Saudi Arabia-based Telfaz11 has long been regarded as one of the leading players on the MENA region’s digital media scene. 2020 has been a year in which Telfaz11 (whose creative content had garnered it more than 2.3 billion views and 24.8 million subscribers) has had to pull the shutters down on some of its productions owing to the effects of the COVID-19 crisis- but it’s also been a year where it inked a multi-picture deal with Netflix. We're joined by CEO Alaa Fadan who talks the rise of the business, and where it could head in the future. Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 1:01 Alaa talks about the journey and the opportunity that he saw in creating Telfaz especially in an era when entrepreneurship was not fashionable  9:06 Alaa talks about how they reduced cost of running their business and how they distributed it to the people and became huge in Saudi Arabia in terms of content  11:14 Alaa talks about how their content resonated with creating an outlet for Saudi creatives and a Saudi voice as they grew  14:21 Alaa also talks about how the globalization of their content will look like after signing the deal with Netflix and being given that global exposure with their shows  17:41 Alaa talks of the movie industry in Saudi especially opening of the movie theatres in time when others countries are retreating from it going virtual and if the industry will survive 20:40 Alaa shares some of the ecosystem changes that he has seen in the industry in the last 10 years that he has been in this business  22:35 Alaa also talks about if the talent pipeline has become more robust in Saudi now that there's a professional outlet for creativity 23:03 Alaa talks about what needs to happen for the talent pipeline to improve especially in Saudi Arabia  25:08 Alaa also talks about what needs to be done in Saudi to motivate the big companies and the government to start working with the local talents  26:26 Alaa explains from an educational side how they are investing in it to create a sort of vertical and creative arts 27:26 Alaa talks about the engagement of women in arts and creatives and if the participation of women in this industry in Saudi is increasing  30:10 Alaa talks about the funding side and some of the challenges that he faced in getting the capital and especially the venture capital  32:13 Alaa explains if there will be more Saudis starting companies today in the entertainment industry and viewing it as a career 34:47 Alaa talks about the importance having the role models in an industry that are doing well and how it encourages young entrepreneurs  36:29 Alaa also talks about the big observations that he is noticing about the culture change in Saudi in the past few years 39:14 Alaa talks about how digitalization has accelerated due to the pandemic and how the pandemic has impacted Telfaz  40:59 Alaa also talks about if there are more international players approaching him and Telfaz for more Saudi specific content  43:06 Alaa talks about where he sees Telfaz in the next five years given all of this acceleration of the industry in Saudi  44:34 Alaa talks about their audience and if he sees it expanding locally and even globally in the near future  Shows Mentioned: Netflix, Inc. is an American over-the-top content platform and production company headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Netflix was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. STV is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned by STV Group plc and is a part of the ITV network. It operates the two Channel 3 licenses in northern and central Scotland, formerly known as Grampian Television and Scottish Television. https://www.venturesouq.com/  Clubhouse is an invitation-only audio-chat iPhone app launched in April 2020 by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth of Alpha Exploration Co. In May 2020, the social networking app was valued at nearly $100 million. On January 21, 2021, the valuation reached $1 billion. Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Home Box Office is an American premium television network owned by WarnerMedia Studios & Networks and the flagship property of parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. www.AtlanticCouncil.org  Quotes Mentioned: “When you focus on your strengths, you're going to excel in it and you're going to be on par with all the excellent people in the world.” “If you're working in something that you don't really love, the best you can be is mediocre.” “Comedy travels much further on social media.” “We’re all different.” “For the longest time, Saudi has been a black box in terms of stories from the people.” “A lot of the governments actually would not support arts degrees outside in many cases.” “Today at Telfaz maybe 50% of our leadership is female.” “The more success stories we have like Telfaz, the more you'll see entrepreneurs sprouting up and coming up and trying to do things.” “For firms to sustain, they can't just stay in the states anymore.” “Saudi hasn't been really known for making content that travels.” Guests Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaa-fadan-7998808/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alaafaden/?hl=en  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlaaFaden  Website: https://telfaz11.com/ 

Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 0:59 Mahmoud shares a little background of what made him choose the path of founding startups  3:18 Mahmoud talks about the challenges that he and the company faced especially with regards to the market  5:29 Mahmoud also shares some of the lessons he learned in Pakistan and how that market developed in terms of e-commerce in those early stages  7:59 Mahmoud shares his thoughts on why he thinks Alibaba were attracted to the Daraz as a marketplace  11:11 Mahmoud talks about success in startups and if he has seen a ripple effect of success stories in the case of Daraz  12:52 Mahmoud talks about what made him start Homzmart, the three factors to starting a new business, why he chose that particular industry and why in Egypt  18:45 Mahmoud talks about the difference between when he operated Jumia versus now Homzmart specifically with regard to government 20:42 Mahmoud talks about digitization and the common thing that he has noticed in the e-commerce markets that creates a business opportunity  23:17 Mahmoud explains how the positive government regulations of making it easier to do business has made young people want to be entrepreneurs   25:00 Mahmoud talks about what he perceives now as his biggest challenge to scaling his business across the region  26:51 Mahmoud explains how talent has played part in the success of his business  30:07 Mahmoud talks about the experience he has had with Homzmart when it comes to women and women inclusion in the business  32:42 Mahmoud shares his point of view as a CEO on women moving up the ladder within Homzmart and taking on leadership positions 36:05 Mahmoud talks about the one thing that policymakers could focus on that would really move the needle in terms of having more companies started 39:32 Mahmoud explains how he finds the financing environment to be and at the various stages of startups in Egypt 42:35 Mahmoud talks about how easy it would be to start a business especially for the youths especially in Egypt  45:36 Mahmoud talks about the next big area that he would tell a young entrepreneur with a million dollar seed funding to focus on  48:36 Mahmoud shares the vision of Homzmart in the next 12 months  Shows Mentioned: Jumia is an online marketplace for electronics, and fashion among others targeting several African countries. Alibaba Group Holding Limited, also known as Alibaba Group and as Alibaba.com, is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in San Jose, California, in the center of Silicon Valley. Cisco develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology services and products. Daraz is an online marketplace and logistics company which operates in markets of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It was founded in 2012 as an online fashion e-commerce marketplace in Pakistan by Muneeb Maayr & Farees Shah at the based venture builder, Rocket Internet. Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla's current products include electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, as well as other related products and services. Quotes Mentioned: “There are two kinds of people alive, which are, people embracing change and people creating the change.” “After the currency dilution in 2017 in Egypt, they had to allow a lot of like fundamental changes in the way the economy operates and one of the core industries that Egypt is good at is furniture.” “Change is coming and we have to adapt to it and cope with it.” “Just learn before getting up your startup, is not that easy.” “When there's a good supply and a good demand, then the company is growing faster than its people.” “For guys to get on the ground more, you need to take it from scratch.” “Business owners need to understand you would never find the 100% fit for the business except the 60, 70% and work on the other.” “It just takes the courage to think out of box.” “An idea itself is not just enough to kick off a business.” “Anything can be successful.” Guests Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahmoud-ibrahim-889ab553/?originalSubdomain=eg  Website: https://homzmart.com/ 

Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 0:41 Hosam shares a little background of what made him to become an entrepreneur he is now 2:29 Hosam talks about the history of his company and why he decided to venture into fashion industry 4:23 Hosam talks about e-commerce and what led them to take their fashion business online and how convenient it is to both the businessman and the customers  6:37 Hosam talks about how it was becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business in times when entrepreneurship was not so common  8:06 Hosam also talks about their growth process and the positive and the negative things that he and the company encountered  11:07 Hosam shares his experience with e-commerce and the challenges that he faced while scaling specifically with e-commerce  13:00 Hosam talks about cross-border scaling challenge that they faced as a business and how they dealt with it 15:16 Hosam shares an advice to entrepreneurs who are planning to be in the e-commerce, what to do and what not to do 16:50 Hosam