Building for Sales as a non-engineer

Keeping any bigger picture views on AI aside, being able to create something that was previously not possible is objectively exciting. Knowing what to build and what not to build is the biggest challenge of 2026 - how to create tools of genuine value for the team, and what is worthy of operationalising, what is just a fun toy.

So I've spent many chunks of evenings and weekends this year building tools specifically to drive effectiveness in sales - that I wanted to use myself, mostly in Lovable, and some sprinkles from Claude.

Here are some reflections on a few of the tools I’ve built and quickfire learnings.

High intent lead signal tool

Of everything I've built, this may have the best ratio of "simplicity to utility".

Just go into Lovable, and describe each of the signals that represent high intent for your particular ICP. As an example, in building this tool at Foodles, that's offices offering staff benefits (ideally recurring team lunches), based in Central London. You then ask Lovable to build a tool that lets you import any form of lead list (CSV, lists on webpages, photos of buildings with company names on them, whatever you've got), and for it to check each company against the signals you've inputted. It will use firecrawl to parse through the documents (if an image or pdf), or Perplexity to scour the web or to check against specific sites. In our case the tool scoured career pages, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle and Indeed for staff benefits.

To add further utility (perhaps saving need for separate enrichment tools like Apollo etc), you can ask Lovable to get the tool to find the name and contact details of the relevant ICP within the leads that come back as high intent.

The most efficient combination I found was pairing this with something like Claude Cowork to continuously run the lead list searches. Cowork creates the initial curated automated lead lists, import them into your new lead enrichment tool to find highest signal leads, and then outbound with tailored, relevant messaging.

If your team is price sensitive, an in-house tool like this can lead to real cost savings versus paying for a tool like Clay.

The sprint dashboard

Competitions in sales are fun. Sprints are often necessary to align everyone, test an outbound approach and create a sense of togetherness, ideally with an incentive attached.

Building a dashboard with progress bars, podiums and a visual representation of unlocked incentives adds a layer of fun to a sprint. You can connect it to Slack for daily or weekly updates too.

Done within 30mins. I'd file this more in the "novel and fun" category rather than genuinely useful however.

CRM

I rebuilt our CRM with Lovable. I was pleased that there were no (clear) technical faults to it, it worked well, and I could iterate on it daily based on feedback and requirements. It feels feasible to broadly replicate every function of the major CRMs on the market.

However, there are major downsides:

The real value of a CRM is the legacy knowledge; Which contacts have we had relationship before in a given account? Who has spoken to them before? What have we sent them in the past? What meeting notes do we have that can provide as much context as possible? 

Almost by definition, a vibe coded CRM will be more on the MVP side, so much of the richness of context will likely not be captured, and retrospective context is lost. Other than for a short term solution, it doesn’t make sense.

Many strong sales tools integrate with CRMs. If you’ve built your own CRM, you will be less likely to connect to the broader ecosystem available, workflows not seamless, and your stack is likely to be more fragmented.

AI Sales Roleplay tool - Igi

The question I asked myself is - can I build something that can feel sophisticated enough to be a product usable for SMB or mid market - with the hygiene factors needed for it to a) feel like more than a chatgpt wrapper, and b) have functionality and depth that could provide genuine value, and c) is this possible in the space of a weekend or a couple evenings?

So I built a voice AI sales roleplay tool. You add your sales materials (website, pitch deck, ICP document, call transcripts) and it extracts the key information about your product: ICPs, USPs, likely objections, competitors etc. The user can then practice various roleplay types, including elevator pitch, cold calls, discovery, objection handling, your next meeting, or selling against a competitor. Every call is scored against your sales methodology, with dynamic feedback and a full transcript. Answers can be saved to a model answer library, shared with the team.


I was extremely excited by this concept, because it was:

a) something I could very much use myself when learning the positioning of a new product ("scratch my own itch")

b) something I could use to train new BDs and AEs

c) genuinely quick and fun to build.

However, the quicker and more fun something is to build, the lower the barriers to entry. A quick Google reveals hundreds of similar tools, and extremely well funded juggernauts like Gong and Hyperbound have built fully fledged versions of this in the name of sales enablement.

With that said, I'm proud of the functionality. All built on Lovable, and affectionately known as Igi, from the Japanese word for "to object". 

It started purely as objection handling roleplay, but then progressed to various practice types, and then I built structured training programs with the view of creating a tool that could provide tailored and structured onboarding for new team members.

