#429 Unlocking MEA’s Tech Potential: Ayman Bazaraa and Bassam Sharkawy on Sprints AI

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet. Today I'm very pleased joining me both co founders of Sprints AI Ayman Bazzara and Bassam Sharkawy. Guys like I really enjoy when I have multiple guests on the show because [00:01:00] very few of my episodes have more than one guest so I'm excited and I'm always excited to have founders from the MENA region of course and this is why we are here.

Mehmet: So Ayman and Bassam so please you know tell us a little bit more about you and your journey and what you are currently up to. So Ayman we'll start with you.

Ayman: Okay. My name is Ayman Bazaara. Uh, I am the Theo and co-founder of Sprints. Uh, I've been working in the technology field, uh, 20 years, the past 12 years in the, uh, startups, uh, scene.

Ayman: I, I founded three startups. Uh, sprints is the third one. Uh, the previous one, uh, is the acquired, actually a year ago, uh, by a Fortune 100, uh, company called Arrow Technologies. Uh, and it was focused mainly on the autonomous driving, uh, software, uh, for, uh, autonomous vehicles. I mean, maybe a little bit about why we founded the sprints.

Ayman: Actually, it was, uh, uh, I would say the reflection on our [00:02:00] region where We have amazing youth who are keen to succeed in life and to, uh, produce a high value, uh, for the, their, uh, mainly, uh, economy and the globe. And all the companies I worked for, actually, I worked with multiple multinationals before starting my own companies.

Ayman: And, uh, although all the companies were, was the main struggle or challenge is the, uh, Finding that good calibers and they were actually hiring in thousands. We're talking about about very big big companies And unfortunately, they couldn't find the right people coming from universities in the region This is why I mean we we decided to uh to go With friends to bridge this gap and actually through our guaranteed hiring programs that we will talk about Together but I don't want to to to take the mic a lot.

Ayman: So

Mehmet: No worries. No worries Thank you Ayman for joining us, but Sam, like, if you can just, uh, tell us a little bit more about your journey also as well. Yeah,

Bassam: sure. Well, first of all, thank you Merit so much [00:03:00] for having us today. I'm very much excited for this episode. So my name is Bassam. I'm a, I'm an engineer.

Bassam: I've been working in the software industry and the technology industry maybe since 2010. Sprint is my, my second startup. Actually, the first startup was a deep tech startup coming, a research based, I would say. I used to do to work as a research assistant right after my graduation, and we made like an innovation that we wanted to make it a product and would be the first product and men are coming out of a research based company.

Bassam: And it was a very interesting journey, actually, with. or two of the top universities in Egypt. And then I joined another technological company because deep tech companies did not work very well back then. Investments were not ready for such type of companies. And, um, If you remember that time most of the investments were into Instagram and Facebook like applications [00:04:00] It was like asset companies with a lot of software than hardware and we had like Both components since we are like a deep tech company I then joined a us based company and worked in us on law for like five five point five years I made two FDA approved products with great teams from the Middle East and 16 other nationalities and I had like a perfect time in US working with those teams and I really realized.

Bassam: How much of potential does the African talents and the Middle Eastern talents have in that industry? Yet we were not branded enough. Nobody knew about the African talents or the Arab talents or the Middle Eastern talents that they are. It was not that famous and it's still, um, not famous that, uh, the Middle East or Africa do have like the, these talented technologists.

Bassam: However, a lot of that FDA approved code was written [00:05:00] by Egyptian or African talents. So I, I came to here to realize that. No, we need to be branded more. We need to do to do something about this. Um, the African talents are going to be like 50 percent of the whole youth and we are only like 3 percent of them are technologists and are globally recognized.

Bassam: So I came back in 2018 wanted to do a teams as a service company. And this is when my good luck made me encounter Ayman and knew him back then. So, um, a friend introduced us and I said, I want to make a company that makes technologists branded, make us as technologists branded well in, in U. S. and in Canada.

Bassam: And the, in these 16, between these 16 Ishnata that I work with. Then we founded Sprints to, to do that, to, to upskill people, uh, teach them how to be great technologists, how to be recognized globally and, and to employ our great talents in here and to [00:06:00] make them branded everywhere. To, to let everybody knows that.

Bassam: We do have a great talent and great people actually that can do wonders

Mehmet: Uh, you know, this is the music to my ears because this is a topic that You know, I discussed a lot, you know outside of the podcast because you know, i'm big believer also in the talents of the region and you know how You know the impact that they can have on not only in the let's say technological aspects.

Mehmet: I look at it from impact aspect and, you know, we're going to talk of course about it. So if, if, if I want to understand again, you know, so you mentioned Ayman and Bassam like you mentioned like some kind of, uh, challenges that we have and also like some, uh, frictions that we have. If I want to ask you, you know, what's the core mission for sprints?

Mehmet: Like what's your ultimate goal? I would say.

Ayman: Actually, uh, [00:07:00] as Bassam mentioned, uh, our region, uh, is, is almost 50 percent of the youth, uh, uh, worldwide. Uh, and we, this youth is growing actually. Uh, on the other side, the world is, um, the average age is increasing. Okay. I'm talking about Europe mainly and, and, uh, the US as well, but, uh, it's not as severe as Europe, so the, here is the potential and here is the threat.