also shares his thoughts on vertical e-commerce and horizontal e-commerce and which is more convenient especially in these times  19:02 Hosam talks about Omni-channel retail and shares his thoughts around it if it’s important  20:49 Hosam talks about what prompted him to move from the fashion world to FinTech and how that has been for him 24:25 Hosam explains different reasons as to why FinTech is doing well in some regions than others 25:26 Hosam also explains why FinTech is growing quicker nowadays as opposed to earlier days  27:27 Hosam compares his early stage back then in his first company and early stage now in his new venture Tabby  28:50 Hosam talks about the challenges that he and the company are facing today as a startup and if they are different from ones from initial company 30:36 Hosam talks about the advice he would give to someone in power with the ability to change entrepreneurship if he was given the chance  31:23 Hosam also shares advice to the young that are planning on starting their entrepreneurial journey   32:44 Hosam talks about the impacts that the pandemic has caused especially in the e-commerce 34:40 Hosam shares the vision of Tabby in the near future  Shows Mentioned: https://tabby.ai/  https://en-global.namshi.com/  Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.  BeautyCart is a dynamic and rejoice online seller. Omni-channel retail is a multichannel approach to sales that focus on providing seamless customer experience whether the client is shopping online from a mobile device, a laptop or in a brick-and-mortar store. Emaar Properties is an Emirati multinational real estate Development Company located in the United Arab Emirates.  FinTech is a portmanteau of the terms “finance” and “technology” and refers to any business that uses technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes.  Quotes Mentioned: “Fashion was one of those that everyone globally was sort of questioning whether it could work online.” “Offering customer convenient option needs to come at the same time as a great experience overall.” “Unless you're very clearly differentiated don't get in to e-commerce.” “Don’t get in e-commerce if your expectations are becoming number one and dominating the market.” “When you invest too quickly in inventory, you end up making way too many mistakes that end up killing the business.” “You can't do entrepreneurship as a side hustle.” “Unless you're able to invest time and effort into a startup, it's definitely not a hobby.” Guests Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hosam/?originalSubdomain=ae  Twitter: https://twitter.com/hosamarab?lang=en 

Eyewa was founded in 2017, with a purposeful intent to offer an advanced and easy-to-use platform to purchase high-quality eyewear at affordable prices, creating a unique, efficient, and memorable shopping experience to all. Ever since, we became the largest and most trusted online eyewear store in the Middle East to provide the finest brands of prescription glasses, sunglasses, blue light glasses, color contact lenses, and corrective contact lenses. Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 1:02 Anass talks about why they decided to leave their jobs and be entrepreneurs  2:05 Mehdi shares a little background on their first venture in food delivery as entrepreneurs and how their journey in the tech world started 6:14 Anass also explains what he thought was unique in Saudi Arabia in 2015 that caused the significant growth of the Foodpanda  7:55 Anass talks about the demand that was there in Saudi but the supply was less which gave them the opportunity  8:38 Anass also talks about how profitable the business of food delivery is in the Saudi Arabia as compared to other regions  11:33 Anass shares a little background of the Eyewa company and how it all started and why they decided to be in the eyewear space 12:46 Anass also shares the reasons that made them decide to be an e-commerce company and focus on the online sales  14:11 Anass also talks about the ecosystem they were operating in while growing Eyewa in raising the capital  15:30 Anass also talks about how they made sure that they had the right talents in their team and the right culture in their business 18:40 Mehdi talks about what he feels has been the most significant challenges in the ecosystem of building a company 20:18 Anass talks about what it would take to cultivate local talent in their region rather than having exported talent  21:56 Anass shares what he thinks needs to be done to encourage and push more people to entrepreneurship  23:33 Anass also shares his thoughts on why there is less unicorns in their region in the business world  24:56 Mehdi explains how having significant access to scale funding, would it make your journey a lot easier to scale especially in overcoming laws and regulations  27:33 Anass and Mehdi share the impacts that Covid has made in their business and how it has impacted the macro of e-commerce 31:16 Anass talks about the future of retail and how they are going to be different from other retailers  35:39 Mehdi talks about the ways they are creating innovation in their company, how they’re using virtual reality Try-on, how they're using A.I., how they're using machine learning 39:09 Anass and Mehdi explain why they were able and successful in hiring so many women in Saudi Arabia and why women and not men 42:34 Anass talks about if we're going to see more women moving up to the C Suite and to boards as the entrepreneurial landscape continues to increase 45:23 Mehdi and Anass talk about the next big investment trends where people should put their money specifically in the region Shows Mentioned: Bain & Company: is a top management consulting firm. Rocket Internet: incubates and invests in internet and technology companies globally.  