A weekly show where we bring you founders, builders and innovators to share their expertise on how they would overcome challenges and build products and tech businesses.
Why WhatsApp Is the Infrastructure for the Future | Chat Inc | Jonathan Williams
Can you build a company on top of WhatsApp?That’s exactly what Jonathan Williams, founder of Chat Inc, has been doing for almost 10 years — bootstrapping without outside funding and delivering innovations like SaFair’s WhatsApp experience.In this episode of How Would You Build It, Jonathan shares: • Why WhatsApp is more than just a chat app — it’s infrastructure to build on • How bootstrapping sharpened their execution and resilience • What big changes from Meta are about to shake the ecosystem • Why the opportunities for building on WhatsApp are still endless👉 Subscribe for more at howwouldyoubuildit.com👉 Join the newsletter: theopenletter.io👉 Connect with founders: thefoundercollab.com00:00 Intro02:12 Founder Story: Moving away from corporate04:26 Innovation Inclusion 06:54 The best explanation of why WhatsApp wins13:02 Founder Story: Getting Safair as a client19:06 Building on WhatsApp21:53 Builder Story: 5 things being built on Meta & Whatsapp28:58 Building a product vs building a business32:51 The impact on startups with the impending corporate culture in SA34:07 Where government is getting it wrong on employment vs entrepreneurship39:23 Builder Story: The ability to build for the international market42:39 What the future looks like for Chat Inc with new WhatsApp functions coming
26 Aug 2025
Fixing Gaming’s $6B Ad Spend Problem, introducing Kohort | Dan Marcus
$6 billion in gaming ad spend is wasted every year. That’s the problem Dan Marcus, co-founder of Kohort, is determined to fix. I
In this episode of How Would You Build It, Dan shares how Kohort is tackling attribution and data consistency — the trillion-dollar alignment issue facing marketing, finance, and product teams.
With over $3B in ad spend already run through their platform and new funding secured in 2025, Kohort is scaling.
Dan explains:
• Why naïve boldness can be a founder’s secret weapon
• How data transparency aligns teams and cuts waste
• Why the future means democratising advanced tools for smaller studios and consumer apps
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👉 Join the newsletter: www.theopenletter.io
👉 Connect with founders: www.thefoundercollab.com
00:00 Intro
01:28 Are you born a founder?
03:27 What does Kohort do?
06:57 Pains in the market outside of gaming
09:45 The Candy Crush origins
11:18 Who should own the data component within a business
15:21 Gaming Development regions of the world
16:29 Plans after recent funding round
19:51 How they go their first clients
23:11 Characteristics of a successful founder
25:21 Questions from VC's
28:28 How Kohort is penetrating the market
32:53 There are opportunities to serve smaller businesses and other industries!
36:22 How remote founders stay aligned
41:25 How Dan and Kohort are using AI
45:16 What would you have done differently as a founder?
19 Aug 2025
Simon Hartley on Startup Exits and Scaling Logistics in South Africa
What can delivering toasted cheese sandwiches teach you about building a startup?
In this episode of How Would You Build It, we talk with Simon Hartley, co-founder of Wumdrop, about the journey from scrappy beginnings to a successful exit to Massmart.Simon shares the quirky story of how he and his co-founder first tested logistics by delivering sandwiches, what it’s really like to integrate with a corporate giant, and the lessons founders need to know when chasing partnerships and exits.
You’ll learn:
• Why understanding corporate seasonality is key to making deals work
• Why your focus should always be on helping corporates make more money
• The hard-earned insights from a founder who’s lived the exit journey
👉 Subscribe: howwouldyoubuildit.com
👉 Join the newsletter: theopenletter.io
👉 Connect with founders: thefoundercollab.com
02:13 What do toasted sandwiches have to do with the Wumdrop founding story
10:06 Learning by being at the coalface
13:24 The tech that made Wumdrop stand out at the time
21:11 How to get a corporate to pay attention to your startup
27:15 Leveraging corporate seasonality36:06 Keep your team motivated when acquired by corporate
41:36 Corporate Seasonality
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
4,657,732,624
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 62 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
61
Social presence
0
YouTube
93
Engagement
68
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