Ayman: On the other side, AI is coming and it will be disrupting, it will be replacing manual and low, I would say, low wage jobs. This is where Sprint's come. Actually, our name is sprint. ai, so we came before actually the AI, I would say, revolution. So, uh, our, our, our aim was to take this opportunity. and defend against the threat.

Ayman: So those huge youth, all youth want a high paying jobs, the, uh, in the [00:08:00] technology field and would like to be defensible against the future. And now we can understand that you really need to have a defensible career. I mean, because AI is replacing everybody. So our, our core objective was. to graduate exceptional talents that cannot only be employed locally, but to compete globally.

Ayman: This is our main goal is to be able to compete globally and reflecting on what Bassam mentioned that the company that I worked maybe 10 years ago, this company has tens of patents. from Egypt alone. Tens of patents, only one, one company. Okay. So if you, if you have the right environment, uh, you will actually, you, you will be, uh, I mean, you can really get a high value.

Ayman: Uh, and you can see the number of deep tech companies coming now from, from our region. So our goal actually to answer your question is 1 billion learner. So, uh, actually to educate everybody. Uh, about AI, how to utilize the eye in all kinds of [00:09:00] specializations, whether it's deep tech or even other special special special like HR, how you can utilize the eye in your recruitment, how you can utilize the eye in as an entrepreneur, how you can utilize the eye as a finance, financial experts and so on.

Ayman: So this is our goal in terms of the learning and on the other side is the employment. So it's not about only educating people and to create defensible, but we would like to help them in that employment. And we just launched actually a few months ago, our remote hiring platform. So that we can make our talents available for for Europe for the U.

Ayman: S. And actually, it's growing like I mean, we were astonished how the demand is there. The need actually our youth would like to get paid in foreign currency to work with the companies in Silicon Valley on AI algorithms and I startups and so on. And on the other side, you can find talents, amazing talents.

Ayman: Uh, with, [00:10:00] uh, I mean, maybe 20 percent of the cost or less. So it's a win win for everybody. And this is what I'm saying. It's all about branding. It's all about connecting the dots. And we are extremely passionate of what we are doing. And we hope that we reach the 1 billion, uh, learner, uh, in the coming years.

Mehmet: Why, why not? Um. I just have a question and I think, you know, you both, you can answer it. So what, so what you are doing is fantastic, Ayman and Bassem. My question is always what we need to do more, right? Using platforms like what you're currently doing to make sure that our talents, because you mentioned they want to work for, you know, the U.

Mehmet: S. companies and European companies, Now, how can we encourage the local ecosystem to also go and talk to these talents and, you know, pay them, you know, what they deserve, right? So it's not like, you know, they, they look to, to migrate, you know, sometimes now they are working remotely, which is fine. [00:11:00] What can be done in that space?

Mehmet: And I think maybe you can tackle that using what, what you're building.

Ayman: But, um,

Bassam: yeah, like, so basically. What we have seen from the international culture that are dealing with us is that They only lack the understanding of how trusted you can be to them I mean when when Ayman was talking about his previous company with tons of patents and working with like the biggest brands out there I'm talking about Daimler, BMW, Mercedes and and stuff like that.

Bassam: These are major major clients with With major teams all over the world What they wanted from an Egyptian company was two things, quality and trust, right? If we can create our brand that we are trusted talents with high quality. And then we equipped the talents with what it takes to deal with multicultural environments.

Bassam: I think these are the gap, the [00:12:00] real gap that we want to, like, make it make it minimal in order for this thing to happen. It's good branding and trust and quality. And on the other hand, how to deal with global employers and global multinational environments and make make them trust you. Look at India, for example.

Bassam: At the very first beginning, they had like their own strategy of conquering the world from a technological aspect. By time, they became branded, regardless of anything else. They were only branded Indian, a technology equal Indian people. Then they worked, or they are working on the quality and the trust part.

Bassam: So now they are taking the first places in chess. For example, they are trying from a national perspective to brand ourselves themselves. I'm sorry, as smart people. So they first wanted to put in the head of the world that technology equal India, cheap technology equal India, [00:13:00] and then they are currently working on their quality and branding themselves as the smartest people on earth.

Bassam: I think they tackled it well and what we need to do as African Middle Eastern talents is to do the same. Trust in the African talent. And the high quality since we do have highly dedicated people, bilingual time zones of these talents in Africa are mostly the same with Europe and they actually on the other part of the day for us where our talents, you know, love to work at night and so on.

Bassam: So it's like part of our culture and when it comes to payment, they are affordable prices that can make them actually wealthy in their countries. Mhm. Yes, I do know that they want to be paid or we want to be paid as, um, as we deserve. But on the other hand, the difference in currency can do a lot of cost affordability for those countries while giving our talents exposure to [00:14:00] multinational and global tech domain.

Bassam: And as Ayman was mentioning, we currently have full teams hired remotely for US based and Canada based, Canadian based, uh, um, Companies who are working in LLMs, like the top notch technology that we are seeing now. They are all from Africa, from all from the Middle East, like 15 people, 20 people in the same team.

