#295 Navigating Dubai's Startup Scene with Deepak Ahuja

Transcript generated by Podium.page Help us spread the word by tweeting about us at @podiumdotpage and including us in your shownotes! https://podium.page NOTE: There were 2 speakers identified in this transcript. Podium recommends using "Find and Replace" to change the speaker label to the appropriate name. Speaker separation errors can arise when multiple speakers speak simultaneously. 0:00:02 - Mehmet Hello and welcome back to any episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today, I'm very pleased to have with me Deepak Aujal. Deepak, thank you very much for being with me today. Just a hint to the guests so this is one of the few times where I have a guest from the same city where I am, from Dubai, and this is why I become more excited. Actually, deepak, if you can just give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself and then we can start to take the conversation from there. 0:00:29 - Deepak Thank you, mehmet. A brief about myself, so I've been a UA resident for almost 29 years. I was a banker for 22 years, out of that, primarily into retail banking, wealth management and SME space. While doing this journey, I also got interested to invest my money in startups and also Wiccan Motor Business, so I actually have invested in almost 13 startups. I'm not a passive investor, so whichever startup I've invested, I try to help them out in whatever way I can. So sometimes the founder wanted my help on the strategy M&A business development fund raise. Wherever I could be adding value, I was trying to do that for the founders and that became like a good passion for me. So in 2018, I finally decided to give a quick to my banking role. My last role was as a director for three Vorticulers and other local banks, I think. In 2019, I was approached by the largest venture capital company from India to become their face in Dubai. That opportunity helped me to fast track my journey into the startup ecosystem both in UAE and India, because that company has invested in more than 900 startups, so I get a lot of exposure, talking to different founders and getting a lot of insights about it. My role in that journey for three years was from 2019 to 22 to bring those companies which we invested into the UAE not all of them, but the ones that you're ready for this and also help them raise money from here into the startup ecosystem in India and other geographies. While I was doing that, I also play a role at the Capital Club, where I'm the co-chairman for the Interpenis Committee. Now that led to another interesting opportunity where I'm sitting today, where I'm helping the Dubai SME and we work under the patronage to bring tech companies from different parts of the world. This is something that I started one year back with two of my co-founders and so far, we've been able to bring almost 11 tech companies from different verticals. So we have two techs from US, we have a FinTech company from Singapore, we also have a AgriTech company and total of 11 companies from different geographies across. So that's my current role and I'm very excited that I'm part of the Dubai Government Initiative. 0:02:41 - Mehmet Thank you very much, deepak, and again, both yourself being in Dubai and, by the way, you've been here longer than me I consider myself also one of the old guys here. It's been like 19 years here in Dubai. So the first question Deepak, I know like you were in the banking side, but of course you have seen how the startup whole ecosystem have evolved, and myself as well. I didn't start in the startup thing, I was also the technical guy sitting behind the laptop and doing stuff, but I was always fascinated about startups and we have seen things going fast. But I'd like to hear it from someone with your experience, both as an investor and as an entrepreneur also as well, so how you can describe the scene, how it started and how is it today. 0:03:35 - Deepak I think the need for startup innovation has come in the last few years in a big way because, if you look at our day to day life, there are so many gaps that need to be addressed. Let's take a classic example of Uber. So 20 years back, when you had to hail a cab, you had to stand somewhere in the street and look for a cab, and that experience was never a great one. So what Uber did? They made on demand taxi available. That changed our life. Today we can't think of standing outside on the road and having taxi. So what startups are doing and the founders are doing is they are identifying gaps, which are addressed by their solutions. So that journey as an entrepreneur started in a big way in Silicon Valley almost 25, 30 years back. Obviously, things have moved from west to east, as they say. In the last 10 years, this geography the Middle East and Asia has taken this big leap. I am working closely with the Indian startup ecosystem and I can tell you that last seven years has been kind of a huge positive wave for Indian startup ecosystem. We have a large population to address the gaps. So this is what makes this area very, very important for all the startups. So, to answer your question, these startup founders today are amazing minds who are identifying a gap, a problem, rather and trying to create a solution. And what I've seen is, if the founder is very focused on the problem, he keeps on pivoting the business model and that's how the businesses are grown. So we have a lot of names here, for example, karim, and then souqcom and India. We have names like Zomato, fresh Markets. People have grown a brand here and taken it internationally, so it's a great story. I mean I have had this conversation a lot of time that in past, if you had to create a hundred-meter dollar company, it will take you maybe 20 years, but today, a founder in a tech space can create a hundred-meter dollar company in less than one year's time. So that's an amazing part of startups. Startups also help us in terms of helping the unemployment, because the youth in the country, in many countries like India or in any part of the world, are finding a difficult to find a job, but when they are able to move their mindset to entrepreneurship journey, they are becoming a job giver, not a job seeker. So I am very, very happy that I am part of this whole movement which is helping solve the problems of consumers and