Subscribe to the Muslim Founder Newsletter: https://muslimfounder.kit.com/32ea939ddd

For the latest updates on events, programs and announcements.

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Taimur Abdaal is the co-founder and CEO of Causal, the financial modelling platform built to replace Excel for finance teams.

Raised in the UK in a British Pakistani family, he taught himself to code as a teenager and studied maths at Oxford before quitting his job to build Causal with a university friend.

Five years and $25 million in funding later, he sold the company to Berlin-based Lucanet.

In this episode, he breaks down going from zero to $1M ARR in a year, raising from Accel and Naval Ravikant, and why so many Muslim founders set their sights too low.

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https://x.com/taimurabdaal

https://www.linkedin.com/in/taimurabdaal/

https://causal.app/

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LONG-FORM (YOUTUBE)

Hire My YouTube Strategist (Ideas, Titles, Thumbnails) - https://trakyo.link/91546e9f

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How to achieve rapid startup ARR growth from zero to one million. Learn the distribution strategy behind this rapid scaling.

This breakdown examines the specific timeline of building a live demo and launching on Hacker News to capture initial demand. If you are a founder looking to understand how to build a waiting list and secure early traction, the content explores the exact steps taken to reach significant revenue milestones.

Effective distribution serves as the primary engine for growth. By analysing the journey to a Series A funding round while at 600K ARR, you will see how focusing on the right channels early on dictates your startup ARR growth. Learn why getting the product in front of users via Hacker News was the catalyst for the zero to one million journey and how to apply those lessons to your own startup ARR growth strategy.

Subscribe for weekly startup growth breakdowns, and comment below what you want to learn next.

0:00 - Introduction

1:28 - One Shared Family Computer and the Fight to Use It

2:20 - Fake Psychic Readings and Other Teenage Side Hustles

3:10 - The Film That Made Him Learn to Code

4:47 - Oxford, and the Careers Website That Shaped His Whole Plan

8:20 - Meeting Two Guys Who Made Startups Feel Possible

11:03 - The Spreadsheet Problem That Became Causal

12:14 - The Hacker News Launch That Got Them 600 Signups

13:17 - What Made the Co-Founder Relationship Work

16:08 - 18 Months of Not Knowing Who the Customer Was

18:07 - The Six Months They Wasted on Marketing Agencies

21:31 - The Microsoft Excel Killer Headline

24:03 - Zero to $1M ARR: Future Selling and Price Discovery

25:48 - Why Technical Founders Have to Get Over Hating Sales

28:31 - Naval Slid Into the DMs Over a GIF Thread

31:11 - Selling the Company and the $25M Preference Stack

37:24 - What He'd Do Differently Building Company Number Two

41:56 - The Mistake He Sees Muslim Founders Make Most

44:00 - Why He's Staying in the UK Instead of Moving to SF

Apply to Launchpad: https://founderlaunchpad.io/

The 6-week online startup school for working professionals. 

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Arib Khan is the founder of 24 Labs, a portfolio of internet companies built entirely without outside capital.

Raised in San Jose in a Pakistani American family, he built his first company, Musicfy, to a million dollars in revenue at 19 and never went back to college.

Today he owns eight businesses doing over a million a year each, and gives a large share of it away.

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Follow Arib Khan:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aribkhan/

https://arib.lol/

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0:00 - Introduction

2:28 - A New Product Every Month and the $10,000 Bill He Couldn't Pay

3:41 - The Middle School Maths That Set His Whole Path

5:19 - Why Most Founders in San Francisco Fail

6:41 - Walking Away From a Big Venture Round

8:45 - His Three Rules for Deciding What to Build

10:41 - Inside 24 Labs: Eight Businesses, Zero Investors

11:48 - Why $20K of Your Own Money Beats $1M Raised

12:20 - Putting His Childhood Friends on Payroll

14:15 - Leaving San Francisco and the Billion Dollar Mindset

15:32 - Feeding 100,000 People During Ramadan

16:45 - The One Thing All Eight of His Businesses Optimise For

21:15 - Why You Have to Be a Little Delusional to Win

26:36 - Burn the Ships: The Real Story Behind the Saying

30:14 - Imam Bukhari and the Gold Thrown Overboard

35:05 - Do Muslims Have a Bad Relationship With Money?

