FWDstart

Jamie Lane
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The FWDstart Podcast is a weekly show at the intersection of venture capital, startups, and strategic industries shaping the MENA region. Each episode features candid conversations with founders, investors, and operators behind the region’s most ambitious companies, from frontier AI and fintech infrastructure to climate tech, construction, energy, and space.

Épisodes

  1. Fouad Jeryes (Maqsam) on Why MENA's Fragmentation is the Opportunity, Why Arabic AI Benchmarks are BS, & Why Your Competitors are Your Best Salespeople

    -10 H

    Fouad Jeryes (Maqsam) on Why MENA's Fragmentation is the Opportunity, Why Arabic AI Benchmarks are BS, & Why Your Competitors are Your Best Salespeople

    In this episode, we sit down with Fouad Jeryes, co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Maqsam, MENA's AI-powered cloud communications platform. Fouad has been building in the region for over a decade, from co-founding CashBasha (one of Jordan's most trafficked e-commerce sites before its acquisition) to helping launch Oasis 500, Jordan's first tech accelerator, to running Amman Tech Tuesdays for ten years, bringing together over 40,000 attendees across the Jordanian startup ecosystem. We cover: – Why Maqsam's competitors are their best salespeople, and how customers keep migrating after poor experiences elsewhere. – Why most Arabic language accuracy benchmarks are nonsense, and why resolution rates are the only metric that actually matters. – Fouad's co-founder relationship with Sinan Taifour, why it's lasted longer than most marriages, and why being different is the whole point. – Why Maqsam has stayed deliberately quiet on fundraising while building a profitable, capital-efficient business. – What it actually means to build a MENA company as a Jordanian founder based in Riyadh, and why the question "are you a Saudi company" misses the point entirely.– Fouad's take on AGI, why he thinks it's much further away than the headlines suggest, and why voice will be the last interface we ever use. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps:  00:00 - Introduction 03:00 - The Genesis of CashBasha and Building for the Region 06:00 - Why MENA's Fragmentation is Actually the Opportunity 10:00 - A Co-Founder Relationship That's Outlasted Most Marriages 14:00 - Why Maqsam Never Pivoted to AI 15:00 - AI Will Replace Jobs and We Should Be Comfortable With That 19:00 - OpenClaw, Prompt Injection, and the Dark Time Ahead 23:00 - Voice is the Last Interface We'll Ever Use 28:00 - Why Arabic Accuracy Benchmarks are Complete BS 37:00 - Why Maqsam Stayed Deliberately Quiet on Fundraising 39:00 - Our Competitors are Our Best Salespeople 47:00 - Moving to Riyadh and Playing Where Ronaldo Plays 49:00 - "Are You Guys a Saudi Company?" and the MENA Identity Crisis ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/db87419a/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Fouad Jeryes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fouadjeryes/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    58 min
  2. Talal Hasan (44.01) on Turning CO2 Into Rock, The Journey From Omani VC to Earthshot Winner, & Why Transportation is Carbon's Real Bottleneck

    3 FÉVR.

    Talal Hasan (44.01) on Turning CO2 Into Rock, The Journey From Omani VC to Earthshot Winner, & Why Transportation is Carbon's Real Bottleneck

    Today's guest is Talal Hasan, a lawyer turned venture capitalist turned climate tech founder who has spent the better part of a decade chasing a rather ambitious goal: turning carbon dioxide into rock. His journey started in the Omani investment world, helping set up the venture capital arm for the Sultanate's sovereign wealth fund, but a 2018 discovery about a massive dead zone in the Arabian Sea sent him down a rabbit hole that would eventually lead to 44.01. Named after the molecular mass of CO2, 44.01 is an Oman-based carbon mineralisation company that accelerates a natural process where ultramafic rock absorbs carbon dioxide and converts it into solid carbonate minerals, and it turns out the Arabian Peninsula has some of the largest surface-level deposits of exactly this rock anywhere in the world. What normally takes decades in nature, Talal and his team are doing in months. The company most recently raised a $42M Series A from a cap table that reads like a climate tech fantasy draft: Equinor Ventures, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Sumitomo, Air Liquide, and a personal nod from Sam Altman's Apollo Projects for good measure. They're now scaling from pilot projects with ADNOC and Masdar to commercial operations, with plans to export the technology they've developed in the Gulf to formations in Norway, Canada, and beyond. We get into the Peter Kelemen article that sparked the idea, what it takes to convince the world that drilling into rock is actually the answer to climate change, and why transportation logistics might be the real constraint on scaling carbon removal globally. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps:  00:00 - Introduction 03:00 - The Arabian Sea Dead Zone Discovery 05:00 - From Venture Capitalist to Climate Founder 08:00 - The Peter Keleman Moment 13:00 - Why Oman's Geology is Perfect 19:00 - Accelerating Nature: Decades to Months 24:00 - Addressing the Greenwashing Question 30:00 - Building Proprietary Mineralization Technology 36:00 - The ADNOC Partnership Strategy 41:00 - Exporting Hard Tech from MENA 45:00 - The Long-Term Investment Thesis 47:00 - Taking 44.01 Global ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/416fda01/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Talal Hasan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talal-hasan/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    48 min
  3. Djamel Mohand (Governata) on The Rocket Internet Baptism of Fire, Scaling Foodics to 30K Restaurants & Why Your Data Isn't AI-Ready

