An eight week masterclass for established South African SME founders who are building real businesses, sitting on real opportunities, and holding back because debt still feels like the enemy.
If you run an established SME in South Africa, you are living inside a paradox. The country has never had more SME funding on offer. Banks, IDC, SEDFA, NEF, Vumela, Edge Growth, private credit funds, alternative lenders, supplier development programmes. Billions of rand, waiting.
And yet most established founders cannot access it. Not because the capital is not there. Because the preparation is not there. Because the products feel like a blur. Because personal surety feels like signing away your house. Because a family member once lost a business to debt in 2008 and that story still lives in the room.
The gap is not capital. It is capital literacy. This masterclass is built to close it.
Capital literacy is the single biggest lever SA SMEs are leaving on the table. Not capital access. Capital literacy. One is fixable with money. The other is fixable with preparation.
This masterclass is not for early-stage startups or side hustles. It is for established owner-operators who have survived the hard years, built real revenue, and now want to think about capital like a CFO rather than avoid it like a threat.
Every week does one job. Every session produces a tangible deliverable that builds into your Capital Strategy Memo. No passive theory, no filler, no generic finance content.
Where SA's debt aversion comes from, why it is costing you growth, and what a healthy relationship with leverage looks like at your stage. Debt, equity and blended finance on one matrix. Mapping your place on it.
The full SA SME debt product taxonomy. Overdraft, revolving credit, term, invoice discounting, purchase order finance, merchant cash advance, asset finance, trade finance. What each is for, what each actually costs all-in, which ones to walk away from. A 10-scenario Product Literacy Quiz teaches pattern recognition live.
How IDC, SEDFA, NEF, Vumela and corporate ESD funds actually work. Patient capital. Concessional rates. When blended is the right answer. How transformation credentials become a capital lever. Realistic timelines and approval criteria.
Cash flow forecasting for your sector (agri seasonal, property rental, fleet utilisation, manufacturing cycles). Governance basics. Credit repair. Collateral storytelling beyond property: invoices, contracts, fleet logs, off-take agreements. Closing the readiness gap between current state and lender-ready state.
Full application template. Use of funds ring-fencing. Negotiation tactics: grace periods, sculpted repayments, covenant flex. Live surety negotiation role-play. Amount, tenor, security, conditions precedent. Every session has a 30 minute 1:1 slot with Jenna during this week.
Covenant monitoring and early warning signs. Proactive communication with funders. The Positive Restructuring framework: releasing personal surety after growth. When and how to graduate your capital structure. Refinancing windows. The moment your business flips from borrower to partner.
Live refinement of your application with real lender feedback. Speed-dating format with a curated mix of banks, SEDFA/IDC relationship managers, fintech (Lula and similar), and DFI funders. Direct Q&A. Your application sections refined in the room based on the feedback you actually receive.
The final assembly. Your 36-month roadmap: where your business sits in 12, 24 and 36 months with specific products, lenders, milestones and graduations. Immediate 30/60/90 day action plan. Graduation ceremony. Alumni network activation. Invitation into the ongoing Debt in Action community.
Every module works through verified SA case studies. Real founders. Real capital structures. Real numbers from primary sources. No US anecdotes, no invented figures, no motivational filler.
Jenna Sprenger spent twelve years in the corporate world raising and structuring debt from the borrower's side, most recently as Group CFO of Burstone Group, a JSE-listed REIT. She has been the founder in the room asking for the capital, not the banker issuing the term sheet.
That perspective is the moat of this masterclass. Every other SME finance educator in South Africa is either a lender in disguise, a broker taking commission, or a consultant charging by the hour. The person who has actually done the work from your side of the table is the person most qualified to teach it.
Kayzi is her platform. Leverage Without Fear is her masterclass. There is no one else teaching this material in South Africa from this vantage point.
Cohort 1 runs exclusively in person in Johannesburg. Venue in Sandton or Rosebank. No virtual option for this cohort.
3 hours per session, Tuesday evenings, 8 weeks. Timed so owner-operators can attend without giving up a work day.
Capped at 15 per cohort. Small enough for meaningful Q&A, real discussion, and a cohort WhatsApp group that actually works.
Every participant gets a 30 minute 1:1 with Jenna during Week 5. This is where your specific business gets pressure-tested.
Every session produces output that builds into your 15-section Memo. By Week 8 you have a complete lender-ready document.
Week 7 brings curated banks, DFIs and fintechs into the room for direct Q&A and application feedback on your real pack.
Cohort WhatsApp runs for six months post-programme. Quarterly alumni calls. Warm lender intros. Debt in Action community.
Full access to the Kayzi funding readiness platform, matching tools and affiliate lender panel for six months after graduation.
Every other SME masterclass hands out workbooks and certificates. Leverage Without Fear runs on eight proprietary Kayzi tools that accept your real business data and produce outputs that assemble into your own Capital Strategy Memo across eight weeks.
Move the sliders. Watch the verdict change. This is exactly the tool Cohort 01 members use in Week 1 to baseline their readiness across seven dimensions. Free preview, no sign-up required.
Each tool accepts your real business inputs and produces output that populates specific sections of your Capital Strategy Memo.
10 real SA founder scenarios. You pick the right product for each. Live feedback with explanations. Your decision pattern reveals where your product literacy gaps sit.
Inputs your B-BBEE status, sector, transformation profile and capital need. Returns a ranked shortlist of DFI and blended pathways with eligibility notes and realistic timelines.
