Amir Farha has started two venture capital firms, Beco as a co-founder and COTU Ventures as CEO and Founder. He’s one of the most passionate and empathetic leaders in the VC space when it comes to dealing with people and entrepreneurs. His firm, COTU, literally stands for “Champion of the Underdogs” and Amir truly lives that value. We discuss Amir’s journey founding his latest VC firm and the journey to finding what matters to him most personally and professionally. Amir discusses how he...

This episode was recorded live at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF). Our first live show! Abdulmajeed is a serial entrepreneur in the true sense of the word. He is co-founder of Nana (the largest grocery delivery platform in KSA) and currently co-founder and CEO of Tamara ( a leading Buy Now Pay Later startup in MENA). Abdulmajeed walks us through his journey to entrepreneurship and how his first startup failed before leading him to co-found Nana. He also discusses his lessons from...

Nicki Wilson is the Founder & MD of Genie Recruitment, a leading specialist recruitment company covering the Consumer industries. She’s been a lifelong entrepreneur and tried her luck at various endeavors before finally starting her own recruitment firm. Her firm has become well-known for its extremely vibrant culture and unconventional approach to rewarding, engaging and retaining team members. It's the first time I’ve heard of a sales team that earns commissions but doesn’t have targets...

Kunal Kapoor is the Founder of Luxury Closet, the second largest luxury marketplace globally. Kunal started with the ambition of working for a large technology company early on, but decided to join his father’s shoemaking business and went on to become a shoemaker. After working for Louis Vuitton, he saw an opportunity to turn the closets of customers into a marketplace. Kunal is an extremely clear thinker who synthesizes complex ideas into easy to understand concepts. It’s clear that he has...

Richard Fitzgerald is the Founder & CEO of Augustus Media that has brands like Lovin’ Dubai, Lovin’ Saudi, Smashi TV and more. His company is on mission to become the preferred modern media company in the Arab world, by consistently delivering innovative and groundbreaking media. Richard is innovating the way information and media is shared and what it really means to be a “media company” in this day and age. He’s navigating unchartered territory in the Arab world! Richard is an extremely...

Tambi Jalouqa is truly a serial entrepreneur. After a few failed startups, or “learning experiences” as he calls them, he went on to co-found POSRocket which was eventually sold to Foodics. The path led him to co-found Propeller, a VC based in Jordan that invests in truly disruptive ideas with global implications. Tambi is a lateral thinker that questions conventional wisdom. He is passionate about building and it's clear he is a lifelong learner. He leverages his curiosity and interest to go...

Muhammed Mekki is a Founding Partner at Astrolabs, the leading startup ecosystem building in MENA. Prior to starting Astrolabs, Muhammed was a co-founder at Namshi which went on to sell to EMAAR for roughly $300MM. Muhammed started his career in consulting before joining Delivery Hero and making his foray into startups. Along with his co-founder, Muhammed has bootstrapped Astrolabs to become the most well-known startup builders in the region. Muhammed is passionate about building ecosystems,...

Raja AlMazrouie is currently the CEO of UAE Etihad Credit Insurance. Prior to this, Raja was one of the founding leaders of the DIFC Fintech Hive, the MENA region's first fintech-focused startup enabler, at a time when fintech wasn't yet "sexy."Raja has repeatedly challenged the status quo in her career and we discuss many example of this, including being one of a handful of females majoring in the IT space during university in Abu Dhabi. Raja is drawn to opportunities that she feels will...

Hattem Mattar is the World’s first Arab BBQ Pitmaster and the king of BBQ in the UAE. He was nominated the culinary ambassador to the UAE Embassy in the United States, cooking for seventeen thousand people across 62 US cities over 100 days. Hattem shares stories of personal sacrifice building his culinary dream while juggling his high-paying corporate day job and cooking 40 hours a week. He talks about hitting rock bottom after parting with his first investors, and picking up the pieces of...

Jeremy Crane is the Founder and CEO of Yellow Door Energy, the largest online beauty platform in MENA. Jeremy started and sold a couple of companies as an entrepreneur, has extensive experience fundraising and is passionate about sustainable energy solutions. Jeremy talks about finding meaning and happy moments in the work he does, managing companies as they scale, building a prioritization framework and multiplying his time as a leader. Jeremy is an extremely clear thinker that has adapted...

Malik Shehab is the Co-founder and CEO of Golden Scent, the largest online beauty platform in MENA. Prior to starting the company, Malik worked in financial services in Germany where he had pursued his university degree. Malik talks about wanting to give up on living in Germany, without speaking the language, in the early days and how that built his resilience. We also discuss fundraising in 2014 and how that has shaped Malik’s perspective on VCs overall and how to rightsize your funding...

Mark Chahwan is the Co-founder and CEO of Sarwa, the leading MENA financial platform that lets customers easily trade stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and invest money passively all in one place. Mark started Sarwa in 2017, having previously spent time in consulting and investment management.Mark talks about finding a personal purpose in challenges, building confidence as a young entrepreneur and more. We discuss what it was like being one of the first startups working with the Dubai...