Bassam: This reflects one thing. This reflects nothing but trust, nothing but quality. This is what we want to be branded for, in my humble opinion. And from our side, What we are doing in our learning programs is that we are simulating the work life environment using a I. We are simulating the global customer. We are making teams from Saudi Arabia from UAE from Egypt from Nigeria from Kenya.

Bassam: This way you are creating even the multicultural environments. Yes, it's not [00:15:00] like we haven't yet integrated like the Western culture in that, but we are integrating that with a I. Because A. I. Is simulating the European or the U. S. Based customer. They are dealing with them on a professional way. The A. I.

Bassam: Is simulating the customer. Let's say they are sending them emails, uh, asking them about the projects they want or they need to, uh, to deliver. They are talking about the next sprint. What are you going to do? Uh, they ask them for reports and they are reporting back. So you are simulating the work life environment in order to equip the learners with the work.

Bassam: It was what it takes in the work environment so that they can graduate ready for, um, global or local hiring. That's great. Ayman, do you want to add

Mehmet: something?

Ayman: Yeah, I mean, uh, actually, one of the points, uh, that, uh, we, the main challenge that, um, we started as an edtech startup, you know, uh, and, uh, you know, edtechs always struggle with completion rates.

Ayman: I'd like to, to back what Bassam was mentioning. [00:16:00] Actually, our completion rates are more than 95%, although we are online. Uh, so, uh, the reason behind this is all about psychology. People actually don't like you to receive people would like to engage to produce This is why you can work for 12 hours per day But you cannot study alone on a laptop for 12 hours per day And this is that I don't want to mention the main competitors that we have a very famous online american, uh ed tech You will see completion is four percent three percent because it's actually designed for uh by professors for professors I mean people who are Really introverts people who can stay, uh, actually for months to, to, to study online by themselves, but actually that natural human being would like to socialize, like to work with people.

Ayman: And this is what we actually do. It's a team based learning. It's project based learning. Every week there's a delivery, actually learners, uh, uh, evaluate each other. So they understand that a professional work, actually your peer. Can evaluate you and you can evaluate him and you need to be very, uh, good [00:17:00] team players.

Ayman: They will see that their progress actually could be seen by employers. So if I am one of the top, uh, one, uh, smartest, uh, person, for example, in Saudi Arabia, it's there. If I am, uh, the top Android developer, uh, in, uh, UAE, you can see it. So this kind of a gamification also help, especially we are talking about Gen Z, they'd like to achieve and so on.

Ayman: So it's very important to include this kind of social learning, team based learning. And actually, we also encourage, uh, offline activities through, we have a lot of partnership through, we have a kind of places that actually sponsored by the government where actually they can come and work together on their projects.

Ayman: So this is also an actual. But it's a decentralized you have the project to deliver and you know that by delivering those projects You will be seen by employers You are creating the portfolio even where the employers when they start interviewing you you see Your progress and what [00:18:00] the type of projects that you have and finally AI is a Can scale this and this is for the first time in history where really you can democratize education Before it was not possible if you want that quality like MIT or Stanford actually for hundreds Maybe thousands but not millions and billions and this is what we are actually trying to do and maybe Mehmet if you can take your voice now and maybe some videos you can see us producing content with hundreds of languages just by taking your Your shape and your voice and this is how you can really support multi languages and you can really Customize and this would be the first time to even to personalize the experience Since five years, we start all journeys by assessments.

Ayman: We start by assessments to know your gaps. You receive a report why you are not employable, why you are not employable. And actually you can generate or the modules are created based on these gaps. So you know that this journey is for you. And if you finish it, you are now ready [00:19:00] to get employed. So this is also, uh, the first time in history where actually the learning journey depend on the person,

Mehmet: that's, that's a great, uh, AAyman, you know, to hear. And I know I'm, I work in education for, for some time in my career. And, you know, I can relate a few things now in education usually. And we know this also, and I'm curious to know, have you implemented this or any plans? So, because to your point, when I was going, we will not name any of the competitors when I went to any of the famous online education.

Mehmet: So my challenge is. It's so 1970s, 80s designed in a way that I used to get bored, right? Because it's just giving me information, which is okay. I can open maybe YouTube and have the same thing, right? The thing that excited me online if I have to do some practical You know stuff like, you know, the capstone what they call them projects So [00:20:00] have you been able also to to find a way to make this, you know more interactive for the people who comes to the To the to sprints and you know try to to learn something like how you tackle this I would say issue or challenge.

Mehmet: Thank you

Ayman: so much. Smiling.

Bassam: so much for asking such a great question. Actually, that was our aim from day one, is not to have what the educational psychologists call YouTube experience. You named it, you nailed it. YouTube experience is all about next, next, next, next. To fill the completion rates and say, Hey, he completed 30 percent that we are going to give him a certificate after the minor skill that he took without any evidence that they can really do what he taught him to do.

Bassam: So what we have thought of from the perspective of the work life environment, no one and I mean, no one in the work life environment or work, work, work environments locally or [00:21:00] globally do something theoretical. It's practical all the way, and no one does anything on his own or in her, on her own. So on our approach, they are gathered into groups.