    26 JANV.

    Djamel Mohand (Governata) on The Rocket Internet Baptism of Fire, Scaling Foodics to 30K Restaurants & Why Your Data Isn't AI-Ready

    Today's guest is Djamel Mohand, a Rocket Internet alumnus who landed in Saudi Arabia over a decade ago, back when relocating to the Kingdom for tech was rather less fashionable than it is today. What was supposed to be a six-month stint turned into ten years of building businesses across the region, most notably as COO at Foodics, where he helped scale the restaurant management platform to over 30,000 restaurants across 25 countries. Earlier this year he stepped away to start something new: Governata, a Saudi-based data governance platform that just raised a $4 million seed round from investors including Joa Capital, Sanabil Accelerator by 500 Global, and Plug and Play. Data governance is not exactly the sexiest pitch in the world, and Djamel will be the first to admit it. But his thesis is essentially this: everyone is talking about AI adoption, but very few organisations have their data house in order to actually make it work. Governata is positioning itself as that foundational layer, the Arabic-first, Saudi-built platform designed to get enterprises AI-ready rather than just AI-curious.  We get into the Rocket Internet origin story, what he learned scaling Foodics, and why the gap between having a data policy and actually implementing one is where the real opportunity lies. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 03:00 - From France to Saudi: Djamel's Origin Story 05:30 - Rocket Internet Baptism of Fire 08:00 - The Culture of Extreme Fairness 10:30 - The First Ride Hailing Wars 15:00 - Pricing Agility as a Competitive Weapon 17:30 - Kitopi: 400 Employees in Nine Months 21:00 - How Saudi's Regulatory Approach Actually Works 25:00 - Discovering the Data Governance Problem 32:00 - Leaving Foodics to Start Governata 43:30 - The Enterprise Sales Playbook 53:00 - Arabic-First and Global Ambitions ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/95eb50ee/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Djamel Mohand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djam/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    57 min
  4. Alina Truhina (Utopia) on Why Copy-Pasting Western VC Fails, The Myth of 2-and-20 Fees in Emerging Markets, & Establishing a Fund in Qatar

    20 JANV.

    Alina Truhina (Utopia) on Why Copy-Pasting Western VC Fails, The Myth of 2-and-20 Fees in Emerging Markets, & Establishing a Fund in Qatar

