It took Nader Sabry 139 attempts before he launched a prayer mat designed to alleviate pain using NASA technology. Once the prototype was ready, Sabry used several growth hacking techniques to fuel sales. After exiting the venture, Sabry has gone onto become a growth hacking expert, penning two books on the subject and advising startups on government on innovation and growth.

In this podcast we speak to Sabry about his entrepreneurial journey and why “I don’t know” is the most important question to ask in growth hacking.

Episode 38 - What is growth hacking?

كان 2020 عاما عصيبا لملايين الأشخاص في العالم، ولكن ليس لضيفنا الذي استغل ذلك الوقت لبناء واحدة من أكثر شركات التكنولوجيا المالية الواعدة في الشرق الأوسط.

تحدثنا مع السيد عبد المجيد الصيخان، المؤسس المشارك والرئيس التنفيذي لشركة التقنية المالية السعودية ”تمارا“، وأخبرنا عن شركته الناشئة لخدمات الشراء الآن والدفع لاحقا (BNPL)، والتي تمكنت في تسعة أشهر فقط من إغلاق جولة تمويلية تعد الأكبر ضمن مرحلة Series A في السعودية والشرق الأوسط بقيمة 412 مليون ريال سعودي (110 ملايين دولار) بقيادة شركة Checkout.com العالمية على شكل تمويل رأس مال جريء وتمويل دين. سوف يساعد هذا الاستثمار تمارا على تسريع وتيرة توسعها في جميع دول الخليج العربي بنهاية عام 2021.
استمع إلى البودكاست الخاص بنا مع السيد الصيخان لمعرفة المزيد عن نشأة وتطور شركة تمارا.

الحلقة الخامسة: كيف تجمع تمويل قدره ١١٠ مليون دولار؟

Deepfake technology has rapidly developed over the past few years and while many will have experienced it through fun apps designed to edit their own faces onto famous movie scenes, the technology beholds a far more sinister side.
In this podcast we speak with Mark Little, founder and CEO of Ireland-based Kinzen, a media startup whose technology helps to identify fake news online, and Liz Gibbons, head of news at BBC World News, to explore the impact that deepfakes could have on society and our ability to trust what we see online.

Episode 39 - Deepfakes: Who can we trust?

شهد سوق توصيل طلبات الطعام المصري نمواً كبيراً خلال جائحة كورونا، والتي ساهمت في ارتفاع معدلات الطلب عبر الإنترنت. وفقاً لموقع Statista، يقدر حجم سوق توصيل طلبات الطعام إلى حوالي 100 مليون دولار في 2021، ومن المتوقع أن تزداد قيمته السوقية لتصل إلى 145 مليون دولار في 2024، محققاً نمواً سنوياً بنسبة 13.5 في المائة.

خلال عام 2020، حققت شركة طلبات مصر نمواً بأكثر من 80 في المائة، وفقا لما أعلنته المدير التنفيذي لشركة طلبات مصر "هدير شلبي" أثناء المؤتمر الصحفي الذي عقد في مايو الماضي بمناسبة إطلاق خدمة طلبات مارت، وهي خدمة قائمة على تلبية احتياجات العملاء من محال البقالة والسوبر ماركت وتوصيلها في زمن أقل من 30 دقيقة.

تحدثنا مع هدير شلبي المدير التنفيذي لشركة طلبات مصر وهي إحدى العلامات التجارية التابعة لشركة دليفري هيرو الألمانية للاطلاع على خطط الشركة التوسعية و تأثير جائحة كورونا على سوق توصيل طلبات الطعام في مصر.

الحلقة السادسة - كيف تطور سوق توصيل طلبات الطعام في مصر؟

Wamda recently launched a report assessing the state of mental health and wellbeing of entrepreneurs in Mena. Based on data collected from 101 startup founders, the report shows that more than a third of startup founders rate their mental as "bad". To further discuss the findings and the future of the mental health sector in the Middle East, we spoke with Ally Salama, founder and CEO of EMPWR.

Episode 40 - What is the main cause of stress for founders?

There has been a sudden spike in investment heading towards Pakistani startups, with Middle East investors leading a significant chunk of this trend. In the eight months to August, startups in Pakistan raised more than $200 million, an astounding amount when compared to the $66 million raised in total in 2020.

Pakistan’s economy has all the right markings of a market with potential. It has a population of 200 million, 64 per cent of whom are below the age of 30. It has a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of $1260, internet penetration stands at 54 per cent and startups and SMEs account contribute 40 per cent to the country’s GDP.

The government has made significant strides in enabling the entrepreneurship sector, which has enabled the country to jump from 126th on the Global Entrepreneurship Index back in 2018, to 109 currently, reflecting the growth of the startup and SME sector in the country.