Bassam: Our learners are gathered into groups from day one. But this is what, what Ayman called earlier, the social aspect of learning or the social learning from the day one. You are in a, in a community, whether it's a small community on your group or is a bigger community of the cohort, or everybody who is taking the same with you.

Bassam: With you. So first you start with an assessment. You assess your gaps. You start your own journey or modules with people who are at the same level of you. You don't have any variations in the level since we personalize the same journey for them all or different journeys for them all. And then we start doing this together.

Bassam: And by calling doing this is all about practice. On a weekly basis, we have tasks and a capstone project, and our name is Sprintz because we [00:22:00] are dividing the journey on weeks, which is Sprintz on the agile framework. So they have every sprint, which is every week. They have a capstone project or some tasks to do together.

Bassam: They are reviewing them together. They are putting them all and using the tools, GitHub and, and, and doing with Slack, Slack channels and integrating or communicating in English. So they are living the life of work life and As the practicality of it, and when they finish, they have now a portfolio of projects, 10, 12, 15 projects that are industry like projects.

Bassam: So they are now equipped with what the industry needs. And thus, they are employable. And thus, the completion rates are high. Why? Because they are not seeing or watching the videos for the sake of watching the videos for completion. They are watching the videos and researching in order to get the project done.

Bassam: And that's the ultimate goal. And I will use an example that Ayman is always using, which [00:23:00] is, do you remember when at college you were, the most time you were excited and interested in what you're doing? At the graduation project groups. Why? Because you only have guidance. And what you want to do is to come up with an output that you can see it with your own eyes and say, Hey, I did this.

Bassam: So we are trying to make the completion rates high by increasing the sense of achievement by if each and every week they are doing, Hey, I did this. That's our methodology that are, uh, that is actually doing marvels when it comes to completion rates and to the sense of, I'm now up skilled. I'm now sure that I took that theory and I applied it into something that I can see.

Mehmet: That's music to my ears, but Sam, now, I'm gonna ask a follow up question and both of you, you can answer. It's great that you, you're doing this approach, but why do you think our education system is still stuck? Because to your point, you, you [00:24:00] just also like hit it on the head of the nail. Like, I was only excited in my graduation project, right?

Mehmet: And I can only remember what I work on graduation project, nothing else. I didn't use anything that they taught us. Right? So this is a fact. I started engineering, computer engineering. I'm not saying it was useless, but again, now the question is, You know, of course what you're doing is great, but uh, How much this is do you see it as a challenge because still unfortunately even the gen z's are Like I would say graduating from the same outdated program so because we need acceleration But sam you just mentioned something a few minutes ago about the talent in africa and in the middle east And I am with you because you know, I receive You know, sometimes, uh, pitch decks and I receive like a project proposals from these folks, especially in Africa.

Mehmet: And I would [00:25:00] name like few countries, Egypt, Kenya, and, uh, South Africa. Yeah. So, and these guys are brilliant guys. So, so Like, how, how all together with what you're doing, we can even also go and tackle the universities and even maybe the schools.

Bassam: Yeah,

Ayman: I mean, I'm so happy with the question, Mehmed. As if you are with us in the, I mean, with Sprints and discussing the strategy for the next year and the coming years.

Ayman: Okay. Actually, actually. We totally agree. And when we started with the guaranteed hiring programs, uh, actually, uh, we started with graduates, university graduates, uh, and, uh, we guarantee hiring where they can pay after, uh, being hired. So we link, uh, the success of our objective or helping you get hired with the payment method.

Ayman: Uh, after this, we started integrating our programs in the universities. And actually we have. Many universities actually integrating our [00:26:00] curricula as part of their natural curricula, where they actually open hours when you finish one of our programs. We're also partnered with the Ministry of, uh, IT and higher education, multiple programs.

Ayman: We're actually, we started landing jobs for university students after taking our programs. Okay. So, uh, part time jobs or internships, but long term internship that they can do in parallel with their work. So we are, we are going this, this side in order to scale this. And I want to tell you actually our first The pitch for sprints is was to, uh, to is a university.

Ayman: The first and actually our first check was, uh, let's do a university. But the problem is, you know, the bureaucracy, uh, that we, okay, we don't, we don't want let's integrate and disrupt from the outside. Uh, what we are doing right now, we have a huge team, uh, R and D team where actually they are doing amazing things.

Ayman: And actually I would invite you to come and visit our, uh, R and D lab. You will see amazing things happening. What you are planning this year actually to open, what we are doing [00:27:00] for the universities. Where they can use our engine to generate content to, uh, to validate that we have to generate projects for the curricula to, uh, design the journey, uh, and also to, to utilize our coding labs and, uh, all what we have developed as a platform as part of the experience.

Ayman: Also, the AI coach, we have AI coaches that is trained on the curricula. that can help the students to engage and so on. And actually we are deploying a very nice new feature where actually there would be an AI team mates with the team because we believe in team and team based learning or social learning.