44:00 - His Advice to Muslim Founders Starting Today

Amjad Masad is the co-founder and CEO of Replit, a $9 billion AI company.

Born in Jordan to a Palestinian family displaced during the Nakba, he taught himself to code on his father's first computer - and refused to hide his identity on the way up.

In this episode, he breaks down what speaking up cost him, how he built Replit to a $9B valuation, and his advice for Muslim founders looking to build.

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Join Launchpad: https://founderlaunchpad.io/

The online startup school for working professionals.

Go from idea to paying customers in six weeks.

Start Date: 2nd Aug.

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Follow Amjad:

https://x.com/amasad

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amjadmasad/

https://replit.com/

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0:00 - Introduction

2:13 - His Grandfather's Life in Palestine Before the Nakba

5:31 - His Father Buying the Neighbourhood's First Computer

7:22 - Competitive Swimming, Counter-Strike & the Making of a Builder

9:20 - Why He Refuses to Hide His Palestinian Identity

12:02 - October 7th: Why He Couldn't Stay Silent

14:30 - Cancelled: Silent Group Chats, Empty Calendar, Dead Deals

17:14 - Using His Influence for Palestine

19:22 - His Advice for Muslim Builders Navigating Their Morals

21:40 - Clashing With Silicon Valley's Most Powerful VCs

23:36 - The Quran Verse That Changed How He Sees Struggle

25:56 - The Role Models He Admires

27:54 - Paul Graham Advice He Thinks About Every Day

29:35 - The Legacy He Wants to Leave in 20 Years

32:14 - Meeting Mamdani & Breaking the Rules of American Politics

35:13 - Internet Cafes in Jordan to Inventing Replit

41:13 - Turning Down $1 Billion While His Mother Fought Cancer

44:18 - $2M to $1B ARR: Inside Replit's Explosive 3 Years

51:30 - There's No Playbook: How to Build in 2026

Mariam Ahmed is the co-founder of Menza, an AI intelligence platform for consumer brands. 

Born and raised in New York, she studied computer science at King's College London before joining Goldman Sachs.

Today she's growing Menza toward a billion-dollar company, backed by Y Combinator and featured in Forbes. 

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Subscribe to the Muslim Founder Newsletter: https://muslimfounder.kit.com/32ea939ddd

For the latest updates on events, programs and announcements. 

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Follow Mariam Ahmed:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariamaahmed/

https://menza.ai/

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0:00 Intro

2:07 Growing up in New York

4:26 From medicine to coding

7:40 Inside Goldman Sachs: how to find winners and losers

11:21 The dinner that ended her finance career

15:02 Last day Friday, flew Saturday, YC on Sunday

17:11 The real reason they got into Y Combinator

20:56 100 conversations in one week to find the idea

22:40 What Menza actually does

23:40 Why 80% of her YC batch is already dead

27:09 The brutal truth about having no boss

33:14 How to build with zero money in 2026

34:06 "You don't need to fundraise anymore"

36:18 Building a billion-dollar company on Islamic values

39:46 America's abundance vs Britain's scarcity

45:59 The failures she's most proud of

Iqbal Nasim is the former CEO of the National Zakat Foundation.

He studied economics at Cambridge before going into investment banking, then left a seven-figure package to build NZF, transforming how Muslims across the country give their zakat.

He's the founder of Transform My Prayer, helping Muslims connect with their salah, and the Last Day Leadership program, helping them find purpose.

Over the past year, his podcast "In Good Faith" has become a home for the conversations most people avoid

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Subscribe to the Muslim Founder Newsletter: https://muslimfounder.kit.com/32ea939ddd

For the latest updates on events, programs and announcements. 

-------------------

Follow Iqbal Nasim:

https://www.youtube.com/@UCZ4GnufkU9g_wWUmmfaOKrA 

https://www.iqbalnasim.com/

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0:00 Intro

1:25 "There's no such thing as Islam"

3:38  What does the Quran say on this?