A few things I learnt building it:

It is absurdly easy to get to MVP via Lovable. That includes the backend, multiple user logins, integrations like Google sign in, connecting to ElevenLabs for the voice agents, and even Stripe for free trials and paid usage by seats.

It is much harder to decide what not to build than what to build.

The more features you build, the harder it is to maintain, the messier it becomes, the harder the narrative becomes and the more difficult the bugs are to resolve. In a world where building is effortless and ubiquitous, discipline is critical.

The below is a screenshot of the Model Answer Library I built (and by "I", I very much mean: Lovable) - using a competitor objection in the AI roleplay space as an example. The thinking behind a Model Answer Library is that most sales teams have a google doc with several objections shared amongst the team and best-in-class answers. The problem is, this is representative of "moment in time" best-in-class answers, and usually gets updated extremely rarely. As any product evolves, the objections and the answers should evolve too - and sales teams often get left behind, until they lose a deal to objections they're not comfortable with yet. What if we could reframe objection handling sessions, and Model Answers could be a dynamic page, constantly evolving, and saved objections can be practiced via AI roleplay at any point? The AI can suggest better answers after the roleplay which you can choose to save instead of / alongside your team's existing best-in-class answer. Answers to objections should be constantly changing, and practicing positioning should be a daily practice for the best sales teams.

This is "nice to have", but not necessarily a game changer, internally or as an external product. This ties into the importance of user conversations. As fun as it is to build for an audience of one, if you want to build something that scales, user interviews come before committing to a solution. What problem are you really solving? Ie. Do objection handling roleplays need to be replaced by AI? Will the AI prospect simulatons be better than the human interaction? Can practicing at scale through AI lead to faster ramp times than practicing a few times with your manager or sales enablement in onboarding? Will the conversations be dynamic and realistic enough that they will genuinely prepare AEs for difficult prospect conversations?

Going from "nice project" to "highly useful" is the real challenge. It's very easy to connect voice agents via ElevenLabs. Nailing the system prompts so that each roleplay feels unique, without hallucination, with realistic latency, and with enough logic to simulate an actual prospect is the hard part. That means tinkering with the LLMs inside ElevenLabs to find the balance between speed and the ability to handle complexity, and working through the various latency settings.

The standard UI and UX of a Lovable build is fair to good, but a lot of tinkering is needed for it to stop feeling like a vibe-coded website. I don't think I've nailed it. I'm not a UX expert and I over-rely on asking Lovable to review its own UX.

Using Claude as a product manager to build the spec, then feeding that into Lovable's Plan mode, is the most efficient approach I've found.

Distribution, and specifically integrating into existing workflows, is the most important factor for a successful product in the AI world. I've been toying with Slack as the medium for Igi, to put it inside a user's workflow rather than asking them to visit another tab. I can see how this would lead to higher adoption and engagement, but the challenge would be to find the balance of simplicity (Slack apps should be very easy to use) and value. I'm still not convinced there's enough of a moat there to compete with the large players and their integrations into cold calling tools and CRMs. 

In a world where building anything is possible, making “the adoption experience" exceptional will separate the winners from the losers. This applies for an tool where the goal is internal adoption, or selling externally.

Honourable mentions to simpler tools built through Claude for enterprise deals: 

• ROI Calculator - I've found this to be quite useful for a) internal use for the team to get comfortable with the financial value of the product, and b) to share with the buyer for them to use internally. It's worth noting that buyers are typically skeptical of ROI promised to them, but it is always useful for framing the discussion away from price and towards value.

• Business Case - getting Claude to compile an artefact to be talked through in a meeting (and sent via pdf or slides after) with the information gathered through discovery needed for the Champion to sell internally, based on the main business pains they've highlighted. 

My concluding learnings

Building used to be the hard part. Understanding what to build, what to leave out, and for who to build it now is the key. 

Internal tools are great, but knowing what to operationalize is the hard part. 

External tools are great, but no prospect wants to be overwhelmed with sales assets.

Based on these learnings, I'd argue not everyone should be "a GTM engineer", but everyone should try, test, play, and search for efficiencies for your specific role, your product, your team. 

Be industrious. Have fun. Get efficient at quickly understanding the difference between a fun tool, and something that can lead to real business impact.  

A call to "like things more"

Firstly, I must state up front this post is more of an appreciation post than anything else. It's a reference to an original post by a writer I admire, and this serves as my notes to myself from his writing.

"How to like everything more" (on the skill of enjoyment) by Sasha Chopin. 