Ayman: So we'll have a kind of about with you that actually part of the team that can engage and also act as a teammate as well. So, uh, by utilizing this, you can really disrupt the education because You're the content would be very advanced at this point of time because you are utilizing the eye to improve and the experience will be engaging because [00:28:00] students will be interacting with the platform.

Ayman: So, by this can improve, I would say that the education and disrupted and I would say really university because we're talking with ministries, universities, they are extremely open for this because, you know, everybody is afraid if they don't jump as soon as possible. It will be. Really impacting everybody.

Ayman: The staff, the students and so on. On the other side, I would say that the problem with the current educational systems is that. Whether on the school level and university, that's the question. Why did this didn't happen before first AI wasn't there? Okay, so yeah, I can really personalize can engage can enhance So AI is the accumulation of the human knowledge and this could be the bet better than any professor invest professor or teacher however for us for us why we are different actually I would say because All our management team.

Ayman: Of course, we have PHD holders. [00:29:00] We have people. I mean, who did amazing things. But again, all of them work in the business field. And this is the different thing. We know the market. So we know the needs and we are able to bridge the gap. And this would, I would say the problem with school teachers. and university professors that they didn't have this kind of exposure.

Ayman: And actually, one P. G. Holder was applying to us. Uh, he's actually professor staff staff professor, and he wanted to join one of our guaranteed hiring boot camps. So I told him you are old now. You know, you are a P. G. Holder actually from the U. S. You know, you want to switch and actually from engineering, civil engineering.

Ayman: Okay, why you want to switch at this and learn programming? It's too late. He told me actually, I'm an I am feeling my students. I believe I am not employable to teach them how to get employed. I never had this kind of market and industry experience in the civil. So, so I cannot teach them how to be, uh, amazing, uh, employees and [00:30:00] really disrupt, uh, and engage.

Ayman: So this is the problem they are disengaged and here we are trying to do and help and enable and availing or making, making our platform and the learning experience available for everybody so that it can enhance and improve that learning experience for everybody.

Mehmet: You know, like, um, this is fascinating, honestly, because, uh, the change.

Mehmet: It's coming, and I'm happy to hear that you're already working with some, you know, educational institutions. It's here, it's here, absolutely. And this brings, you know, the question that I had in my mind, because you talked about the social experience. For example, the example you just gave. So, What I'm seeing recently, and of course, AI accelerated this, no, no doubt, like we are tending to go with more a cohort based approach where you have like a group of people, you know, sharing the same mission, let's say, or [00:31:00] maybe they have the same short or long term goals.

Mehmet: I don't know. And I immersed myself last year, by the way, in one of these cohorts. It's not like because I don't know the technology, just I wanted to see the experience. So are we seeing, you know, and, you know, both you can answer this. Are we seeing like more cohort based education is the, is the norm now where, you know, you interact with people online and then, you know, Sometimes maybe, and I've seen it by the way, I've seen like two people come to the, to the cohort and they become co founders, for example.

Mehmet: Uh, and sometimes, you know, another guy sees another guy in the court to say, Hey, you know what? I think I should, I could employ you. So are we seeing like more, this is the normal rather than the, I would say classroom based, uh, Approach moving forward in the age of your life.

Ayman: Yeah, I will. I will say something and I'm sure that you want to answer this question, but I would say something that Part of our core belief, we [00:32:00] don't believe in self paced learning or anything self paced.

Ayman: Because you know that humans will always postpone things, okay? So, uh, I mean, we believe in time box and from day one, it was time box. But again, time box could be simulated. Yeah, I mean, you can have people, uh, together and there is a kind of simulation that you have to finish. At this point of time, otherwise you'll be kicked from the experience.

Ayman: Okay, you have also when you engage with the teammates, you have commitments with time. So time is crucial. Whether you call it cohort. There might be millions of people learning at the same time. Okay. But again, it's all about time boxing the experience. Sorry, but Sam, if you'd like to. No,

Bassam: no, no. That's actually very important.

Bassam: I want you, Mehmet, to picture this. And an online experience for university students where they have to deliver a project every two weeks, they have, like, office hours for the professors and teaching [00:33:00] assistants. And from day 1, they are working on groups for a self paced time box with a project, and they are working together as if they are in a big or huge graduation project.

Bassam: Some of them will be smart enough to finish their semester in one month. And some of them will need more time to finish the semester in three or four months. Some of them can graduate earlier than others. They only have the journey, and they have the support from their professors and teaching assistants.

Bassam: How do you picture this? What do you think about

Ayman: it? Wouldn't

Bassam: you think this would be amazing?

Ayman: Adding on this, that the payment could be linked to the duration. So incentivize early, other platforms, actually they don't care. You don't care about completion, but impact driven. We'd like people to get actually because when he dies, actually from employment as well, Mehmet, so it's, it's for good for us, for people to finish as early as possible to advance.

Ayman: So [00:34:00] actually we incentivize people finishing early.

Bassam: So what I'm saying is, what Ayman was saying earlier, with our AI system that we are doing on the back end, we are currently availing it for universities and saying, hey, You can come and put to that a I agent or what you have from the material that you have.

