An interview with David Frankel

--:--
David Frankel played a pioneering role in the commercial development of the internet in South Africa as co-founder and CEO of Internet Solutions.
Since then, he’s gone on to a successful investing career in the US, where he is co-founder and managing partner at Boston- and New York-based Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund whose successful investments have included Uber Technologies, Brontes (sold to 3M) and PillPack (sold to Amazon).
Frankel, widely regarded as one of the most successful entrepreneurs to come out of South Africa’s technology industry, joins TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod on TCS Legends to chat about:
• His career, and how the Internet Solutions opportunity came about;
• What it was like in the early days of the internet in South Africa;
• The fight he led, with Mark Todes, against Telkom’s attempts in the 1990s to monopolise the internet industry – and how the industry won the battle;
• The cast of characters at Internet Solutions, including brothers Ronnie and Alon Apteker, that made it a special place to be at the time;
• Whether he was really offered the job of CEO of Dimension Data;
• His studies at Harvard Business School;
• The creation of Founders Collective, and why Boston is a great place for a tech-focused venture capitalist to be; and
• His views on South Africa in 2024 and his continued connection to the country.
Don’t miss this insightful interview with one of South Africa’s leading entrepreneurs, exploring the role he played in the heady days of the internet in South Africa and what it took to build a successful investment career in the US.

We apologise for the audio quality issues in this episode.
23 Apr English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS Legends | Mark Todes: technologist and monopoly slayer

Mark Todes has a fascinating story to tell. The South African technologist and entrepreneur is TechCentral’s guest in the final episode of season 1 of the popular TCS Legends podcast. Todes, who is perhaps best known for helping fight Telkom’s attempts in the 1990s to extend its telecommunications monopoly to…
3 Jun 1 hr 12 min

Joan Joffe on building Joffe Associates - and Vodacom

Joan Joffe, the founder of Joffe Associates who would later play a pivotal role in the launch of South Africa’s mobile industry, began her IT career writing machine code on an ICL (then ICT) mainframe. Joffe, who introduced the IBM PC to South Africa in the early 1980s (much to…
21 May 57 min

Ivan Epstein on building and selling Softline

Softline co-founder and former CEO Ivan Epstein is TechCentral’s guest in the latest episode of TCS Legends. Epstein, who co-founded Softline in 1988 with Alan Osrin, chats to host Duarte da Silva – who also happens to have been the first guest on TCS Legends – about the early days…
6 May 46 min

South African internet pioneer Mike Lawrie

TechCentral is thrilled to bring you an interview with Mike Lawrie, a pioneering figure at Rhodes University who helped bring e-mail and later the internet to South Africa. In this episode of TCS Legends – the podcast series that features interviews with (and about) some of the leading figures who…
8 Apr 1 hr 27 min

Remembering Mustek founder David Kan

David Kan, the late founder and former CEO of Mustek, is the focus of episode 3 of TechCentral’s new podcast series, TCS Legends – powered by Mitel. In this episode, TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod is joined by Mustek CEO Hein Engelbrecht and Carlos Vizcarra, CEO of CPS Technologies, who was…
18 Mar 1 hr 20 min