Cafu's Rashid Al Ghurair on disrupting the petrol station

We talk to Rashid Al Ghurair, the Founder - CEO of Cafu, the first on-demand fuel delivery company in the Middle East that is expanding to become the one-stop-shop for all vehicle needs. Rashid recalls how growing up in one of the UAE-s most successful business families has taught him that -business has no borders- and that he needed to branch out of the family business and leave his own legacy. We discuss bootstrapping Cafu, the future of fuel and mobility, sustainability as well as standing up to what you believe in despite being told -no- several times.
For more information visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com or reach out to me on hello@conversationswithloulou.com
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#31 Omran Sharaf on reaching Mars and beyond

We talk to Omran Sharaf, Project Director of the Emirates Mars Mission about his experience in leading one of the most significant projects the UAE has undertaken. Omran and his team were in charge of developing, building and launching the -Hope Probe-, an unmanned spacecraft sent to study the Martian atmosphere. Omran recalls the events of the night of November 20th 2013, as he juggled between the launch of DubaiSat 2, an earth observation satellite, and a call from the UAE government that would ultimately change his life. We discuss what it takes to deliver such a project, why we should study Mars and the impact that this mission will have on the UAE, the region and the world for generations to come.
For more information visit www.conversationswithloulou.com or reach out to me on hello@conversationswithloulou.com
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#30 Unifonic's Jonathan Labin on sabbaticals, scale-ups and the metaverse

We talk to Jonathan Labin about his move from a high powered career at Viacom and Facebook to taking a 1 year sabbatical and then shifting gears to startups. In 2020, Jonathan joined Unifonic, a Saudi born startup co-founded by brothers Ahmed and Hassan Hamdan. In his role, Jonathan was responsible of taking the company to the next level, and in 2021, Unifonic raised a whopping US$125 Million to scale. We discuss startups versus scale-ups, cultural, technical and organizational debt and we wrap up with Jonathan-s 2022 tech trends including the metaverse!
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#29 CoinMENA's Talal Tabbaa on crypto's disruptive powers, ICOs and why Bitcoin has won!

Talal Tabbaa is the Co-Founder - Chairman of CoinMENA, a crypto business that was founded by Talal and his Co-Founders-Dina Sam-an-and-Yazan Barghuthi-- and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain - that aims to provide crypto based financial services such as borrowing, lending, investing and more. He joins us to discuss the business of crypto exchanges and why we need them particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region. A thought provoking and energy filled conversation about ICOs, technology infrastructure inversion, the utility of money, the emergence of private currencies, Bitcoin at $600,000 and more.
You can find Talal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talaltabbaa/
For more on this show visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com
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#28 TikTok's Shant Oknayan on leadership and building a winning culture

Shant Oknayan is the Head of Global Business Solutions at ByteDance (TikTok) across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joins us to discuss his role in building the regional footprint of one of the fastest growing startups globally. In this episode we zoom in on challenges of leading in a pandemic and we focus on culture. We discuss the evolution of our digital lives and we close with a deeply personal story from Shant and we learn about its impact on his leadership style.
You can find Shant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shant-oknayan/
For more on the show visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com
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#27 Kitopi's Mohamad Ballout on how to build a unicorn

Mohamad Ballout, a serial entrepreneur and the Co-Founder and CEO of-Kitopi, a cloud kitchen startup,-has recently joined the exclusive and extremely coveted -unicorn club-, with Kitopi-s valuation topping US$ 1 Billion. He joins Loulou to discuss building a global business out of the UAE, the challenges he faces as he scales Kitopi beyond the UAE, the complexity of running a -food platform- and shares his views on fundraising and managing the Board of Directors effectively.
You can watch this episode on YouTube and you can reach out by visiting the show-s website: www.conversationswithloulou.com
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#26 Nadine Mezher, Co-Founder of Sarwa on passive investing and building a fintech company

Nadine Mezher, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Sarwa, and her 2 partners Mark Chahwan and Jad Sayegh want to bring smart investing, trading and saving to the Middle East. In 2017 they launched Sarwa.co, a venture backed fintech startup with US$25M in funding to date. Sarwa is democratizing investing for the young professionals and as a result has witnessed tremendous growth. We talk to Nadine about investing, her own entrepreneurial journey and advice for budding entrepreneurs about having co-founders and fundraising. For more on Nadine and Sarwa visit: www.Conversationswithloulou.com
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#25 Clinical Psychologist Dr. Saliha Afridi on women, creativity and power

Our guest is Dr. Saliha Afridi, Clinical Psychologist and Founder of The LightHouse Arabia, a premier mental health and wellness center in the UAE. We check in on mental health in our -new normal- and we discuss unlocking our potential as individuals and business leaders, listening to our spirit, taking back our power, unleashing creativity and healing both our body and mind.-If you-re looking for inspiration, this episode is for you!
Find out more about The LightHouse Arabia by visiting their website: www.lighthousearabia.com
Thank you to our sponsor Astrolabs. To avail exclusive discounts visit: www.astrolabs.com/loulou
To reach out to us, visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com
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#24 Sexual what? Ketish, the new startup on the block

Emaan Abbas is an American Egyptian entrepreneur who has recently moved to the UAE to follow her dream of working with her idol Huda Kattan, the famous Co-Founder of the Billion Dollar Huda Beauty brand. Working under the stewardship of the Kattan sisters, Emaan quickly learned everything about product development and gave herself the permission to dream about creating her own, one day.
We talk to Emaan about grasping opportunities as they arise, pitching her dream business to her boss and mentor Huda Kattan and then kicking off her journey with Ketish, the Middle East and North Africa-s first luxury feminine and sexual wellness brand.
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#23 Let's talk about health and wellness with Dubai government advisor Cedric Betis

We talk to Cedric Betis, an athlete and wellness expert who works with Ministers from the Dubai government and CEOs from the private sector to help them achieve their health and wellness vision for themselves, their companies and their city.
We discuss how COVID has changed the dynamics in terms of wellness on a corporate level and why it is no longer a -nice to have- a wellness program and why the role of -Chief Wellness Officer- would become ubiquitous.
Cedric offers tips to companies, individuals and parents who are looking to achieve their health - wellness goals and how to make these goals sustainable.
PS: please excuse the glitch in the sound in the last 10 minutes as my microphone was accidentally disconnected!
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