Founder Connects Podcast

Founder Connects

The startup founder journey is lonely.Behind every "overnight success" is a mess of near-misses nobody talks about. The funding that almost fell through. The cofounder conversation that could have gone either way. The month payroll was one signature away from not happening.Here's the thing. Someone already faced your exact moment.Founder Connects Intel is real conversations with MENA founders, investors, and operators who've raised or built past $2M+. Not the highlight reel. The moment it could have gone the other way, and what they'd tell you if you were standing where they used to stand.You can learn this yourself. That takes months. Sometimes years.Or you can hear it here. That takes sixty minutes, and you spend the rest of your time building instead of guessing.Same lesson. Different price.

Episodes

  1. Oct 16

    VC Masterclass: Fundraising Secrets From the UAE's #1 Most Active VC Fund | Elliott Denham

    This is the VC masterclass nobody gives founders. Until now.  Elliott Denham is Head of Programs at Oraseya Capital a $150 million VC fund based in Dubai, and the UAE's #1 most active investor for the past two and a half years. With over 70 startups in their portfolio and a mandate spanning pre-Seed all the way to Series B, Elliott has sat across the table from hundreds of tech founders. He knows what makes them stand out, what makes them lose the room, and what happens to their pitch after they leave.  October 11 2026:  A milestone for Oraseya Capital! Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ), chaired by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, has announced the expansion of their venture capital fund from AED 500 million to AED 1 billion. In this episode we pull back the curtain on everything founders wish they knew before raising. We get into the depths of how VCs actually think - what they're really evaluating when you walk in the room, how the lifecycle of a VC fund can impact the timing of your fundraising efforts, why a “no” from a VC is not a “no” forever, and the one reframe that changes how every founder should approach the entire fundraising process. 0:00 Intro 3:52 Who is Oraseya Capital? 5:50 Why do entrepreneurs struggle with time & project management? 14:36 Due diligence for founders & VCs 22:30 Founders fighting for attention 31:16 AI & Solo Founders vs Founding Team 38:00 Founder credibility & market fit 41:45 What is an early stage founder? 45:40 How do you evaluate if a founder actually needs investment? 48:30 Sandbox accelerator process 1:02:39 Investment that didn't go through  1:07:24 Different investors different terms 1:12:12 Cap Table & De-risking investments VC 1:21:31 Understanding VC investment stages and cycles 1:30:11 Investors are in the business of exits Follow Elliott: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-denham/ Website: https://oraseyacapital.com/ Follow Founder Connects: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/founder-connects-mena/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/founderconnects/ Website: https://www.founderconnects.com/ Founder Connects Meetups https://luma.com/founderconnects?utm_source=YT

    VC Masterclass: Fundraising Secrets From the UAE's #1 Most Active VC Fund | Elliott Denham
  2. Sep 29

    How Surviving Two Global Crises Built a 75,000+ Member Platform | Hamza Khan

    Hamza Khan is the co-founder and CEO of Letswork, a co-working marketplace with over 75,000 members globally. From surviving Covid when revenue disappeared overnight, to rebuilding from scratch, twice, his story is one of the most honest accounts of what the founder journey actually looks like when the plan falls apart and the tough decisions have to be made anyway. In this episode we go back to both moments and discuss what it actually felt like to go from 100 to zero overnight, How they got funded with a four-minute pitch and no polished deck. Why being pushed out of your comfort zone was the best thing that happened to the business. 0:00 Intro 3:15 Hamza's Background 8:33 How Do You Evaluate Failure for Startups  14:00 The Letswork Journey 15:47 What Makes a Great Co-working Space 20:42 Fundraising & Joining an Accelerator 26:16 Your Business Could Disappear Overnight  34:23 Business Expansion Challenges 43:42 In-Office vs Remote Working 49:32 Founder Connects Community Question 50:34 What Gap Did You See in the Market? 52:27 The Struggle of Balancing Family and Business 56:18 The Right Co-founder Makes Everything Follow Hamza: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamza-khan-b2414772/ Website: https://www.letswork.io/ Follow Founder Connects: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/founder-connects-mena/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/founderconnects/ Website: https://www.founderconnects.com/ Founder Connects Meetups https://luma.com/founderconnects?utm_source=YT Founder Connects Residency https://founderconnects.com/residency

    How Surviving Two Global Crises Built a 75,000+ Member Platform | Hamza Khan
  3. Aug 21

    Serial Founder: Raising $19M Taught Me What Money Can't Fix | Ayham Gorani

    Most founders think growth comes from raising more, hiring more, and building more. Our guest today has done all of that, across five startups and he'll tell you that's money isn't the problem. Ayham Gorani is a serial entrepreneur who has built and exited four companies across fintech, SaaS, and platform businesses. Now as the co-founder of PEMO, he’s on a mission to support SMEs across MENA with their all-in-one spend management software that gives entrepreneurs their time back and allows them to work on their business, not in it. In this episode we get into why most startups fail to validate before they execute, why hiring more people can actually slow you down, why focusing on exit is overrated, and the one lesson he discovered in his founder journey that changed everything 0:00 Intro 3:44 Does the Founder Journey Ever Get Easier?  5:56 Should You Have a Backup Plan? 9:46 How to Actually Validate Your Idea 16:21 Why Founders Think They Need to Know Everything 21:38 Working With Family  24:20 How to Find the Right Co-Founder 30:36 How to Filter Through the Noise 35:47 You Are the Biggest Block to Your Own Success 38:17 When Is It Time to Move On? 44:33 The PEMO Journey 47:45 How to Deal With Competition 51:42 The Challenges of Experimentation 54:50 Hiring, Culture and Building the Right Team 1:00:35 Optimism vs Belief  1:02:47 The Inflection Point  1:05:25 The Fundraising Misconception  1:10:43 What Every First-Time Founder Needs to Hear Follow Ayham: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayhamg/ Website: https://www.pemo.io/ Follow Founderconnects: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/founder-connects-mena/posts/?feedView=all Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/founderconnects/ Website: https://www.founderconnects.com/

    Serial Founder: Raising $19M Taught Me What Money Can't Fix | Ayham Gorani

About

The startup founder journey is lonely.Behind every "overnight success" is a mess of near-misses nobody talks about. The funding that almost fell through. The cofounder conversation that could have gone either way. The month payroll was one signature away from not happening.Here's the thing. Someone already faced your exact moment.Founder Connects Intel is real conversations with MENA founders, investors, and operators who've raised or built past $2M+. Not the highlight reel. The moment it could have gone the other way, and what they'd tell you if you were standing where they used to stand.You can learn this yourself. That takes months. Sometimes years.Or you can hear it here. That takes sixty minutes, and you spend the rest of your time building instead of guessing.Same lesson. Different price.