For South African Founders

Get access to the capital and mentors who have built, scaled, and sold their tech businesses internationally.

Unleash is a community of former builders for South African founders. Access the right capital at the right time — without entering the fundraising rat race.

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Free to join. Active commitment required. Apply in 5 minutes.

"A single conversation broke through clouds I'd been stuck in for months." — Gavin W., Digify Africa

"The most detailed and constructive input I've received so far." — Phumi K., Kloset Klub

"We've used what I learned to completely reframe our strategy." — Phinda N., Four Minute Medicine

"We are now moving full steam ahead to implement these." — Rene H., Proco

"A single conversation broke through clouds I'd been stuck in for months." — Gavin W., Digify Africa

Billions ZAR

Enterprise Value Generated

1,000+

Founders Supported

Incubation → Exit

Full-Cycle Track Record

Who's Behind This

Meet Phil

Exited Founder & Investor

Philipp Ströhemann first landed in Cape Town in 2014 for a business school exchange — and never really left. He co-founded his first company with a South African partner that same year.

Over 15 years, Phil has built and scaled multiple businesses across B2B SaaS, marketplaces, and tech-enabled services — from founding to exit. He's been through the full cycle: bootstrapping, building sales teams, scaling revenue, and selling to private equity.

Now he's putting that experience — and his own capital — behind the next generation of South African founders. Not as a fund manager, but as someone who shows up, rolls up his sleeves, and works alongside you on GTM, sales, pricing, hiring, and execution.

The ecosystem doesn't need more advice. It needs people who have done it.

Learn more about Phil → LinkedIn · Substack

15+

Years Building

Multiple Exits

to PE & Strategic Buyers

2-3

Deep Engagements/Year

What We Believe

Our Principles

A community of operators who've built real companies. Sharing what they know with the founders in the room.

Community, Not a Fund

Unleash is a peer group of operators who have built real companies. Founders get a room of people who show up when it matters and share what they know.

Experience, Not Advice

Every insight comes from having built, scaled, and exited. Not from reading about it. From doing it.

Funded for SA Reality

SA tech startups need to be funded for South African reality and for flexibility — not shoehorned into Silicon Valley playbooks.

Cash-Flow First

SA rewards efficiency, not burn. Companies reach customers and revenue early — without fundraising dependency.

Value First

Every founder who engages with Unleash should walk away with something useful — a sharper plan, a better connection, a real answer — whether Unleash invests or not.

Who This Is For

Are We Right For You?

We work with South African early-stage founders. A good fit usually looks like one or more of these:

Early-stage

Pre-revenue or up to R500k in annual revenue.

A real problem identified

You know what you're solving, and you want to build further.

Looking for honest feedback

You want operator-level input from people who've built and sold.

Thinking about fundraising

You're prepping for or working through your next round.

Ready to scale

You have your first paying customers and want to figure out how to scale.

How It Works

From Application to Access

We work with South African founders at pre-revenue or up to R500k in revenue. One application. Up to 15 new founders per cohort. Clear feedback within a quarter.

Apply

Tell us about your business, your stage, and what you're building. Takes 5 minutes via our application form.

Review & Feedback

We review every application personally and come back to you before the next cohort starts — 15 June for Q3, 15 September for Q4, 15 December for Q1.

Join the Cohort

If you're a fit, you're in. Immediate access to the WhatsApp community, playbooks, spreadsheets, GPT tools, and the mentor network.

Work the Quarter

Three community calls (attend at least two). Ongoing peer group in WhatsApp. By the end of the quarter: an honest assessment of where you are with your business and a clear picture of your funding options.

What's Next

We'll tell you whether there's an investment fit with Unleash — and if not, why. Stay in the community for up to three quarters total as long as you show up for 2 of 3 calls each quarter.

Apply Now

What Unleash Members Say

From Our Founders

Real feedback. Real founders. No fluff.

I walked away with a breakthrough in my thinking. Amazing how a single conversation can break through some clouds. I've started discussing it with the team and it's definitely the way we need to go into 2026.

Gavin Weale

Founder & CEO, Digify Africa

This is genuinely the most detailed and constructive input I've received so far. The process was hugely valuable — rebuilding the model and pressure-testing assumptions gave me much more clarity.

Phumi Korber

Founder & CEO, Kloset Klub

It gave me a lot to report back and think about with the team. We've used what I learned to reframe our strategy and I'm still working through the frameworks.

Phinda Njisane

Co-founder, Four Minute Medicine

Tremendously helpful. The call crystallised key points I've been reflecting on — we are now moving full steam ahead to implement these.

Rene Hartmann

Co-Founder, Proco