I first read this post in January this year, and it's undeniably the most important and impactful thing I've read all year. It's resonated in my mind at least weekly, and I've re-read it at least 8 times in 2025. 

The words within were a reminder to me that every small thing we're exposed to in life is an opportunity to really, truly, enjoy. And if we're going to enjoy, why not try enjoy deeply? Can we extract every drop of enjoyment out of even the seemingly most mundane or taken-for-granted experiences? What effect would that have on our quality of life? Surely if it's possible, we should explore how to? And, is it possible to learn to develop an appreciation for things that we previously didn't see as "our kind of thing"? 

From the tangible to the intangible (I warn you some of these might sound silly or fluffy but I'm being serious) - a flat white, a night where stars are visible, a well presented meal, an impressively curated garden, a unique tasting wine, strange decor in a shop, precisely chosen plates by a chef, a majestic tree, a pastry that overwhelms the palate, a song that stirs emotions, a towering building, art that confuses, a view that inspires... The list is infinite. And the more polarising hobbies or experiences that we may not currently resonate with - could we develop at least a mild appreciation for them? Hunting, death metal music, weaving, CrossFit, camping, foreign language movies, watching other people play games online, K-Pop, interpretative dance, birding, collecting rare items etc etc (granted some of these are more polarising or niche than others, but you get the point).

There's essentially an unlimited number of things for us to "like" or "appreciate" in this world on a daily basis. Irrespective of cost. Natural and man-made. Tangible and intangible. Taking a conscious approach to do so is a skill that we can and should sharpen. 

This ties in to what I see as an ultimate goal - being content. 

If we can refine and enhance our ability to "like everything more", it allows us to get deeper joy out of what we currently experience rather than falling into the trap of believing we can get more joy out of the experiences we don't have. 

Not always craving more. 

Simply, being content.  

A few practical highlights from Sasha's post:

- Try be as conscious as possible about each experience in the day.

- Move your attention beyond the part that you immediately focused on. 

- On experiences that historically haven't been "your thing", drop resistance and adopt curiosity. 

- Find mental associations with something else that means something to you. Ie. What does that song *feel* like to you? Does it remind you of anything?

- Develop an interest in the person / people behind the creation. The director, the producer, the songwriter, the craftsman, the chef, the architect, the car manufacturer, the farmer. If we can understand and appreciate their journey more deeply, we can understand and appreciate their work more deeply. Watching interviews with a director or songwriter helps me appreciate their movies and songs more. For me, God is the creator of the universe, so everytime I appreciate nature, I appreciate His works.

- Notice your body's response to it. Beautiful things in life can be viscerally calming. 

- In forms of art like song and movie, be an active participant in it, even predict where it's going as if you're the creator. 

- Get lost in tiny details.

- Be a time traveler - imagine discussing the thing that's captured your attention with someone in the past. Modern rap music with Tupac. Modern rock with Beatles. AI art with Matisse. 

- Take a moment to internalise and take a mental snapshot of anything that strikes you. Hold it and savour it. 

- Build a context. Historical art in it's current form might be less impressive than imagining it's creation within geographical and historical context of what existed at the time. If I listen to a song from the 70s or 80s I'm often mildly unimpressed because I've heard so many variations of that style since then. But if we can mentally time travel to the context of its release, it's completely different experience.

- Pretend you're a buyer or investor. Anything takes on a whole new look and sense of value if approached from perspective of ownership.

- Step away from binary "like" or "dislike". Have mental language for the nuanced emotion. 

- If initial emotional response is "dislike", take a second to pause and try challenge that thought - try see it from perspective of the creator and then guage if anything changes in your emotion towards it.

- Find one flaw. I love this line from Chapin: "If conducted covertly, this particular mental habit allows you to love people more deeply and realistically, by noticing how the annoying thing about them and the great thing are fundamentally intertwined." This applies to any experience across art, music, objects, movies, food etc. Nothing is perfect, and the imperfect part complements the perfect part. 

If there's one thing you do today/ this week, please read Sasha's post. Please feel free to slide into my proverbial DMs with your thoughts. 

Questioning Normal

I've thought a lot about why we travel. 

And why someone who has travelled a lot isn't materially or noticeably more interesting, wise, mature, better equipped at dealing with life, or fun to be around, than someone who hasn't travelled. Have you ever noticed sometimes there's an inverse correlation of how much someone has travelled and how interesting they are?