Bassam: And we are going to put it in a journey exactly like this. We're going to distribute it into, um, a well curated education model based on the model, a quick Patrick model, and we will put it in a gamified way and we will guide you and give you the guide. The trainer guide and the learner guide in order to have an amusing, engaging, customized learning journey.

Bassam: We are building this, we built this already and we are using it and we are availing it now to educational institutes. Come and digitize your learning journey and put it in an experience that can be really [00:35:00] engaging and really impactful. We have tried this ourselves and we want to help others to do the same because its impact is huge.

Bassam: What we can do is that. They can disrupt education with only a political will, whether it's a university, whether it's a government, they can impose that disruption into their systems by only using a very simple model, distributing the journey and transforming it into an engaging journey. Empowering youth in order to complete and incentivize them to complete faster and providing them with internships and jobs in order to make them employable faster.

Bassam: This way they can impact their lives better in less time and it's not cohort based as you mentioned, and it's not one size fits all. If I'm smart, why should I wait for five years? If I'm extremely smart or passionate, if I'm in need for a job more than anyone else, why would I wait for the same five years?

Bassam: I need [00:36:00] to get that job in like two years to support my family or support myself. So there is huge impact on disruption that can get into our societies just by disrupting education into an engaging impact driven model that is, have you ever heard of an ad tech company that is powered by the industry?

Bassam: That's what Ayman was saying earlier. We as the founders and the full management team are industry related. They are thinking of the learner with the impact mindset. It's not academics to academics with all due respect to all academics. They are our teachers, our professors, and we have learned a lot from them.

Bassam: But this era, it's not, it's not just about academics. It's about how to engage those generations and make them be impactful to their societies and their lives faster. And this way it needs to be disrupted. And we are offering kind of a solution. It might not be the best, but at least start with it [00:37:00] and let's iterate on it together.

Bassam: We have seen that it has been impactful. It has been more than 80 percent of whatever passes through it. So please take it and then see how you can improve

Mehmet: it You know to me but sam it also and i mean like what you have done is closing the circle Not only with the you know designing I mean and putting the materials over there and you know The way the time boxing one is closing the loop with finding job opportunities for them So and I think this is something I didn't see it even in the U.

Mehmet: S. Famous ones also as well. And I think this is really, really big. And you mentioned like you did some placement now when it comes in a very fast changing demand in the industry now, especially from technology perspective, like how do you make sure also like Whatever you have in place gonna stay relevant and you are able also to bring the newest things [00:38:00] At the speed that it should be brought.

Mehmet: So how do you do this balance?

Ayman: I would say uh from our name spins. ai so ai actually helps a lot I mean because you know now the content is generated. I mean, it's not a Previously, we used to our high quality studios to produce content. Now, actually, it's through people who are generated through the fake technology and lip syncing happening.

Ayman: And actually you can customize the person based on the learner. So if it's a, uh, in, in Africa, my baby, a Nigerian lady presenting, if it's in Saudi Arabia, maybe a guy, uh, wearing glasses and actually maybe the, uh, in the future release it from our platform, we can. Uh, customize the learner, the, the learner can pick, uh, who's the avatar that I would like to, to to receive the learning, uh, from.

Ayman: Nice. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. So again, I mean, it's much easier now before you need to re reproduce thing. Uh, now as you can really, uh, maintain and enhance, uh, and auto generate again, it's much, much easier. Yeah. That's why I'm saying [00:39:00] really education now should be for all. There is no, uh. A high, uh, really high quality, scalable education for the first time in history should be available for everybody.

Mehmet: But Sam, you want to add something?

Bassam: Yeah, actually a very small thing. We, as Ayman was saying, AI is making it faster and it's disrupting it. And we, we do have, we are working, we work in technology, right? So we already have our process of researching the job market needs periodically every month to three months, depends on the domain that we are researching.

Bassam: So with this process, we had to Uh, either change or edit or even, uh, change the whole curriculum of our specific programs related to a specific field, depending on what is happening on ground from a job perspective, not from the academia, the academia perspective or just the research. If the market needs something different, we [00:40:00] are going to change our programs to fit to fit it in because we are looking at the employability, not just the learning.

Bassam: As you were saying, we are trying to. Close the loop from learning to employment and not just local employment at your country. We are bridging that to global and remote jobs so that you can get the global exposure and work in the cutting edge technologies that what they call the latest and greatest technologies around the world and AI.

Bassam: Is is disrupting this, making it way easier for us. We used to do this from day one about with a lot of operational hassle. Now the full operational hassle are being disrupted with a I and I can say that we are. We don't have like a 400 experts from 13 countries along around the world, um, to consult us and do the projects.

Bassam: The programs with us. They are all from industry with the 15 or 10 to 15 years of experiences because we only use experts who are uh, into the industry, as I said, because we want employability at the [00:41:00] end. We are kind of utilizing those experts better, um, now with their mindset and, and sharing experiences, not just with, uh, clarifying and, and, and recording videos, because we are doing that operational part using AI already.

Bassam: We're utilizing their brains in how to make the latest and greatest Uh, use cases put into our programs rather than reshooting and re recording as well as Ayman was mentioning. So I would say we are, with AI, we are disrupting the whole operational model and we are being even faster with keeping pace with the technology.

