Meet on-the-move entrepreneur Simon Hartley, whose restless quest for success lies at the heart of three very different startup companies with a common purpose … to deliver the goods
Some things in life need changing more than others. Nappies, for example. Barely has one gone on, than it’s time to swap it for another.
In that crying need, a young Cape Town entrepreneur named Simon Hartley saw an opportunity to start a business.
He called it WumWum, from the Zulu phrase, umntwana wami, meaning “my baby”. The concept? Fresh nappies couriered to your doorstep, whenever your baby needs changing.
One good idea gives birth to another, as often happens in business, and Simon’s next venture was a spin-off that set out to satisfy another basic human need. The hunger for grilled cheese sarmies.
Using couriers with their own cars, Uber-style, the Grilled Cheese Club (of which Simon, with his distinctively silver-streaked beard, is “The Grand Fromage”) also delivers Banting delicacies, wraps, and bagels to its discerning Cape Town clientele.
Now comes Simon’s biggest baby yet: WumDrop, a short-distance courier service that picks up where the Post Office left off. Changing times and outmoded business models call for quick thinking and nimble moves to zip into a gap in the market.
Will WumDrop, still active only in Cape Town and surrounds, find a foothold in the rest of the country, and will it deliver on its potential to be the next great diversified South African tech startup? For now, Simon is taking it Wum step at a time.
We caught up with him in-between deliveries, and asked him to share some thoughts on change and business.
Q: If you could change one thing about yourself for the better, what would that be, and why?
I would be content with not “winning” every single argument, because demonstrating the fallacy of someone’s argument without regard for their point of view will get you far in a high school debate, but not so much in a relationship.
Q: What do you love most about change?
Surviving it requires an unusual level of ingenuity.
Q: Where do you go when you feel like a change of scenery?
The roof of my building. It’s in the centre of the Cape Town City Bowl, and I love a skyline.
Q: What made you think that the world of courier delivery was in need of change?
Having started an online diaper subscription store with my business partner Roy Borole, it became clear to us fairly rapidly that the “shout-at-the-gate-ring-the-bell-twice-before-chucking-product-onto-driveway” delivery protocol employed by the courier company we were using to deliver our products, was costing us customers.
So we tried a different crew, and got the same result. After rinsing and repeating that process three times, we cottoned on to the fact that the real opportunity for change wasn’t in diapers, but in deliveries.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge in getting your courier company off the ground?
Without a doubt, the hardest part of this gig is developing stable software.
Which makes me a crybaby of the highest order, because all I do is write the brief, while my development team performs minor miracles on a consistent basis.
Q: What piece of technology, whether hardware or app, has done most to change the way you live your life, and why?
We recently bought a dishwasher for our home. I sincerely had no idea I could love an inanimate object that much.
Q: What advice would you give to young South Africans who dream of starting their own businesses?
Hustle very hard to find money, because you can’t get off the ground without it. But once you have it — and you will find it more easily than you anticipated — hustle to find mentors who will tell you how not to spend that money.
Quality advice is incredibly rare, and will save you a lot of pain and bankruptcy.
Q: What’s the single biggest lesson you’ve learned about life and change from your involvement in tech startups?
Starting a business introduces a lot of chaos and dynamism into your life. The most important thing I’ve learned is to value the constant elements, especially the relationships I have with my wife, and God.
Q: What was the single biggest and scariest change you have ever made in your life?
Marriage was undoubtedly the most terrifying change I’ve ever made to my life. And I completely lucked-out.
Q: How much change do you have in your pocket right now?
Does the SnapScan app on my phone count?
Q: What is your dream for technology as a force for change in South Africa?
Technology is an expression of human ingenuity. So my hope isn’t for technology per se, but that South Africans will begin to cotton on to the fact that people are willing to pay for real solutions to problems, and we have more than a few problems to solve.
Ipso facto, opportunity is everywhere.
Q: What does it take for you to change your mind?
A gut feeling.
Picture: Cape Town Diamond Museum
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