    Alina Truhina is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Utopia Capital Management, a platform spanning VC funds and a venture studio investing across emerging markets. The firm operates Atypical Ventures, a Middle East-plus fund covering Turkey and Pakistan, Radical Fund focused on climate in Southeast Asia, and the recently launched UTOPIA Studio – an AI-native company builder that both creates new ventures and re-engineers portfolio companies for scale. Based in Doha, the firm recently partnered with the Qatar Investment Authority as one of the first international VCs to receive backing from its $1B Fund of Funds program. Born in Europe during the Soviet era, Alina's family moved to Australia as political refugees – an experience that shaped her conviction that talent in emerging markets deserves the same access to capital and networks available in the West. This led her to build investment vehicles across Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, evolving from impact grants to blended finance and now to a fully integrated venture studio model designed to take founders from idea to Series A in under 24 months. She joins the podcast to discuss why copying and pasting Western VC models to the Global South is a recipe for failure, the "Problem-Oriented Deep Dives" (PODs) framework she uses to identify category-defining opportunities, why climate adaptation is the overlooked half of the climate crisis, and her contrarian view that the standard "2 and 20" VC fee structure is fundamentally broken for emerging markets. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00:00 – Introduction00:05:00 – The Utopia Platform: Funds, Studio & Structure00:07:30 – Why Emerging Markets?00:09:45 – Personal Journey: From Refugee to VC00:13:00 – Climate Investing: Mitigation vs. Adaptation00:20:00 – Building Category-Defining Companies with AI00:23:00 – PODs: Problem-Oriented Deep Dives00:25:30 – The Venture Studio Model00:29:00 – What Makes a Great Founder?00:31:30 – Why Doha as HQ & The QIA Partnership00:43:00 – What Makes a Good Investor?00:50:30 – Biggest Misconception About Emerging Markets ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/25f4e507/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Alina Truhina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinatruhina/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    54 min
  5. Rami Tabbara (Stake) on The Saudi Real Estate Explosion, Tokenising Real Estate Assets & Why Work Life Balance is a Myth

    12 JANV.

    Rami Tabbara (Stake) on The Saudi Real Estate Explosion, Tokenising Real Estate Assets & Why Work Life Balance is a Myth

    Rami Tabbara is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Stake, a digital real estate investment platform that democratizes access to property markets in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Allowing users to invest fractionally from as little as 500 dirhams, Stake has grown into a fintech powerhouse with over 2 million downloads, users in 170 countries, and nearly 1.4 billion dirhams transacted on the platform. The company is backed by regional heavyweights including Mubadala, Wa'ed Ventures, and Property Finder. Before founding Stake, Rami spent over 16 years in the trenches of Dubai’s real estate sector, witnessing how high capital requirements locked out most investors – that he identified the need for a transparent, digital, and affordable entry point. He launched the business during the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns with childhood best friend Manar Mahmassani and later Ricardo Brizido, navigating early regulatory hurdles to build a platform that now pays out over 60 million dirhams in rental income annually. Rami joins the podcast to discuss why he considers Dubai to be a "co-founder" rather than just a city, the brutal lesson of losing his first four hires by faking a "cool startup" culture, why work-life balance is a myth if you want massive outcomes, and the company's aggressive roadmap into 2026 – including the launch of "Stake One" for full home ownership and his pragmatic approach to real estate tokenization ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 — The "Binance for Real Estate" vision 03:32 — What is Stake? Investing with 500 Dirhams 05:59 — Rami’s background: 16 years in Dubai real estate 10:02 — Launching during COVID and finding the right co-founders 11:43 — The first (and terrible) MVP 14:58 — Why there isn’t a "Robinhood of Real Estate" yet 18:31 — Will technology replace real estate brokers? 20:58 — The algorithm: Rejecting 90% of property deals 24:00 — Stake One: Buying full homes digitally 27:44 — Scaling globally: US Logistics funds and Saudi expansion 31:54 — Startup Culture: Why work-life balance is a "myth" 34:31 — Managing the Co-CEO dynamic without ego 37:48 — The Property Finder partnership explained 41:27 — Tokenization and the future of the blockchain 45:11 — 2026 Outlook: Saudi Arabia’s freehold explosion ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Hubpay – A fully digital, ADGM-regulated fintech platform that gives UAEbusinesses instant access to multi-currency accounts with named IBAN in 30+ currencies, payment links, payroll and more. No hidden fees, no minimum balance, and no waiting. 👉 Open your Hubpay business account today and get 30-day free trial athttps://wearehubpay.com/pricing and scale your UAE business with confidence. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/1b08abfe/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Rami Tabbara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rami-tabbara/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    49 min
  6. Nafez Dakkak (Anara Capital) on Why AI Tutors Will Fail, Is MENA EdTech's "Sleeping Giant" & Solving the Arabic Literacy Crisis

    5 JANV.

    Nafez Dakkak (Anara Capital) on Why AI Tutors Will Fail, Is MENA EdTech's "Sleeping Giant" & Solving the Arabic Literacy Crisis

