My 12th book, Quick Innovation MBA, is now out.
Hi, I’m Tiisetso Maloma. I am a venture studio founder, author, and innovation educator.
Startup Picnic Venture Studio builds ventures across IP, fintech, AI, and publishing. Startup Picnic started in 2014 as an informal entrepreneur networking event.
My writing and research explore generative innovation systems, township economies, emerging markets, and new business models. My books include Future of Township Economies, Innovate the Next, Forget the Business Plan, Innovate Like Elon Musk, and Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism. I also write about Ubuntu Stoicism—a philosophy I developed that draws from African and Greek thought.
By background, I am a multi-industry entrepreneur and product creator. I have built over 100 products across publishing, fashion, beverages, education, music technology, and events. I founded or co-founded Bula Buka Publishers, Gabble Heights Clothing, Rural Joss Clothing, YYanos, eKhaya, Practice DVD, Malombo VS, and 94 Brands Shop. I also distributed I am Kool Kid clothing. I served as founding editor of Defuse Anxiety and HowzAfrica. I have advised tech startups including Atimeme and Professional Hangout, a dating site.
Over the past decade, I have worked with and contributed to institutions such as the Obama Foundation, the UAE’s Sharjah Book Authority, Standard Bank, The Innovation Hub, and South African government departments. I have delivered lectures and keynotes at Wits Business School, the University of Pretoria, Johannesburg Business School, ABSA, The Business Show, and the Startup Business Festival.
I have developed original innovation frameworks, including the Human Greed Pyramid, the EBC Business Model, and the Product Adjacent Possible framework.
For over 15 years, I have maintained one of the longest-running independent blogs in South Africa at www.tiisetsomaloma.co.za, focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, and emerging market systems thinking.
I have a radically positive outlook on the future because innovation—especially AI—opens new possibilities for African and emerging markets.
More than a decade shaped that outlook. Looking back, I became an early angel investor and pioneering publisher in the diary-chronicles fiction genre. I supported authors in a category that reached millions across Sub-Saharan Africa and globally. Several works from the broader genre later adapted into television series.
That experience, together with AI’s rapid advance, convinced me that Africa and emerging markets can transform books into films—and other creative products—faster, cheaper, and at scale. This belief continues to shape how I think about Africa’s role in global innovation.
Today, through Startup Picnic Venture Studio, we build and launch ventures. Our first is iZwily, an AI-powered operating system for IP, smart contracts, royalties, and product operations for publishers, creators, and businesses—with accounting and finance embedded natively.