In this podcast we spoke with Saif Ali, general manager at Dastgyr and Ahmad Saeed, founder of Grocerapp about the growth of entrepreneurship in Pakistan and whether the Middle East should be taking greater notice.

Episode 41 - Should we pay closer attention to Pakistan?

Most organisations around the world want to create “impact”, but what does this impact look like and what is the best way to measure it?

Reem Khouri, co-founder of Jordan-based Whyise, believes the software solution she has developed can help companies and organisations track and measure the change they wish to bring.

In this podcast we discuss the importance of tracking data and how to use it to bring about change.

Episode 42 - How is impact measured?

Almost a third of all the entreprenuers in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) are Jordanian, despite the country accounting for just 3 per cent of the region's total population. Jordan has become a major technology outsourcing hub thanks to its young, highly skilled population, bilingual in English and Arabic with a neutral accent; they are technologically savvy, highly educated, and eager to work at competitive wages. 

More than 50 per cent are under the age of 24, with 22 per cent holding degrees in IT, Computer Science, and Engineering. To get a better understanding of Jordan's startup ecosystem, we spoke with Zeena Majali, founder of Crystel and Xina AI, an Arabic virtual assistant.

Episode 43 - What is so special about Jordan?

As the UAE went into a strict lockdown in 2020, those offering mobility solutions suffered immensely, among them car-leasing and subscription app, Invygo. But the startup not only survived, it grew thanks to a watchful eye on expenses and close examination of user behaviour. In this podcast we spoke with co-founder Pulkit Ganjoo about Invygo's use of data and how it drives the company's decisions.

Episode 44 - Can data ensure a startup's success?

Amr Awadallah is an Egyptian born computer scientist and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. What’s particularly interesting about Amr’s story is that he had no interest in becoming an entrepreneur. His plan was to become an academic and teach computer science back in Cairo. But while at Stanford University where he was doing his PhD, the startup bug hit him and he launched his first venture, Aptivia, back in 1999, which was later acquired by Yahoo. He went onto found Cloudera which went public back in 2017 in an IPO that raised over $4 billion. Now on his third venture, Zir AI, Amr is hoping to revolutionise the way we search online. In this podcast, Awadallah talks about his entrepreneurial journey, the key ingredients of a startup ecosystem and why paying it forward is so important.

Episode 45 - How can Mena build a deeptech ecosystem?

Special live taping of a panel discussion at Wamda Capital’s annual LP investor event. In this episode Fares Ghandour discusses the state of the regional startup ecosystem with Ronaldo Mouchawar, the CEO of Souq Group, Mudassir Sheikha, co founder and CEO of Careem, Jonathan Labin, ‎Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan at Facebook, and Mona Ataya, founder and CEO of Mumzworld.     

As this is a live event, please excuse the sound quality.

Episode 2 - The state of the regional startup ecosystem

Khaled Talhouni moderates Wamda Capital's 4th podcast episode with his guests Ali Nehme, Chief Strategy Officer at Publicis Media Middle East, Diana Baddar Head of MENA partnerships at Youtube, Elias Mouawad, Chief Growth Officer at Kharabeesh, and Abed Agha, Managing Director at Vinelab. As they discuss the state of digital content and digital spend in the MENA region.

Episode 4 - Digital content and digital spend in the MENA region

إنضمو إلى فادي غندور في أول حلقة باللغة العربيه من صوتيات ومضة كابيتال حيث يتحاور مع رواد الأعمال مازن الضراب، المدير العام لشركة حركات للإنتاج،و سلمان السحيباني المؤسس والمدير التنفيذي لشركة مرني السعوديه وهم يتحاورون عن تطور  وحالة ريادة الأعمال في المملكة

Join Fadi Ghandour in our first Arabic podcast episode as he discusses the the development and state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in KSA with his guests Mazen Al Darrab, the GM of Harakat production, and Salman AlSuhaibaney, the CEO and Founder of Morni KSA.


Episode 5-تطور ريادة الأعمال في المملكة العربية السعودية-KSA's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development

ROI on video content is at least double any other display advertising online, what is driving that?

Did the market reach a point where it is financially sufficient to be an online content creator?

إنضمو إلى فادي غندور في أول حلقة باللغة العربيه من صوتيات ومضة كابيتال حيث يتحاور مع رواد الأعمال مازن الضراب، المدير العام لشركة حركات للإنتاج،و سلمان السحيباني المؤسس والمدير التنفيذي لشركة مرني السعوديه وهم يتحاورون عن تطور  وحالة ريادة الأعمال في المملكة

Join Fadi Ghandour in our first Arabic podcast episode as he discusses the the development and state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in KSA with his guests Mazen Al Darrab, the GM of Harakat production, and Salman AlSuhaibaney, the CEO and Founder of Morni KSA.