Foodpanda is a mobile food delivery marketplace owned by Berlin-based company Delivery Hero SE and operates in about 50 countries.  HungerStation delivers your favorite food and grocery nearest to you in Saudi Arabia. Otlob is the number one online food delivery in Egypt.  24h.ae is active in the UAE and provides a convenient way to order food in seven cities - Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. Quotes Mentioned: “In Saudi, we have a very young population, very high Smartphone penetration and 100% of the Internet penetration.” “The penetration of food delivery via apps in Saudi is much higher than it is in the US or in Europe.” “To push people to entrepreneurship, we have to be more comfortable with failures and that things can go wrong and that's fine.” “The pandemic completely shifted customer behavior towards actually being a lot more comfortable paying online.” “About 80% of customers are paying online today.” “Startups tend to be more flexible.” “Retail banking in general is still something that's outdated in the region.” Guests Social Media Links: Anass Boumediene:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boumediene/  Website: https://eyewa.com/us-en/  Mehdi Oudghiri:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehdioudghiri/  Website: https://eyewa.com/us-en/ 

Mona Ataya, CEO and founder of Mumzworld.com, has proven to be one of the Middle East’s most prominent of women entrepreneurs. Beyond leading a successful and growing SME, and inspiring her employees and communities, Mona is on a mission to change the region, one mum at a time. A transformational leader and a change agent in every sense of the word, Mona has managed to grow Mumzworld from a business plan on paper to an enviable brand reaching more than 2 million mothers across the region in 7 years. Founded in 2011, Mumzworld has pioneered a revolutionary and gold standard e-commerce shopping experience for all things mother, baby and child in the ME region. Today, Mumzworld prides itself with being the leading, trusted and definitive source with over 200,000 products, an engaged community, exclusive product offerings and delivery to over 20 different countries in the fastest, most convenient and cost-effective way, at everyday low prices. Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 0:41 Mona shares her journey of entrepreneurship and what really made her become an entrepreneur 3:23 Mona talks about three things that are necessary when starting a new business, that is, the people you are starting the business with, capital and your risk appetite 5:02 Mona talks about how entrepreneurship has changed or developed from back then when entrepreneurship was not fashionable till today  8:18 Mona also talks about capital, talent, laws and regulations and corruption and how she would rank them in today’s environment 8:44 Mona shares the reasons why she ranked laws and regulations as number one specifically in her sector 9:49 Mona talks about why she would rank capital as number two also in her sector and why the scale capital in the e-commerce sector is lacking  12:43 Mona also talks about what impacts the scalability of her business more in terms of challenges and the two most important drivers for growth 13:53 Mona speaks of what she has done at Mumzworld proactively to increase the participation of women in the economy  17:32 Mona gives advice to the private sector on what they need to do to increase the participation of women in the economy 19:15 Mona talks about how COVID has accelerated flexibility to work from anywhere and anytime and how it has also impacted the e-commerce sector 22:29 Mona shares the vision of e-commerce sector now that it has been impacted by the pandemic  25:24 Mona talks about how and why vertical players are working and also not being crushed by the horizontal players such as Amazon 28:38 Mona shares what to focus on technologically in e-commerce as a vertical player due to the innovations happening in e-commerce  30:22 Mona shares two things that has been the trepidation of the foreign investors investing in e-commerce especially in the Middle East region  33:23 Mona talks about the gap or what’s missing for people to be able to create real innovation  35:55 Mona also talks about the ripple effect of Bayt and of Mumzworld especially to the Middle East region 38:55 Mona explains the biased and non biased way where she would invest in, in the Middle East if she had $10 million and why  Shows Mentioned: FMCG: Fast-moving consumer goods, also known as consumer packaged goods, are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. P&G: The Procter & Gamble Company is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. Johnson & Johnson: is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceutical, and consumer packaged goods. Bayt: is the Middle East's #1 job site in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) today.  