Entrepreneurs: building an innovative culture, with Jonathan Smit
Jonathan Smit, entrepreneur and angel investor, shares how he went from seeing a gap in the market that he knew nothing about, to building (and then successfully exiting) one of South Africa’s top fintech businesses called Payfast.
Jonathan shares his experience and learnings around building a culture of innovation and teamwork, as well as the mindset we need in order to tackle mistakes and challenging times as an entrepreneur and as a business. He also unpacks with Telana how South Africa doesn’t have a winning mindset, what we might do about it, as well as his top tip for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Podcast
About Jonathan Smit
Jonathan is an experienced entrepreneur and executive with wide ranging experience in the technology, payments and retail sectors.
He founded PayFast in 2007 and grew it into to a business employing over 130 staff, with multi-million dollar revenues and one of the most valuable tech businesses on the continent, all the while delivering consistently strong growth and financial performance coupled with unparalleled investor returns. He successfully exited the business between 2019 and 2021 in a multi-stage deal, the ultimate acquirer being the LSE listed payments firm, Network International.
With a unique combination of strong technical foundation and business acumen, Jonathan is able to deliver across all aspects of an organisation. While having a key strength in strategy, he also has a deep understanding of technology, operations, digital marketing and product.
A hands on executive, Jonathan has an eye for detail and a strong focus on performance while building a healthy organisational culture that consistently delivers.
Contact Details:
- LinkedIn: @JonathanSmit