Step Podcast

How can a customer get a seamless payment experience with the security concerns at hand? And how does this affect startups in the MENA region? Coming to you directly from the industry, Madiha Sattar of Careem Pay, Ahmed Alaradi of Tap Payments, Ali Al-Ebrahim of COFE App, Sara Ahmed of Mumzworld, and Tala Hammash share their expertise.

The big question: Is Metaverse the future? One of our panelists thinks some people are living in the Metaverse right now. Kerrie Finch of futurefactor, Carolina Brandao of BUCK, Bei Wang of Straight Fire and Vincent Ghoussoub of Nifty Craft dive into how the Metaverse will create job opportunities, affect privacy and change the gaming industry.

From influencing the family spending to challenging brands on how they position themselves in the market, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are changing the shopping game. Kerrie Finch of futurefactor, Tanya Ponomareva of Boomerang, and Rebecca Stringer of KidsKnowBest share some great tips on how to keep up with the latest trends and get ahead of the game.

Aya Sadder of Why Bolt, Aboudi Al-Qattan of Dash Ventures, Tina Daher of Shorooq Partners, and Hamza Khan of Letswork answer your questions on what startups look for in a VC and how investors value a startup and the process they go through.

How did the global Buy Now Pay Later phenomena evolve? How does it work? What's its impact on the industry and why is it so hyped up in the MENA region? Expert Tariq Sheikh, CEO of PostPay, answers all your questions in this episode and answers the big question: What's next?

Sharif El-Badawi has been through it all, entrepreneur, VC, and now in the government. Sharif, CEO of Dubai Future District Fund. tells us about his failures and successes that led him to where he is today, including the time when he was the only person left in a company.

Hear out from incredible women leaders! Sophie Smith of Nabta Health, Emaan Abbas of Ketish, Baha Hamadi of Deep Knowledge Group, Chanda Lokendra of Lizzom, and Triska Hamid of Wamda discuss the rising awareness of women's health in emerging markets, the sub-sectors, and the role that technology is playing in promoting women's wellbeing and breaking taboos across all areas.

Tune in for an insightful discussion between Elie Habib of Anghami, Youssef Salem of Swvl, H.E. Dr. Nabeel Koshak of SVC and Shana Marashi of EY on the route to IPO in the MENA region, and how founders need to calculate their exits and pick their options. Panelists lay down the state of the IPO market in the region, and why SPACs could be an option to consider while listing the pros and cons of bo...

Featured in Humans of New York, Sidra Qasim of Atoms tells us her inspiring story of how she moved from rural Pakistan and co-founded an internationally-known company. Listen to how Sidra started off by inviting people to her home one by one and ended up with thousands of customers and celebrities wearing their shoes.

Everyone’s always talking about numbers when it comes to businesses, but what about Psychology? Regional Vice President at CleverTap Jay Dalvi introduces Digital Psychology and its importance in creating a great experience for users. Tune in to listen to Jay elaborate on how businesses should understand users’ emotions & behaviors to send them the right motivation at the right time and improve...

Eugene Willemsen, CEO Africa, Middle East, South Asia at PepsiCo, explains the behaviors that ultimately underpin how they do business to remain one of the leading F&B company in the world. In this episode, Eugene also suggests important guiding principles for startups to be successful and gives examples of partnerships they have with startups across the globe.

Paul Misener, VP of Global Innovation Policy at Amazon, shares his experience in working in SMEs and offers young entrepreneurs some valuable advice. Paul explains how Amazon maintains the startup mentality and their mechanism when making big decisions. Reasons behind Amazon’s success such as culture-driven innovation and behind-the-scenes failures are also revealed in this episode.

Rayan Dawud from Outliers along with Omar Kassim of Nomod, Feras Jalbout of Baraka and Sonia Gokhale of VentureSouq discuss the effect that the Y Combinator model had on the MENA ecosystem, and compare it with existing regional programs, exposing pros and cons.

Leading voices from the world of technology and innovation come together to passionately debate the industry's biggest questions at Step and now you can listen to it all on the Step Podcast.