Game Changer Profile

Pieter Nel, SVP of Operations at YouNow Read insights

Described as “a Renaissance man of the digital age,” Pieter Nel – Senior Vice President of Operations at YouNow – is also a pilot, a yacht skipper, a mountain rescue volunteer, and a MIT-award-winning entrepreneur. Previously, the South African-born executive and engineer was the CTO who helped propel the massive early growth of Africa’s largest social network, Mxit – which, at one point, was larger than Twitter.

A new profile on Nel on BPI’s sister platform, the SABLE Accelerator, adds: “The 40-year-old is a key innovator in three of the most coveted fields of the new economy – virtual currencies, machine learning and monetization strategy – and he’s doing it all for YouNow: a platform which defines the social connectivity revolution.” This live video social network is even disrupting the cable TV space, having recorded average active user times for its millions of subscribers at almost 50 minutes every day.

Nel positively boils with ideas for disruptive technologies – and told BPI that he has retained his passion to innovate on mobile platforms to empower African entrepreneurs. Is this Q&A, Nel also speaks about the potential for “smart farming” in Africa, enabled by drones and smart data. He has also harnessed his experiences of leading dozens of mountain rescues for a Thought Leadership project that principle tech founders and CEOs should use in navigating the fast-changing market landscape.