E10 - Takalani Madzhadzhi: Ashanti AI

When you're a founder and/or a leader of a small business, the state that you're in becomes directly reflected in the business. What this means is that if you are positive, energised and optimistic then you will see positivity, energy and optimism in your business performance. The same goes for negativity, doubt and stagnation. And this is why mental health is so important for leaders and entrepreneurs. This is a lesson shared by Takalani Madzhadzhi, the Founder and CEO of Ashanti AI, a data science and artificial intelligence lab that helps businesses become more profitable by solving their most complex inefficiencies. Takalani is an Actuarial Scientist by profession but a Data Scientist (he unpacks the difference in the episode) and entrepreneur at heart. He left the world of product development in financial services to have more autonomy in how he solves problems, which is what started Ashanti AI. The business has been growing smoothly since 2018. They now have 10 full-time specialist professionals working on (currently) three different business units: bespoke consulting and AI solutions, Value Chain Optimisation and labour market skills analysis (called Skills Blackboard, which just raised funding in a seed round). In this episode, we talk about everything from the difficulty in hiring someone you can trust to the importance of mental health. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This podcast is brought to you by Metavolve. We help entrepreneurs structure their businesses for growth. We take the chaos out of scaling businesses by turning entrepreneurial intuition into aligned and committed leadership teams with clear strategic direction. We optimise the execution of strategy by helping people adapt to the inevitable change that strategy creates. Working with us to define or execute your strategy means you get access to experienced experts in business strategy and organisational psychology. You get the benefit of a blend of people-centric and commercial perspectives that can understand your context from every angle. And you get the benefit of not being dependent on us for the long term because we share our knowledge and tools with your people to improve their ability to solve future problems. To get in touch with one of our experts, head over to our website. If you would like to get in touch with our host, Cameron Coutts, then you can connect with him on LinkedIn.This episode is brought to you by Metavolve. Metavolve is a team of focused experts who want scaling entrepreneurs like you to succeed 👉 contact our team Do you have a scaling business and valuable insights about your industry? Be our next guest!