But in thinking that, I missed the point. It’s not about gaining wisdom or maturity or gaining life experience that will pay off at a later date. It’s not even about the social capital of a fleeting rapport with a stranger at a party when you find common ground about that same place you’ve both travelled to (although I can’t deny that is nice).

This could be a post on the 750 different motivations or benefits of travel, but I wanted to highlight the 2 key ones that struck me in my most recent trip. Neither of them will make me more interesting (maybe the opposite), and definitely not more wise (never any risk of that), but that’s completely okay with me. 

The 2 benefits that hit me shifted between the acute and the chronic.
The short and longer term.
The fun and the meaningful.

The “fun” was the dopamine hit of Awe. The novelty and unknown of every moment in travel gives the purest neurochemical concoction of joy, intrigue, confusion and surprise. I suspect that's the real attraction to travel outside of relaxation by the beach. That every time we go to a new place that’s recommended by a friend or a travel guide - the anticipation and hit of novel experience is difficult to describe, and that’s why we keep coming back for it.

Then there's the “meaningful”.

The one that struck me in Japan was the impact of an awakened sense that our normal isn't or doesn't have to be *the* normal. At least not “the only” normal.

That we apply our own social constructs in our own lives. We've been shaped by them, and we perpetuate them. 

Other cultures shape and perpetuate their own social constructs. 

Each micro experience in a new environment can give us the opportunity to think about why we do what we do, and seek to learn why others do it differently. Even if we don’t dig deeper, just observing how differently some people do the things we take for granted as “conventional” feels enriching. We don’t have to actively seek these micro experiences - walking through the streets in a new city or spending time at a cafe can flood us with these moments. Low effort, high yield.

The very first moment that captured me on this, at Haneda airport, was a pristinely dressed elderly (approximately 70 years old) man with the laser-focused role of grabbing each luggage bag as they popped out of the carousel, and aligning each one so that they were easy for the traveller to grab. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so dialled in and intent to absolutely nail their job. It was like the World Championships were at stake. Why is this a role? Wouldn't a physical job like this be better suited to a younger fitter man? How is he seemingly still in incredible physical shape with perfect posture despite his age? Is he proud of this job? Is he doing this by choice at his age or is it due to not being able to afford retirement? Why don’t other international airports have this role? What is the real utility of the role? (You get the point).

This was the first of over a dozen moments like this. That captured not only attention, but Awe. These moments forced the question of "Why is it this way?" . More often than not I didn't and don't have the answer. Which I also loved. 

I'm convinced in some ways the beauty of life is just constantly being exposed to things we don’t understand, and accepting that is okay.

The moments continued:

Elderly woman pouring her heart and soul into her one-person restaurant, silently making okonomiyaki right in front of us to the tune of Japanese news in the background. 

The awkward - yet charming - yet fascinating - yet bewildering - yet wholesome "thank you" , "no, thank you!", "thank you very much", no, thank you very much" that seems to end almost every interaction.

Waiter at the wrong restaurant offering (and requesting) to inconvenience himself and walk us to the right restaurant - 15 minutes away.

Restaurant giving patrons gifts just for eating at their restaurant. 

Uber driver inconveniencing himself to make absolutely sure we get to our right stop at no extra charge.

Elderly construction workers in air-conditioned gilets.

The awkwardly long bow until the elevator closes. 

A one-table bakery; inside the house of a solo baker.

The first time the bidet hits your bum after sitting on the heated toilet seat.

The impassioned emotion and expression fully commensurate with the tone of the words.

The sumo wrestler thanking you for stepping on his turf. 

Darts and Karaoke as the wedding afterparty.

The shoes off policy of a barbecue house.

The Michelin chef who has impeccable Google Translate small talk with his doting patrons over the counter. 

Bar staff giving customers free dessert just for having a good time. 

The ‘8 thank you minimums’ in most cafes.

Vending machines selling 16 different types of freshly brewed coffee with 7 different sub-options each - payable with travel card.

Bartender named Champagne.

… And those were the first few off the top of my head from 6 days.

None of these moments feel "normal" to me. Or at least not common in my daily life in London or in Johannesburg. That's not to say it's better. That's not to say it's worse. 

But it is a version of normal. 

And that's enough for my subconscious to get excited enough to transfer the questioning of “normal” onto countless other everyday life things. 

At least until the busy-ness of life distracts again.
And then, it's onto the next trip to reawaken the senses again. 

An Ode to Awe

New years resolutions are fun.