Bassam: Some of the programs related to AI are being, are being updated on a bi weekly basis because we have a lot of news coming in. A lot of stuff are being updated. So it's crazy and. With AI, with the help of AI, we can keep pace with that and with the job markets.

Mehmet: That's great to hear, Bassam. Now tell me about the expansion, you know, on a global level.

Mehmet: I know like you operate mainly on [00:42:00] the African slash Middle Eastern market and you serve companies, I mean, for the placement in the US and Europe. So, so currently like how, like where geographically are you able to serve and you know, what are like the future plans for

Bassam: Yeah, I would add and then Ayman can, of course, follow.

Bassam: Um, we are currently working in, of course, Egypt, the country where we started in, in, um, Saudi Arabia. In new EE we are working closely with the governments and governmental entities in order to upskill, uh, uh, hundreds and thousands of, of talents over there. We're working in Nigeria. We are upskilling Nigerian talents and and Nigeria entrepreneurs when it comes to ai because we believe, um, that AI is going is our only chance to keep pace with the whole world.

Bassam: Um, maybe in the upcoming 50 years you are. So we are, uh, in, in Nigeria, we are doing that with ai. We are expanding into Jordan as well. [00:43:00] Um, we are going next in our plans to Kenya and South Africa as well. And this is for learning and upskilling talents and, and getting them ready for the markets and for the global employment market.

Bassam: Our talents currently are in us, in Canada, in Germany, in UK, in Switzerland, in New Zealand. Um, All over the world, different employers. We are currently in contact with some of the major Canadian research labs in AI because they have their own incubators and accelerators where they have a lot of startups that can need African, Egyptian and Middle Eastern talents, AI talents specifically, and we do believe, as I said before, it's our only chance to keep up with the pace of the world because AI is not the new AI is not coming at least in the next 50 years.

Ayman: Yeah, I mean, you said that all, uh, but Sam, maybe, uh, I can add that, uh, our programs are [00:44:00] open for everybody. I mean, when we talk about specific countries, it's all about directing our marketing efforts towards acquisition. But again, it's, it's, it's a global platform. Anyone can actually get there and get and be trained and to be employed.

Ayman: And for the remote hiring, actually, we have, uh. Uh, companies in Egypt actually, uh, so it's for everybody, but again, that the major markets is the markets where, uh, but Sam mentioned whether US, Europe, uh, and maybe Australia and New Zealand as well. Uh, but again, it's open for, for everybody.

Mehmet: That's, you know, again, it's the, I'm very passionate about, you know, anything that can, And this is, you know, is leading me to the, you know, to the next question.

Mehmet: And both of you, but I meant like you're a serial entrepreneur and the same also same for you. So how are you hoping what you're doing is to have more. Of course, don't get me wrong. We started to see the ecosystem much better than, [00:45:00] you know, I remember when I used to talk about, you know, startups in 2011 and 2010, people used to mock me like, are you crazy?

Mehmet: What startups here in the Middle East or this region now, of course, different world, and we are seeing a lot, but how you are hoping, because see, you're, you're, you're getting the talents. the technology that allows them to build real technology product. Don't get me wrong again, you know, consumer startups are great, but how are you hoping this will let us have more real technology startups starting from Africa?

Mehmet: I'm very bullish on Africa, by the way, you know, based on the conversation I have. And also like, The talents in Egypt, in Jordan, in the UAE, Saudi. So how you are hoping this will, will get an impact on having more technology startups starting from, from our region, whoever wants to start first.

Ayman: Maybe I can start.

Ayman: Yeah. So, uh, actually, uh, we truly believe in what we're doing, Mehmet. [00:46:00] I mean, uh, this is why we actually, we picked our region because you know, I'm at least in Africa, really any change you do, it will, it can really change lives. What we're doing actually, we are, uh, I would say helping in creating a better future for this region.

Ayman: You are enabling people with the top notch technology where we would make ourselves valuable. For our economy, our society and actually for the world, because you'll be producing, uh, and I mean, value for everybody and we are, uh, I would say the solution for every problem for any country that we have.

Ayman: It's all about education and employment. Because education building the mind and employment, you produce the value. So we are tackling, I would say, uh, that the most important, uh, aspect and challenge in this, in this region. And this is why we do believe this would be [00:47:00] really the fool for every startup because any startup would like.

Ayman: Have amazing talents to be able to, to de develop amazing products that they can sell worldwide, right? So, uh, this is why actually our first, uh, customers are, uh, startups, you know, uh, because those are people who actually believe in what we're doing. They need people who are working agile from day one.

Ayman: You know, so, so, so people can really engage with, uh, with startups. And actually we're talking about startups in our local economy. We're talking about startups, uh, all over the globe, uh, as well. So, uh, we are enablers for startups. We are enablers for SMEs. And you know, our economy is, is again, uh, backed with, with SMEs is the backbone and of course the multinational corporates, I mean, big companies, uh, is also our customers.

