Growing up in South Africa, where if you're black and you're a woman, you're not going to get anywhere in life. We all know the sad story. And you are surrounded by a lack of inspiration, really. I literally lived in the US in my head, I watched every movie you can think of, I read every magazine - I lived vicariously through those stories.

What we learned with our first investment in SweepSouth was the importance of some traction in order for you to start proving a concept and the availability of the market.

We were actually one of the first investors into SweepSouth but we wrote a very small cheque. For me, it was just to test the waters, to get closer to the opportunity and understand it so that we could then learn what we needed to learn and hopefully be able to then start doing it on our own.

The problem that we really sought to solve right from the get-go was the problem of access to capital, primarily. And once you understand it at that almost macro-level, then you start unpacking it.

Part of our problem is that we don't see ourselves as part of the continent whereas a Nigerian sees themselves as the king of Africa. So that mindset is very, very critical and we need to look into our mindset. That's number one. And it does talk to the issue around exposure because we come from such an insulated history.

We look for businesses that are scalable. And by scalable, I mean they can really grow their customer base significantly or they are profitable or they can be profitable. 

A lot of techies think that just because they've come up with a brilliant solution to a problem, they are business people - they are not. So, having the humility to accept that "I've developed a kick-ass tech platform, but I'm not the guy who's going to take it to market and make it work". Steve Jobs versus his sidekick.

I like to know people personally as an investor. So I want to know who you are. And when I say I want to know who you are, I don't want to know who your father is and how rich or poor you are. But I want to know, at your very essence, who are you? And who are you, not just you as the one visionary, but also your team. What have you done? What have you achieved? It's very important to understand that.

Due diligence helps an investor to understand the true person. And there's nothing wrong with a person being different, but at least understanding who they are helps us to determine whether we can work together. Because this is a relationship, especially in this space. It's a relationship because it's a hard journey.

I think that boldness is critical. I think it is so important to dream beyond your wildest dreams.