individuals, and also a larger problem in terms of the society, but at the same time, it is helping to create more and more employment opportunities and creating more entrepreneurs. So very, very pleased to be part of this journey, that's amazing and again, as you said, we've seen. 0:06:19 - Mehmet as I said, you've been here longer than me, but even when I came, the startup concept all together it was not there and then we started to see this boom. It started, as you said, with Sukh and later Karim, and now every day we see like there's no day I can say, because I cover this in my weekly newsletter there's no day I don't see a news about some startup taking funding or something that gets learned. So really it's exciting time and, as you said and I loved when you said, things started to move from West to East. Now, being part of this Deepak, I know that you mentioned in the introduction about the incubator program, the IXL Gulf Business Incubator. So what was the inspiration for having IXL set it up and how do you think it's aiming to transform the landscape of the startups, both here locally in the UE and the broader region, including also India first as well? 0:07:27 - Deepak Great member. Before I answer this question, I'll go back to your previous point. What has also happened is, in the last few years, the governments have taken initiative in UE and Dubai, where they also want to bring the entrepreneurship and innovation culture. So for many years, when I came 30 years back, there was the experts who were coming here primarily to look for a job. Of course they stayed for long, but they will know inclination to start a business unless you are in that field already. But today, thanks for the support from the government and private institutions and a lot of players, the startup ecosystem is thriving Now. My inspiration for creating IXL Gulf Business Incubator was that Dubai has always positioned itself as a launchpad for the entire Middle East and North Africa region. So today there are a lot of companies from different geographies who are wanting to come to Dubai to set up a business a startup business basically. But, with all due respect, there are a lot of incubators and accelerators, but they do just a very high level real estate service, so they offer license and they offer a co-working space, but nothing beyond that. But because I have mentored and advised startups in my last 15 years of journey, a startup needs much more when they come out of their home country, where they have done a journey of one, two, three years, when they come to a new geography, they need much more. They need to be meeting the right people who can mentor them, advise them, help them pivot the business model, then make them introduction with the right people in terms of the market access, even regulatory bodies, because if you create a solution for a geography, it doesn't automatically get applied to other geographies, because there are cultural differences, there are different regulatory aspects. Now, when I saw this gap, it was something that I really wanted to address. Ixl Gulf Business Incubator has created a value proposition which is doing end-to-end journey for startups. So, right from bringing them into UAE, where we offer them licensing support, we offer them co-working space, we offer them support systems in terms of a legal company, a marketing company, a financial accounting company. So these are hygiene factors. So when a startup, let's say, is coming from Egypt or from India or from Australia, this are basic hygiene requirement which is required for a startup founder to have comfort that I have settled in UAE. Then comes the real part. So then we have created an angel network of 300 plus mentors, advisors, and they are from different domains. So I have bankers, I have people from healthcare, I have people from IT logistics Depending on what sector the startup is from, I map the right mentors. Now, that is something which is unique, because nobody else does this in the market. We are able to fast-track the journey of the startup instead of them doing a trial and error, which can take a lot of time, money and effort. We are able to fast-track them because they bring the people who have lived in UAE for 20, 25 years like me, and they have the deep vertical knowledge. So it saves a lot of cost and time for startup to fast-track their journey. And the biggest advantage that we bring is we have market access. So we market access through our connection with the ZUI government. We do it through the private sector that we have connections. Of course, funding is a primary requirement of a startup, so we help them in that journey as well, right from a small ticket of $100,000. Depending on the stage of the startup, we can even help them a couple of million dollars if that's what they need. So, to answer your question, there was a huge gap. I think a lot of people have tried to do this, but IXL has cracked it very, very well. 0:10:53 - Mehmet Thank you, deepak, for this. And just to stress on the thing that you just mentioned, last year, when I decided to go out by myself and I started to talk to founders because I was trying to see, I worked myself with the US tech startups mainly, and I was here, so I was trying to discover this space and to discover this ecosystem, and what you mentioned is exactly the pain point that a lot of founders even locally here, by the way, not the ones who are outside they face. And here I want to ask you a question, because you mentioned yeah, there are a lot of other places. Do you think we have currently Deepak kind of, and I can see, I can understand the hype Whenever there's a hype in a market, whatever it is AI in tech or, for example, even now, startups are booming, so we see a lot of noise. Do you think we are seeing a lot of noise when it comes to I don't want to say it in a bad way, but I mean, let's say things that market themselves in a wrong way, that the founders, they get lost. So, for example, what you mentioned is exactly in the US, what an accelerator is. For example, the most known one is Y Combinator. So here we see just shared offices, but they say they are accelerators. We see people who say I can introduce you to investors, but actually they don't do it this way. Do you think we have a noise and do you think this noise is going to, after sometime, fade and we will have only really the real thing is staying. 