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In MENA’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Morad Irsaneh and Shareen Lee are perhaps best known today as the husband-and-wife duo behind Takadao, an insurtech startup headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Takadao is known for its pioneering services and services (a blockchain-native, Shariah-compliant insurance alternative), and its impressive list of backers includes Tim Draper, BIM, Core These include names such as Vision Ventures, Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Salman Al Saud, and most recently Adabas.
But when we first featured them in 2014; middle east entrepreneursIrsane and Lee were promoting a completely different company called Melltoo, an online marketplace for second-hand goods based in the UAE, which was acquired by Cartlow, a reverse logistics platform based in the UAE, in 2022. Acquired.
“Time flies!” Lee says, recalling the journey she and Ahsan have been on since entering the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. “The last 10 years have been full of ups and downs. I now truly understand what it means to be a startup entrepreneur. Melltoo was acquired in 2022, but it has changed my life. It was a really good way to close out an important chapter in “resiliency, which is a key element of building a startup.” It opened my eyes to the power. Now I’m taking those learnings and applying them to Takadao, the company I founded after Melltoo’s exit.” Takadao is a community-owned Web3 protocol for financial services. is building. Our flagship product is Takasure, a Shariah-compliant life insurance fund owned by the insured. Takadao feels like my life’s mission. As everything that has happened to me has led me to believe that what we are doing is helping to tip the scales of power and bring balance to the economic lives of billions of people around the world. I truly believe that it will have an immeasurable impact. ”
Related: The Startup Rollercoaster: An Entrepreneur’s Story; From Start to Finish
Both Irsane and Lee are excited about what the future holds for Takadao, given that they operate in a nascent but vibrant space called Web3. “This is an exciting new journey on which we need to build everything,” he says. “We were tired of institutions like banks and insurance companies taking us for a ride. Decentralization is what we believe in and what we are betting on. Decentralization has unique challenges that we as entrepreneurs love to solve. “Additionally, it’s exciting to be in the fastest growing industry in history. We’re building for generations.”
The entrepreneurial duo spent a year and a half building Takadao, an alternative to traditional financial systems.Source: Takadao
Lee agrees with Irsane, noting that what he is building with Takadao could have a transformative impact. “We have spent the past year and a half building Takadao,” says Lee. “Our vision is to build an alternative to the traditional financial system that prioritizes profits over consumer well-being.” It shook my belief that the majority of the world deals with high inflation, high debt, and money uncertainty, and on top of that, because I’m a Muslim, banking infrastructure is based on interest rates. Because of that, they are excluded from most financial products. Something has to give, and my job as an entrepreneur is to find solutions.”
Related: (Startup) Married to the Mob: Couples as Co-Founders
Ms. Lee is quite confident in Ms. Takada’s future path, and as far as she is concerned, the future is bright. “I am confident that Takadao will be a huge success and that we will become the technology that powers the world’s largest self-insured community,” she declares. “But even if that doesn’t happen, it would be a world-changing achievement if we could lay the foundation for other such alternative financial products to exist.”
Related: 10 Years in Review: Iman Ben Chaibah, Founder of Sail Publishing
Hindsight is 20/20: Charlene Lee then and now
If you look back at where you were in your entrepreneurial/career/business trajectory 10 years ago, would you have done anything differently if you knew what you know now? Or what is the biggest thing you wish you had known 10 years ago? What are the lessons learned?
“When we founded Melltoo, we were already two-time entrepreneurs, having started and exited businesses in the past. Nevertheless, we were well prepared for what was to come. Tech startups are very different from small businesses and traditional businesses. They are run by a different set of rules that don’t necessarily make sense in a traditional business sense. For example, Why are startups the most cash-consuming and least profitable businesses? But the only way to learn these rules is to learn them as you go.
“But there is nothing I would have done differently. Every mistake I made was a formative experience that shaped me into the person I am today. Fortunately, I I am able to try again and take on difficult tasks.”My mental state has also been strengthened by my experiences and is now in a much better state. ”
Hindsight is 20/20: The difference between then and now Morad Irsaneh
If you look back at where you were in your entrepreneurial/career/business trajectory 10 years ago, would you have done anything differently if you knew what you know now? Or what is the biggest thing you wish you had known 10 years ago? What are the lessons learned?
“There are a lot of things I wish I had known and done differently, including knowing that great products aren’t built in a day and that product-market fit takes time. The other thing is to know the importance of: By building an early community and sharing more openly, I connect with potential investors as quickly as possible and build relationships early on. And even if I couldn’t get the money, I could have gotten some advice from them.
“The biggest lesson is to know that you are in this for the long term, and that applies to everyone involved: your team, customers, investors, mentors, etc. The first round of funding is the easiest round. Don’t forget: Celebrate now, but start now Build relationships to expand your network and prepare for your next investment Second Biggest Lesson: Choose your investors carefully and encourage other startups Do your due diligence by talking to people. Not all money is good money. Just like finding investors who believe in you. Find team members who believe in you, understand what you’re doing. Look for people who support you through the good times and especially the bad times.I’ve been very fortunate to have many great investors, but not all of them.
“As the saying goes, we go fast alone, but we go farther together.” Please! There are no shortcuts to building great digital products. Venture-backed startups are a whole different game where both venture capitalists and founders learn as they go. The concept of paying to scale, burn, and grow is either the right strategy or the wrong strategy, depending on market conditions. I have found a land of opportunity, but I am often guided by the blind. Therefore, be true to yourself, listen to all advice and decide for yourself. Once you decide, you won’t regret it. Alhamdulillah, we are grateful because we are in an area where there are few retirees that we were able to acquire. ”
Related: 10 Years in Review: Soukaina Rachidi Alaoui, Founder of RisalatComm
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