Hi there. 👋

If you reading this, chances are you’re either a community leader or one of our early partners (this page is likely on our beta subdomain). We would like to start by extending our gratitude - whether it was a twitter dm, email or us gently (or not-so-gently 😅) pitching to you in person, you took the time to click through.

As first-time founders, its exciting (and somewhat terrifying) searching for those first-believers. So you being here means the world to us… anyways 😆

Ideas, Access, and the Future of Work

Looking back on five years of working in tech, one idea has always held a special place in my heart — that one Slack channel. #news, #tech, #random — you name it. We all know it as the space where the magic happens: links are shared, discussions strike up, and every now and then, an idea is born.

We’ve always referred to this space as the class group chat.

But outside of these digital spaces, the reality is very different. South Africa still faces a deepening skill gap (wild to still say that in 2025) - one that leaves millions of people disconnected from opportunities like these. And that’s why we’re building Sudo.

So what exactly is Sudo? It’s the platform we hope will one day succeed LinkedIn — a home for professional communities in Africa. Imagine Discord, but built for professionals. A place where leaders can run their communities, host events share knowledge and connect talent - all in one clean, powerful experience.

There are two ideas that have guided us over the past seven months:

• The brokenness of LinkedIn
• The idea of the public group chat for professionals
• The vibe of a thriving community - inspired by this blog post by Nadia Asparouhova on GitHub’s office

Short term vs Long term

Our goal is to launch mid-May 🤞 — and we’re looking to partner with a few select community leaders in South Africa. Here’s what we’re focusing on until then:

• Mobile UI and app 📱
• Polishing implementation details and fixing bugs 🧹
• Invite approval flow and member dashboard 📨
• And anything we get to workshop with you

Roadmap (Post-launch): Audio Rooms, Events and AI powered community editor.

Think of us as the Shopify for communities. We want to deeply understand your needs and craft carefully thought-out solutions to match. Our aim is to give you everything you need to build a thriving community — especially in this part of the world.

Long term, we’re Africa-first.

We’re building a network of communities across the continent, inspired by the idea of a digital network state. It’s a big bet on Africa — on its growing population, its talent, and the belief that one day, this network will connect with each other and the rest of the world in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Conclusion

At the heart of this platform are trust, people, ideas, and communities. We believe this is the future of work, learning, and creativity — not recruiter-first, not algorithm-first.

If LinkedIn is the blueprint for what a professional network looks like today, we’re here to reimagine what it could look like tomorrow.

Our mission as founders is simple:

• To build a space that becomes the go-to for the next generation of professionals.
• To create a platform that puts the interests, growth and dreams of these professionals first.
• And to help community leaders - like you - shape the future of the professional spaces access this continent.

We’re just getting started, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey. 🙏

Kind regards,
Khaya & Dumisani Zulu