Heavy Chef Stories
By Heavy Chef speakers and community members.
Arthur Goldstuck is confidently the best-known tech researcher working on the African continent. On the Heavy Chef stage, Arthur unpacked the Visa / World Wide Worx / Platinum Seed eCommerce survey results. On an evening that also featured Yuppiechef's Andrew Smith and Bradley Elliott talking about various aspects of the online retail landscape, Arthur's presentation dove headfirst into the details, gleaning key takeouts and some surprising statistics.
UI / UX design whizz Jacques Oberholzer, co-founder of boutique design firm Now Boarding, has worked with some of the most widely-used apps and websites in the world. With clients such as Property24, Standard Bank, Gyft and fintech companies across Europe, Jacques knows a thing or two about bringing a concept to reality. In this insightful talk, Jacques shares his philosophy around standing out in a crowed marketplace.
Bradley Elliott is the CEO of South African digital marketing agency Platinum Seed, which partnered with Visa and research firm World Wide Worx to create the largest ever Online Retail survey conducted in Africa, focusing on eCommerce. Elliott delivered an inspiring talk, originating in some of the major signals from China’s eCommerce market and then reverting to lessons from African eCommerce trends. Elliott ended his talk with five key takeouts to learn from the African example.
Andrew Smith started Yuppiechef with his dear friend Shane Dryden over a decade ago. From selling a handful of products in its first year, it is a now an internationally recognised business that is generating hundreds of millions in turnover. In this action-packed presentation in November 2018, Andrew explains why, in the face of retail doom and gloom, Yuppiechef's decision to launch its retails stores across South Africa was a no-brainer.
Conn Bertish is our second speaker at Tuesday's Heavy Chef event, focusing on Grit, and he is remarkably hard to kill. Conn is one of the country’s top creative thinkers, having worked with some of the leading creative agencies in Africa. In 2006, Conn was diagnosed with a form of adult malignant brain cancer, leaving him at the mercy of the world's most feared disease. Using a very creative approach - and a truckload of grit - Conn finally beat cancer in 2013 - and then started building a tool, to help others do the same. Read how he did it, here. This week, Heavy Chef CO Fred Roed spoke to him about the journey - read the interview here.
Recently, the founder of socially-conscious design agency Creative Seed, Lee Rael and his team launched SeedPod, a podcast seeking to unearth the impactive, socially relevant entrepreneurs in South Africa and beyond. Last week, Lee interviewed Heavy Chef founder Fred Roed to chat about failure, success, the entrepreneurial challenges in South Africa and Fred’s new venture.
A collaboration of tech ecosystem organisations, including Silicon Cape, Heavy Chef, Startup Grind Cape Town, Future Females, Startupbootcamp, Workshop17, Inner City Ideas Cartel and CiTi, today announced the launch of the inaugural ‘Cape Town Startup Week’, which aims to celebrate a year of entrepreneurial endeavour in the Western Cape. The week has been set for Monday 3rd December, running to Thursday 6th December 2018.
Last week Heavy Chef hosted a duo of events in Johannesburg and Cape Town, based on the state of the nation’s ‘Online Retail’ sector. On Wednesday evening, the event was held at Workshop17 in Sandton, headlined by Arthur Goldstuck, Managing Director of World Wide Worx and Brad Elliot, Founder and CEO of Platinum Seed, joined by Ally Khan Pretorius, GM of Uber Eats. On Thursday evening, in Cape Town at Workshop17, Waterfront, the final presentation was given by Andrew Smith, CEO of Yuppiechef.
Ascend Academy, a tech institution feeding the demand for software engineering skills in South Africa, recently launched a 12-month paid graduate programme, designed to place software developers in one of SA’s top financial institutions, offering them an opportunity to develop their skills and expand their world.
Jonty Acton created, wrote, produced and directed the 13-part Wildlife Reality TV series Frontier Vets, which premiered on SABC 3 in 2016 and has gone on to achieve international recognition. Now, Jonty is embarking on his next big challenge - making a feature length South African film, called Break In. Heavy Chef’s CEO Fred Roed chatted to Jonty about being a film maker and creative entrepreneur - and asked him to weigh in on some thorny topics in the industry.
Pierre du Plessis is not your average Heavy Chef speaker. Some members of the audience were a little confused when Pierre opened his talk with "smell your hands". Pierre is not your average design thinker either. With a varied career in muliple disciplines, Pierre has advised artists, designers, technologists and international CEOs alike. The CEO of social entrepreneur company, Pierre is also a consultant, a strategist and a 'dissident preacher'. Watch this talk and prepare to be challenged.
“I think the future for most retail is going to be: this is the brand, they are a retail brand, and you can shop on your phone, you can shop on your computer, you can go into the store, or you can phone in. Integration is the retailer’s challenge,” Andrew Smith, CEO, YuppieChef reveals his three big insights for the future of ecommerce.
Last week, accelerator programme AlphaCode, awarded entrepreneurial packages valued at R16 million to eight of South Africa’s most promising financial services startups. The entrepreneurial packages consist of R1 million in grant funding and R1 million in support, which includes mentorship, monthly expert-led sessions, exclusive office space in Sandton, marketing, legal and other business support services - as well as access to the broader RMI network. Click to read more about the eight winners.
The Business Book Club was founded in April 2017 by Jacques Velleman. The next author to be interviewed in Cape Town is Heavy Chef’s very own CEO, Fred Roed, on November 7th at the Centre For The Book, in Gardens. Fred flipped the roles on Jacques by catching up with him for a few questions, prior to the interview on the 7th.
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