0:12:36 - Deepak I think your observations are very right, mahmood. There are a lot of people who promise a lot and it's not just happening today, it's happening from longest time. So you know, as I mentioned, dubai has been a global hub for trade and businesses. So even 25 years back, when people were coming to Dubai to start a business, there were a lot of promises made by a lot of people saying, okay, you start a company, I will do this, do that. But to the point of startups, I think there are many players who claim that they want to do the full nine yards. But it is heavy lifting. You know, when I say this I'm talking from my personal experience to create that mentor network of 300 people I mean, I've been lucky to have some great co-founders. It's not easy. And to find people because, see, every you know, initiative takes effort, cost. People don't have that kind of a mind space or the bandwidth. If you look at it, most of the time anybody who's trying to help wants to take a fee out of you and doesn't bother about your success. So people say, okay, come set up a company, I'll give you license at a 50% cost and rent a space. So their money is made on a transaction. Now, if that is your approach, you will never be able to help the startup, because your transaction is going to give you the money. The real thing is are you part of the journey, which is what I actually does? We actually become part of the journey with a startup founder. We take a small equity on the operating entity. Now, what I'm trying to say is to answer your question. Eventually, the founders who are coming to this country, or they're already in this country, they will have to decide who they want to associate, because it's just like you know, when you want to go out and associate yourself with people, you get 20, 30 different options, but eventually you settle for one that you find. The value system match is there. I think that value system match will happen. With a few strong players who are willing to do the journey in the long term and not trying to make a quick buck out of it. They will not. The remaining will not die down, because there are founders who just want to have office space and Dubai has been a model that way. But the real startup founders who want to get the full support, they will have to choose the right ecosystem partners, and which is where the value system match is very important, because one of the important thing that I learned when I left my banking world is that you have to associate with people who have the similar thought process, and that's what a founder's job is. So, while they have done a great job in identifying a gap, and they are working on it, they also have to be very selected in terms of the partners that they choose and who's supporting them. I hope there are more players who will do the real stuff, but today there are very few. 0:15:09 - Mehmet Thank you, deepak, for mentioning this. Deepak, hearing this from someone experienced like you is very, I would say, important to someone like myself, because I'm considered myself a late-aged entrepreneur, let's say, or someone who's trying to help and guide fellow entrepreneurs, because I didn't have the access, I didn't have the knowledge, and with this podcast, I'm trying to fill this gap, if possible, and I'm happy, like you mentioned, matches the observations that I got also Last year. What I found and this resonates a lot with what you said that I think there is a lack of education for startup founders, so they don't know where to go and actually, unfortunately, because of the noise we talked about, I've seen some of them. They quit before even they do something. Some of them they unfortunately also they lose money and then they are left behind. But I like when to talk to people who give this hope again with me, deepak. Now I want to go a little bit into the investment part and, of course, because you have the background from the banking side as well, and this is what we discussed with people locally, I mean people who are based in Dubai and even people who are in the US. Now, the first thing do you see from your experience that necessarily every startup really needs to raise funds, and when to go to angels, when to go and seek the VCs? Maybe, like I'd say, simple question, but I like to repeat these topics because I think the more we repeat them, the more knowledge is getting from different opinions, and you are a thought leader in this, deepak, and again, repetition is always good, so I want to hear your feedback on this. 0:17:11 - Deepak No, I think it's a very important question that you asked, memut. I think funding and fund raise it takes a lot of time and effort from a founder and I've seen this journey for many of my founders that I'm associated with. So to answer your question, when is the right time? I think initial, as we know, when you have an idea that you want to work on, you'll have to bring money from your own pocket or maybe ask from your family. So that's why it's called friends and family rounds. So the first people who will trust you are people that you know. So your parents, your uncles, your cousins are the first people, and then, of course, your friend circle that somebody's been with you for few years. I think if you're able to get to a point where you have a POC and some kind of revenue is coming in, that's the time you go outside. Before that, if you go outside, very few people want to trust you unless you're a second time or third time founder and you have a great record. So that I'm wanting to put a rider going to angels is good, because by the name Angel, these are not just people who will put money but also will bring some kind of support system for you. So, for example, if you're a fintech startup and you get a banker as an angel investor like I was in my 20 years of career I just don't bring the money, I also bring access. So one of the startup that I've associated with is a golf aggregator which is now going on to become one of the top most consumer benefit marketplace. When I did the angel investment in 2013-14, I opened doors for them in multiple places. In fact, we even promoted the business model from a B2C to B2B2C and today we are doing a revenue of almost $80 million a year. So angels are very important. They play a role which