SparkUp
Building is easy now. Getting people to care isn't.
SparkUp helps a small business find the problems worth solving, score the opportunity, and decide what to build — before a line of code gets written.
What I believe
Most businesses bolt AI on the side. The winners are rebuilding around it.
- 01
The artifacts are free now.
Copy, code, designs, plans — AI produces all of it in seconds. That used to be the job. It is not anymore.
- 02
The harness is the moat.
The value moved to the system around the model: the context you feed it, the loops you build, the guardrails that make output trustworthy instead of merely plausible.
- 03
Taste is the last 20%.
Judgment, standards, knowing what good actually looks like — none of that comes out of a prompt. Which is why domain expertise matters more now, not less.
What I'm building
Where the thesis is already running
Not theory. These are businesses I am part of that already put intelligence at the centre of how they operate.
Burgundy Blue Media
Co-owner · Somerset West, Western CapeMake your brand easier to want.
We did not add AI to an agency. We engineered the studio around it — six agents running in sequence, with humans on strategy and judgment.
- Researcher
- Strategist
- Copywriter
- Art Director
- Analyst
- Guardian
“Technology makes us faster. People make us great.”See the Intelligence system
RoadSave
Safety and savings for South African drivers. "Jono", the in-app AI advisor, answers motor and emergency questions 24/7 — on a paid tier, for real customers.
roadsave.co.zaToddles
Personalised storybooks for toddlers. Generative content, real printed product.
toddles.ai
Now
July 2026Building the intelligence layer inside SparkUp, and the agent system that runs Burgundy Blue Media. Writing about what actually works when you put AI at the centre of a small business.
Stay close
One email a week on putting AI at the centre of a small business. What is working, what is not — from four businesses.