5:09 The misunderstanding of the word "Islam"

8:23 How we lost the original meaning

10:33 The trap of "Islamic everything"

13:07 Why "non-Muslim" is a dehumanizing word

15:57 Do you believe in Allah because you're "Muslim"? 

20:40 Would a non-Muslim really not understand halal?

26:47 Are Islamic schools a help or a harm?

30:05 The hard lines we draw between "us" and "them"

32:29 "The Muslim ummah is a complete myth"

36:42 Muslim pride & the obsession with "Muslim power"

45:01 "There is no ummah" - so what do you belong to?

49:12 "Why should anyone even care about this?"

52:27 The real harms of clinging to the label

54:38 What keeps Iqbal up at night: NDEs & psychedelics

57:48 Panentheism

Abu Lahya is a Muslim entrepreneur specialising in influencer marketing agencies. He spent 3 years failing in business before making his first $100K.

Today, after building a multi-6-figure marketing agency, he runs one of the biggest business mentorship programs in the Muslim space - with over 40,000 applications and students who've changed their lives, quit their jobs, and made hijrah.

In this episode, he breaks down the exact roadmap from broke to your first $100K, why your relationship with Allah determines your success in business, and how dua became the foundation of everything he built.

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Join Abu Lahya's mentorship:

https://application.imaccelerator.com/sohaib

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Follow Abu Lahya:

https://www.youtube.com/@AbuLayha

https://www.instagram.com/abu_lahya1/

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0:00 Introduction

2:07 The art of sales & never taking no for an answer

3:25 The origin story: rejection and failed businesses

4:39 Why beginners should start with service-based businesses

8:40 Zero to one: the $100 course that changed everything

10:12 Why Muslims avoid business 

13:17 Why most people quit and fail

15:36 How the influencer marketing agency model works

16:54 Finding influencers & how to price deals

19:47 The outreach strategy & how to stand out

24:39 Is your niche saturated, or is it a skill issue?

30:06 This sounds too good to be true?

33:05 "I was crying how broke I was, making dua"

35:01 Fix your relationship with Allah before your business

40:08 "Using Islam to sell your course"

44:31 Meeting Alex Hormozi

49:51 The roadmap for starting.

53:51 Abu Lahya's legacy

Sh Mustafa Briggs is an Islamic historian, author, and specialist in Arabic and Islamic texts. He converted to Islam at 13 and went on to study across West Africa, Mauritania, Morocco, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo. 

Today he's a leading voice for uncovering the hidden, forgotten, and erased stories of Islamic history, having delivered over 100 lectures across 50+ universities worldwide and authored two books - Beyond Bilal and Islam and the Making of the Modern World.

In this episode, he breaks down the lost ring of the Prophet ﷺ and the fitna that followed, the Black poets and scholars who shaped Islamic civilization, and the theory that Muslims discovered America 200 years before Columbus ever set sail.

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Follow Mustafa Briggs

https://www.instagram.com/mustafabriggs/

https://mustafabriggs.com/

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0:00 Introduction

2:07 How Mustafa uncovers hidden Islamic history

4:23 The lost ring of the Prophet ﷺ

6:44 Why anti-Blackness exists in Muslim history

12:44 The scholars who defended Black Muslims

14:01 The Black Sahaba you've never heard of

15:36 Ubada bin Samit and the opening of Palestine

17:53 Why race matters in Islamic history

23:28 Crows of the Arabs: the Black poets of Arabia

26:24 Antara & Abla: the Romeo and Juliet of Arabia

29:43 Did Muslims discover America before Columbus?

33:33 The 2,000 ships that vanished

36:51 Mustafa's journey to Islam at 13

40:19 Studying across West Africa, Mauritania & Cairo

44:14 What's next for Mustafa Briggs

Omar Waseem is the 21-year-old CEO of Alif, an investment fund for Muslim founders based in Silicon Valley. By 19, he had built multiple seven-figure businesses and served as CMO of Fei Protocol, a startup that peaked at a $2B valuation.

Today he invests in early-stage Muslim founders and runs an ecosystem that hosts entrepreneurs and investors from across the world.

In this episode, he breaks down how Muslim entrepreneurs can build wealth and start companies in 2026.