is very, very critical. Before you go to VC because VC won't come at that stage you need to have some good angel investors. I think once you have achieved a stage where you are now wanting to scale and you want to grow outside the geography or outside different markets, that's the time you need to go to a VC, because VC money is usually for growth. I see very few VCs wanting to put the check at the early stage, and at early stage, your valuations will be so that they will take away your right arm and the leg. So I think you need to be careful in the journey that want to get to the VCs. I think VCs also have had a reputation where they put you on a very tough target and they start walking into your shoes literally. So if you're ready to have that kind of experience, then you should go to the VC. Otherwise, only go to them when you are ready for a larger discussion. I mean it's a gradual journey. So first is self-funded friend, family, then the angel, and then you go to a probably HNI and then go to a VC, because VCs the good ones usually play a big role in at the growth stage where they even take you to the exit. So either it could be a private equity exit or an IPO. So that's the journey of a startup founder. But at every stage when you bring money, try to bring smart money, not just ordinary money, because only investments are not what you need. Usually startups want. They want something which is also got a strategic angle to it. So somebody who can help you in distribution, somebody that can help you in pivoting the business model or come as a strategic advisor. I think that's what should be the focus of the start of founders. 0:20:12 - Mehmet Absolutely, and thank you again deep back, for you know this detailed explanation of that. But you know maybe I'm looking too much like criticizing or nagging today and sorry for the audience, but you know I'm trying to be because you know I've done a lot last year about this and this is again one of my notices. Do you agree with me that still on the angel sides? Because you know and I, the close to my heart are the founders who are still in early stages and first-time founders because, as you said, if they are second-time Founders, probably they already have the network, they cracked the code somehow. So first-time founders, they are still, as we call it, in a pre seed stage probably, or maybe seed stage. Now every single start a book that I read, you know, and usually it's about the US market, right? So you are the stories that we see here and there on the internet. You see the guy. He went, met someone in the restaurant and someone wrote him a check of 50, some 20, something, whatever. Now here in our region, do you agree with me deep back, like we don't have still this. I Don't know if we should call it culture of angel investment or should we call it. I don't know, because you know all, all the founders in their mind Okay, money is only either with VCs it's either with banks Maybe they would take it as a debt financing or Family offices. And you see them like they are spinning around trying to find out Okay, where can I get the money? Where can I get the money? So do you agree with me on this? You can disagree, of course, and if yes, like how we can in from your opinion, like have, like, I started to see some syndicate honestly in the region? But if you ask me and considering the, the population growth is not enough. So what's your take on that? 0:22:01 - Deepak I think the very important question, member, what you asked here Angel investment is a very risky asset class. I mean, it is something that I have been educating and Trying to create awareness because if you look at all the mature startup ecosystem whether it is Silicon Valley or India, china, they have grown primarily because there's a lot of angel investors who are supporting the start of the early stage, this region. You know, everything is all about education now. Even now, when I speak to some of my friends who are not in the system, they say, oh, but start up is very risky. I'm told that I have to invest in 10 of them. Seven of them will die, one of them will be a big hit and the others will give me average return. Now, that spray and pray is what the myth has been put in the minds of a lot of people, so they are shy of that. Again, it's a matter of education. So how do people again, I'm not generalizing it investment startups in this region? Okay, my friend invested $10,000 in some startup that he has worked hard, I don't know. Okay, take 5,000 for me Now. You don't do your due diligence, you don't do your own homework, you don't meet the founders, you don't ask the question. You went on a piggy riding of somebody else that you did this. Obviously you haven't taken care of your money. So this is where people have, you know, not had a great experience, but things are changing. In fact, we I excel because we want to become a full Ecosystem player are trying to do this. So one of the key initiative that I mentioned is that we have a i-engine network. It is growing by the week. It's right now, 300 members. Now who are those people? They are people exactly the profile that you mentioned people who have been in the country for five, ten, fifteen, twenty five years. They have saved some money. They are usually investing in the traditional asset class, so fixed deposit, mutual funds. The other state they want to come to start up ecosystem, but they don't know how to get the access to that. So that has become one of the important part how do you bring a startup? Now, during COVID, what happened? A lot of you know WhatsApp groups were formed and people were pitching on what a zoom. A startup founder will come for half an hour. He'll give you idea and you know, to 20 people on the zoom call, five of them decide to invest, but then you never see the founder again. You only see a report coming to you once in three months. You're lucky. That is what has to change to, to you know, get investment from engine investors at first. Building and trust doesn't happen overnight. You need to do the journey. So what I excel does is that we do monthly pitch events in our office. We can accommodate up to 100 people in our office. We have a large place Among the 300 people that we have. We invite them and every time we get around 60 70 people. We make them meet the founders. The founders are in