Category Archive

A friend has recently asked me: “What inspires you?”. I kept putting the question off. Frankly, I don’t have an answer. Here, I come to my keyboard, trying to find one. I asked Google: what is inspiration? “The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative” it said. What a beautiful definition. Keyword … Read More

Hi there, Let me start by saying that I have never built an ecosystem before. But I have built a startup. And I believe that building an ecosystem is not much different than building a startup. In fact, the two have so many similarities that I will use startup analogy to explain how I think an ecosystem should be built. … Read More

The process of bootstrapping is painful, yet beautiful. It teaches you so much about business that no other experience possibly could. The uncertainty of knowing whether or not you will survive another month and the anxiety caused by it is a tough master of discipline. I know this firsthand having run my first startup from a $1,000 loan I got … Read More

Once upon a time, a friend invited me to a yoga class. Two months later, our company received a wire transfer from an investor. Those 2 events are completely correlated. As a tech startup CEO, a great chunk of my job is networking. Whether during events, in the elevator, while in a queue at Starbucks, or even in a yoga class. … Read More

Lesson learnt. Thankfully, the easy way. As I was leaving Bahrain Tech Week’s awesome event, I glimpsed a small group of the organizers on the side so I went to say hi. I thanked each one of them for what he/she was doing: “Thank you for the coverage!” “Thank you for MCing” “Thank you for the support!” until I reached … Read More

The term Startup has invaded our dictionaries heavily in the past 5 years. It’s been overused and abused. Here, I explain why most businesses are not a startup. If you are a newly established design agency, you are not a startup. If you have a small law firm, you’re not a startup. Running a salon on the side? Nope. Not a … Read More

“The world is this continually unfolding set of possibilities and opportunities, and the tricky thing about life is, on the one hand having the courage to enter into things that are unfamiliar, but also having the wisdom to stop exploring when you’ve found something worth sticking around for. That is true of a place, of a person, of a vocation. … Read More

Meet my new $2 words! Conscientiousness and Industriousness are very similar concepts. Also, meet my new favorite modern psychologist! Jordan Peterson. He’s a YouTube star from the videos of his lectures and the vlogs he shares (which he records at midnight when he has thoughts keeping him awake instead of writing them down on a piece of paper). Here are my … Read More

Recently, I stumbled upon a couple of very thought provocative questions on separate occasions which had me pause for a while and think. Today, I created a list on Google Keep of those questions aiming to update them and go through them every week or more frequently. Here, I will share those with my insight on each, and I’ll update the … Read More

Typical self development gurus will often advise to go about life finding and discovering yourself. Realize what you like and dislike, know what you’re good at and what you’re not, etc… But wait, was I born this way? With my likes and dislikes predetermined? With my skills preprogrammed? “I’m an introvert, public speaking isn’t my thing” But.. who stamped the … Read More