To some extent, they're necessary. 

Or at least the thought process of reflection, and taking deliberate steps within our control to choose the life we want.

Cut out the carbs, eat less chocolate, drink less, go to gym more etc etc. We can pretty much all agree to these, even though we know we'll stick to them for approximately 8 days (or if you have a painful and rehab-esque addiction to basque cheesecake and almond croissants like me, maybe 2.75 days).

Over the last 5 years, I've taken Tim Ferriss' approach of doing a 'review of the year'. Reviewing the experiences that brought the most joy, and the things that brought anxiety or frustration. 

The goal is to tweak the next year by proactively planning more things similar to the ones that brought joy, and consciously rejecting the ones that brought anxiety (you know that feeling when someone cancels a plan and you get so excited that you could kiss a small grandma or run around pants-less with excitement. Yeah? Do less of those plans next year).

Every year I find that the experiences that bring me most joy involve quality time with my family and my close friends (usually over incredibly indulgent meals), and moments that give me that feeling of awe; the childlike buzz associated with discovery. 

That's why I think so many of us love travel - it gives the feeling of awe, of novelty, of short term discomfort that quickly transitions to euphoria, and the consequent series of dopamine hits that come with "achieving" mini discoveries of amazing places, views, restaurants, cultural experiences in new environments. 

Learning a new skill that unlocks a series of new experiences can bring that same feeling - like learning to ski can unlock ski holidays in the beautiful snowy mountains of the most picturesque places on the planet. Scuba diving can unlock discovery of a whole new subterranean world - opening up island holidays as an opportunity for both ends of the spectrum of relaxation and exploration.

Surfing. Hiking. Photography. Rock climbing. Languages. Golf. Dance. Cycling. Yoga. 
The list is almost infinite - skills that open worlds of cultural connection and new lenses to experience the world. 

I still can't ski or scuba dive in my 30s (amongst several other of the aforementioned skills that I probably shouldn't admit to)... But damn, I can't wait to learn. And I'm so excited for the infinite possibilities of adventure that will be opened through these mini worlds.

Anticipation, awe, unlocking a skill that opens new worlds. 

That's what I want to optimise for in 2025. And beyond. 

'Fitting as much life into life as possible'.

Here's to a 2025 of awe and full of life.

The most boring things in the world.

As I was heading to Abu Dhabi airport a few weeks ago, I noticed a bunch of apartment buildings. Many many many apartment buildings. That got me thinking.

Could tall buildings exist if people didn’t have a way to get to the 30th floor? Would they exist if the only way to access floors was stairs? What did people do before elevators? Are elevators key to the existence of apartment buildings, and to tall office buildings?

Don’t get me wrong, talking about elevators on a first date would ensure you never get a second date. Could be top 3 most boring topics in the world.

But they’re key to our world.

Before elevators just 6 generations ago, cities had to grow outward. They have led to enhanced urban density, and catalysed economic growth by improving economic viability of high-rises, and fitting more tenants and businesses per square foot - transforming real estate.

So, at risk of scaring everyone away that this is going to be a 100 000 word post on elevators, I just want to draw a few quick learnings for us.

There’s beauty in the mundane. And it’s the mundane things that have catalyzed modern society.

That got me thinking. What other absurdly boring things (the topics that would get you exiled from a dinner party for mentioning) are actually key to our society?

Then I thought of toothpaste.

Just 5 generations ago, people cleaned their teeth with clay or twigs or cloth, or not at all. Dental hygiene was a frequent cause of death. That's pretty crazy isn't it? Now if you don't brush twice a day and floss you're considered a madman.. 100 years ago, the idea of toothpaste was absurd. Our grandparents may not have brushed their teeth. Madness.

Barcodes.

Just 3 generations ago, every item had to be manually priced and inventory was tracked by hand. Checkout was slow, error-prone, and inventory management was a nightmare. Today there are over 6 billion barcode scans daily. Global commerce efficiency has been transformed forever.

Have you ever had a sexy bar code discussion? I thought not. 

Even something like zippers that we use on our bags and luggage. Only been around for 5 generations, but imagine international travel without securely locking luggage? Not really possible.

All of these things are so intertwined with everyday life and painfully mundane, but have only been around for a few generations and we take them for granted.

What is the next generation version of elevators that will catalyze residential and commercial growth?

What is the next generation version of toothpaste that will transform hygiene, and even personal health?

What is the next generation version of barcodes that will accelerate retail growth?

