Sihlesenkosi is no stranger to entrepreneurship, unlike many others, after completing his tertiary studies he chose to skip employment and get straight into doing his own thing. Starting off with some groundwork in incubators and then later winning a hackathon with IBM, he quickly gained momentum and various first place accolades in this realm ensued. He went on to build platform businesses, one of which had a successful exit. All of them helped him to master how to build a business from the ground up.
There was however, one lesson he was still working hard to learn: how to scale. Sihlesenkosi went on to enter the corporate world as an employee for a businesses that had already scaled. There he learnt crucial lessons that would play out in his venture today: a pop-up market platform, which connects vendors or small businesses to market opportunities in local communities. His mission is a powerful one: ‘We believe that small businesses are the key to solving unemployment in South africa. We are on a mission to grow 250 000 entrepreneurs and their small business so they can employ themselves and one person. Helping create 500 000 jobs per year’.
His first hurdle in pursuit of his mission was breaking into a very traditionally run industry that was dominated by agencies controlling retail spaces and the market opportunities therein. When faced with this challenge, Sihlesenkosi’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked. For him it was never about giving up on the idea in the face of a powerful deterrent but rather about how he could find his own workaround. While all the current players were focussed on space within retailers, he began to look for opportunities in the spaces outside retail centres, such as parking lots. It took off!
“The opportunity for my business kept growing and the need to execute on this was amplifying. It soon felt like the opportunity I had was going to go away. Being employed, I saw the opportunity I had slowly start to erode if I didn't act fast. I knew if I didn't give it my all, the opportunity would not come to fruition. I decided I needed to focus full time on this business.”
Sometimes Founders are employees while exploring their entrepreneurial quest part time, and Sihlesenkosi talks to the point at which we make the decision to quit employment and go ‘all in’. He explains how the business will signal the need for a full-time commitment to capitalize on a fleeting opportunity that cannot be missed. Unless one can focus on all of the components requiring attention in a business, from marketing to product development to finance, legal and so forth, how can we move forward? Sihlesenkosi emphasizes that for early-stage Founders experiencing a surge in traction, maintaining laser focus is paramount.
“Funding is not the biggest challenge, it is long term business/customer support. There is always a ‘short-term’ commitment where a StartUp is supported more on a trial basis because there is little trust that this business will reach long term success. However, in order to secure funding, investors require longer term commitments from our clients/customers.”
Sihlesenkosi understands long term contracts are certainly required in a B2B business in order to gain investor confidence and buy-in, however the cycle to get there is a long one and a challenge many Founders are grappling with: one deal away from either being destroyed or finding success. He advises Founders in this position to focus on key relationships within the ecosystem and to also be aggressive in getting those long term agreements in place.
As we progress through the typical stages of business, Sihlesenkposi reflects on the beginning where we need the most motivation to get up and maintain focus on building something new and the potential ways it might unfold. As we reach the next stage, for him, this becomes less about motivation and more about waking up with a lot of ‘things to do’. Ultimately we get to a place where there is this ‘semi-autopilot’ mode where the business is just working. For those caught in a chaotic whirlwind, chasing just to keep up, he offers a reminder that eventually, momentum builds, and we find a more natural flow.
As Sihlesenkosi’s business focuses on connecting SME’s with markets, he has been in a privileged position to learn and find inspiration from the very people he serves. He goes on to make the point that if we are not willing to invest in ourselves, how can we expect anyone else to?
“I have found that Founders who truly love their products, invest in their products. One can see it in everything that they do with their business from branding to product to the customer experience and so on. They invest in themselves and their business”.
We salute the great work Sihlesenkosi is doing with SME’s and providing opportunities for them as well as the cultural impact he is making in the process. He truly is in a pay-it-forward business. Sihlesenkosi builds his business with the vision of it outlasting him. We admire his vision and commitment to SME’s, the lifeblood of South Africa's economy.
“Solving niche challenges Founders face”.
Illustrator: Lisa Williams (Instagram: @artist_llw)