Jen Blandos has been a serial entrepreneur for over 20 years, having founded a successful multi-national PR agency before starting Female Fusion, a global community for women entrepreneurs. Jen talks about traveling the world doing various jobs before eventually ending up in Dubai. We chat about Human Design, how Jen overcame breast cancer while juggling personal and professional commitments and principles that have helped her stay true to herself throughout her journey. Jen is a passionate...

Imad Ghandour is Co-Founder & CEO of Cedar Bridge Capital, a boutique private equity firm that's been investing across MENA and Europe since 2011. Imad and his team have deployed capital across industries and navigated several challenging political and economic times in MENA to return a strong IRR for their investors. Imad discusses the need to be an optimist when building businesses in emerging markets, while also being flexible and adaptable when unforeseen circumstances arise (e.g....

Rabea Ataya is one of the forefathers of the MENA tech space. Prior to co-founding Bayt.com in 2000, he started and sold InfoFort. He is passionate about starting companies that have a lasting impact and align with a bigger purpose. Rabea is generous with his thoughts and learnings. This episode is action packed with insights for any business leaders. I heard Rabea say: Find complimentary talent Commit to never fundraise again at a certain point in your journey Know your big "WHY" when you're...

Philip Bahosh is ex-consultant turned entrepreneur. He’s the Founder of Magnitt, the leading startup and investment data insights platform. Over the course of building Magnitt, Philip has had to continuously listen to customers using data to evolve and grow his product offering. Philip is a founder who has continuously operated lean with a focus on delivering customer value without fundraising aggressively. He’s cracked the world of branding as he’s led Magnitt to become the leading authority...

Ramesh Ramakrishnan is the Founder of Transworld before exiting a part of his business to DP World. He took over the business from his father when it had humble beginnings, and grew it to one of the largest MENA and Asia shipping companies. Ramesh believes in building businesses patiently and sustainably. He’s used problem solving as the foundation to understanding customer problems and building services accordingly. Ramesh has driven culture and change at scale through process excellence....

Hazel Jackson is Founder & CEO of BizGroup, a leading provider of coaching solutions in Dubai & the Middle East. She moved to Dubai on a whim with minimal cash and has spent the past 30 years building her business through multiple economic cycles. Hazel is a visionary and has a knack for seeing the future before it happens. Multiple times, she has rolled-out services that transformed the market and has a curiosity to learn about products that will change the future. Hazel has a deep...

Hussein Wehbe is Founder of PlugMena, a consultancy offering practical & results-oriented support to companies and startups. Hussein is an Aramex veteran who has spent time in the government sector and a leading regional startup. Throughout his various roles, Hussein's unrelenting positivity has shaped his views on leadership, managing tough situations and every day life. He's passionate about sharing his wisdom and actively does so across social channels and mentorship networks. Hussein...

Bilal Ballout is the Co-founder of BMB Group which has a global portfolio of confectionery and healthy food brands & was acquired by Agthia, a UAE state owned FMCG company. Bilal discusses how he hustled to build the company while using no external capital. Over and over again, he challenged the status quo in a traditional industry & leveraged technology to scale the business rapidly. Bilal's story is one of managing uncertainty and constant resilience. I heard Bilal say: The less you...

Ihsan Jawad is the founder of Zawya which was acquired by Thomson Reuters and one of the first exits in the MENA tech ecosystem. Today, Ihsan is General Partner at STV, a leading Saudi venture capital firm. Ihsan is one of the few people in MENA who has transitioned from building & scaling a tech company to now becoming a leading investor in the region. I heard Ihsan say a couple of important things in this conversation: Entrepreneurs who have a conviction to solve a problem that’s bigger...

Ghizlan Guenez is Founder of The Modist, the leading online destination for luxury modest fashion, and Co-founder of Queen Mode, a mission driven and community centered utility NFT collection. After being forced to shut down her first startup, Ghizlan used that experience to find meaning in helping aspiring entrepreneurs and come back for a second act! Ghizlan's determination to keep going is infectious and her ability to build and engage purpose-driven communities is inspiring.

Ramy has spent the majority of his life being an entrepreneur and openly discusses the failures associated with each business that didn't succeed. Having spent some time as an investor at a VC, Ramy also had the benefit of studying business models and entrepreneurs from the outside before going back to start Zbooni.Ramy has a knack for seeing the future early and talks about how he has used this to his advantage.

Mazen is the Founder & Group CEO of Carma, a leading global company with 550 employees that delivers data-driven global media intelligence to over 1,200 clients, including Emirates, TikTok & many more.Mazen started in the news and media industry after university, eventually seeing the tech bubble burst in the nineties. He had the foresight to understand that the internet would change media forever. That led him to create his first company, News Watch, and eventually build a global...