Thabo Molefe also known as Tbo Touch is a well-known South African radio and television personality. His work in the entertainment industry has established him as a brand. Recently Molefe left terrestrial radio joining the new innovative disruptive kids on the block by establishing Touch HD. “The reason why I decided to go into Touch HD as a business, it’s based on the same principle as Kaizer Motaung left Pirates and opened his own team Kaizer Chiefs. Anytime you serve a platform more than ten years you have enough reproductive skills to do far greater than the platform you left. And the migration is inevitable.”
“We have a president who is a business man, I hope he understands what the core challenges that create this deficit of youth developing and thriving into corporate space.”
“We brought in a team of great marketers, and we are the first ones to allow content creators to upload their work. Normally you have to send your demo to a station; we have a feature where you upload, be it your demo, be it your creative skill that can be in film, script writing, you upload your service and we link you with the right people that enable you to harness your skill. But beyond that we are releasing podcasts and anybody who’s missed a particular show, they don’t only get to hear it but they get to see the video recording of the show as well.” With Molefe’s understanding of the importance of content in the broadcasting industry, his radio station is set up to change the game by accurately communicating with advertisers the true numbers of people who have engaged with the advertisers campaign. “Advertisers are no longer interested in a 30 second commercial you can’t guarantee ROI’s, I cannot speculate who interacted with your platform but digital enables you to give you a true accurate account of who engaged with the campaign and from that engagement if it can generate lead.”
He adds that “The 30 second live read that you will do on normal radio no longer gives client true ROIs. I want to know if I give Touch ten rand to advertise my product, the people that have engaged what are they saying about it and why they are not buying it. Because that’s also consumption, consumption is not buying; consumption is refusal to buy as well. Because with the information, I will know what I’m doing wrong so I can improve to win your pocket”.
Even though Touch HD might be the greatest highlight or his most visible business, Molefe has always been a strong entrepreneur. From an early age he was already selling at school and in high school he got an award for his entrepreneurship endeavours. “At age of 9 I was selling in school but I formally started making money from the age of 13 which led me to be part of the Entrepreneurial Club at that time. I think the business awards I won were sponsored by FNB but by the time we had that club I was already in my money excursion.”
“Advertisers are no longer interested in a 30 second commercial you can’t guarantee ROI’s I cannot speculate who interacted with your platform but digital enables you to give you an true accurate account of who engaged with the campaign and from that engagement can it generate lead.”
These endeavours and his go-getter entrepreneurial spirit afforded him the opportunity to buy a ticket and go further his studies in the United States of America. “I knew as soon as I finish high school I’m going to start a company but at that time you needed to be at a certain age to register to start a company. I was around grade 9 I bought my ticket to the US. I said that I’m not inspired I need a bigger hustle so by the time I left I had so much cash, hard cash on me. I remember changing at the airport and I was a minor so I asked the passenger I was travelling with to change that money. It was quite interesting when he asked where I got it and I said I made it.” His entrepreneurial strides and longing for bigger and disruptive industry infiltration saw him producing a wine that sold for over a million. Molefe states that Touch Warwick was a great entry into understanding the true essence of the wine business. “I worked with an incredible wine connoisseur Mike Ratcliffe who worked with me from harvesting to bottling and fermentation. For me the process of making wine taught me patience. I am probably the most impatient human being.”
“I did wine and I learnt the principle of being patient but Touch Warwick as a journey has evolved, and now for the first time I’m actually doing an interview about my next adventure which is quite exciting. I had to go around and say what is that type of wine where I don’t need to tell people to drink it with a rib or a succulent stake. I want to create wine that you can drink with fish, chicken or red meat because it’s not about the food but the company.” To produce his new industry offering, ‘Touch Reserve’, Molefe says “I took a variety of grapes Shiraz, pinotage and capserve and I said I want to make something that resonates with the person that I am. Because I do not like being confined, normally when you go to restaurants they tell you this goes well with a stake but what if I’m vegan. I felt that the product Touch Warwick was and what it represents is an upper echelon of wines.
It is one of the most beautiful capserve but to expand and not just confine myself to the same capserve grapes I had to come up with something special and I’m putting this to the world to say if there is ever an expression of the most argyle, the most flexible when it lands on your palate it has to accommodate the same person who likes fish, the same person who loves meat but it’s not even a wine made for food, it’s a wine you need to share when you’ve got good company”. Even with these great accolades and being a wellknown brand or personality, he experienced the same challenges that many entrepreneurs experience in their entrepreneurial journey which is funding. “We have financial institutions that are supposed to be out there to empower and develop and government official go in parliament and they eloquently pronounce their budget into what they are spending and what development is. I as Tbo Touch still this day have to struggle to meet the requirements of the NDFs and other financial institutions, I find it quite challenging that somebody of my calibre who has done his homework, runs a company with a head count of 48 people but I still have to knock to government for support.”
Molefe has sent out a challenge to the South African government to relook the funding policies and entrepreneurial development programmes. “I still get young people who come here looking for funding from me and they will present and sometimes some of them do not even get a chance because the truth of the matter is I am not available. There are guys with better ideas than mine and I say to myself how this young girl and boy is struggling to get funding. I’m not talking banks because the truth of the matter is, a bank will give you a car loan before they even give you a home loan, so let alone your business.”
He says the financial system policies do not address the historical background of black people. Adding that people of poor background are expected to have a certain amount of surety, “we just came out of a system that didn’t ensure we had surety at this time. We are not 50 years in this thing, historically majority of South Africans cannot today meet the financial requirements that institutions require to fund you for a 20 hundred/million rand deal because the type of requirements that you need, your money has to go so long, you have to have some reference or some type of a financial history that best suits whoever it is that wants to fund you.” Adding that he is saddened by the fact that he still needs to knock hard to convince certain governmental departments to bring their campaigns on his platform “People will probably think that Touch got some funder behind him, I still have to convince certain departments to bring their campaigns on our platform because we have the most engaging numbers.”
Molefe says that these need to be amended for different ethnic groups because they didn’t have the same kick-start, “so you cannot at the finish line and expect me to produce the same type of deliverables if I didn’t have the same kick-start as you”. “We have a president who is a business man, I hope he understands what the core challenges that create this deficit of youth developing and thriving into corporate space.” Adding that, “we cannot produce young people who are excited to graduate but don’t have the means when they graduate to illustrate what they’ve learned, what they’ve studied and they can’t be plugged into the right systems. Job creation in a system where black entrepreneurs are not supported financially to further their investment or plans job creation is impossible.”
Tbo Touch Vital Stats...
Start-up: self-funded
Key players: Touch
Number of Staff: 48