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Join Alif Sessions: https://alif.build/sessions 

Use promo code "muslimfounder" in your application for 20% off and a guaranteed spot in the program.

Program starts on 10th May.

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Follow Omar Waseem:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarwaseem/

https://x.com/omarwasm

https://www.youtube.com/@omarwasm

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0:00 Introduction

2:14 Omar's entrepreneurial journey

4:26 The car accident that changed everything

6:53 The Fund backing Muslim founders

10:14 What Omar looks for in founders

11:26 The mission: 25 Muslim billionaires

12:15 Do Muslims sell out to build big?

14:53 How Alif actually makes money

16:32 The best business to start in 2026

18:56 Why 2026 is the moment

21:22 Building Muslim entrepreneurial power

23:56 Why San Francisco wins

26:44 Is money the real problem?

28:27 How to hire a world-class team

36:42 Omar's role models

38:10 How he made it so young

40:20 Who keeps Omar grounded

44:14 Rapid fire

Humza Yousaf is a Scottish-Pakistani politician and the former First Minister of Scotland - the first Muslim to ever lead a Western nation. 

The son of Pakistani immigrants, he entered politics at 22 and, over 15 years rose to the top of Scottish politics. During his time in office, he became the first Western leader to call for a ceasefire in Gaza - while his own wife's family was trapped there.

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Join Alif Sessions: https://alif.build/sessions 

Use promo code "muslimfounder" in your application for 20% off and a guaranteed spot with the Alif team.

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Follow Humza:

https://x.com/HumzaYousaf

https://www.instagram.com/humzayousaf/

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0:00 Introduction

2:31 Family background and early political career

5:44 Was becoming First Minister the end goal?

7:18 The moment he became First Minister

9:28 Praying Maghrib inside Bute House

10:13 Islamophobia and navigating politics as a Muslim

13:54 Palestine and his wife's family trapped in Gaza

19:33 Elon Musk calling him a racist

22:04 Navigating conflicts between Islam and politics

25:02 The Prophet ﷺ as the ultimate peacemaker

27:08 What's next for Humza Yousaf

28:31 Standing before God - what Humza would say

Yousef "FaZe Apex" is a Palestinian-American YouTuber and entrepreneur and co-founder of FaZe Clan, one of the biggest gaming and entertainment brands in history.

He joined at 14, grew his channel to over 6 million subscribers, and over 15 years helped build it into a cultural phenomenon that peaked at a $2 billion valuation. 

After the company collapsed, he walked away. Throughout his career, he kept his Muslim identity hidden - praying behind locked doors, never revealing his real name to his audience.

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Join Alif Sessions: https://alif.build/sessions

Use promo code "muslimfounder" in your application to get 20% off and a guaranteed spot. 

-------------------

Follow Yousef:

https://www.youtube.com/@apex

https://www.instagram.com/apex

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0:00 Introduction

1:07 Growing up Palestinian-American in Orange County

4:29 Visiting Palestine for the first time at 21

7:27 The story of his cousin who was killed

10:54 Studying Arabic and enrolling in Islamic studies

14:56 How 14-year-old Yousef discovered YouTube and gaming

16:58 Joining FaZe Clan 

19:57 First $200 from YouTube 

20:45 Why he hid his Muslim identity online

22:11 Getting hacked and swatted at his family home

24:03 Moving to New York at 18 and holding onto his faith

28:28 The moment a friend stopped him from smoking weed

30:10 FaZe Clan's explosive growth and business evolution

36:29 Learning business through experience vs education

39:49 The IPO, $2 billion peak, and the crash

44:55 Watching FaZe collapse and accepting Allah's decree

48:40 Why he deleted 1,200 YouTube videos after reading a Quran ayah

54:07 Advice to young Muslim creators on content

59:25 Khabib's influence and going public about being Muslim

1:04:29 Guilt over Palestine and trying to do enough

1:07:06 Building a new startup after FaZe

1:11:42 Why he paused content creation to focus on building

1:15:36 Applying to YC and learning the startup world

1:17:14 What legacy means to him

1:20:50 Stories of Abu Bakr and Omar that shaped his worldview

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