The First Kudu: Building a tech start-up in Africa

by Ben Shaw, Lorne Hallendorff

From 'naughty lists' to sprinting swans, wandering ducks to Amarula-based incentives, The First Kudu takes you on the roller coaster ride of a start-up, and dives into real learnings along the way.The narrative invites you to journey through the chaos with the young team and unpacks in gritty detail what goes into building a tech start-up – with stories of fun and failure honestly told in equal measure.The First Kudu tells the story of HouseME, a rental technology company founded in South Africa that grew to 34 employees and 50 000 registered users, processing hundreds of millions of rands each year. The company won awards, raised several rounds of funding and was sought after by competitors.It was exciting.It was excellent.And then …It was dead.Ben Shaw (former CEO) and Lorne Hallendorff (former COO) provide a whirlwind tour of what goes into building a start-up at the southern tip of Africa and what they would do differently, were they to do it again.

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 20, 2023

Reviews

[James Ross-Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read a few business books and this honesty and incredibly valuable lessons shared in this book are nuggets of absolute gold, not found in many other books. Entrepreneurs or even team mates in someone else’s business can learn from the lessons shared. The vulnerability to share the downs as well as the ups of being a start up founder are really encouraging to those of us who have failed but can be used in increasing the chances of success in any other business we work in or on. Simply incredible book.

[Matthew Henshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant read taking you through the rise and fall of a start up. So often entrepreneurs are left reading the success stories, and if this highlights anything there is a mighty fine line between success and failure and reading a book like First Kudu highlights just that.

Highly recommended to any inspiring entrepreneur, and especially interesting in the world of rental, property and South Africa.

[Binesh G · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I commend the authors of talking through their ups and downs, it’s too brief and the lessons are specific to a certain and narrow use case. There are nuggets of usefulness, but I can’t say there was too much meat to take home. But nevertheless a quick and quick read, although it misses many lessons that come with business maturity.

Again, I do admire them of openly talking about the failures, not many people do so upping the rating to 4 stars.