العديد من الخريجين الجدد في المملكة يتتوقون للعمل في شركات كبرى أو مؤسسات حكوميه بدلاً من العمل ...

إلى جانب رأس المال ورأس المال الذكي، ما هو دور المملكة من ناحية الإرشاد لريادي الأعمال؟

هل هناك حماس من الشباب وإحساس بأن هناك دعم لإنشاء شركاتهم إنطلاقاً من رؤية 2030 ؟

Recently Wamda Capital’s Khaled Talhouni sat down with Najla Al Midfa, general manager of Sheraa, an initiative of Shurooq, the Sharjah development and investment authority, and Ned Jaroudi, managing director of 1776 in Dubai, a global incubator, specifically focusing on the industries government needs to tackle.

Episode 9 - Government and startups in UAE

Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO of Souq.com, Faraz Khalid, cofounder and managing partner of Namshi, and Mudassir Sheikha, cofounder and CEO of Careem, as well as Wamda's Fadi Ghadnour are leading a discussion on the future of ecommerce in the MENA in light of Amazon's entry and AI's potential industry disruption.
They discussed multiple key issues, including how they started and kicked-off their ventures, the challenges they faced, and how they overcame them, in addition to their market analysis and overview.

Episode 8 - Souq.com, Namshi, Careem Fireside Chat

During an event for Wamda Capital’s investors and partners earlier this year, Hiro Tamura gave a presentation on global emerging trends in tech, highlighting tools and opportunities in MENA.

Episode 10 - Hiro Tamura on the state of tech and where it is headed

We’ve all met those entrepreneurs who brag about dropping everything just to follow their dream and start their own business. You need to be fully committed they’d say.

“But what happens when a year or two down the line you fail?” asks investor Patrick McGinnis.


Patrick McGinnis.
Unlike the mentors who preach the all or nothing at all mentality, McGinnis thinks that leaving your office job to build a startup is an uncalculated risk and too much of a burden to handle, specifically because failure in the startup world is not the exception.
For most tech companies which intellectual property or talent is not compelling enough to catch the eye of the Googles, the Facebooks, or the Yahoos of the world, the cold hard reality is death.  Some estimates even evaluate the failure at 90 percent of startups.
McGinnis is the founder of Dirigo Advisors investment firm, and is an investor in more than 20 companies including Bluesmart, Nxtp.labs, and Ipsy. His first job forced him to work out of a ‘cubicle’ on Wall Street, an unlikely place for a future startup investor. Eventually, the mundaneness of his job pushed him to explore other horizons across the innovative world.

However, he did not quit his day job simply because it was too risky to lose a sustainable paycheck. Instead, he dedicated only 10 percent of his time, effort and money to his passion.

In 2016 McGinnis published ‘The 10% Entrepreneur’ to explain how building your startup in parallel to your daily job might actually bear better results than full on commitment.

Tune in to the podcast below to hear him speaking in Amman on August 1, during an event organized by Wamda, and hosted by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Grant Program.

Episode 11 - When less is more: The 10% entrepreneur by Patrick McGinnis

InstaSalla is a Kuwait-based e-grocery company launched in 2016 by Smart Mart, an e-commerce platform. Today, InstaSalla is the leading e-grocery platform in the country, fulfilling some 500 orders a day. It has now set its sights on expansion, aiming to be in 10 countries by the end of 2020.

Wamda's Sarah Abu Risheh spoke with Fayed Yousry, chief executive officer at InstaSalla about the company’s journey and experience selling groceries online.

Episode 15 - The growth of e-groceries with InstaSalla

Omer Aslan Gurel could have easily followed the path that was laid out for him – go to university and eventually join his family business. But he rebelled. Inspired by Richard Branson’s autobiography, Gurel decided to become an entrepreneur and launched his first venture in Dubai during his gap year. 

The success of his startup inspired him to continue and now, Gurel is on his seventh venture, Repeat, a smart loyalty platform for restaurants. 

In this podcast, Gurel discusses the lessons he has learned along the way, the timeline every startup should follow and why the Middle East has the potential to become the foodtech hub of the world.

Episode 24 - Pivots and Failures with Repeat's Omer Aslan Gurel

Sustainability has emerged as one of the most dominating trends this past year, with greater focus on clean and renewable energy. For Laurence Kemball-Cook, founder of UK-based Pavegen, which produces tiles that harness kinetic energy to power streetlamps, it is footsteps that can provide clean energy to power a city. In this short podcast, Kemball-Cook outlines his journey to create a prototype and launch his startup and the need to become more sustainable.

Episode 25 - Can footsteps power our world?