person, they are here. What the other validation is doing is that we are talking about founders who will eventually set up the company in Dubai. So that comfort we are giving to people. So this is all building. You know, angel trust and I'll be very happy to say that. You know, out of my 300 people, there are a lot of people who are investing today in those companies. There's other thing that is also required here in terms of regulation, because, see, if you're Taking money from Investors, you need to have a right licensing. So that is where, again, the costs are very prohibitive. So we as a Accelerator are also part of the policy feedback that government and we want them to ease off in terms of the cost that is required, because if you're picking up money from angel investors Today in UAE today's money from individual there is a lot of regulation which you know it's not Prohibitive but it's expensive and it's also something that has a lot of hindrances. So that regression has to ease, education has to come, which is what we are doing, and eventually this ecosystem will pick up because From, like my experience as a wealth manager in this country, there's a lot of money here. I mean individuals save a lot of money here, companies have money. There are very rich H&I people in this country who are investing in Regions as a class. It's about educating them in the startup ecosystem and the most important critical aspects I want to emphasize is that there have to be exits. If, as an angel investor, mahmood, you have invested in something and after three, four years, you come and tell me deep up, my money got multiplied by three, four, five times, I'm getting encouraged. We are not seeing that happening in the ground. You know there are very few exits. So there has to be a mechanism where we, as a custom player, bring all those things together. So education regulation Exits people. When they see money Coming back to them, they want to invest again and that's what has happened. The other geographies here it is starting to happen, but again you need the right players, which is what I expect trying to do. We make the investors meet the founders, we validate them and, inshallah, in the next two, three years we are going to build a very strong engine network for the country. 0:26:25 - Mehmet I'm happy to hear that, as they say, it's a music to my ears that you've like and really congratulations on doing this. Because, again, regarding the education, I think because I tried to honestly and you know I'm very transparent that everyone knows this. So I even tried some people. I told them I don't have the network right, but I said, yeah, but it's really someone who's inside the UE. We know nothing. So what I have noticed is and this is was the feedback of the founders that came from other regions. Oh, your region is so like, you know, risk averse. You know like they are. I mean, they don't like risk, right, so they want something guarantee. And this is because, again, as you mentioned, like, because we don't have still, you know the, of course, some people like yourself, you know you because you've been doing this for a while, but still we need to do a lot of work. I believe about you know, it's not like, yeah, this, it's not like a formula that three succeed and see. Please go ahead, deepak. 0:27:24 - Deepak I have to add one more point. You know the problem here is if there's an investor who's got 100 dollars to invest, the startup guy is fighting for the 100 dollars along with a banker, along with a real estate guy and a gold guy, because everybody thinks that those asset classes are very secure, as you said, you know. So people have seen a lot of money being made in real estate, so they believe that you know that's a safer asset because you can see the property and all that. As I said, startups in this country have to get exits for the angel investors. If we see in your friend circle, out of 50 people that you know, 10 people have made money in start up, why won't you go there? I think that has also to come in. So there is a. The feedback that you had from your friend is not wrong that the people are looking for a secure asset class because that's where they've seen money growing. In the last 20 years, uae people have made a lot of money in real estate. I mean people who have taken the risk has made money startup. There are people who have made money but they don't make noise about it and it's a small number. 0:28:15 - Mehmet You have to increase the number yes, and I think this is where, again, you know what you're doing, deepak, is helping, because to spreading you know, the message out and people would start to know, will start to notice the good thing. In my, you know, I'm always looking to the full as a second. The full, full part of the glass is, you know, the stories that happen in the past few years, whether it's like the Kareem, whether it's like the soupcom. So it opened the eyes a little bit of people, oh, like this startup thing work here actually in our region. Because people always thought, oh, this can happen only in the Silicon Valley, especially if we're talking about tech, for example, yeah, or these things only happens in India, or these things only happens in China or in Singapore. So I'm very happy now that we are seeing this paradigm shift even in the mentality of people thinking, no, actually this region, whether here in New E, dubai, in Saudi, you know, even like the other GCC countries they started also to have Egypt is very active, by the way, nowadays in the startup scene. So I'm happy to see this because people started to believe. Now I would little bit let you, deepak, sit on the part, maybe getting you back to the banking side, because I know that investors, they think from you know you need to have this banking mentality. So when and this is I'm asking you to give hint to founders. So what do you usually look when you assess any startups? What and what do you advise you know founders to have before coming and seek investments from engines? 0:29:55 - Deepak I think it's a very, very loaded question. I'll try to make it simple. 