wiGroup is making it easier and safer for people to make cashless purchases, using their mobile phones. CEO Bevan Ducasse is driving SA’s mobile money revolution.

The gap between Bevan Ducasse completing his Financial Analysis studies at Stellenbosch University, venturing into the corporate world – and stepping away from it to start the country’s most successful mobile payment aggregator – was two and a half years. In 2014, his company broke through the R40 Million turnover barrier, with a goal of meeting the R100 Million mark in 2016.

Today wiGroup, which forms the basis of mobile transactional services like MTN’s MobileMoney and Shoprite EeziCoupons, is well on course to facilitating a spend of over R2.5 Billion in mobile transactions, made up of coupons, vouchers, rewards and mobile money transfers.

Ducasse picked up two Maverick Awards in 2014 – including the ‘Maverick of the Year’ Award, which seeks to “recognise, acknowledge as well as celebrate the entrepreneurial genius and prowess displayed by young, hard-nosed entrepreneurs”. Genius? Yes. Young? He’s only 30. Hard-nosed? You have to be, to be a successful entrepreneur!

Do you think schools and universities do enough to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit?

I finished school in 2001 and University in 2004 and at that stage, I’d say they certainly didn’t. I think schools are very much about getting your IEB exemption and getting into University. From there, you get a degree and get a job. What I have seen in the last few years is that business schools are taking it seriously, there’s an entrepreneurship course at UCT, I’ve been asked to speak at entrepreneurship clubs at schools and such. I think we’re slowly developing the culture.

Where did you then get your entrepreneurial spark from?

I guess if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably born with something inside of you that makes you want to do something big or different and leave a legacy. I saw technology as a way to really make a big impact in this world and it got me excited. I ended up working in the corporate world for two and a half years to get experience. When you’re in that environment, you either realize it’s for you or not – and I quickly realized I could learn a lot from it, but it wasn’t for me. I looked up the ladder at the Directors and saw all of them were 50-odd years old and I thought: ‘I’ve got 35 years to go before I can get there and influence the direction of the company’! At that point I decided to do my own thing and create something new.

What makes a successful entrepreneur?

You need incredible energy because you have to energise people to to buy into your project. First, you’re selling your initial idea to get investment. Then you sell it to the person you want to buy your product. You’re always selling.

Energy also rubs off on people you hire. An entrepreneur is successful because of the people he surrounds himself with. If you inspire people, they’re going to want to join your business, and also do a good job.

You also have to have a willingness to learn and change. We started in the mobile transactional space with wiWallet, which linked your credit card to your phone and allowed you to make purchases. Eighteen months in, we realized it wasn’t going to work. Not because it was a bad idea – we’re seeing some of the apps we dreamed up then, launching now – it was just a question of timing. You have to learn to pivot and change and try new things.

How do you find balance?

If you work a hundred hours a week, for a year, you’ll burn out. You won’t be creative. I prefer saying that I work hard in the week – I don’t take lunch breaks and I really put in the hard yards – but I have evenings and weekends to myself. That stimulates creativity. I might be thinking about work and coming up with ideas during my ‘down time’, but it’s because I’m passionate about it, not because I’m sitting behind my laptop. If you want to build a Billion Dollar business, that’s not going to happen in 5 years, it’s going to be 10, 15 or 20, so you don’t want to burn out early on.

What were the biggest business challenges you faced in starting the company?

The challenges never stop, they just come in different forms. When we started, the challenge was raising money. Then you’ve raised it, you start spending it. If you’ve launched your product and you’re spending money – and it’s not going the way you intended – that’s really hard, because you’re spending someone else’s money, which is a huge burden on your shoulders because you know you have to pay them back. Your dream isn’t going they way you hoped, so you also get a dent in your ego. That’s where most entrepreneurs pack it in and go find a day job.

We saw the issue and made the changes to the business. Eventually, we broke even. The first time we did that, we felt like a Billion Dollar company. I always say to budding entrepreneurs: that’s your goal – breaking even. Once you get to that point, it really allows you to be free. You can throw the money you’re making at whatever you want.

Do you learn more from success or adversity?

I’d probably say you learn more in adversity, just because you start thinking deeply when things are tough. You’re forced to change. When it’s going well, you can become complacent, which means that you’re not necessarily growing. That’s why people say competition is good – it forces you to work harder and innovate. That said, there’s a lot you can learn from success too. Learning to be humble is a massive one. You’re never really ‘there’, so don’t look to where you need to be, rather look to where you are – and be humble.

What’s next for wiGroup?

We’re piloting in Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe and Nigeria, which is a massive deal for us. We concluded a deal with the biggest banking switch in the UK to take our technology there, which is a huge win for us because it showcases our technology on the world market. We also have our fingers on the pulse in the US and Europe, and are looking for the right deals there.

A version of this article originally appeared in TFG Man magazine.