MK

Mia Kuhn

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Product strategy · Business development · Strategic partnerships

Mia is Co-Founder and CEO of BluEclipse Technologies, the company behind Vendorah. She owns everything the platform needs that is not code: who it is for, what it costs, which partners it runs on, and the case for it — made to vendors, to customers, to the press and to investors.

LinkedInBluEclipse

140k+

Views on the News24 feature she secured

30+

Founding vendors she recruited and worked with

3

Platforms taken to public launch — web, Android, iOS

Business, technology and customers at once

Mia is an Economics and Finance graduate of the University of Cape Town who runs the commercial side of a technical product. That combination is the job: she translates vendor, customer, investor and market feedback into product priorities and feature direction, then works with engineering to keep those decisions practical, scalable and actually buildable.

She has deliberately built a working understanding of how Vendorah is put together — deep enough to demo it, to explain it to an investor, and to say no when a request sounds reasonable but is not technically realistic. In a two-person company, a CEO who over-promises on behalf of the engineering side does real damage; avoiding that is part of the role.

Her experience spans early-stage venture building, strategic partnerships, fundraising, media representation, product management, vendor acquisition and marketplace operations — and she has taken Vendorah from concept to public launch on web, Android and iOS while building public trust and local market traction alongside it.

Remit

What Mia owns

Five areas, all of which have to work before a single order can be placed safely.

Commercial strategy & product ownership

Mia is CEO, Product Owner and Project Manager at once. She sets product priorities, turns vendor and customer feedback into development requirements, plans releases and tests features before they ship — then decides what Vendorah charges for them.

  • Business model, commission structure and vendor value proposition
  • Feature prioritisation and roadmap planning
  • QA testing, release coordination and launch readiness
  • Trust-first positioning and marketplace governance

Logistics & partnership development

The courier relationships that let a one-person business ship nationwide on the same terms a warehouse gets were negotiated by Mia — Aramex, The Courier Guy and PUDO’s locker network.

  • Courier and delivery provider partnerships
  • Platform distribution and marketplace operations partnerships
  • Fulfilment strategy across courier, self-delivery and collection

Protected payments & financial workflows

She led the protected-payment system customer money moves through, and shaped the financial workflows behind it — how funds are held, when they release, what happens when something goes wrong.

  • Escrow-aligned marketplace operations
  • Commission-based payouts and vendor settlement logic
  • Holding procedures and refund processes

Investor relations & company operations

Mia runs the fundraising conversations, the product demonstrations and the business case — and the unglamorous company scaffolding underneath it.

  • Investor presentations, reporting and funding strategy
  • Secured investment interest, strategic backing and hardware investment
  • Company setup: D-U-N-S registration, Google Business, store distribution, compliance

Brand, media & vendor acquisition

Vendorah’s public voice is hers — the social content, the promotional video, the launch messaging, and the founder-led cold calls that put the first vendors on the platform.

  • National media representation and public relations
  • Social media strategy, content and video campaigns
  • Vendor acquisition through direct outreach and founder-led conversations
  • Community engagement and customer development

Recognition

Public profile

News24 feature — 140,000+ views

Mia represented Vendorah in a national News24 feature that reached more than 140,000 views and became the highest-performing article in the segment’s history.

“The Entrepreneur” — finalist

Selected as a finalist in the George Business Chamber’s entrepreneurship competition.

Experience

Where she has worked

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

2024 — Present

BluEclipse Technologies — Vendorah

  • Co-founded BluEclipse Technologies and leads commercial strategy, product direction, business development, partnerships, investor relations, marketing and operational execution.
  • Took Vendorah from early concept to public launch across web, Android and iOS, with active vendors, customers and investor support.
  • Acts as Product Owner and Project Manager: defines priorities, translates business needs into development requirements and coordinates execution across platform features.
  • Works through the full software lifecycle alongside engineering — feature planning, QA, testing, release coordination and customer feedback implementation.
  • Recruited and worked with more than 30 founding vendors to validate requirements, improve onboarding and refine the vendor and customer experience.
  • Built and maintains relationships with investors, advisors, media contacts, vendors, logistics partners and local business communities.
  • Coordinated courier and delivery partnerships supporting Vendorah’s fulfilment strategy.
  • Oversaw company setup and administration: D-U-N-S registration, Google Business, store distribution requirements and compliance coordination.
  • Developed a working understanding of Vendorah’s technical architecture deep enough to keep commitments to clients, vendors and investors technically honest.

English Teacher (Part-Time)

Jan 2025 — Present

Core Teaching Essentials

  • Delivers structured online English lessons to international students through interactive remote sessions.
  • Adapts materials for diverse student needs, building confidence, fluency and communication skills.

Grader

2024 — 2025

U.S. Cram School

  • Evaluated academic assignments and standardised assessments for international students.
  • Applied established rubrics and review standards to keep grading accurate and consistent across remote programmes.

Capabilities

What she works with

Leadership & strategy

Startup leadershipProduct strategyBusiness developmentStrategic partnershipsInvestor relationsCommercial strategyVenture building

Product & project management

Product ownershipFeature prioritisationRoadmap planningUser feedback analysisQA testingRelease coordinationCross-platform delivery

Marketplace operations

Vendor acquisitionVendor onboardingMarketplace governanceCustomer developmentTrust & safety workflowsOperational process design

Marketing & growth

Brand positioningSocial media strategyContent creationVideo campaignsCommunity engagementCold outreachPublic relations

Finance & business systems

Financial systems designRevenue modelsCommission structuresVendor payout planningEscrow-aligned processesRefund procedures

Stakeholder communication

Investor communicationPartnership negotiationVendor relationsProduct demonstrationsTechnical-commercial translation

Languages

English (native) · Afrikaans (fluent)

Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Finance

2021 — 2024

University of Cape Town

  • Focus areas: financial systems, microeconomics, macroeconomics, business strategy, quantitative analysis
  • Final-year research: “Evaluating the Role of Digital Payment Systems in Emerging Markets”
  • Activities: Economics Society · Women in Business UCT Chapter

The research topic is not incidental — Vendorah's protected-payment system is that question answered in production.

Vendorah is what this adds up to

One connected platform for South African product and service businesses — storefronts, bookings, orders, accounting, delivery and protected payments.

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