What is the next generation version of zippers that will transform how we transport objects from one place to another?

It’s just a reminder that there is still opportunity in everything.

That’s what excites me about the world of angel investing. There are so many incredibly intelligent people out there working on daily problems building their version of elevators, toothpastes, bar codes, zippers - that in 2050 will be seen as disgustingly boring because they’re so intertwined with everyday life.

But they will be multi-billion dollar industries.

Solving a problem for the world doesn’t necessarily have to be something that sounds extraordinary in the moment in order to change the world forever.

A Case for Ignorance

In his book 'Psychology of Money', Morgan Housel described how his daughter has a few dozen mental models of the world, and she'll always have a crystal clear explanation of any experience by fitting it directly into that mental model: "dad isn't playing with me, I wanted him to play with me, I'm now sad."

She doesn't ponder the why or the how, she tells herself a coherent story based on what she does know, and that's enough.

That got me thinking (terrible idea, I know).

As we get older, we refine the narrative. It becomes complex, as it should, as we gather more information to inform the narrative. Our analysis of the how and why of each experience informs our thoughts, decisions, actions.

We all form our perceptions of reality based on our mental models. On patterns. Reference points. Wanting to replicate or avoid the emotions resulting from lived experiences.

We get wiser, as the spiderweb of our pattern recognition becomes more complex and mature.

We learn to appreciate nuance. That is beautiful. We need to evolve our views based on new information. Strong beliefs loosely held. If we didn't, we'd all be insufferable stubborn closed minded bigots.

But there's a case for being the naive 4 year old.

It would be foolish to start a business if you consider the >90% chance of failure.
It would be foolish to go on a date if you consider all the reasons why there may not be a connection.
It would be foolish to invest in a startup if you consider the chances of that being the one that changes the world forever.
It would be foolish to make a cold call if you consider how much the person on the other end disdains being cold called.

But, every now and then, we need to be foolish, to be naive, to be mesmerized by the opportunity in front of us.

The world moves forward from these bold moves underlined by a beautiful blissful ignorance.

Credit to all the founders in my network who have been, are being, and will be "foolish", and seek to improve the world.

The big bet

Choose a distinct path.

Make yourself undeniable.
Follow with conviction.

He's not a household name, but he's the man that led the round in the single best investment in history.

He's been a catalyst in one of the biggest companies on the planet - the third biggest gaming company in the world, a company that owns a platform with 1.3 billion users.

I'm talking about David Wallerstein. 

In 2000, he identified a trend in internet cafe behaviour in Zhengzhou China - People would spend 4 hours+ per day using a web chat platform (QQ). He would see the same faces, different faces, trance-like behaviour - absolute total immersion.

He could see a movement forming. He built enough conviction to fight for an opportunity to invest in the company who owned it - Tencent.

As an American who went to high school in Japan, who taught himself Mandarin, with an intense interest in Chinese culture and belief that China could be a global superpower, he was uniquely positioned to act on his conviction.

He positioned himself in a way that he had to be listened to.

He made himself undeniable.

He couldn't invest on a grand scale with his own money, so he consulted for Naspers, convinced them to invest in Tencent off the back of this (for a 46.5% stake), and convinced Tencent to accept the investment.

The year was 2001.

This is now known semi-unanimously as the single best investment of all time.

Ofcourse the story here is Tencent, and there's a million things to be said about their fascinating business model, Pony Ma, and how they are central to not only Chinese culture but a growing global superpower. That's a discussion for another time.

As a South African, what really grips me here is the role of a south African business in this. That a South African business bought a 46.5% stake in this Chinese company. How random that appears, and how David Wallerstein was the catalyst behind it. Wallerstein went on to join Tencent directly after the Naspers investment, and was key to their growth in building a "spiderweb" of products that facilitate human connection in the digital world. I guess you could say it worked out.

If Wallerstein didn't convince Naspers to invest in Tencent, would they have grown to what they are today? As the third biggest gaming company in the world, would gaming be as big as it is today? With WeChat as a platform for so many other Chinese companies, would the Chinese economy be as big as it is today?

Bold decisions and investments like this can shape our culture. Shape our world.

Nasper invested $32 million in 2001.
That investment is worth approximately $115Bn in 2024.
Approximately 3500x increase in value.

Perhaps the best investment in history.

Besides an obscene amount of luck, there's something we can try extract from this.

David Wallerstein is an example of -
Choose a distinct path.
Make yourself undeniable.
Follow with conviction.