Link Worthy Personal Ramblings

SME.Africa podcast

Last week I sat down with a good friend doing fantastic work in the SME space in South Africa, Marnus Broodryk.

Marnus convinced me to join him on his SME.Africa podcast. 4 years since our acquisition I enjoyed reminiscing over our journey and the learnings, however distant and fuzzy some parts feel. We also spoke about what keeps me busy these days.

Despite having a voice for print I enjoyed the interview.

Listen to “The Founder of WooThemes & WooCommerce [EP10 S2]” on Spreaker.

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Link Worthy

July bookmarks

Most of us default to retweets and quick shares on Twitter these days, but for posterity and future reference I’m going to blogroll a few articles I found particularly interesting this month.

How an Offer to Sell Wistia Inspired Us to Take On $17M in Debt

Most founders dream of building a product that eventually becomes a household name and sells for a billion dollars, but chasing that goal comes with some downsides. We chose a different path.

Chris Savage & Brendan Schwartz – Founders of Wistia

I’ve followed the @wistia team with keen interest for many years – @woothemes was an early user. This chapter is a fascinating and important read for any business owner contemplating future growth and how much control they are willing to sacrifice for it.

Part #2 — $100M to $1B+: Non-obvious Lessons Learned Selling to Yahoo!

While there is much written about growing a startup, there is far less written about being acquired, successfully integrating a startup or scaling within a large company. In retrospect, I wish I had been better prepared and more knowledgeable, and hope my lessons learned below can prove valuable to CEOs and founders everywhere.

Todd Sacredoti – Founder of BrightRoll

🤯 So many parallels, so many I wish we’d knowns. A hugely insightful read for business owners about the lesser spoken acquisition process.

The nightmare videos of childrens’ YouTube — and what’s wrong with the internet today

This really terrifies me as a dad – seeing my 6 year old, and even 2 year old boy, falling victim to these dangerous rabbit holes of deep, dark YouTube. A must watch for parents…

TL;DR Keep your kids away from YouTube.

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Link Worthy

Selling though storytelling

A fantastically told founding story behind Naadam, a sweater company breaking a cashmere cartel.

This video perfectly highlights the importance of good storytelling in shaping a genuine customer connection with a brand, and in turn selling lots of products. 

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Link Worthy

Under one hour

It is both daunting and surreal to see what our generation can conceptualise, and in a few years from now build. To shape a future reality our children will see as quite ordinary!

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Link Worthy Personal Ramblings

The Emirates first class experience

In November 2014, from Cape Town to San Francisco, I was miraculously upgraded to fly first class. On not one, but two long haul flights via Dubai. A total of over 20 hours in a flying palace. It was an incredibly surreal and scarily opulent experience.

It was my first (and only) time flying Emirates business class, that I only just managed to justify pocketing – celebrating a crazy few months at WooThemes. Presumably Emirates were keen to impress and win some business travellers over, with a surplus of first class seats available. Only at check-in did I realise I had been upgraded.

I wish I’d documented the flight better, but only managed a handful of pictures.

A year and a half later my favorite vlogger, Casey Neistat, got the same VIP Emirates treatment and did a fantastic job of documenting the experience. The video has gone completely viral with over 20 million views in 7 days. I think Emirates can justify Casey’s upgrade a lot better than mine….

I still can’t believe I took that flight and can only imagine how much that ticket would cost today. (An absurdly, unjustifiable amount…)

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Link Worthy

Twinkle twinkle little rockstar

This week I discovered the artist “Twinkle twinkle little rockstar“. Thanks to an episode of Mr. Robot of all places.

If, like me, you are a sleep-deprived parent used to the constant soft noise of baby carousels and nursery rhymes on YouTube baby channels, then this artist is a welcomed life line.

There are some great covers to musically educate your little ones – from the earliest of ages.

https://embed.spotify.com/follow/1/?uri=spotify%3Aartist%3A3mGCLimuzOdod4Lnegny4d&size=basic&theme=dark

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Link Worthy

Table Mountain timelapse

For the last 3 years I have been exploring Table Mountain National Park in pursuit of capturing its beauty like never seen before timelapse video.

Recommended in 4K! Follow Brendon Wainwright on Instagram.

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Link Worthy

Anomaly

Great to see what is possible today thanks to the Vimeo and Kickstarter communities. Modern day filmmaking at it’s best. Well done to Salomon Ligthelm.