with Loulou

I sat down with Dr. Ali Fenwick, Professor of Organizational Behavior & Innovation at Hult International business school, to discuss how culturally specific narratives of AI fuel fear or foster optimism and why he fully believes that AI should look and behave more like a human than a robot. An enlightening discussion about what AI means, how ChatGPT feels sentient, the predictability of algorithms...

I sat down with Philip Bahoshy, the founder and CEO of MAGNiTT, the leading VC data platform, to unpack the most recent H1 report on the venture capital landscape and trends across MENA, Pakistan, Turkey and SEA. We discuss the macro conditions leading to the slowdown, how are investors behaving, and what it means for our nascent ecosystem. We also touch on winning industries, new and emerging ind...

Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar co-founded Carzaty in 2018 in Oman. Carzaty aims at transforming the customer's used car buying journey from a messy experience to a high trust, digital first journey. Carzaty followed a portfolio management approach to selecting, buying and pricing cars. The founders raised $5.9Mn since inception and exited to Mexico born Kavak in 2021. The founder's approach to bui...

Mudassir Sheikha is the Co-founder & CEO of Careem, the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan's (MENAP) biggest startup success story to date with a $3.1Bn exit to Uber in 2020. After the ride hailing success, In April 2023 Mudassir announced a new entity 'Careem Technologies' that will focus on building the region's super app and provide a wide range of services to meet the needs of MENAP's 500...

Zuhair Shamma and Rawan Baddour are the co-founders of Zest equity, a platform that enables startup founders, employees and investors to sell shares they've earned in a secondary transaction, providing much needed liquidity and incentives. But not everyone is bought in, some investors are proponents of such liquidity events, while others remain skeptical as it may incentivize bad actors. A great d...

Kareem Elsirafy is the Managing Partner at Modus Capital, a venture builder with offices in Cairo, Abu Dhabi and soon in Riyadh. Kareem emigrated to the US from Egypt as a toddler, grew up in a challenging environment and joined the US Marine Corps to get some discipline. 4 years later he found himself in a homeless shelter trying to integrate back into society. He eventually worked his way out of...

Presenting confidently is a skill that no entrepreneur or business leader can ignore. The ability to communicate to different stakeholders in a clear, concise and attention grabbing manner is vital to success. I sit down with Bill Connor - veteran White House TV correspondent and anchorman for 15 years - currently the Founder & CEO of Three Media Consultancy to discuss how we can prepare content f...

Startups across the globe are reckoning with a down cycle as a result of the overall macro economic environment and some practices that were long romanticized by Silicon Valley - such as growth at all cost - that have led to bloated startups with a high cash burn and a long path to profitability. I speak to Basil Moftah, General Partner at Nclude, a Venture Capital firm based in Egypt about the im...

The post Covid era has been an eventful one with rising inflation, a war in Europe, choppy markets and a severe correction in the startup world with both private & public valuations plummeting. That precipitated the collapse of 5 banks within a few weeks including the #1 global startup bank; Silicon Valley bank. I invite my friend and finance expert Binod Shankar - an ex-finance director, ex-found...

Adam Ridgway, a British expat, moved to the UAE 15 years ago to pursue his career in TV and like most entrepreneurs to be, he realized that he needed autonomy to unleash his creativity. He went on to launch and exit several businesses in branding and publishing until his passion for bikes led him to launch One Moto ( https://one-moto.com/ ), a global electric vehicle startup from the UAE. Adam is...

Happy International women's day! I wanted to address the topic from a mental health perspective and I wanted to hold a conversation that would be beneficial to both men and women. I chat to Carine el Khazen Hadati, a leading clinical psychologist in Dubai about raising girls that become resilient, content and independent women. We discuss the behaviors that we parents should be modeling at home, d...

Hossam is a marine oceanographer turned climate fund manager. We discuss the nature economy, regenerative farming, insect protein, food security and why the Middle East and Africa region is particularly vulnerable vis-a-vis the Global North. A truly educational conversation and a wake up call for all of us to safeguard our planet which is 'teetering on bankruptcy'. For more information visit: www....