0:30:00 - Mehmet Take your time, by the way, answering it. 0:30:03 - Deepak The founder should be, you know, passionate about what he's doing or she is doing, I mean, or they are doing together. They cannot be a part-time founder. You can't be doing a job and doing a startup. You need to be full-time engaged. You need to show that you have put your skin in the game. So I don't invest in founders who say I don't have money, but I took money from my uncle and I'm now coming to you, because that shows that you don't have any commitment. So those are first few don'ts that you don't go to investor without putting your own skin in the game. I think it's also important that you know when you are doing something. You should be very clear about the scalability of the solution, because I've seen many founders getting falling in love with their solution saying, oh, this is great idea, but they haven't done, and they always believe that this is a green field, that you know nobody else in the world is doing that. But if you scratch the surface, you will realize that there are maybe five other competitions. So go with your facts very correctly done. One of the important things that I always tell my founders is that don't fall in love with your solution. Fall in love with the problem. So if you identified a gap, the solution that you created for the first or second time may not be the final solution. You keep pivoting. This is where many founders go wrong. If they found a gap, they created a solution. They fall in love with the solution. They want to say that, oh, this is the best solution. But what happens? A couple of months down the line, somebody comes and brings a better solution for that. Just to give you an example, you know I mentioned Uber. We also had, you know founder from who's got a company similar to that called Waze, waze ID, which was eventually bought by Google. But Waze is an improvised version of you know GPS system and it's much more effective. So always try to find better the problem, the solution that you have created. So these are few things that I look at it, I think the most important aspect is the startup founder aware of the market? Does he know the journey in the next four or five years and exit, because every investor wants to know when will I get my exit? So the story is great. You know you've got an amazing powerpoint 10 slides but where is the exit? When do you think if I put my money today, can I exit in two years, three years, four years, and how will the exit happen? So these are important parameters no part-time founder skin in the game. Fall in love with the problem, not a solution. Have your roadmap clear in terms of scalability and make sure that there is. You know the competition because you can get surprised and you know many a times founder sit on a solution where there is no even market for that. So make sure that there's a market for that. And as an investor, I would like to know when does the exit happen for me? I'm not looking at multipliers, I'm just looking at time frame. So you take my money like, if I invest my money in the real estate, I know I have to wait for three, four years. If I invest my money in free deposit, I know I have to wait for one year. I need to know in the startup what is my time frame. I can't put the money forever. Yes, I can decide to take not the money out when I'm at two multiples. I want to wait for five multiples, but that's my cost. So that's. Those are the few tips I want to give to the founders who are stepping out to raise money from the investor. 0:33:01 - Mehmet I think, again, you touched the back on one underrated part. It's, of course, finding the problem and finding the solution. It's like, of course, the key. And last year, you know and I was doing this like voluntarily, by the way, you know, I was because I was learning, by the way so, to your point, a lot of founders, they came to me and they thought that they have the next whatever right. And then when I asked, okay, how did you validate? I just asked a simple question and I said what do you mean? I said, okay, the solution, the problem is clear, solution is clear, but does it have the enough market? Like, have you at least asked your friends, asked, you know, your, your colleagues, if they are facing the same problem and would they pay money for this? And they said no, because I'm facing the same problem. I said yeah, like this is the bare minimum where you have to start. So you need to the idea, validation and market validation is very underrated and you know, and you know I was lucky also to to work with a group of young entrepreneurs and you know, when I did like a lecture for them and you know like this is, they said we, you know, like, no one told us about these things, we thought like we need to go find a problem, put a solution, raise money and yeah, okay, they started to understand they need to put the exit and all this. But they missed the market validation and I said, yeah, without going out of the office and going talking to people, you will not be able to, you know, to validate your idea. So you need a strong validation and actually this will help you, you know, when you speak in front of the investors. So thank you for bringing this deep back now. I want you know to, to understand from you more. We covered startups, but I know that the work you do at IACCEL is you collaborate with the government entities as well, like Dubai SME, and I know like your office actually is in the building where the DED is or the bi-economic department is. So how, how this collaboration is, is, you know, fostering and nurturing the involvement for startups with the support of the of the government. 