    Nafez Dakkak is the Founding Partner of Anara Capital, a $50 million impact fund investing in early-stage startups across learning, climate, and wellbeing in the MENA region. Designed to be intentional and scalable, the fund backs founders solving critical infrastructure challenges across the Levant, GCC and North Africa. Before launching Anara, Nafez was the Founding CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation’s Edraak, the Arab world's largest massive open online course (MOOC) platform, which today reaches over 10 million learners. His transition from operator to investor also includes establishing BLDR, a venture studio focused on the the potential of the learn to earn cycle across MENA. He joins the podcast to discuss why AI tutors will fail the 80% of students who lack motivation , the "Game Boy Principle" of innovating through constraints rather than shiny new tech , why Arabic literacy is fundamentally broken by diglossia , and the critical difference between a founder who is passionate versus one who is truly obsessed. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:03:00 — Is MENA EdTech Still a Sleeping Giant?00:06:42 — Why EdTech Doesn't Scale Like SaaS (The Civil Engineering Analogy)00:10:18 — From Neurosurgeon Dreams to Education Strategy00:13:14 — Growing Up Palestinian: Education is All You Have00:14:38 — The Story Behind Edraak & The "MIT of the Arab World"00:19:49 — Lessons on Content Localisation & Completion Rates00:22:28 — The Game Boy Principle: Innovation Through Withered Tech00:24:10 — Why AI Tutors Will Fail (The Motivation Problem)00:27:59 — "Vibe Learning" & The Manchester United Transfer Fallacy00:30:17 — The Conflict Between Retention Metrics & Real Learning00:33:20 — The Arabic Language Crisis: Understanding Diglossia00:37:30 — Lessons from the Builder Venture Studio00:40:10 — Anara Capital: Differentiating Impact Investing from Philanthropy00:44:35 — The Exit Landscape for MENA EdTech00:48:13 — Nafez’s "Favorite Problems": Climate, Mental Fitness & Motivation00:50:25 — The Dangers of Cognitive Offloading with AI00:53:26 — An Alternative Career as an Arabic Teacher00:54:05 — Rapid Fire: Gamification is "Chocolate Covered Broccoli" ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results.----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GxkYxN2hNSvQsIOjjqyse?si=4f2f8be6b7294c8e Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fwdstart/id1859499563 Subscribe on Anghami: https://open.anghami.com/mjWOJeeJ2Yb Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Nafez Dakkak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndakkak/ Subscribe to Nafez's Substack:https://nafez.substack.com/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    57 min
  7. Nour Al Hassan (Arabic AI, Tarjama) on Building Arabic AI from MENA, Why Most Pilots Fail, and Hiring Only A Players

    30/12/2025

    Nour Al Hassan (Arabic AI, Tarjama) on Building Arabic AI from MENA, Why Most Pilots Fail, and Hiring Only A Players

    Nour Al Hassan is the Founder and CEO of Tarjama& and Arabic AI, a UAE-based AI company building Arabic-first language models, enterprise agents, and document intelligence systems for governments and large organisations. Before Arabic AI, Nour spent more than 16 years building Tarjama& from a bootstrapped translation business into a profitable, technology-led platform serving global enterprises. That long runway of proprietary Arabic data became the foundation for the creation of Arabic AI, enabling a leap into small language models, agentic workflows, and on-prem deployments for highly regulated customers. She joins the podcast to discuss what it takes to build technology from the region, overcoming internal doubt, why Arabic remains fundamentally underserved in AI, how human-in-the-loop systems will evolve rather than disappear, and why AI adoption fails unless it is driven top-down by leadership rather than delegated to teams. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 The State of Arabic Content Online00:46 Introduction to Nour Al Hassan and Tarjama03:49 Nour's Entrepreneurial Journey07:43 Building and Evolving Tarjama21:14 The Rise of Arabic AI25:54 Building Custom AI Solutions26:56 The Importance of Data Quality29:19 Challenges in Arabic AI Development31:00 Real-World AI Applications34:49 Sales and Business Development38:20 Future of AI and Business Strategy ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Hubpay – A fully digital, ADGM-regulated fintech platform that gives UAEbusinesses instant access to multi-currency accounts with named IBAN in 30+ currencies, payment links, payroll and more. No hidden fees, no minimum balance, and no waiting. 👉 Open your Hubpay business account today and get 30-day free trial athttps://wearehubpay.com/pricing and scale your UAE business with confidence. ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GxkYxN2hNSvQsIOjjqyse?si=4f2f8be6b7294c8e Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fwdstart/id1859499563 Subscribe on Anghami: https://open.anghami.com/mjWOJeeJ2Yb Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Nour Al Hassan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nour-al-hassan-106778138/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    49 min
  8. Arya Bolurfrushan (AppliedAI) on Raising $42M for AI Before ChatGPT, The Future of Work & Why AI Needs Human Supervisors

