The first weeks of the year tend to feel deceptively calm. Inboxes are full again, pipelines restart, and budgets get dusted off. But the environment that South African SMEs are building in has shifted. Some of the biggest pressures in 2026 will not arrive as dramatic headline events; they will arrive as slower deal cycles, tighter contract language, more compliance friction, and rising cost structures that quietly compress margin. This brief focuses on three developments tha

Influencer marketing is everywhere these days, and for South African SMEs trying to get noticed in a crowded market, it’s become a go-to...

Retrenchments are never easy, especially for small businesses trying to stay afloat in a tough economy. But if you're a South African SME...

Running a small business often means working with others to bring your ideas to life. Whether you are talking to a potential investor, a...

Open banking is a way for people to tell a bank to share their account data with a trusted third party through secure application...

Workplace cameras and screen tracking have become the norm in many South African startups because founders want to see productivity and...

Equity crowdfunding has been simmering beneath the surface in South Africa, and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s (FSCA)...

South African fintechs are no strangers to compliance panic. The country is still on the FATF grey list and will only know in October...

When you run a lean shop with fewer than fifty people it is tempting to treat a retrenchment as a quick paperwork exercise but Section...

South African entrepreneurs are discovering that hiring globally is easier than ever but the legal landscape still speaks the language of...

Picture this. A Friday night push to production, pizza boxes everywhere, and then the laptops freeze. A bright red screen demands bitcoin...

The big dogs in every sector have promised shareholders and regulators that their products will arrive with a lighter carbon footprint...

The modern founder rarely has a single business card anymore. Many South African entrepreneurs juggle board seats across a main venture...

Choosing where to park your data is a bigger decision than most founders think. A decade ago, you took what you could get and prayed the...

Many small businesses seal quick deals in a WhatsApp chat because it feels faster than drafting a contract. The vibe is friendly and the...

Data privacy can look impossible when you are juggling invoices payroll and product builds. The Protection of Personal Information Act...

Picture this. You have a killer idea, a few caffeine-fuelled friends, and a blank repo. You decide to ship fast, chase users, and park...

Many founders assume the funding game is stacked against African startups because of geography or ticket size, yet the real difference...

Money should not be the wall that stops you from defending your name. South Africa has a few accessible routes that bypass the...

So your tech startup has crashed. Not in the dramatic, Twitter-is-down kind of way. More like a Golf 1 that took a sharp bend too fast...