Builds your 3-year forecast with sector-specific templates (agri seasonal, property rental, fleet utilisation). Calculates DSCR capacity. Flags readiness gaps against lender requirements.
Takes you through credit-committee-grade line items. Ring-fenced amounts, unit economics, expected return, timing. Outputs a lender-ready Use of Funds document plus a structured Funding Request.
Maps your real personal surety across every facility. Shows exposure vs. asset base. Suggests alternative structures: capped, asset-only, phased reduction, blended alternatives.
Your personal early-warning system once debt is in place. Green / Amber / Red thresholds on the metrics lenders actually monitor. Scripted pre-breach communication templates.
Maps the triggers that earn you better terms. Revenue growth, DSCR improvement, clean repayment history. Drafts the positive restructuring letter to your lender at the right moment.
The final tool. Reads every input from the previous 7 tools and assembles your 15-section Capital Strategy Memo as a polished PDF. Yours to download, share, or hand to a lender.
Every tool's output populates specific sections of a single living document: your Capital Strategy Memo. By Week 4 it is 60% complete. By Week 8 it is a lender-ready PDF in your hand.
This is the document you could give to your board, to an accountant, to a prospective lender, or to yourself in 18 months when the context has shifted.
It is what makes this R8,500 programme a R75,000 commercial asset. No other SA programme teaches capital strategy this way because no other programme has built the infrastructure to do it.
You do not leave with notes. You leave with a deliverable.
Transparent pricing. No add-ons, no hidden upsells, no certificate upgrades. Cohort 1 pricing is entry pricing, set deliberately to test market response. Subsequent cohorts will adjust.
Running a membership body, chamber, or corporate ESD programme? See our organisational offering below.
Cohort 01 runs two parallel tracks in Johannesburg, so you can join the eight weeks on whichever morning or evening works around your business.
Not sure which cohort fits? Email Jenna directly and we will talk it through.
Pre-book a seat, request more info, or get on the waitlist for the next cohort. No payment at this stage, no pressure. We will follow up with the detail you need to decide.
If you run a business membership organisation, chamber, industry body, or corporate ESD programme, your members are almost certainly the exact profile this masterclass is built for. We run closed cohorts exclusively for member groups, co-branded, with content tailored to the sector.
You retain the relationship with your members throughout. We design the cohort around your member profile. Jenna facilitates every session. Your organisation carries the co-brand, and you set the pricing to members as you choose.
Three commercial structures work most often depending on how deep the partnership goes. All three are laid out in the full proposal document, including bespoke pricing, typical timelines, member experience design, and our case study approach.
The fastest route is to request the proposal below and we will send it through within one business day.
A four to six page PDF with full commercial terms, delivery structure, and an example of how we tailor content for specific sectors. Sent directly from Jenna within one business day.
Request proposalThe honest answer is that this programme prepares you to be fundable. It does not guarantee a specific lender will approve a specific facility. What it does is produce a complete Capital Strategy Memo, a bankable funding memo, a matched product shortlist, and a Week 7 speed-dating session where you get direct feedback from banks, DFIs and fintechs on your real application. Cohort 1's target is that 70% of graduates submit a structured funding application within 90 days of graduation.
Two reasons. First, the cohort dynamic matters. In-person creates the peer accountability, the trust and the depth that virtual delivery cannot replicate in a first cohort. Second, Johannesburg is where the facilitator is based and where the largest concentration of eligible SMEs sits. Virtual cohorts and Cape Town / Durban cohorts are planned for 2027, after Cohort 1 has validated the format.
Yes, but for a different reason than most participants. This programme will help you rethink structure, refinancing, covenant renegotiation, and capital sequencing rather than adding new debt. Worth a direct conversation with Jenna before you commit so we can pressure-test fit.
Kayzi has affiliate relationships with several lenders (disclosed on the main platform). These do not influence facilitator content in the masterclass. You are taught the full taxonomy and matched to whatever product fits best, regardless of whether Kayzi earns a commission on the referral. Transparency on this sits at the core of the Kayzi thesis and the facilitator's professional obligations as a CA(SA).
Two to three hours per week of pre-work. Reading, a short exercise, occasionally using one of the Kayzi interactive tools. If you have less time than that to invest, this is not the right programme right now. The live sessions are built on the assumption that you have done the pre-work and are arriving ready to work.
You work with your own numbers in your own memo throughout. Group discussions are structured so you can speak in ranges and proportions rather than absolute figures if you prefer. Your 1:1 with Jenna in Week 5 is the only place you share specific financials, and that is fully confidential.
Missing one session is manageable. Missing more than two meaningfully dilutes the programme because sessions build on each other and the Capital Strategy Memo needs contributions from each week. If you know up front you will miss more than two sessions, we would suggest deferring to a later cohort.
Yes. The full fee can be split over two payments, with 50% due on confirmation and 50% due before the start of Week 1. Corporate invoicing available for company-paid seats. For organisations running closed cohorts, standard payment terms apply.
Cohort 2 is planned for September 2026 in Johannesburg. Cape Town, Durban and virtual cohorts are planned for 2027. Pricing for Cohort 2 will be confirmed after Cohort 1 completes. Join the Kayzi newsletter to be notified, or email Jenna directly to be added to the priority list.
Cohort 1 opens in Johannesburg in June 2026 across two tracks. Thirty seats. Ten of them at the early-bird rate. If the profile fits and the timing works, the next move is to reserve your seat.