EP 30 | Gamification, Grit & Growth - Kim Chulu Amina
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In this episode of The Angle Podcast, we dive into the mind of Kim Chulu Amina, a Johannesburg-based designer, gamification expert, and founder of Mind City — a platform that fuses interactive learning with real-world development in a way most edtech startups haven’t figured out yet.
Kim walks us through his origin story: growing up drawing comics, hacking together video games, and eventually stepping into the world of UX and product design — not through a traditional path, but by building solutions and learning on the fly. It’s a journey marked by bold ideas, tough failures, and a stubborn refusal to design anything that doesn’t serve real people with real needs.
We talk about:
-What true gamification looks like (hint: it’s not badges and leaderboards)
-Why most South African startups collapse — and what that says about our ecosystem
-How Mind City is helping learners and workers build soft skills that are usually ignored in tech-driven education
-The danger of solving problems too late in the design process
-Why good UX isn’t just aesthetics — it’s about dignity, agency, and survival
Kim also shares honest reflections on the startup world: the funding gaps, the performative pitch culture, and why too many innovations are rushed into the market with no grounding in user experience.
This isn’t just a conversation about design. It’s about how we prepare people to thrive — in the workplace, in their communities, and in a world that increasingly demands adaptability, emotional intelligence, and creative problem-solving.
0:00 – Intro to Kim Chulu
1:00 – From comic books to UX/UI and gamification
6:00 – First design gig and entrepreneurial mindset
10:00 – Defining interactive design and early experiments
15:00 – The philosophy behind user-centered innovation
20:00 – Mind City: A learning and development platform
25:00 – Gamification for soft skills & career readiness
33:00 – Why most startups fail in South Africa
38:00 – Gamification done wrong in education
45:00 – Fixing problems too late: A design problem
52:00 – Coaching, funding loopholes & startup realities
55:00 – Final reflections and call for a round two
#TheAnglePodcast #KimChulu #Gamification #MindCity #EdTechAfrica #UXDesign #StartupFailure #AfricanInnovation #DigitalLearning #SoftSkills
Kim walks us through his origin story: growing up drawing comics, hacking together video games, and eventually stepping into the world of UX and product design — not through a traditional path, but by building solutions and learning on the fly. It’s a journey marked by bold ideas, tough failures, and a stubborn refusal to design anything that doesn’t serve real people with real needs.
We talk about:
-What true gamification looks like (hint: it’s not badges and leaderboards)
-Why most South African startups collapse — and what that says about our ecosystem
-How Mind City is helping learners and workers build soft skills that are usually ignored in tech-driven education
-The danger of solving problems too late in the design process
-Why good UX isn’t just aesthetics — it’s about dignity, agency, and survival
Kim also shares honest reflections on the startup world: the funding gaps, the performative pitch culture, and why too many innovations are rushed into the market with no grounding in user experience.
This isn’t just a conversation about design. It’s about how we prepare people to thrive — in the workplace, in their communities, and in a world that increasingly demands adaptability, emotional intelligence, and creative problem-solving.
0:00 – Intro to Kim Chulu
1:00 – From comic books to UX/UI and gamification
6:00 – First design gig and entrepreneurial mindset
10:00 – Defining interactive design and early experiments
15:00 – The philosophy behind user-centered innovation
20:00 – Mind City: A learning and development platform
25:00 – Gamification for soft skills & career readiness
33:00 – Why most startups fail in South Africa
38:00 – Gamification done wrong in education
45:00 – Fixing problems too late: A design problem
52:00 – Coaching, funding loopholes & startup realities
55:00 – Final reflections and call for a round two
#TheAnglePodcast #KimChulu #Gamification #MindCity #EdTechAfrica #UXDesign #StartupFailure #AfricanInnovation #DigitalLearning #SoftSkills
