The document summarizes the 2014 Net Prophet conference in Cape Town. It provides details on some of the headline speakers including Julian Assange, Alexander Asseily, and Jody Ford. Their talks focused on topics like the future of finance with Bitcoin, decentralizing centralized organizations, and the evolution of retail driven by technology and mobile phones. The document also summarizes presentations from entrepreneurs on lessons learned from building startups and games in South Africa. It concludes with information on the Sparkup business competition that provided investment funding.

1. 2014
Highlights

2. What is Net Prophet?

3. About
Net Prophet, an initiative started by the RAMP Foundation in 2009, is an annual
conference in Cape Town where the most
innovative | successful | creative | ambitious
Pioneers and Entrepreneurs in the digital space share their
Stories PredictionsIdeas

4. Speakers
Headline Speaker
Julian Assange
Founder & Chief Editor of
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks gained global
exposure and attention in
2010 when it published US
military and diplomatic
documents.
Assange has been under
investigation in the United
States since then and has
taken refuge at the
Embassy of Ecuador,
London.
Alexander Asseily
Co-Founder & Executive
Chairman of State.com

5. Jody Ford

6. Everywhere Shopping
Jody Ford discusses how technology is driving the the evolution of retail. He
believes the mobile phone has become the essential remote control to our lives
● A new retail is emerging, its consumer driven and
technology enabled.
Jody Ford
VP of Marketing, eBay
● People now expect better
service online than offline.
● People now look at their
phones 40 times a day, for 2
mins each time.
Shoppers
39% 55%
US UK
Pay online & pick
up in-store
If you’re in retail, you need to
invest heavily in mobile – not
embrace the mobile sector but
enhance the mobility of your
enterprise.

7. Julian Assange

8. Founder of Wikileaks
Streaming live from the UK, Assange shared some pearls of wisdom and foresight
to South African entrepreneurs.
* The next great innovation headed our way
will be in the financial sector, with Bitcoin
disrupting the industry in a huge way.
* We need more diversity in organisations -
the current political and economical
structures around finance mean people in
control get pushed around by state.
* We’re seeing one dominant player in some
aspects of the internet (like Google), which is
problematic.
* A serious question: will most things that most people use most of the time be eaten
up by a few dominant players? We need to decentralise centralised organisations.

9. Simon Dingle

10. Host of Tech5 on 5FM
● Humans are a mix of algorithms. Technology is shifting to
understand us as individuals, to personalise itself for us.
● You’re failing if you’re generalising. You need to segment!!
● Instead of trying to educate the market, let the market educate
you.
Answers: both lines are the same length, both squares are the same colour
- it’s only your perspective that’s different.
Simon Dingle
Writer & Host of Tech5 on
5FM
Simon highlighted how behavioural sciences, varied perceptions and technology all
play a huge role in consumer decisions and companies should not isolate the “digital
strategy” - digital should be a given platform with a business plan.
Which horizontal line is longer?
Answer below
Which block is darker in colour?
Answer below

11. Aaron Marshall

12. Go Big AND Go Home
Aaron believes in "going big AND going home" (to your family). His app has just
won the international U-Start competition. Below are some tips he shared.
Aaron Marshall
Founder of Over App

13. Alexander Asseily

14. Time To Use Another Part of Your Brain
The issue with #hashtags is that they’re
temporary, very flighty and real-time.
You don’t need any followers on State. You just
need an opinion, which can then connect you
with other people who feel the same way.
Asseily has developed a new communications platform that connects people based
on what they think, rather than what they know. A global opinion network.
Alexander Asseily
Co-Founder of State.com &
Executive Chairmain of Jawbone

15. Rob Stokes

16. From Bedroom to Buyout
Following the recent acquisition of Quirk by global mega-corp WPP, Stokes shares
some lessons he’s learnt along the way.
1. Surround yourself with people better than yourself
2. Timing does matter (just hard to predict)
3. Always play to people’s strengths
4. If you are going to do something, commit fully
5. Be generous with your knowledge
6. You need luck, it happens through perseverance
7. Make yourself saleable, even if you are not for sale
8. Businesses struggle to innovate internally
9. The most adaptable to change survive
10. Just. F###ing. Do. It.
Rob Stokes
Founder & Group CEO of
Quirk

17. Danny Day & Marc Luck

18. Making Games in SA
Danny and Marc build games as well as train others to do so. They have created a
community for SA gamers to learn, build and grow.
Marc Luck & Danny Day
Co-Founders of
QCF Design (Game
Development)
Digital distribution allows game studios to keep more of the
revenue from sales than physical retail sold copies.
┏(-_-)┛┗(-_- )┓┗(-_-)┛┏(-_-)┓
Retail Online
R600 game R10 to devs R150 game R110 to devs
www.makegamessa.com

19. Nicole Yershon

20. The Story of an Intrepreneur
Nicole heads up Ogilvy Labs with a hands on approach to R&D by incorporating the
latest technologies & innovations into client solutions. She believes that the freedom
to test and learn is important, and determines success by these 6 measures.
Nicole Yershon
Director of Innovations at
Ogilvy International
The 6 R’s of Measuring Success:
1. Revenue
2. Reputation
3. Recruitment
4. Retention
5. Relationships
6. Responsibility

21. Andrew Valentine

22. A Startup Hitlist
There are better opportunities in Africa right now than in
the US and UK.
Great business ideas make for a good start, but that idea
is pretty useless if you cannot pair it with a strong
execution strategy
Many startups don’t focus on selecting their business
models as much as they should.
Even if you have a great team and working environment,
you can still lose if you have a bad business model.
We succeeded thanks to luck, hard work and a great
business model.
Andrew Valentine
Founder of Streetcar
Andrew is the Founder of Streetcar, the largest carsharing company in Europe. He
believes a solid business model trumps everything else.

23. Nathan Jeffrey

24. Own It
Nathan runs MyEcommerce, a software development company. He claims to be
born in the real world, but living in the cloud.
Nathan Jeffery
Blogger & Owner of
MyEcommerce
If you’re not willing to do what you do for free,
you’re in the wrong job.
You should be your own investor, learn to
network and learn to optimise your time.
You need to learn to say no. You need to
optimise the time you spend on projects.
You need a commitment strategy - not an exit
strategy.

25. The Startup Workshop

26. Sparkup!
Sparkup! is a small business gauntlet for passionate founders looking to
get investment and take a product to market. Three intense days of
business grooming, culminating in a live audience investor pitch.

27. The Winners
8Bit, Ekaya and Shopstar walked away with investment totalling almost US$100,000.
Digital Media Network
Real Estate Application
Online Shop Creator

28. Thank You!

29. Senior Account Manager | Digital Strategist | Coding Novice
@candynewton
info@candacenewton.co.za
www.candacenewton.co.za