The Founder Files The Truth Behind Building a Business in South Africa’s Townships - Jessica Boonstra, Yebo Fresh
In this episode, I sit down with Jessica Boonstra — founder and CEO of Yebo Fresh — for a powerful conversation about leadership, resilience, and what it really takes to build a business in South Africa.
Yebo Fresh’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary: from a small B2C e-commerce startup before COVID, to pivoting overnight into emergency meal delivery with NGOs, and eventually emerging as a key player in the township spaza shop economy. Now acquired by the Smollan Group, Jessica and her team are scaling at an entirely new level.
We talk about what it’s like growing a team from 6 to 60 people in 3 weeks, leading a business of over 220 people today, and navigating real South African challenges — from fraud, crime, and gangsterism to building trust as a white Dutch woman working within township communities.
This episode is storytelling at its finest. It’s about the human side of entrepreneurship, the lessons Jessica learned the hard way, and the humility it takes to lead with compassion while staying hard on performance.
If you're an entrepreneur, leader, or South African who believes in building something that matters — this one’s for you.
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This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve is a team of focused experts committed to helping entrepreneurs like you scale their businesses successfully. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
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00:00 Introduction04:09 What Is Yebo Fresh?05:19 How Jessica Cracked the Township Market08:36 The Founding Story of Yebo Fresh19:46 Challenges of Being a White Dutch Woman in the South African Market23:39 Navigating Difficult Investor Conversations31:22 Understanding the Problem and Customer on a Deeper Level42:37 The Tough Journey of Building the Business Model49:21 Scaling Challenges: Crime, Fraud, and Gangsterism in the Supply Chain58:30 Balancing Compassion and Leadership01:01:28 South Africa’s Greatest Strength: Its People01:08:05 The Future of General Trade: Digitizing With AI and Yebo Fresh’s Role01:17:12 How Jessica Had to Evolve as a Leader to Scale the Business01:22:51 Choosing to Stay in a Consciously Incapable State01:32:29 Jessica’s Advice for Entrepreneurs