26 episodes

A show that explores the world of founders; their disappointments, their wins, their personal lives, and how they deal with adversity.

Host Yasmeen Turayhi interviews startup founders and entrepreneurs in emerging markets in 1:1 conversations where the audience will learn about some of the biggest lessons these founders learned on their journey from the personal to the professional and share how they keep themselves motivated.

The Middle East was built on the foundation of commerce and sales and the spirit of entrepreneurship pulsates through the veins of the region. These founders have a unique lens about what it takes to build and grow a company in the Middle East and North Africa. Oftentimes, these founders have found ways to deliver on the promise of their product within an early or non-existent ecosystem. In some cases, they had to build both the product and the ecosystem.

Yasmeen Turayhi is a product marketing expert in Silicon Valley and Board member of TechWadi, the leading non-profit organization building bridges between Silicon Valley and the Middle East and North Africa region.

Startup Confessionals Hakawati | حكواتي

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 4 Ratings

A show that explores the world of founders; their disappointments, their wins, their personal lives, and how they deal with adversity.

Host Yasmeen Turayhi interviews startup founders and entrepreneurs in emerging markets in 1:1 conversations where the audience will learn about some of the biggest lessons these founders learned on their journey from the personal to the professional and share how they keep themselves motivated.

The Middle East was built on the foundation of commerce and sales and the spirit of entrepreneurship pulsates through the veins of the region. These founders have a unique lens about what it takes to build and grow a company in the Middle East and North Africa. Oftentimes, these founders have found ways to deliver on the promise of their product within an early or non-existent ecosystem. In some cases, they had to build both the product and the ecosystem.

Yasmeen Turayhi is a product marketing expert in Silicon Valley and Board member of TechWadi, the leading non-profit organization building bridges between Silicon Valley and the Middle East and North Africa region.

    How to weather the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship with Dana Baki, COO and Co-Founder of Munch:On

    How to weather the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship with Dana Baki, COO and Co-Founder of Munch:On

    Today’s episode is with Dana Baki, co-founder and COO of Munch:On (formerly LUNCH:ON), a food delivery app and one of the region’s fastest growing tech companies. The company was selected as one of the Top 50 Hottest Tech Companies in the World by Techcrunch. Before starting MUNCH:ON, Dana was a Partner of Business Development at Aljal Capital—a boutique venture capital firm in the UAE.

    We talk about:

    - Munch:On’s value proposition and the food delivery ecosystem
    - Why Dana and her co-founders decided to start this company
    - The moment they realized they had product market fit
    - How priorities shift based on the stage of the company and size
    - How the covid crisis impacted their business and how to deal with adversity

    Stay tuned for upcoming episodes with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa. Please tag us and tell us what you learned.


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

    The future of e-commerce and retail in MENA with Mazen AlDarrab, Founder of Zid

    The future of e-commerce and retail in MENA with Mazen AlDarrab, Founder of Zid

    Mazen AlDarrab, Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Zid, a Riyadh-based Shopify-like e-commerce management startup that helps people (and businesses) set up their online stores.

    Mazen AlDarrab is a serial entrepreneur who previously founded and led different companies before Zid. He is passionate about e-commerce in the MENA region and is on a mission to enable thousands of retail brands with the power of modern retail.

    We talk about:

    ✅ Why he started the company Zid
    ✅ The landscape of the retail and e-commerce market in the MENA region
    ✅ His journey towards fundraising the company
    ✅ How he engages with customers and gets feedback for his product roadmap

    Stay tuned for upcoming shows with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa. Please tag us and tell us what you learned.


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

    Creating a social and personalized experience to connect restaurants with diners with Elmenus Founder, Amir Allam

    Creating a social and personalized experience to connect restaurants with diners with Elmenus Founder, Amir Allam

    Today’s episode is with Amir Allam, the CEO and Founder of Elmenus, a food discovery platform with over 12,000 restaurants and over 1.5 Million monthly users. Their mission is to share the best dishes in each city in the region by combining a social, visual and personalized experience to help connect restaurants with the diners.

    Amir is an ex internationally ranked squash player, computer science grad, and he started Elmenus out of a love of food, technology and curiosity in building impactful products. He founded Elmenus in 2011 and grew it to a series C company with millions of users in Egypt.

    We talk about:

    ✅ Why he started Elmenus
    ✅ The landscape of the food and dining ecosystem in the MENA region
    ✅ How his priorities shifted within each stage of the company
    ✅ How he engages with customers and gets feedback for his product roadmap
    ✅ The biggest moment of adversity he and his team faced and how the pandemic became an opportunity

    Stay tuned for upcoming episodes with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa. Please tag us and tell us what you learned.


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

    The future of digital payments and moving money in MENA

    The future of digital payments and moving money in MENA

    Today’s episode is with Asim Janjua, Co-Founder of MamoPay. As CXO he drives and leads organizational-design, operations, growth, and expansion with a human-first approach. Before MamoPay, Asim spent over six years working as a Technical Design Lead for Google Switzerland.

    We talk about:

    ✅ Why he started the company and why he chose to solve a problem in the payment industry
    ✅ The journey he went on to create a product in a highly antiquated and regulated industry
    ✅ The product roadmap for MamoPay and how that fits into the digital payments ecosystem
    ✅ How the pandemic impacted his business
    ✅ What he sacrificed to start the company and how he stays motivated

    Stay tuned for upcoming shows with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa. Please tag us and tell us what you learned!


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

    How to scale healthcare through augmented reality technology with Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, BEM.

    How to scale healthcare through augmented reality technology with Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, BEM.

    Today’s episode is with the founder of Proximie - Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, BEM, the recipient of the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for 2018. She is an NHS surgeon, lecturer and clinical entrepreneur.

    Nadine drew on her passion for innovation, education and global surgery to found Proximie, an augmented reality platform aiming to improve access to expert care and to scale clinical expertise. Through its patented platform doctors can virtually transport themselves into any clinical setting to visually and practically interact and collaborate.

    Proximie has enjoyed significant success with early adoption by major medical institutions and device companies and has been covered by news agencies around the world. Dubbed by CNN as the "Future of Surgery," Proximie and won multiple awards including Foreign Press Association Science Story of the Year.

    We talk about

    1- Proximie’s value proposition and why she started the company
    2- How she was able to implement the technology in the medical world
    3- Her road towards medical institution adoption
    4- Her background and early journey from surgeon to founder
    5- How she handles her day to day responsibilities and how she overcomes adversity

    Stay tuned for upcoming shows with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa. Please tag us and tell us what you learned.


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

    The future of cryptocurrency and blockchain in MENA

    The future of cryptocurrency and blockchain in MENA

    In this episode, I speak with Talal Tabbaa, the co-founder and COO of Jibrel; a Swiss blockchain development company building decentralized financial products on Ethereum. He is also the co-founder of CoinMENA, a regulated crypto-currency exchange and serves on the Board of Middle East Payment Services (MEPS) in Jordan.

    We talk about:
    ✅ Why he started CoinMena
    ✅ Why he thinks the MENA region is ripe for crypto expansion
    ✅ How he navigates with uncertainty in the midst of financial regulation
    ✅ Some of his favorite books that inspired him

    Stay tuned for upcoming episodes with startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa.

    Please tag us and tell us what you learned. We’d greatly appreciate a review if you are enjoying these conversations.


    لسماع البودكاست ا-ب تغذية على انغامي: ‏

    https://hakawati.fm/alef-ba-taghziya

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
4 Ratings

4 Ratings

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