Bahrain’s government has made vital steps to encourage entrepreneurship to stimulate its economy and one area where it seems to be excelling is in financial technology (fintech) with the establishment of the Bahrain Fintech Bay in 2018. The government-backed incubator, accelerator and sandbox has been issuing pioneering licences for fintech, making it one of the most attractive hubs for fintech startup in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena).

In this podcast we speak with Khalid Dannish, the chief executive officer of Bahrain Fintech Bay and AJ Nelson, co-founder of Rain, the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive a licence in Mena, on how the GCC state has managed to become a fintech hub.

Episode 27 - How did Bahrain become a fintech hub?

Jones the Grocer is a staple of the one of the UAE's restaurant scene, but few are aware of the legal and financial difficulties faced by Yunib Siddiqui, the man who introduced the brand to the country, as he attempted to build the chain amid a competitive food and beverage market. Now, the Coronavirus pandemic has hurled yet another challenge at Siddiqui. In this podcast we explore the ways businesses can navigate unexpected difficulties and how, with limited resources you can maintain the relevancy of your brand.

Episode 29 - How do you maintain the relevance of a brand?

Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson founded Careem in 2012 initially as a transportation service for the corporate world. It soon became the premier ride-hailing service in the Middle East and within four years grew to become the region’s first technology unicorn. 

Last year, US-based Uber acquired Careem in a deal with $3.1 billion, it was an exit unlike any other and marked a poignant moment for the Middle East’s startup ecosystem. 

For Mudassir, the exit was merely the closure of Careem’s first chapter and he is now pursuing the company’s second chapter – that is horizontal growth, the launch of its super app and creating a company that inspires and eases life for the region. 

In this podcast Mudassir speaks about his role, how it changed over the years and the wider implications of the super app strategy.

Episode 31 - How do you build a company to last?

Disaster for many evokes a sense of fear and danger and a desire to seek out safety and stability. But there are those who manage to seek out the opportunities in disasters. These people usually tend to be pioneers, innovators and risk-takers. This pandemic has caused a crisis unlike any other in modern history. Millions have suffered as a result, but there are those who have thrived and seized the market opportunities that the pandemic has brought about.

For this podcast we speak with two companies, Sedar Global, a 128-year old company and Viromasks, a company that did not exist at the beginning of this year to get a better sense of how they seized the opportunity to produce masks and what will happen to them once a vaccine is made available.

Episode 34 - How do you seize a market opportunity?

The school dropout who becomes a successful entrepreneur seems like a typical Silicon Valley success story, but where the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of university, Nikhil Kamath left school at the age of 14 with no qualifications. Twenty years later, Kamath is among India’s most successful entrepreneurs, having built Zerodha, the country’s largest retail brokerage with a daily turnover of $10 billion and wholly-owned by Nikhil and his brother without any external funding.

A serial entrepreneur, Kamath is also one of India’s youngest billionaires. In this podcast, we find out more about his journey to success, his regrets and advice for those embarking on their own entrepreneurship journey.

Episode 35 - How did a high school dropout become a billionaire?

في ديسمبر 2020، حصلت منصة مرني وهي منصة عاملة في مجال معالجة أعطال الطريق، على إستثمار جديد بقيمة 9.1 مليون دولار أمريكي (34 مليون ريال سعودي). منصة مرني حالياً تعد من أكبر الشركات الناشئة في الوطن العربي والسعودية تحديداً في مجال معالجة أعطال الطريق وتخدم أكثر من 600 الف عميل داخل المملكة العربية السعودية.

تأسست مرني في عام 2014، وهي منصة متخصصة في مساعدة المركبات معالجة أعطال الطريق.  من خلال تطبيق مرني، يمكن لمستخدمي المنصة الحصول على خدمات لوجستية متكاملة للمركبات في حالات الطوارئ؛ مثل خدمات السحب والإنقاذ، خدمات إصلاح الإطارات، شحن واستبدال البطاريات، التزويد بالوقود، وفتح الأقفال. كما ثقدم مرني أيضاً حلولاً شاملة لمتابعة واتخاذ الإجراءات الضرورية في حالة وقوع حادث.

في هذا الصدد، يتحدث سليمان السحيباني، مؤسس شركة مرني، عن المنصة والهدف من تأسيسها وما العوامل التي ساهمت في إغلاقها إحدى أكبر الجولات الإستثمارية على مستوى قطاع الشركات الناشئة في الوطن العربي والسعودية لعام 2020 وما هي خطط الشركة المستقبلية.

الحلقة الثالثة -كيف إستطاعت منصة مرني أن تكون احدى أكبر الشركات الناشئة في مجال معالجة أعطال الطريق؟

Wamda is a platform of programs and networks that are created to utilize its core competencies in community development, media, and research to constantly engage with young, innovative and promising entrepreneurs so they can start and create their businesses. In addition to rolling out services for corporations and governments to integrate them into the ecosystem, and link them to startups.

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