{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"African Tech Roundup Podcast","title":"Alan Knott-Craig Jr On Life After Mxit's Royal Fail (2016)","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/bad856b5\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3116,"description":"Listen in as Alan Knott-Craig Jr, son of Alan Sr, the pioneering co-founder and first CEO of Vodacom, one of South Africa's leading mobile network operators, and later the feisty CEO of challenger telco Cell C—takes us through a transformative career moment that set the stage for his future ventures.\r\n\r\nEpisode overview\r\nThis early 2016 conversation finds Alan Knott-Craig Jr in a moment of trademark forthrightness. Fresh from his tenure as CEO of Mxit, once Africa's largest social network with over 50 million registered users, he was already building Project Isizwe, a non-profit bringing free public Wi-Fi to South African townships, while laying the groundwork for HeroTel—reportedly the country's largest fixed wireless internet service providers. His journey would later lead to founding FiberTime, his current venture bringing pay-as-you-go fibre internet to townships through an innovative voucher-based model—an offering in a growing field of players serving underserved communities.\r\n\r\nCritical points\r\n- The fascinating disconnect between Knott-Craig Jr's prominent surname and admittedly privileged middle-class roots—his father never held Vodacom shares and put him through government schools\r\n- His journey from dutiful son following paternal direction until 25 to forging his own entrepreneurial path\r\n- The honest characterisation of Project Isizwe's non-profit work as \"sincerely selfish\"\r\n\r\nWhat we know now\r\nViewed from 2025, this conversation foreshadowed key developments in Knott-Craig Jr's trajectory:\r\n- The evolution from running Africa's largest social network to pioneering township internet connectivity models\r\n- His transition through various ventures: from Project Isizwe's free township Wi-Fi network to HeroTel's rural broadband expansion, and now FiberTime's pay-as-you-go township fibre model\r\n- The emergence of his distinctive voice on entrepreneurship, particularly evident in his strongly-opinionated social posts and entrepreneurship books.\r\n\r\nQuestions...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/wTDUhb1kfdVqc_mrE6iErzNBxf93XiLPsPKqDs3m-xg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kOGJi/MWMxMWNiYjRjOGVm/MjNhNDgxYzI3NjU0/N2ZlOC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}