Nima Abu Wardeh, an award winning journalist and the former BBC World reporter, uncovers some of the tools that she teaches in her media trainings to politicians and business leaders. Nima is on a path to democratize the art of communicating effectively to all. This podcast is a communications masterclass and is a must listen if you are looking to become a better communicator and ultimately get wh...

Philip Bahoshy - the Founder & CEO of Magnitt.com - and I unpack the latest Emerging Venture Markets 2022 report recently published by Magnitt. Magnitt tracks startup and investment data across MENA, Africa, Turkey and Pakistan. We discuss venture capital investment trends, winning industries, 2023 predictions and advice for founders. A great way to set the scene for 2023. For more information vis...

Sufyan Al Issa, Ph. D, is the Head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the UAE. We discuss the need for more investment in the MENA region particularly to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) such as climate, education, financial inclusion and more. Sufyan highlights some of the programs and channels that the IFC is creating to support local entrepreneurs and SMEs particularly in...

Dr. Stephen Druggan is an experienced educator and leader, he is currently the Superintendent at the American School of Dubai. We discuss the role that schools play in the development of our children and the responsibilities that schools have in raising children that are whole, both emotionally, academically and socially. We discuss the need for diversity of thought, how can schools teach resilien...

Dr. Raf Fatani is spearheading Amazon Alexa in Arabic globally. While most firms tend to revert to the Modern Standard Arabic (or Fusha - فصحة) when they speak to over half a billion Arabic speakers globally, Raf decided that Alexa cannot go down the same path and that an investment has to be made once and for all to bring colloquial Arabic to technology. We discuss the challenges of building Alex...

Dr. Noah Raford is a globally respected futurist and the Director of the Oxford Program on Peace, Policy and the Metaverse. He was previously a founding executive and Futurist-in-Chief at the Dubai Future Foundation and a senior advisor in the UAE Prime Minister's Office. We discuss the evolution of gaming and why we should be paying attention as our lives become increasingly intertwined in these...

Christian Eid is one of the few who played a critical role in Careem's early days launching new markets and then heading marketing for the group. The efforts made in the early days led to its eventual $3.1Bn sale to Uber in 2019. We talk about Careem's secret sauce and how he has taken this knowledge to launch two new ventures, DuckLife and NoBueno. With NoBueno, Christian is taking a non-traditio...

I speak to Meta's Regional Director for MENA, Fares Akkad about Meta's $10Bn push into the metaverse and what it would mean for us to have both physical and virtual lives. What is the metaverse exactly and how can we experience it? We also discuss the creator economy from a MENA perspective and the opportunities for creators and for businesses. A very insightful discussion that provides a glimpse...

We talk to Basel Anabtawi, podcaster and co-founder of Rising Giants Network, a UAE born podcast network producing hit shows like Al Rasoul, Al Tikriti and Beirut Blast. Basel takes us through his journey of trial and error, why it's important to ask for what you want and to drop your ego. We also discuss the ups and downs of startup life, educating brands on the value of podcasts, monetization an...

We talk to Sara Chemmaa, the Founder and CEO of Citron.ae about stumbling into entrepreneurship after realizing that she needed to find a solution to her toddler's unusual mealtime needs. Little did she know that her toddler would become the source of inspiration for Citron, a company that produces over 200 products and sells in over 20 countries. We discuss entrepreneurship, manufacturing, fundra...

Kamal Dimachkie and Eddie Maalouf are veteran marketing and communications experts from the MENA region. They have recently launched Tough Love Advisors, a new age consultancy practice. We discuss the challenges of new beginnings, the pillars of brand building, the role of marketing and the impact of social media, influencers, technology and more on how we succeed or fail at brand building. Hosted...

We talk to Feras Jalbout about making the jump from professional investor to entrepreneur and building Baraka, an investment platform for the MENA region. Baraka not only enables the young generation to invest, its goal is to educate everyone about the markets locally and globally using simple and easy to understand language. We wrap up with Feras' experience and learnings from having joined YComb...

We talk to Lebanese entrepreneur Ralph R.Debbas about pioneering the automotive industry in the Middle East. A 15 year journey that saw him create some of the world's most exquisite high performance luxury cars. Today, Dubai born W Motors is building and shipping hypercars like the Lykan - the star of the Fast & Furious 7 movie - the Fenyr and more recently Ghiath, a series of police patrol and mi...