    22/12/2025

    Arya Bolurfrushan (AppliedAI) on Raising $42M for AI Before ChatGPT, The Future of Work & Why AI Needs Human Supervisors

    Arya Bolurfrushan is the Founder and CEO of Applied AI, the company behind Opus, a platform enabling enterprises to design AI-native workflows. The company raised a $42 million seed round in November 2022, days before ChatGPT launched, and earlier this year closed a $55 million Series A led by G42, with Palantir and Bessemer also participating. Before founding Applied AI, Arya developed his conviction during a Covid quarantine in the UAE, where time alone led him to conclude that AI would be the most significant shift in human productivity since hydrocarbons. He joins the podcast to discuss why he was "doing AI before it was cool," how the company had to rebuild its tech stack post-ChatGPT, why he believes democracies will struggle with AI-driven displacement, and how Opus is designed to keep humans as moral decision-makers rather than obsolete bystanders. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction04:04 - Raising Before ChatGPT Was Cool05:46 - The COVID Quarantine Epiphany10:30 - From Oil to Electricity: Why Applied AI is Like General Electric15:29 - Opus: Building the Machine That Builds Machines22:17 - Hiring Less Than 1% of Applicants & Building an AI-Native Team25:15 - Business Process Re-Engineering: Adding Humans to AI-Native Workflows30:41 - The Large Work Model: Mapping 2.7 Million Business Processes33:27 - Sharing Productivity Gains with Labour: Lessons from Das Kapital39:51 - The $2 Trillion Investor Who Believes Humans Will Have No Work44:57 - Building for His Son's Future in a World Where AI is Always Smartest ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Hubpay – A fully digital, ADGM-regulated fintech platform that gives UAEbusinesses instant access to multi-currency accounts with named IBAN in 30+ currencies, payment links, payroll and more. No hidden fees, no minimum balance, and no waiting. 👉 Open your Hubpay business account today and get 30-day free trial athttps://wearehubpay.com/pricing and scale your UAE business with confidence. ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GxkYxN2hNSvQsIOjjqyse?si=4f2f8be6b7294c8e Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fwdstart/id1859499563 Subscribe on Anghami: https://open.anghami.com/mjWOJeeJ2Yb Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Arya Bolurfrushan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolurfrushan/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    47 min
  9. Ibrahim Manna (BRKZ) on Lessons from Careem, Founder Grit & Disrupting Saudi Construction

    15/12/2025

    Ibrahim Manna (BRKZ) on Lessons from Careem, Founder Grit & Disrupting Saudi Construction

    Ibrahim Manna is the Founder and CEO of BRKZ, a Saudi construction tech startup built to address inefficiencies in construction procurement: fragmented supply chains, manual processes, and cash flow gaps faced by contractors and factories. Before founding BRKZ, Ibrahim spent eight years at Careem as one of the core architects of its expansion, launching 11 out of 15 markets ahead of the company's $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber in 2019. BRKZ has raised over $50 million in equity and debt financing, and serves 850+ contractors across major giga-projects including NEOM, King Salman Park, and Red Sea. He joins the podcast to discuss how buying a house during the pandemic revealed a broken industry, why Saudi's 7-8 layer supply chain creates massive inefficiency, what Careem taught him about building culture and empowering operators as founders, and how BRKZ is using technology to work with — not against — entrenched contractor behaviours. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction to Ibrahim Manana and BRKZ04:02 – Ibrahim's Early Entrepreneurial Endeavours07:35 – Lessons from Kareem11:11 – Challenges in Market Expansion22:37 – Leadership and Culture at Careem26:23 – Navigating Legal and Operational Hurdles28:59 – Stories from Iraq32:16 – Launching and Learning from Careem Cash34:58 – Transition to BRKZ36:27 – Identifying Gaps in the Construction Industry40:21 – Challenges and Innovations in Construction47:09 – The AI Story51:09 – Building Relationships and Customer Trust58:12 – Regional Tech Ecosystem and Entrepreneurship01:01:24 – Future Prospects and Final Thoughts ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Hubpay – A fully digital, ADGM-regulated fintech platform that gives UAEbusinesses instant access to multi-currency accounts with named IBAN in 30+ currencies, payment links, payroll and more. No hidden fees, no minimum balance, and no waiting. 👉 Open your Hubpay business account today and get 30-day free trial athttps://wearehubpay.com/pricing and scale your UAE business with confidence. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript:  ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GxkYxN2hNSvQsIOjjqyse?si=4f2f8be6b7294c8e Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fwdstart/id1859499563 Subscribe on Anghami: https://open.anghami.com/mjWOJeeJ2Yb Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Ibrahim Manna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibrahimmanna/ Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    1 h 2 min
  10. Mark Kahn (Omnivore) on GCC Food Security, India’s Venture Depth & Agritech Investing

