Damian Mogale is sharing the tools that built his business, free, through THUSO21

Damian Mogale is the founder of THUSO21, a free platform from Carletonville that helps everyday South Africans find reliable, affordable digital tools, explore business funding resources and discover practical ways to start, manage and grow a business. His own way of putting it is short: "Less searching. More building."

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"You shouldn't need money, connections or technical knowledge to access useful business resources."

Built from his own toolkit

The resources on THUSO21 come from Damian's own work. He built a gin brand, Amani Gin, which is now listed with retailers including Zulzi. Like most founders, he did a bit of everything, and every part of the business was a lot of work. Digital and AI tools changed that for him. He automated much of his work and, in his words, "managed to get things done in hours which would normally take days."

He also likes to help. He often shared his resources with other businesses, and THUSO21 is how he decided to share them "with as many people as possible".

That is what Value, the ring he picked, means to him. "Everything on THUSO21 is valuable to me, every tool has helped me build my business and streamline my work." He adds that without those tools he "probably would have given up halfway."

A long road to this version

THUSO21 is not new. It started in 2020 as an interactive WhatsApp chatbot called DiziByNature. It wasn't AI powered and worked more like a USSD menu. In 2024 he renamed it THUSO21. It was still menu-based, and people used it to find AI tools, tender opportunities and vacancies.

Keeping it going alone, without it making money, was hard, so he stepped back and went back to the drawing board. Now that Amani Gin is built, he can focus on THUSO21 again, sharing everything that helped him build his business and his side hustles.

The hardest part since then has been getting people to use it. "It's difficult to tell people they need something when they don't see a need for it," he says. Some tools also take time to learn, and many people give up after the first try.

Building from Carletonville has its own challenge. Damian feels South Africa hasn't yet fully adapted to the age of AI the way the rest of the world has. "There's still a bit of resistance when it comes to AI."

What would help

Damian is looking for users: mostly entrepreneurs and freelancers who want to streamline their work and take a significant amount of weight off their shoulders. If that sounds like you, THUSO21 is free to try.