Yoco

The announcement went out this morning. Then you wait. Apple and Yoco launched Tap to Pay on iPhone in South Africa today. A merchant with an iPhone XS or later can be accepting contactless payments: cards, Apple Pay, digital wallets within minutes. No card machine. No extra hardware. No delivery wait. But a press release doesn't tell you anything yet. The only honest test of a payment product is whether a real merchant takes a real customer's payment. So you sit there, watching, waiting. And there they were. The first live transactions came in. Nothing beats that moment. Not a demo, not a pilot, not a slide. A real sale, in someone's actual shop, with a customer who just wanted to pay and go. The opportunity to work with a brand like Apple and the Yoco colleagues who shipped this in record time, incredibly proud of all of it. And to see Lungisa Matshoba presenting our launch live at CNBC Africa was just pretty cool. Another step in making our merchants more successful. #proud

Thanks for sharing Marcel van Oost . We’re excited to bring this innovation to the continent alongside Apple, and to continue lowering the barriers for independent businesses across Africa. 🚀

Proud to see this go live! Tap to Pay on iPhone is now available in South Africa 🇿🇦. It's been a privilege to work on this with an incredible team at Yoco. No extra hardware, no friction: just tap and pay. Big milestone for South African merchants. Well done everyone involved! 🙌

Everyone's current sentiment: go all-in on employees, don't spend a minute on the brand account. I agree with the first part. I disagree hard with the second. Employees are the distribution engine now. Organic reach for company pages has collapsed. The algorithm rewards expertise, context, and real human voice. All of that is true. But I think a lot of marketers are about to make a mistake. In marketing, it is rarely a this-or-that situation. It is almost always a this-AND-that. Your employees becoming your distribution engine does not mean you abandon your company page. If anything, it means you have more reason to run it well, not less. Because every channel is a touchpoint in your buyer's journey. Think about what actually happens after one of your thought leaders' posts lands in someone's feed. They see it, it resonates, they want to learn more about where this person works. Where do they go? Straight to your company page. And what they see there, or don't see, shapes whether the next step happens. Now that you've got a team of people posting regularly, talking about their expertise, building narratives, you have a richer company page than you've ever had before. You can amplify their posts from the brand account. You can showcase the people doing the thinking. You can talk about culture. You can feature your thought leaders as a collective. You can make the company feel like a place where real humans actually workn Is a company page going to drive the same reach as individual creators right now? No. Does it carry the same weight as a strong employee brand? Not even close. But it still plays a role in how a buyer decides whether to trust you. Distribution is the moat. Your people are the voices. Your company page is the home they all ladder up to.

Just returned from DEAC's annual conference in DC in which they celebrated their 100th Anniversary! Featuring a guest appearance from the legendary Mike Lambert, who led DEAC for 40 years and was present at our first accreditation in 2001. DEAC has been the framework that enabled Sessions to grow from a sparky little course provider to a degree granting college over the last 25 years. It was a fantastic event packed with distance education insight and expertise, in a truly supportive and learner-focused environment. In the words of Stephen M.R. Covey, who delivered a powerful opening speech, DEAC continues to inspire leadership.

We just shipped Q1. When everything works together, the work flows faster. Less waiting, less friction, more customers served. A few highlights: ⚡ 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: our most requested feature! Speed up checkout with every scan. At Yoco, we are serious about our hardware, and this is no exception. 🔗 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐬: Get your receipt automatically when you pay at any Yoco merchant. Just opt in once, and that's it. A first of its kind in South Africa 🙌 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Your sales, payments, operations, and reporting now sync directly with Sage; our 3rd accounting integration alongside Xero and QuickBooks. ➕ 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐩 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 on Yoco point of sale: route your orders to the bar, kitchen, or grill the second they’re placed. 📊 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 on Yoco point of sale: New reporting is here. See exactly which toppings, sides, and extras are driving your sales. Nothing flashy. Just better. Read more about it in the comments. We’re still early. The speed is picking up, and the game is changing in a big way. Stay tuned!