Wiser! — the tech innovation newsletter for sales people
Wiser! is a product of the pandemic.
With time on my hands and the inspiration of my daughters, I developed a compelling urge to create something. Wiser! is the result (and one part of my journey to understand the ecosystem supporting the side-hustle, freelancing, gig economy.)
The concept behind Wiser! is simple, and it goes like this. Sales people understand the importance of building relationships. It is the core foundation of building trust. Relationships with customers and clients are built on a sense of value. And being a source of knowledge and insight is one way in which sales people can add value to their customers.
So, the goal of Wiser! is to equip sales people with insight and stories from the world of tech and innovation, from startups to Big Tech.
Written in an easy to consume style for professional sellers, entrepreneurs and founders, Wiser! is a bi-monthly newsletter for anyone in a business development role working in the tech space. It features original content in the form of founder interviews and reviews of technology startups, market insight and informed opinion. It is also a curated digest of stories and the wisdom of others on the important issues of the moment.
The first issue of Wiser! was published on January 27th 2021 and included the following stories (or go check it out here.)
SUGAR — a South African startup on a mission to provide home insurance for those who need it the most.
Sugar is the story of a South African insurance startup with a digital solution to providing home insurance for people who live in informal dwellings. These are anything from a shack to a brick and mortar house, but without a street address, building certificates or regulatory approvals.
For traditional 1st world insurers, the risks are hard to assess and dont fit easily into their models. However, that does not mean the need for insurance is any less.
This is a great story of tech innovation, using AI and Sugar’s own version of what3words to identify unique locations. The full story of my interview with the founder, Ntando Kubheka, is here.
NEEVA — flipping the ad based search engine business model on its head
The internet search engine market is dominated by Google by a country mile. However, as the world adjusts it’s POV on data privacy and the use of behavioural insights to drive an ad revenue model, and as Apple drives a hard wedge between ‘privacy as a human right’ and ‘privacy is your forfeit”, the world is bifurcating into an iOS versus Android world.
That’s where Neeva comes in. Neeva is the soon to launch subscription search engine and you can read my conversation with co-founder Vivek Raghunathan here.
Other stories…
Is 2021 the year Bitcoin goes mainstream?
Amazon file patent for customised clothing
The AI system more accurate at diagnosing brain tumours than a team of elite doctors
openAI’s DALL-E that creates images from text
A list of startups that didnt make it in 2020
AirBnB by the numbers
A novelty visual showing the evolution of the scrollbar
DoorDash vs Uber Eats
Clubhouse Almost Founders podcast — they interview me on the subject of sales and selling for the 1st time entrepreneur
Plus my latest book reads, playlists and podcasts occupying my attention.
The next issue of Wiser! will be published on Friday 12th February.
You can find it all here on substack.