Amazon: is an American multinational technology company based in Seattle, Washington, which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.  Souq: is an English-Arabic language e-commerce platform, owned by Amazon, Inc. It is the largest e-commerce platform in the Arab world.  Quotes Mentioned: “Businesses don’t grow without capital.” “Entrepreneurship today has become almost the flavor of the decade.” “Success breeds success or success breeds ecosystem courage.” “Businesses are built to create intrinsic value that gives a company the ability to scale and be sustainable and stand the test of time.” “Mumzworld is not only in a transactional website, we really are a community.” “Demand is always the easiest part of building e-commerce.” “Avoid dependency on any one single supplier ever.” “M-Commerce is the future.” “The brands that are succeeding are the brands that have unfair advantages across the entire supply chain.” “You need the capital, and you need the talent to create vicious success stories.” Guests Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mumzworld-com  Website: https://www.mumzworld.com/ 

In Season 1, Episode 1, Tarjama Founder and CEO Nour Al Hassan discusses what drove her to become an entrepreneur, her company’s prescient flexible work model that has promoted women’s economic inclusion as well as resilience, and her policy wish list to help more endeavors like hers succeed in the Middle East.   Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 0:49 Nour shares her entrepreneurial journey, how she started her business and importance of working from home 2:49 Nour talks about how it was like to start a business in Jordan and how the ecosystem was back then 3:54 Nour shares the reasons that made her move from Jordan to UAE  5:56 Nour also talks about the importance of education and making people aware that working from home doesn't mean the quality of the work is bad 7:43 Nour talks about why women participation rate in the economy is low despite them having a very high literacy and educational rate such as flexibility 10:36 Nour also talks about flexibility and the impact that COVID has made on flexibility and how nowadays people can work from anywhere  11:35 Nour explains why culture or husband not wanting his wife to work are not the only issues that causes low participation of women in the economy 12:42 Nour also shares her sense of the entrepreneurial ecosystem today and how she sees it differently 13:37 Nour shares her thoughts on where she thinks still a lot more needs to be done in concern with the ecosystem and how they hinder scalability of a business 15:31 Nour talks about government regulations, how some of them hinder businesses from scaling up and what could be done 16:35 Nour shares her thoughts on if the UAE is headed in the right direction in terms of ownership and if it’s impacted her 18:28 Nour talks about the importance of technology in a business and why she is digitalizing her company 23:14 Nour talks about how the Ureed.com platform is unlocking more women to participate in the economy  24:14 Nour also talks about how Ureed.com has unlocked more clients globally for her company 25:00 Nour shares the vision of Tarjama and where their focus will be in the next few years to come 26:41 Nour shares her thoughts on what it’s going to take to be innovative and stop borrowing ideas from others in terms of AI, machine learning and all the new technology 28:59 Nour talks about the positive and the negative changes that she is seeing in Saudi in terms of business 31:53 Nour shares the role that Amman plays in terms of connecting talented humans with businesses for them to grow 33:38 Nour also talks about what her biggest challenge in the business is and what needs to be done  Shows Mentioned: Ureed.com will connect you with over 35K vetted freelance talents across all professional domains. You think big, you get big! https://www.tarjama.com/  https://twitter.com/acmideast?lang=en  www.atlanticcouncil.org Quotes Mentioned: “The power of network, when it comes to females is very strong.” “There was no ecosystem that actually looked after entrepreneurs the way the ecosystem is built now.” “Customer is always right and comes first.” “If women are given the opportunity, they'll be able to do anything.” “When the woman gains financial independence, she feels completely empowered, totally capable of actually having her own opinion and participating in the house.” “People want to see more scalable companies to attract investment and foreign direct investment.” “If they sell locally, they're good enough.” “In the long run, it's better to have more competition.” Guests Social Media Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nour-al-hassan-106778138/?originalSubdomain=ae  Twitter: https://twitter.com/nouralhassan?lang=en 

Features conversations with business and government leaders shaping the Middle East.   empowerME Conversations is a project of the Atlantic Council’s empowerME initiative.