Ayman: So, so are actually, uh, uh, sourcing, uh, I would say the fuel and the real assets. For the growth of all the companies there, which will actually boost the economy. And I would say the companies that I mentioned [00:48:00] that, uh, are producing patents, they didn't start from day one producing patents. I mean, after.

Ayman: Iterations and iterations, they are not producing tens of patents, maybe hundreds now some companies every year. So this is how things and and and this company that i'm mentioning actually you will see more than 10 companies are spin off Coming from it. Okay tens of more than 10 companies So this is how you you you and now you're starting seeing unicorns for the first time in our region So again, I would say, uh, uh, we'll be helping and enabling everybody You To be able to compete in this extremely competitive, uh, world, uh, this very, uh, struggling and challenging time, uh, and era.

Bassam: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I hear and feel you and what you said about the ecosystem and no, we're not getting you wrong. Let's be honest. Um, we have been lagging behind for years. My first startup was like in founded or co founded in 2012. Um, and we were [00:49:00] doing like a deep tech product, same as what Nest was doing in US.

Bassam: Nest was acquired with 3. 2 billion dollars and we were struggling with finding like peanuts in order just to survive. I'm not, I'm not like jealous or something, maybe a little bit, a little bit jealous, but I mean, the ecosystem was not ready and we were lagging behind and we are still lagging behind. I will not repeat what Ayman said.

Bassam: I believe in every single word that he said, but I'm saying as well, I'm following up. That in this era, it's the AI era where those talents and these minds, when you employ them with global tech companies remotely, they are getting the top notch technology inside their home countries. They are not traveling, they are not relocating.

Bassam: The science, the amount of science and experience that they are going to get in their minds can eventually, and this is not Too long. I mean, it's the in the midterm, not long term. [00:50:00] We are going to see different minds in the in our ecosystems in Middle East and Africa. We are going to see brilliant minds do have the exposure and do have the technical ability that can do more startups.

Bassam: And now with AI facilitating doing a startup and Sam Altman said, we're going to see soon the one or the single founder of the single employee company, the AI is facilitating having a huge product, SaaS product or a product based company that is in no time is built and delivering value to the whole world.

Bassam: It just needs an idea. and awareness with a I two things, and we do have the talents and the mindset that have brilliant ideas, and they just want to be equipped with a I to boom and third, the mature ecosystem and mature investments that can see the opportunity to take this forward. And I think this is the time for this, and they do.

Bassam: I'm a true believer in our [00:51:00] talents. Who are getting quality learning and definitely delivering value through employment or startups.

Mehmet: Uh, I mean, but Sam, I just want to say something and, you know, like people knows me. I don't do like fake compliments and I talk always, you know, what I think. I remember six months ago, I was, you know, I'm, I'm fascinated by startups.

Mehmet: Like I work for startups companies myself. So I wanted to see why, you know, all the doom and gloom about Silicon Valley. And then of course, history is there, but I wanted to do the research again and refresh my mind. One of the main things comes first, they have Stanford university and they have, you know, this big, you know, research centers and people where they can go and do their applied learning over there.

Mehmet: And then of course they had. You know, the HPs of the world and, you know, the big, you know, semiconductors company of the world where these graduates, they go there and they, you know, they apply and then they spin out some [00:52:00] startups. So what I see by democratizing, you know, the, the learning, what you're doing currently at Sprint is exactly, of course, because now AI is allowing you to do so and it's allowing us.

Mehmet: So I think you are on the right path and I'm hoping you know More people discovers what you're doing because I think we need this to take the ecosystem to the next level, right? Because nothing is missing by the way. We have capital people. They say we don't have capital in the middle east No, we have I mean, of course, it's hard to take it, but we have it the part education As I think is very important and thank you for for what you're doing.

Mehmet: So, you know, we're almost done So just before we go Want to ask where people can find more about sprints and how they can get in touch So whoever want to answer this?

Ayman: Yeah, our website. So that's prince. ai you can go there whether you'd like to get Train to get employed or maybe you'd like you have an amazing talent and like [00:53:00] to find a remote job So this also could be your place or even if you are a student Startup would like to reduce cost.

Ayman: I have a very high quality calibers. Also. This is the right place. So I mean we are We are there for everybody to help them. Uh, and uh, we are extremely happy mamet to meet you today I mean it was the extreme. I didn't feel the time actually Uh, thank you for reminding us why we are there. We are here what why we're serving everybody So it was really engaging, and I'm really pleased to have this discussion with you.

Bassam: Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Mehmet, for having us. It was a really lovely time, and for everybody, follow us in all social media to see our upcoming news. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Mehmet: Sure. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna put the links in the show notes so people, they don't have to struggle and go search online.

Mehmet: So I will make the life easy. I'm an ambassador. Thank you very much again for being with me here today. I really appreciate your time. And this is for the audience. Guys, if you just discovered this podcast, First thing go to sprints. [00:54:00] ai and then follow us and, uh, and do whatever you do. And for the people who keeps coming, thank you for, you know, encouragement and thank you for, you know, keeping us in the top charts in many countries.

Mehmet: And I appreciate this. So keep, you know, following us and sending your suggestions. Thank you very much for tuning in and we'll meet again very soon. Thank you. Bye

bye.