E58: AI, ChatGPT, TikTok with Dr Ali Fenwick

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 and how Dr. Ali built a ~2 million social media following by creating viral content and lastly whether AI will threaten or enhance our human potential.
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Philip Bahoshy on MENA venture capital trends and predictions

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 industries, artificial intelligence and I get Philip-s views on Elon Musk-s -hardcore- work ethic as highlighted in Walter Isaacson-s recent book and if that should be the entrepreneur-s modus operandi in these challenging times.
Please spend 7min to fill out the podcast listener survey: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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E57: Philip Bahoshy on MENA venture capital trends and predictions

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 industries, artificial intelligence and I get Philip-s views on Elon Musk-s -hardcore- work ethic as highlighted in Walter Isaacson-s recent book and if that should be the entrepreneur-s modus operandi in these challenging times.
Please spend 7min to fill out the podcast listener survey: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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E56: Marwan & Hassan on Carzaty's multimillion-dollar exit to Kavak

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 building and exiting Carzaty is quite interesting as they were quite methodical and analytical. While optimizing the used car sales journey was not their passion, they were passionate about one thing, winning! From the outset, they were realistic about their exit potential and had put a target of $200Mn. How do you ideate for a startup? Should founders build companies that can fetch a realistic exit or aim for a unicorn status but take on higher risks? How would the founders- ambition impact their ability to raise funds from investors? We cover all that and more in our discussion.

Please spend 7min to fill out the podcast listener survey: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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Marwan & Hassan on Carzaty's multimillion-dollar exit to Kavak

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 building and exiting Carzaty is quite interesting as they were quite methodical and analytical. While optimizing the used car sales journey was not their passion, they were passionate about one thing, winning! From the outset, they were realistic about their exit potential and had put a target of $200Mn. How do you ideate for a startup? Should founders build companies that can fetch a realistic exit or aim for a unicorn status but take on higher risks? How would the founders- ambition impact their ability to raise funds from investors? We cover all that and more in our discussion.

Please spend 7min to fill out the podcast listener survey: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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Mudassir Sheikha on scaling and reinventing Careem

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 million+ population. Mudassir and I discuss the learnings from the various stages of Careem as well as what the future holds. A glimpse into the mind of one of the region-s top entrepreneurs.-
This episode is brought to you by She-s Next by Visa. A program designed to provide female entrepreneurs with mentorship and support as well as financial rewards! Apply to join the program by June 23rd 2023. Links to the program here:
UAE: https://l8.nu/ryNe KSA: https://l8.nu/qgZA Qatar: https://l8.nu/ryNi Kuwait: https://l8.nu/ryNn Bahrain: https://l8.nu/qgZK-
Please fill in the podcast listen survey it takes 7 minutes: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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E55: Mudassir Sheikha on scaling and reinventing Careem

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 million+ population. Mudassir and I discuss the learnings from the various stages of Careem as well as what the future holds. A glimpse into the mind of one of the region-s top entrepreneurs.-
This episode is brought to you by She-s Next by Visa. A program designed to provide female entrepreneurs with mentorship and support as well as financial rewards! Apply to join the program by June 23rd 2023. Links to the program here:
UAE: https://l8.nu/ryNe KSA: https://l8.nu/qgZA Qatar: https://l8.nu/ryNi Kuwait: https://l8.nu/ryNn Bahrain: https://l8.nu/qgZK-
Please fill in the podcast listen survey it takes 7 minutes: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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Zuhair & Rawan (Zest Equity) on building an infrastructure to provide startups with liquidity

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 discussion around syndications, secondary transactions, ESOP and the maturity of the startup ecosystem in the region.
To learn more about Zest visit: https://zestequity.com/
Please fill in the podcast listen survey it takes 7 minutes: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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E54: Zuhair & Rawan on building Zest Equity

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 discussion around syndications, secondary transactions, ESOP and the maturity of the startup ecosystem in the region.
To learn more about Zest visit: https://zestequity.com/
Please fill in the podcast listen survey it takes 7 minutes: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1
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E53: Kareem Elsirafy explains the venture builder model

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 homelessness into Columbia University and ultimately co-founding Unite Us, a startup that supports military servicemen, veterans and their families. Unite Us is valued at over $1.5Bn. Kareem made his way back to the region to help founders build companies from the ground up. An inspiring and candid conversation with so many nuggets for entrepreneurs.

Please fill in the podcast listener survey: https://33s6g1ujw6w.typeform.com/to/KeVEuZe1

A link to Find your Larry, the story we referred to in the podcast: https://modus.vc/find-your-larry/
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