About Me

My name is Neil Hinrichsen. I've helped build two successful IT companies and am now based in Knysna.

My passions are consulting through KoiStrategy and working with people in my community.

My career spans some thirty years:

I began programming on a mainframe in the late seventies at UCT, where I studied psychology and computer science before leaving to help establish Realtime. I later acquired an BCom(Hons) degree in Information Systems from UCT.

Realtime was one of the first online bureaus in South Africa. I developed a complete application development environment for the proprietary minicomputers that we used, with which we developed all of our own accounting software for our clients.
In the early 1980's we became involved in the microcomputer business, introducing a rugged, portable microcomputer to South Africa that became widely used in the farming industry. We also provided facilities management for large groups, and developed software for Somchem and the Argus group among others.
In the late eighties we introduced the Progress 4GL and RDBMS product to South Africa. Extensive marketing and a deep knowledge of the product (we redeveloped all of our online bureau systems in it) led to it becoming the number 3 product in South Africa, and to us becoming one of the biggest distributors in the world for Progress Software.
In the early 1990's we introduced the first object-oriented database, Object Design, to South Africa, and played a leadership role, including working with Chris Stone and the OMG, in establishing object-oriented technology in SA.
We also became the official representative for the Patricia Seybold Group, providing their high technology research papers to large corporates, and Patricia became a regular speaker at our User Conferences.

In 1995 we became the third company in the world to obtain regional rights for Netscape. I worked closely with the Netscape team over the next two years as they worked with all of us around the world to develop policies and strategies for Netscape. I learned a tremendous amount from this experience, and we became a key player in the emerging Internet industry in South Africa.
In 1997 my partners and I split Realtime, and I sold my part of the group to Datatec. I stayed on as a director of the new company for several months before semi-retiring to Knysna, where I became involved in ecological conservation initiatives.
I was a cofounder of the Garden Route Protected Area Committee, whose work eventually led to the Garden Route being legislated as a Protected Area.

In 1999 Hannes van Rensburg, then the CIO of Sanlam, invited me to help him found Fundamo, a startup focused on providing mobile payment solutions. I headed up the team that developed the initial business plan and product architecture, and served as their head of strategy for two years. The company received venture capital from Sanlam and Venfin and subsequently attracted a major investment by Mark Shuttleworth's HBD. The Fundamo system now handles thousands of transactions a day in over forty countries, and is the underlying system for MTN's Mobile Money in South Africa. Fundamo was acquired for $110m by VISA in 2011.

In 2001 I returned to Knysna to spend more time working with the youth in my church, and to work on a long time dream of developing a holistic blueprint for a better world called The Third View. My company Worldshift now provides workshops for families based on The Third View.
While I keep up closely with the whole technology industry, I am especially skilled in the area of the Internet and Web 2.0, including technologies such as social networking.

There is more about my personal life on my blog Worldsong and you are welcome to follow me on Twitter.