    08/12/2025

    Mark Kahn (Omnivore) on GCC Food Security, India’s Venture Depth & Agritech Investing

    Mark Kahn is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Omnivore, India’s leading agritech and climate-tech venture capital firm with more than $300 million under management. Backing over 45 startups transforming food, agriculture, and sustainability, Omnivore has played a defining role in shaping India’s agritech ecosystem and the country’s emerging climate investment landscape. He joins the podcast to discuss how Omnivore is building bridges between India and the GCC, why he’s not trading India’s deep venture ecosystem for newer regional opportunities, and how food sovereignty, controlled-environment agriculture, and life sciences innovation will define the next decade of climate resilience and food security. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro4:00 - Why Omnivore isn't pivoting to MENA6:46 - India vs GCC venture ecosystems10:00 - India's IPO advantage14:45 - Food sovereignty vs food security22:00 - Controlled environment agriculture: hype vs reality28:00 - Why we avoided alt-protein34:15 - The agribusiness-first mindset40:15 - Mark's path from politics to agritech45:30 - Omnivore's evolution across three funds52:00 - The GMV trap in B2B marketplaces59:45 - Why India missed a beat on life sciences1:04:45 - Eruvaka exit: from shed prototype to Nutreco acquisition1:09:00 - Exit paths in Indian agritech1:11:00 - What value-add actually looks like1:13:45 - Building the India-GCC food bridge ----------------------------------------------- Thank you to the partners who make this possible: • Sarwa – An all-in-one investing and money-management platform. It brings together do-it-yourself trading in stocks, ETFs, crypto, and options with Sarwa Trade, hands-off investing with Sarwa Invest, and high-yield estimated returns with Sarwa Save. 👉 Register using this link to be eligible for a $200 bonus when you fund $5,000 across your Sarwa accounts within three months of signing up:https://www.sarwa.co/register?promoCode=FWDSTART Promo code: FWDSTART Sarwa is regulated by the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority. All investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. • Hubpay – A fully digital, ADGM-regulated fintech platform that gives UAEbusinesses instant access to multi-currency accounts with named IBAN in 30+ currencies, payment links, payroll and more. No hidden fees, no minimum balance, and no waiting. 👉 Open your Hubpay business account today and get 30-day free trial athttps://wearehubpay.com/pricing and scale your UAE business with confidence. ----------------------------------------------- Transcript: https://share.transistor.fm/s/1b43e0ae/transcript.txt ----------------------------------------------- Follow Jamie Lane on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamienlane/  Follow Jamie Lane on X:https://x.com/jamienlane  Follow Mark Kahn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kahn-20490a/  Follow FWDstart on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fwdstart/  Follow FWDstart on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@fwdstart  Visit our Website:https://www.fwdstart.me/  Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://www.fwdstart.me/subscribe  -----------------------------------------------

    1 h 15 min
  • 10 épisodes

À propos

The FWDstart Podcast is a weekly show at the intersection of venture capital, startups, and strategic industries shaping the MENA region. Each episode features candid conversations with founders, investors, and operators behind the region’s most ambitious companies, from frontier AI and fintech infrastructure to climate tech, construction, energy, and space.

Informations

  • Création
    Jamie Lane
  • Années d’activité
    2025 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    10
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Copyright
    © 2025 FWDstart Ventures LLC
  • Site web de l’émission
    FWDstart