Sasha Knott, a South African techpreneur building an innovative recruitment solution connecting companies to talent — Lionesses of Africa

What inspired you to start your company?

We wanted to make a difference and found that with helping SMEs hire we could make a dent in unemployment.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

We focus on SMEs and helping them hire fast while being cost effective as we know all about cash flow!

Tell us a little about your team

Our team are 23-women led, with a wealth of experience in Recruitment, IT, Customer Service and Finance. We all work virtually from our homes, to ensure we can multi-task between clients, candidates, crew and our children! Sasha and Kelly work with the team to ensure our vision is reached of making a dent in unemployment. We are all extremely passionate about what we do and the way we do it!

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

Having begun my career as a System Administrator then moving into a Computer Programming role, it gave me the foresight and understanding into the tech-era. Having run a large IT Support Centre in Cape Town I further grew my entrepreneurial leadership skills in the tech sector, being headhunted to start the Operations & IT Centre for the Virgin Group.

In April 2010, I successfully moved to the financial services industry. I started an online trading business (iTRADEpro), sold the business and then became the General Manager for Como Capital; a holding company that invests in credit financial services businesses with a high potential to solve industry problems or disrupt inefficient markets. I then entered the Insurance industry, first into Africa and then later started Switch2, a credit life insurance business, which was recently sold to Clientele Life. Switch2’s focus is to save consumers money in their credit life insurance.