Hello, I’m Tumelo Fani.
Nice to meet you.
With an extensive background across marketing and strategy, I help teams understand how customers discover, trust, adopt, and keep using products.
Whether it’s working with startups or major tech teams, my goal is to connect product decisions with customer needs.
Projects across product, marketing, and growth.
I’m also curious about AI and actively experimenting with it as a way to sharpen how I think, research, and build.
Marketplace strategy · Amazon
Deal prioritization for Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber-Monday and Spring day
Designed guardrails and a playbook for selecting and evaluating manual deal placements during major retail events, helping teams prioritize limited merchandising space across 400+ campaigns.
Digital acceleration · Meta Accelerator
Product scaling through Meta Accelerator
Worked with Meta Accelerator mentors on product experimentation, user-centered design, and data analysis for feature-phone products. The work informed the launch of two new SMS verticals for a local mobile network operator in Botswana.
Growth strategy · Stanford Seed
Strategic transformation through Stanford Seed
Developed the product vision for SMS, USSD, and IVR services serving 800K monthly users, working with senior executives to map the business model and analyze sales funnel gaps.
National polling platform · UNICEF U-Report
Youth SMS polling platform
Helped launch UNICEF U-Report, a national SMS polling platform for youth voice in Botswana. I worked across GTM strategy, primary research, field activations, and stakeholder reporting to onboard 20,000+ users.
Public health product · BeSafe
Covid-19 contact tracing app for Botswana government
Supported the launch of a QR-code contact tracing and permit application system for Botswana’s national COVID-19 response, defining product requirements and improving accessibility for 1.4M users.
Agentic AI application · Northbridge AI
Volunteer support assistant
Built an AI assistant for volunteer teams at a local NGO in Rochester, New York, helping them access information faster and support community work more effectively.
Agentic AI product · Lobelo AI
AI-supported coaching platform
Built an agentic AI-supported coaching platform for visually impaired Paralympic athletes in under-resourced communities, helping coaches in Botswana turn fragmented paper records into athlete development tracking and performance insights.
Systems across products, proposals, and commercial growth.
Additional work across low-connectivity products, energy product management, bid strategy, branding, pricing, and earlier product launches.
SMS, USSD, IVR & lifecycle analytics
Managed product and lifecycle analytics for services built around limited internet access, using subscription, billing, retention, and cohort data to understand adoption.
Energy infrastructure products
Managed product and service workflows across solar, UPS, generators, batteries, pricing, field operations, customer support, and service-quality checks.
Proposal, branding & pricing strategy
Worked across proposal and bid strategy, brand systems, pricing inputs, customer communication, and field marketing execution for commercial product lines.
Earlier products that were launched and discontinued.
Earlier product launches and pilots that shaped my work across go-to-market planning, product testing, usability research, segmentation, targeting, and customer activation.
Blaza
Blaza was a local e-commerce marketplace built to help merchants sell online and reach customers through digital ordering.
I worked across go-to-market strategy, product testing with engineers, usability feedback, merchant onboarding, customer activation, segmentation, and launch readiness.
Vuka
Vuka was a social messaging tool for USSD product communities, exploring how users on low-connectivity channels could move from basic USSD interactions into a chat-based experience.
I worked across primary research, segmentation, targeting, usability testing, product design, and go-to-market planning.
Mpitsa
Mpitsa was a local service product, similar to Uber, built to help customers in Botswana connect with nearby service providers.
I worked across product testing, usability feedback, segmentation, targeting, customer behavior, launch planning, and go-to-market strategy.
About me.
I’m a marketing and strategy professional with 6+ years of experience across digital products, commercial growth, public-sector platforms, and customer adoption across Botswana, broader African markets, and the United States.
I studied Marketing as an undergrad and started my career in sales, so I learned early to pay attention to how people make decisions, what makes them hesitate, and what makes something worth trying. That foundation, strengthened by my MBA, still shapes how I approach strategy, product work, and customer-facing decisions.
My work has taken me from local startups and public-sector technology projects in Botswana to marketplace and onsite marketing work at Amazon.
I’m a marketing and strategy professional with 6+ years of experience across digital products, commercial growth, public-sector platforms, and customer adoption across Botswana, broader African markets, and the United States.
I studied Marketing as an undergrad and started my career in sales, so I learned early to pay attention to how people make decisions, what makes them hesitate, and what makes something worth trying.
That foundation, strengthened by my MBA, still shapes how I approach strategy, product work, and customer-facing decisions.
My work has taken me from local startups and public-sector technology projects in Botswana to marketplace and onsite marketing work at Amazon.
What I bring to the table.
Structuring ambiguity
I love a good challenge, and I turn messy business, product, or market problems into clear priorities, decision paths, and next steps.
Rolling up my sleeves
I’m comfortable in a client workshop, a spreadsheet, a strategy deck, a field interview, or a boardroom presentation. I don’t mind getting into the details when the work needs it.
Commercial strategy and proposals
I spent 18 months at Grant Thornton Botswana building high-volume consulting proposals across service lines, contributing to an 85% contract win rate. I learned how to turn client requirements, pricing logic, and competitive insights into commercial bids that win work.
Brand and market storytelling
Outside the project work, I enjoy developing 360-degree brand, campaign, and messaging assets across websites, flyers, brand materials, and ideas that need a home.
Experience.
Amazon
Senior Marketing Manager InternWorked on deal merchandising, campaign performance, and automation guardrails for high-traffic retail events within North America Stores Marketing.
Grant Thornton
Proposal and business developmentWorked across bid development, commercial response materials, client opportunity assessment, pricing follow-up, and proposal strategy.
Odita Energy
Marketing and commercial strategyBuilt marketing systems, 360 branding, customer support workflows, product/service positioning, pricing support, and field-service coordination across energy infrastructure products.
Brastorne Enterprises
Product marketing and growth strategyManaged product performance and lifecycle analytics across SMS, USSD, IVR, and mobile-first digital products, using retention, segmentation, acquisition, and engagement data to improve adoption in low-connectivity markets.
Education.
Simon Business School
MBA, Marketing & Strategy
University of Rochester
University of Botswana
Bachelor’s Degree, Marketing