with Loulou

I sat down with Farida El Agamy, an entrepreneur, a lawyer and expert on the MENA family business landscape, to get a peak into the rise and challenges of the families that shaped our region from the Almajdouie and Zamil families in Saudi Arabia, to W.J. Towell in Oman, the Sawiris in Egypt and Juma Al Majid in the UAE and many more. Those family businesses grew to become multifaceted conglomerate...

Welcome back to work everyone. In this last part of the '3 part bite sized summer special', I revisit my conversations with my guests in the first half of 2024 and distill 3 trends that are shaping MENA startups. If you’re an entrepreneur you’re probably head down and ready for an eventful second half of the year! If you’re fundraising, you’re probably wondering if the VC winter will come to an en...

As you gear up for back to school season, I hope you enjoy part 2 of our 3 part - bite sized - summer special. In this episode, I share with you my personal views on what makes a great entrepreneur. Having been an entrepreneur myself over the past decade, having sat with unicorn founders, and hundreds of entrepreneurs that I’ve met over the past 5 years of venture capital investing, I offer you th...

I hope you’re all enjoying the summer! In this 3 part episode, I will be sharing with you a bit of my raison d’être for doing the podcast. As an entrepreneur and investor living in Dubai, I am heavily invested in our regional startup ecosystem and my wish is to get as many of you to actively participate, whether as entrepreneurs, investors, advisors or enablers. In this episode I build on insights...

I sat down with Mazen Kanaan, Co-founder and CEO of House of Pops to discuss his incredible journey leading the ice cream business at Unilever in the region, to his abrupt ouster and the subsequent launch of House of Pops with his girlfriend (now wife) Marcela Sancho. Mazen recounts the challenges of starting from scratch, going all in and being self-funded, the importance of brand building and cu...

Imad Ghandour shares his extensive experience in the private equity sector, covering essential topics such as buying, improving, and selling companies in MENA. He delves into the philosophy behind his firm, CedarBridge Capital Partners, highlighting their unique approach to operational involvement, and focus on positive management. We delve into CedarBridge’s latest successful exit ‘The Grooming C...

Vadim shares insights from his journey as a professional athlete, how he learned all about mental toughness and breaking your opponent. He shares his journey beyond sports into management consulting in Germany and then becoming the youngest CEO in Groupon as he led Eastern Europe and was part of Groupon’s NASDAQ IPO. He then goes back to his roots in ‘health and sports’ to launch  Bioniq  in 2018,...

I sit down with Courtney Powell, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of 500 Global to discuss her journey from entrepreneur to global venture capital leader. Courtney shares insights on expanding 500 Global into emerging markets like MENA, balancing motherhood with her career, and the evolving landscape of education and female representation in tech. She also shares practical tips for pit...

I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Ronaldo Mouchawar, the trailblazing Co-founder and CEO of  Souq.com , which was acquired by Amazon in 2017 for $580 million in cash + $200m in Amazon shares. Ronaldo, a true pioneer of e-commerce in the MENA region, founded Souq in 2005 as a spin-off from Maktoob, another regional success story that was sold to Yahoo for ~$170 million in 2009. In o...

I sat down with Jonathan Doerr, the Co-founding Partner at Antler MENAP to learn about his experience in building, scaling and exciting companies. Jonathan brings a ton of learning from his time with Rocket Internet, where he was the Co-founder and Managing Director at Jumia Nigeria, Africa’s leading e-commerce site which IPOed on the NYSE in 2019 and the Co-CEO at Daraz, the South Asian e-commerc...

Dana Baki is the co-founder and COO at MUNCH:ON, a UAE born startup that was solving the corporate lunch problem. MUNCH:ON which started as LUNCH:ON was utilizing kitchen’s off-peak to deliver affordable meals to corporate executives. The business was experiencing high growth until Covid which posed an existential threat. MUNCH:ON was then born to cater for meals throughout the day. Careem acquire...

Huda Al-Lawati  is a veteran private equity professional across emerging markets having had executive roles at companies like Gateway Partners, Savola and Abraaj. Huda has recently launched  Aliph Capital , a private equity fund that focuses on the mid market segment.  I sat down with Huda to get an insider’s view on the private equity industry in the MENA region, what are the opportunites, where...