0:35:13 - Deepak So I mentioned in the beginning that I've been resident of UAE for almost 29 years. I've seen, you know, dubai, uae grow and it's all been a vision. You know from the government, the leadership. I'm so fortunate that we are today able to help Dubai SME in their mission to bring start-ups from different parts of the world. Our patronage from Dubai SME makes us very, very unique, because every start-up that we are talking to and once we have zeroed down on them, we make an introduction to the Dubai SME team and they are always helpful. So, just to give an example, we had two at-take companies from the United States who came in and incorporated with us, apart from putting them on to the mentors from the economic background that we have in our group and network. We were able to open the doors for them in a couple of universities, but when I took them to the Dubai SME, we were introduced to the KHDA, which is a regulator. So in terms of market access, in terms of regulation, dubai SME is playing a great role. I think it's a very interesting public-private partnership, which is something that has happened in many countries where, as a government, you have a vision and you want to achieve a certain level of economic development, but as a government, because of whatever reason, you can only do this much, and which is where people like us come in the picture, who help you to achieve that goals and objectives through a public-private partnership. So I believe IXL Girl Business Incubator is an entity which is private, but we get a lot of support from Dubai SME to help achieve the end goal of the country. This 11 companies that I've incorporated last year, and then another 25 that we are going to incorporate this year, I am pretty sure, if not all, at least many of them, will be a legacy for the country. Many of these companies are solving a problem which is existing in the UAE and our companies are getting some amazing traction. I can sit down and give you names. I will be surprised if many of these companies will stay here for the next 15, 20, 30 years. So that's our kind of giving back to the society. If you look at Dubai SME, it's a custodian of SME businesses. Now, many of the businesses are traditional businesses like trading companies, garages, restaurants. We know that disruption is going to hit many of them, so in a way, we are helping bring sustainable tech businesses into the country, which is what UAE consumer also needs, which is what the government also wants to do, and in the process, we are creating employment opportunities. We are creating investment opportunities. There's a wealth creation for people who are getting associated with us. There's a job creation mechanism happening as well. We are so happy because in a lifetime, normally you get a chance to start a new business or a new geography. Here we have an opportunity where we are starting something which will help the country. It will help the founders who are coming from different parts of the world to grow their business. It is helping the government achieve its objective. Plus, we are creating an ecosystem the angel network that we have created. You've already seen some great successes people who have started mentoring the startup. They are achieving the goals together, so it's a beautiful journey. It's been only like less than a year, but we are very excited and a lot more is coming in terms of the tech company that we are looking at for Dubai. 0:38:26 - Mehmet That's amazing and fascinating. Deepak, you mentioned about what you look at when you accept them in your accelerator program. Do you focus more on companies that do consumer business, like B2C, or is it for you that they can be from any type? 0:38:50 - Deepak Again, we have a level 1 to level 4 filter mechanism. As of now, we only work with tech companies. We have tech companies that can help them to scale. If there's a great restaurant idea, I don't think I can help them, because how many restaurants can I open? So not all businesses we accept. We accept tech businesses and within tech also, we have 9 verticals. So print tech, health tech, education tech, agri tech, cyber tech, ai. I'm not saying that I will not accept a 10th vertical and tech side, but as long as there's tech, which is where scalability becomes easier. And again, the mandate that we have from the government is to bring tech businesses, because other businesses they are coming to Dubai and there are many ways, many people trying to help them. So, to answer your question, we are focusing on tech businesses and we're not saying no to tech-enabled businesses. So we are open to that as long as there's a use case for this region. See, there's no point bringing a business which doesn't have a use case for here. There's no point incorporating a company which will not grow, because my success is tied with the growth of the company. If they don't achieve the growth, then my association with them is not going to be helpful for either party, so I don't want to waste anybody's time. We are very focused on that aspect. 0:39:55 - Mehmet Yeah, great, and I'm with you, deepak, on tech and this is why, also myself, you know I try to focus because I have technology background, but you know I have a, you know, a wish or dream or whatever you want to call it is to have, okay, like I love all the tech, whatever it is HR tech, it tech, fintech but I think what we need to start to see more here is the enterprise tech and you know, maybe over the time we start to see these but very few and the deep tech, right. So I wish we start to see these more over here. The others, of course, anything which is technology is fascinating, that you know you help people or you help other organizations. It's amazing. Like. Final question before we close, deepak, like from the mission you are on now and from the experience that you have, do you think you know or like, if you want to ask it from different like type of different angle, do you see the startup ecosystem here in the? U and the rest of GCC in the next 510 years going, you know, beyond, or becoming like also number one in the world, like surpassing Silicon Valley? Do we have this ambition? How do you see this market evolving when it comes to the startups? 0:41:21 - Deepak I think, again, a great question. I don't think I will say that it will go surpass Silicon Valley, but there's a huge opportunity. What do we have going right for this region? One, there's a lot of focus from the government. They want to bring this. So that is the starting point and because of that, there's encouragement for the other ecosystem players. So, you know, people like us getting into the business, investors are coming into the business. Now I also want to be very careful when I say this that you know, a startup cannot have a solution only for this region. They can be from this region, they can be from Dubai, but their solution should be global, because that's how you will scale, that's how you achieve the success. So these are the important aspects. Now, the ecosystem that is required to, you know, foster this kind of culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, is happening on the ground. I mean, yesterday we were in Abu Dhabi signing a MOU with the National Incubator, which