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.

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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 

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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/

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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.

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

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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 for presentations and speeches, present the content and then deliver a strong ask. We also discuss how leaders can manage media interviews. A must listen to episode for anyone trying to put together a presentation and looking for tips to do so more calmly and confidently.

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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 impact of the global environment on local startups. We also discuss the challenges that Egyptian startups are facing as they experience spiraling inflation in their own country. How are resilient entrepreneurs and the overall venture capital industry navigating this down cycle and what are some of the lessons learned?

For more information visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com

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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-founder, executive coach and market analyst on Bloomberg & CNBC - to talk to us about inflation, bank failures and what it means for us as business leaders and individuals living in the GCC. When will inflation taper? when will the good times roll again? what are some prudent investment strategies given the choppy market? In this conversation Binod simplifies some of the macro economic terms, discusses bank failure and contagion risk, provides advice and lots of laughs!

To leaner more about Binod visit: www.therealfinancementor.com

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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 the quintessential entrepreneur; visionary, bold, resourceful, resilient and with a strong bias to action. In just under 2 years, One Moto is producing ~10,000 fully modular electric bikes and vans on a monthly basis and selling across 6 markets. One Moto recently secured a $150Mn financing to expand their vehicle leasing offering and has already won several awards. This is a story in the making and we look forward to see One Moto soar.

For more information visit: www.conversationswithloulou.com

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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, dealing with eating disorders in kids and adults, and catching ourselves as we repeatedly judge and shame women. The messages in this conversation are simple, yet very powerful. A must listen to episode for a genders, particularly those who are raising children.

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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.conversationswithloulou.com

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