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.

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