What started as a transport frustration became the idea behind MyMover.
Making moves will always be the main thing every young person should do to take themselves and their communities forward, because in reality, our communities need relevant solutions that speak to the current inconveniences people face daily or whenever. MyMover happens to be one of those moves, founded by the 26-year-old who is here to tell us all about it.
That young person is Molatelo Ramusi, a software developer, entrepreneur and founder born and raised in Polokwane, Limpopo. His journey into technology was not simply about learning how to code. It was about understanding how technology could make everyday life easier.
“From an early age, I was fascinated by how technology could take a complex, messy real-world problem and compress it into a simple, elegant tap on a smartphone screen,” Molatelo says.
Growing up in Polokwane, he saw first-hand how much friction exists around transport, logistics, commerce and access to technology. Rather than simply accepting those challenges, he taught himself to code with the intention of building solutions.
His entrepreneurial journey has also been practical. Molatelo runs an internet café from home and works in the creative digital space, including web development, graphic design and helping businesses establish themselves online. Those experiences placed him close to the people and businesses that technology is ultimately meant to serve.
Then came the experience that would inspire MyMover. Molatelo's mother does not have a car and often relies on ride-hailing services to get around. She also runs a catering business from time to time, which meant that transporting bulky equipment such as pots, tables and food warmers became a recurring challenge.
Whenever she had an event, she would ask her son to help find someone with a bakkie or van.
What started as a transport frustration became the idea behind MyMover.
Finding one, however, was far from convenient. He would have to search through random numbers and classifieds, negotiate prices over the phone and hope that the driver actually arrived. Sometimes they did not, leaving his mother stranded on the day of an important catering job.
That frustration led to a simple question that ultimately became the foundation of MyMover. “Why is it so easy to tap a button on your phone and get a Bolt for passengers in three minutes, but there is no ‘Bolt for bakkies and trucks’ to move our goods?”
It is a question that speaks to a much bigger problem than moving house. MyMover is being built around the wider need for accessible, on-demand transport. From home and apartment moves to furniture deliveries, construction materials, online marketplace purchases, business courier services, event transport and warehouse-to-store transfers, the platform is designed to connect people who need things moved with those who have the vehicles and capacity to move them.
For Molatelo, the real problems within the sector come down to trust, pricing transparency and timing. Customers are often handing valuable possessions to people they do not know, while unexpected costs can make moving even more stressful. On the other side, bakkie and truck owners can spend hours waiting for their next job.
Technology, he believes, can help bring both sides together. MyMover allows customers to request movers, communicate through the platform, track vehicles and manage payments digitally. But building the technology has not necessarily been the hardest part.
“The hardest part has actually been building the marketplace itself,” Molatelo explains. Having an app is one thing. Having enough customers and reliable drivers available at the same time is another. “If you have customers but not enough drivers, customers have a poor experience. If you have drivers but not enough customers, drivers don't see enough value in staying on the platform.”
That reality has taught him that MyMover is not simply a software project. It is a technology, operations, trust and marketplace challenge happening simultaneously.
Trust, therefore, sits at the centre of the company's development. Driver verification, trip tracking, digital communication, payments, goods protection, inspections and claims management are all part of the broader vision for creating a marketplace that works for both customers and movers.
But entrepreneurship has also meant learning to deal with moments when the technology cannot yet deliver everything promised.
“One of the toughest lessons has been seeing customers make legitimate requests and then having to tell them that we couldn't fulfil the trip because there wasn't a driver available in their area,” he says.
That experience reinforced an important lesson for the young founder: customers do not care how much code has been written if the solution does not solve their problem when they need it.
Molatelo is also calling for greater support for South African technology entrepreneurs. While the country has talented developers and designers, he believes more needs to be done to provide access to funding, mentorship, business networks, customers and experienced people who can help young companies move from promising ideas to sustainable businesses.
His own ambition for MyMover extends well beyond moving furniture. “I don't ultimately see MyMover as just a moving app,” he says. The bigger vision is a technology-driven logistics platform connecting people and businesses with the transport capacity they need, whether that means bakkies, vans, trucks, courier vehicles or fleet operators.
Five years from now, Molatelo wants MyMover to become the platform people think of whenever they need something transported. But perhaps more importantly, he wants the platform to create economic opportunities for the people behind the vehicles. “There are thousands of vehicle owners and drivers who have transport capacity but don't necessarily have consistent access to customers,” he says.
If MyMover can connect that unused capacity with real demand, the platform could create opportunities for drivers while giving customers a more reliable way to access transport.
For a 26-year-old founder from Polokwane, the journey is still beginning. But the idea behind MyMover is grounded in something every entrepreneur needs to understand - sometimes the strongest business opportunities are hidden inside the everyday frustrations we have learned to live with.
Molatelo simply decided that one of those frustrations needed a better solution. And now, he is making that move.
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