Kamil Najjar is a trailblazing business leader with a massively successful career spanning beauty, media and education. His career culminated with him starting Kids First Group in 2011 and is today the leading early education platform across the GCC.

Kamil shares the importance of innovation as a means to sustain a competitive edge. He does show by sharing interesting examples of why innovation isn’t just a buzzword, and how it can be implemented in low cost yet effective ways. We discuss the importance of attitude in team members and how it takes precedence over other qualifications, and so much more.

I heard Kamil say:

• The basics of business are the same regardless of the industry
• Attitude over aptitude defines your altitude
• Face the brutal facts in life and business
• Break down the customer journey starting with the “zero moment of truth”

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

Amir Farha has started two venture capital firms, Beco as a co-founder and COTU Ventures as CEO and Founder. He’s one of the most passionate and empathetic leaders in the VC space when it comes to dealing with people and entrepreneurs. His firm, COTU, literally stands for “Champion of the Underdogs” and Amir truly lives that value.

We discuss Amir’s journey founding his latest VC firm and the journey to finding what matters to him most personally and professionally. Amir discusses how he used tough times as an inflection point to become more curious about himself, and building a framework of values that he uses today in assessing critical decisions. We also talk about courage, building confidence, having conviction and fear.

I heard Amir say:

• Have the energy to be passionate wherever you have conviction
• Look at your life through the lens of your values
• Detach your identify from “what you do”
• Have the courage to do the hard things

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

This episode was recorded live at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF). Our first live show!

Abdulmajeed is a serial entrepreneur in the true sense of the word. He is co-founder of Nana (the largest grocery delivery platform in KSA) and currently co-founder and CEO of Tamara ( a leading Buy Now Pay Later startup in MENA). Abdulmajeed walks us through his journey to entrepreneurship and how his first startup failed before leading him to co-found Nana. He also discusses his lessons from fighting cancer at a young age.

Abdulmajeed is a deep thinker and is well versed across various disciplines (engineering, economics, psychology). He shares his insights about discipline, the different types of pain we all face and the factors that make an entrepreneur successful. Abdulmajeed reads alot (books, investor shareholder reports and more), and this leads to a great conversation on the stage at SEF about how he runs his personal and professional life.

I heard Abdulmajeed say:

• Work hard, work smart and get lucky (timing is everything)
• Believe you are lucky - you will attract and manifest it
• Don’t have a plan B because you will default to it
• An entrepreneur must have a high threshold for pain
• Be disciplined across all the areas of your life - it's a superpower!

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

Nicki Wilson is the Founder & MD of Genie Recruitment, a leading specialist recruitment company covering the Consumer industries. She’s been a lifelong entrepreneur and tried her luck at various endeavors before finally starting her own recruitment firm. Her firm has become well-known for its extremely vibrant culture and unconventional approach to rewarding, engaging and retaining team members. It's the first time I’ve heard of a sales team that earns commissions but doesn’t have targets … and it works!

Nicki genuinely cares about her team at an individual level, and prioritizes joy in her professional life. She constantly brings creative ideas when it comes to her business and employee engagement. Nicki has an infectiously positive outlook on life and isn’t afraid to swim against the tide as a result. We also discuss a few big bets she took that have paid off and turned her firm into a multi-million dollar business.

I heard Nicki say:

• All you need to build a company is hustle and grit
• Sometimes you have to go opposite conventional thought & trust your gut
• Be creative with incentives
• Nurture the kid in your team, and everybody has a kid inside of them!

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

Kunal Kapoor is the Founder of Luxury Closet, the second largest luxury marketplace globally. Kunal started with the ambition of working for a large technology company early on, but decided to join his father’s shoemaking business and went on to become a shoemaker. After working for Louis Vuitton, he saw an opportunity to turn the closets of customers into a marketplace.

Kunal is an extremely clear thinker who synthesizes complex ideas into easy to understand concepts. It’s clear that he has constantly focused on the highest priority challenges and has built a strong organization to continuously solve them. He has an eye for detail and is a lateral thinker that questions conventional wisdom. He is passionate about building and it's clear he is a lifelong learner. He leverages his curiosity and interest to go deep into topics to advise builders tackling challenging problems. This episode is action packed with wisdom across soundbites.

I heard Kunal say:

• To build a business you need to understand product, have a deep understanding of your customer and technology
• Think of what’s possible always, as opposed to what’s not possible
• Use iterative questioning with customers to build a world class customer experience
• Find people within your team who buy into your ideas to ensure they get executed
• The tough periods teach you how to lead in the next wave of the company’s growth

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

Richard Fitzgerald is the Founder & CEO of Augustus Media that has brands like Lovin’ Dubai, Lovin’ Saudi, Smashi TV and more. His company is on mission to become the preferred modern media company in the Arab world, by consistently delivering innovative and groundbreaking media. Richard is innovating the way information and media is shared and what it really means to be a “media company” in this day and age. He’s navigating unchartered territory in the Arab world!

Richard is an extremely hard worker and he discusses how he manages his stamina on the show. It's also clear that Richard is an extremely deep thinker and has an interesting perspective on many topics that we discuss on the show (emotional intelligence, managing conflict, balancing speed & expectations and much, much more). We debated the merits of being in the details as opposed to delegating, and whether or not they’re mutually exclusive.

I heard Richard say:

• Knowledge & learning compound
• Showing up matters, even when you’re not feeling your best
• Be in the business & the weeds, even as the company scales
• Find mentors and coaches at the right time, as and when you need them
• Always be aggressive in mindset but just be rationale about the expectations

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast

Tambi Jalouqa is truly a serial entrepreneur. After a few failed startups, or “learning experiences” as he calls them, he went on to co-found POSRocket which was eventually sold to Foodics. The path led him to co-found Propeller, a VC based in Jordan that invests in truly disruptive ideas with global implications.

Tambi is a lateral thinker that questions conventional wisdom. He is passionate about building and it's clear he is a lifelong learner. He leverages his curiosity and interest to go deep into topics to advise builders tackling challenging problems. This episode is action packed with wisdom across soundbites.  

I heard Tambi say:

• You need to have product intuition, and that develops with time, experimentation and conscious observation of products all around you
• Deliver value to a specific customer
• Choose one or two things, invest deep in making it a success before you call it quits 
• You can’t be a perfectionist all the time. Have pride that you won’t put something that looks like crap, but push out a product that solves the things you want to validate

#podcast #ceotalks #pod #entrepreneurlife #entrepreneurship #middleeastentrepreneurs #mena #startupstories #menaentrepreneurs #menastartups #menastories #businesspodcast #businesspodcasts #CEOwisdom #founderwisdom #founderpodcasts #founderstories

• Being a nerdy person at heart builds a learner’s mindset
• In the early days, bring on anchor brands that help you win other clients
• Developing depth in a topic allows one to win
• Bootstrapping is about making smart investments

• When you find your calling, step into it
• Its our obligation as humans to find our radio station if we want to live life fully
• Everything is personal, so be personable
• We make a choice as to how we prioritize our mental, physical and time bandwidth
• Take baby steps in moments of crises
• Don’t be a consumer, be an observer