Bank of America is launching Erica, a digital assistant to help manage your bank account. The app promises to help you manage your bills, transfer money, and access important information about your account. Branch, a fintech company, raised over $100M…
Most people in the world probably think they’ve been more often on the wrong side of leverage. I count myself in that category. The most painful was when I was pushed out of a company without my equity. I only…
When I played rugby at University, I started for the first team my freshman year. Growing up with the sport in Zimbabwe had blessed me with an intuitive understanding of the game, from movement off the ball, to defense, to…
Ray Dalio’s book is legit. It’s crystalizing a lot of the work I’ve read on mental models, while also putting down some great insight into execution. One key takeaway for me right now is his five step process to achieving your…
This isn’t really a mental model, more of a mindset. But I include it as a mental model because you can use it as an instant or deferred model against the world. If you’ve read a book, you’ve accessed knowledge…
Like pretty much everyone else, I was caught up in the Bitcoin speculative bubble of late last year. During the frothy times, I entertained ideas of grandeur, where I would run a bitcoin hedgefund in Cape Town with my friends…
Last week I took four days off work and went on a five-day hike along the coast of South Africa. We carried all our own supplies. It was a beautiful experience, refreshing the mind, rejuvenating the soul and purifying the…
I’ve worked in consumer lending since I graduated college. Form the dusty streets of Dar es Salaam to the mountains of Cape Town, I’ve witnessed most of the spectrum in consumer lending. When I started in microfinance, it was a…
If the number of credit providers in a country was a reliable heuristic for identifying a credit bubble, you would say that yes, Kenya is in a credit bubble. However, that is unfair since while it might be a reliable…
What makes a good collection method? The collections game has largely stayed the same, with methods based on direct debits or some form of peer or authority pressure remaining the most popular. Payroll lending and some digital lenders use direct…