is a federal level initiative, and we have been positioned along with the big boys like Hub 71. So there is a lot of government focus coming from all the levels for bringing this, because one thing that everybody knows, that you know if any country has an unemployment problem, they can only be solved by entrepreneurship. I mean, I met a very strong founder a few years back and he said the entrepreneurs are the people who solve the problems of the world. I mean, look at Apple, a trillion dollar company created by a vision of two, three smart people. Similarly, microsoft, you know. Talk about Tesla. The entrepreneurship culture in this region is growing and the support system that is coming from the mentors, advisors, government is definitely going to take it to the next level. How big we become is depending on how persistent we are. Of course, a lot of work has to be done on the regulation side, because I have to be candid in this show that in the past few years, when there was a good startup from this region and they wanted to raise VC money from the US, they were asked to take the whole co out of this region because the regulations here don't allow you to have different share classes. I think those regulatory changes are important, so we have got the ball rolling. That is a good momentum to decide. How big we become will also be influenced by how much we are going to change the regulation. So, for example, you know, today startups are always bootstrapped. If I have to do business in one emirate, I should be allowed to do business in the other emirates with the same license, so they don't have to go and take on the license. So these kinds of things have to change, you know, because if a startup has to open seven different licenses to work in seven emirates, it's not going to happen. So there is a moment that has started, but it requires constant evolution on regulation side, on the technology side, and that's how the startup is scaled up. I don't want to put size to it, but this region has a huge potential because we have everything going, we have the population, we have the money, we have the government willingness and we have the talent. That's the most important part. We just have to bring them together and people like you and me can make that happen together. 0:44:16 - Mehmet Hopefully and you know I can see it happening deep back in couple of years. I'm not sure how many, but I think it's faster than people expect because, for the same reasons you mentioned and especially, especially, especially, you know, regarding the regulations, I think you know the pace, especially after COVID, we started to see how things here in Dubai, specifically how the laws started to change. From the beginning, it started to change very fast and whatever what used to be called like, maybe taboo no, you cannot ask for this Now it's becoming possible. I think you know this is helping a lot and what I'm happy more deep about and this I can share from personal experience even founders from the Silicon Valley I'm talking here about tech specifically are coming to this region because, from their perspective, they see the opportunity and not from money only, which is very good, because you know someone would say hey, like, yeah, but always the the GCC region. You know they know they are like relying on oil and you know they are rich already. It's not the case. So really, these people are seeing how governments are embracing this change and, you know, putting their efforts, and this is why they are telling me hey, like, guys, like you're really up to something like that, all these fascinating things happening there, which is 100% Deepak. Final question, where we can find more about. You know, I accelerated. 0:45:37 - Deepak I can share my website. I can share my LinkedIn. There are places that you can find us. We are also on Insta, I mean I think we can send that information across to you. We have a very strong co founder who's a marketing person herself, and she has made sure that we make a lot of noise. So you'll find us. If you type in I Excel, you will find us. 0:45:58 - Mehmet For the audience. Don't worry, usually what I do, I put this information in the show notes for you so you don't have to look at yourself, deepak, at the end. You know I really appreciate, you know, this discussion. I'm passionate myself. This is why maybe the audience would have noticed that I was like more interactive, like not other episodes, maybe and there isn't something very close to my heart I consider myself maybe I wasn't a startup founder at a younger age. But at this stage, at this phase of my life, if I could help fellow you know, entrepreneurs to find what I was missing when I was younger, that would be fantastic. And this is why actually this show exists and the reason it's called CTO. It's actually a combination of tech and entrepreneurship. So thank you very much, deepak, for all the insights, all the information you gave me today. I enjoyed the discussion. 0:46:55 - Deepak Likewise, it's been amazing conversation. I think I enjoyed it equally, as I believe this is a collaboration effort. We need more people like yourself and many more to make this ecosystem vibrant. Yeah, thank you so very happy and wish you all the best. I'm looking forward to continue this dialogue in the future as well. 0:47:14 - Mehmet Sure, and, as usual, this is how I end my episode. So this is for the audience. If you discover this podcast by chance, thank you, so I hope you become a loyal followers. You can find us on all podcasting platforms Apple Podcasts, spotify and all the rest. Also, you can find us on YouTube, so we appreciate if you can subscribe and share this with your friends and colleagues, and if you are one of the loyal followers who keeps sending me their messages and feedback. Thank you very much, and I appreciate that. Keep sending them. Even if you don't like something, send it to me. I can try to enhance. I'm always looking to enhance this show and at the end, this is for everyone around. If you have an idea, if you are on a mission doing something related to tech and entrepreneurship, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Let's us do an episode together and come and try to help other people. Thank you very much for tuning in and we will meet again very soon. Thank you. Transcribed by https://podium.page