Tell me about Naritive and the services it offers.
Naritive is a South African-born adtech company calling BS on lazy metrics, wasted spend and digital wallpaper. Our Attention Engine platform helps marketing leaders move beyond impressions to what really matters: human attention.
What does your job involve?
As MD for South Africa, I sit at the intersection of the work, the people and the numbers. I lead our design, ad operations, finance and sales teams, which means I am part commercial driver, part culture keeper and part professional agitator. My job is to make sure we scale without becoming boring, protect the quality of the work, challenge comfortable thinking, and give our people the space to push harder, grow faster and do work they can be proud of.
What do you think makes you good at what you do?
I’m a nurturer at heart, but I’m radically passionate about the work. After 15 years in sales, I’m wired to connect with humans, not just manage them. My strength lies in spotting talent that often gets lost in the “corporate beige” of large legacy players. I focus on extracting individual genius, leading with sincerity, and nurturing potential. I’m never afraid to dive into the trenches with my teams; when you’ve done the work yourself, you lead with a different kind of authority.
How does AI affect productivity, and what does this mean for workers?
AI is not the big bad wolf. Lazy thinking is.
At Naritive, we see AI as a force multiplier, not a substitute for judgment, taste or strategic instinct. It is only as good as the thinking you feed it, which means it quickly exposes the difference between people who are sharpening ideas and people who are just copy-and-pasting mediocrity.
Used badly, AI gives you more digital wallpaper. Used well, it helps you pressure-test, refine and move faster without lowering the bar. It does not replace human input; it forces us to upgrade it.
What do you look for when recruiting for your team?
A CV is just one data point, and often the most polished one. Nothing beats a live, unscripted conversation. I am not only hiring for culture fit. I am hiring for a culture add. Beyond technical skills, I want to know: does this person think, are they curious and are they authentically themselves?
We have a 99% staff retention rate because we hire for the long term. We hire people who want to build something enduring, not just collect a payslip.
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