When  Hassan Sawaf  started working on machine learning in the 90s in Germany, no one thought advancements in AI would bring us to where we are today. Not even Hassan himself! In fact, people thought the AI field was too 'theoretical'. In this conversation, Hassan talks to us about AI’s evolution and his vision for  aiXplain , a company he is building out of California that aims to make AI accessi...

'I have my termination letter framed in my office’ that is the first thing that Jihad said to me when I first met him.  Jihad El Eit , is the Founder & Group CEO at  Kaykroo , the region’s creator of home grown brands like Manoushe Street, the Good Bowl, Fern el Balad, the Pasta Cup and many more. Jihad has a fascinating entrepreneurial journey that started after the company he worked at i2 shut d...

In this special episode shot live from the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival on February 4th 2024, Steven and I discuss the power of personal branding and authenticity. Steven is a celebrity in the world of podcasts, his podcast the Diary of a CEO gets 50million monthly downloads and is the #1 podcast in Europe! Steven is a successful entrepreneur, investor and author. Steven is remarkably humble,...

I sat down with Allen Taylor, the Managing Partner at Endeavor Catalyst to learn more about their unique approach to investing across the world. Endeavor Catalyst fund is part of the non-profit Endeavor network, the home of 2500+ entrepreneurs across 42 markets. Over the past 11 years, Endeavor Catalyst, chaired by LinkedIn Co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman, has raised $500m and deploye...

I sat down with Elie Habib, the Co-founder of  Anghami , the region’s most loved home grown brand! Anghami is a leading music streaming platform catering for the Arab world. We discuss Anghami’s much hyped listing on the NASDAQ New York on February 4th 2022 and the period that follows including the tumbling of their market cap well below their yearly revenues. We discuss Anghami’s new merger with...

I chat with Philip Bahoshy, the CEO of  Magnitt , about the dynamic tech startup scene in the MENA region after a turbulent 2023. We delve into how recent economic shifts affect venture capital and discuss the current trends and 2024 predictions for venture capital in MENA, including the impact of new funding from Saudi Arabia, the resulting high demand for startups and the rise of startups like T...

In this second part of 2023’s wrap up, we take a look at some of the year’s most practical advice. We hear from top entrepreneurs and venture capitalists about company culture, shutting down a startup, selling a startup, re-purchasing a startup after a sale and the importance of founders at various stages of the startup building. We also remember a great episode on communicating with confidence.  ...

We’re looking back at 2023’s biggest AHA moments and what a tough year it has been. The common theme across the 19 episodes recorded in 2023 was ‘resilience’ and that is representative of the mood for the year. We saw soaring inflation, increased interest rates which led to a venture capital slow down, we also saw the collapse of several global banks including Silicon Valley Bank. We saw climate g...

I sat down with Ali Halabi, Founder & CEO of  Volt Lines , a Turkish based B2B mobility platform solving for the daily work commute in Istanbul, a city of 15million people that is notorious for its traffic woes. Ali has had a fascinating journey from Lebanon to Turkey and has rubbed shoulders with failure many times. In fact Volt Lines was the re-birth of a previous startup called Volt which he ha...

I sat down with Dr. Ryan Lefers, Co-founder & CEO at  RedSea  a climate tech company founded at King Abdullah University of Science and technology (KAUST) building technologies from the desert of Saudi Arabia to make agriculture more sustainable. With $36m of funding to date, RedSea products are currently selling across the world.  We discuss Dr. Ryan’s journey from scientist to entrepreneur and t...

I sat down with Tomaso Rodriguez, CEO at talabat to learn more about his experience growing the largest food delivery platform across 8 Middle Eastern markets. Talabat was born in Kuwait in 2004 and was sold to global player Delivery Hero in 2015 for $170m. Tomaso shares insights on talabat's complex operations, technology and artificial intelligence, building a culture of innovation, creating new...

I sat down with GV Ravishankar the Managing Director at  Peak XV  (previously Sequoia India) to discus the state of growth stage investing given the current macro environment. The team at Peak XV are managing US$10bn in assets. GV walks us through Peak XV's investment strategy with a focus on MENA, what he looks for in target companies, the importance of founders as the startup matures, advice to...

I sat down with Dr Saliha Afridi, Clinical Psychologist and Founder of The Lighthouse Arabia (https://www.lighthousearabia.com), to understand how we can prepare better, react better recover better from rejection.  No is a powerful word. Being comfortable saying no in the right situations is essential to setting healthy boundaries at work and in our personal lives. But sometimes in our professiona...