When The First Kudu launched in late 2023, it offered something rare in the world of business books: a candid, often humorous, and deeply South African account of building a tech start-up from the ground up. Co-authored by Old Johannian Lorne Hallendorff (Head of School 2008) and Ben Shaw, the book traces the rise (and lessons learned) from HouseME, a rental and financial technology company that scaled to over 50,000 users and processed hundreds of millions of rands annually.
Before HouseME, before the boardrooms and funding rounds, Lorne was a student at St John’’s College and a budding writer. He credits his Upper V English teacher, Joy de Souza, with sparking a lasting interest in literature and storytelling. ““A business book may not have been the obvious outcome,”” he reflects, ““but The First Kudu is storytelling at heart, and hopefully some of those early seeds germinated.””
After matriculating from St John’’s, Lorne went on to lead the UCT SRC and became a Fellow of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. His career has spanned management consulting, tech start-ups, and financial technology. Alongside this, he’’s built a growing reputation as a writer: his short story “Without a Single Curtsy Nor Cartwheel” earned an honourable mention in the humour category of the 92nd Annual Writer’’s Digest Awards, and ““Villains’’ Annual Strategic Planning”” was shortlisted for the 2023 Bridport Prize.
The First Kudu began as an internal case study for the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, but quickly evolved into something much more. ““In the months after HouseME, I had a mountain of disjointed memories and half-formed lessons knocking about in my head,”” says Lorne. ““Writing it down forced me to order my thoughts, and maybe make them useful to a few others too.””
The book is structured in two parts. The first tells the story of HouseME with all its twists, missteps and milestones, while the second distils key lessons using the analogy of a train journey —- sometimes smooth and straight, sometimes more of a rollercoaster.
Lorne and Ben originally wrote separately, but as the book took shape, they had to merge their voices. ““Different memories, different writing styles — that was both a challenge and a strength,”” he says.
As Zach George, Managing Partner of Launch Africa Ventures, put it, ““The First Kudu is an extremely valuable contribution to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa, not just for its insights, but for its honesty.””
For Lorne, though, the process of writing proved equally meaningful as he quotes Paul Graham: ““Writing is not just a way to convey ideas, but also a way to have them.””
Old Johannians who knew Lorne during his time at College may recognise that same mix of curiosity and clarity in the pages of The First Kudu. It’’s a business story, yes, but one told with a storyteller’’s eye and the kind of perspective that can only come from lived experience.
The First Kudu is available in print, as an e-book, and as an audiobook narrated by the authors.