Brought to you by Zest Equity

Let’s clear this up, Zest Equity isn’t a secondary marketplace. The team saw a bigger need and built for it.

Zest is the digital infrastructure for private market transactions, removing friction and moving the execution process online - from automating SPV setup, investor onboarding, documentation and signatures, to funding and post close distributions, all in one platform.

Built for founders, funds and investment leads who want to move fast with transparency, speed, and compliance.

Launching an SPV to group your network of investors? Looking to set up co-investment vehicles? Zest’s technology and infrastructure streamline the entire execution process from start to finish.

 Website | Newsletter | Blog

Hi friends! 👋

Spend any time in MENA’s startup ecosystem, and you’ll very quickly notice a pattern.

Too often, the lessons we hear about building companies regionally come secondhand, filtered through commentators, consultants, and conference stages, far removed from the lived reality of launching, operating, and scaling a business across markets that are complex, fragmented, and friction-laden.

Needless to say, building in emerging markets isn’t the same as building in Silicon Valley. And it’s equally true that no two emerging markets, despite certain commonalities, are exactly alike. Each region brings its own unique characteristics, nuances, and peculiarities. Nowhere is that more pronounced than here in MENA, a region defined by its diverse economies, population sizes, purchasing powers, and complex geopolitical realities.

Countless playbooks for early-stage startup founders already exist. There’s nothing inherently novel about adding another, unless we approach it with a dedicated regional lens and a more elevated level of critical thinking. Which we have striven to do.

This series was built to be different. It’s not theory. It’s not a polished retelling of success after the fact. It deliberately avoids self-aggrandisement and resists the urge to indulge in myth-making.

It’s a collection of field notes, drawn directly from the builders who are still in the arena, solving real problems, navigating broken systems, and making the kinds of decisions that shape companies long before they show up in flattering press releases.

The thesis underpinning the MENA Founder Playbook is a simple one: to offer ambitious builders, operators, and investors closer access to the real lessons being learned on the ground – and in doing so, to steer and provide alpha that raises the standard of what is possible.

As Warren Buffett once put it:

We believe the same is true for founders. This is not revolutionary or even a new idea.

Common sense would suggest that if you spend enough time learning from the best operators, not just the loudest voices, you will build sharper instincts, stronger companies, and better outcomes.

To borrow from the parlance of the Oracle of Omaha, you will drift upward.

But what can be difficult is access to the right voices and influences, as many of the best builders in MENA do so quietly.

This playbook is designed to be a source that democratises proximity to the best thinking from some of MENA’s most resilient, resourceful founders.

Each month, we’ll tackle a different area from fundraising to finding a co-founder, and beyond – sans BS and ulterior motives.

We begin with one of the most foundational, and misunderstood, challenges every founder faces:

How to land (and keep) your first 100 customers.

Our goal here is steer clear of hypotheticals, and focus on the questions that really define companies at their most fragile moments:

• How do you build trust before you have brand equity?

• How do you validate a product before you have users?

• When should you listen to feedback – and when should you trust your own instincts instead?

• How do you define who you’re building for while your product is still evolving?

• What does real retention look like when your market is shaped by transience, and institutional distrust?

The insights for this edition, and those that follow come from some of MENA’s most respected founders and CEOs:

Collectively, they have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, entered dozens of markets, and built companies that are now reshaping sectors from fintech and foodtech to mobility, logistics, and e-commerce.

But what matters most, and what I hope this series captures, is not the capital they’ve raised or the plaudits they’ve won.

It’s the decisions they made when no one was watching. The ones that separate surviving startups from great ones.

This playbook is written for founders still in the early chapters of their journey, for operators looking to sharpen how they think about problems and customers, and for investors who want a closer understanding of what true company-building in MENA actually demands.

Now, a caveat, and note of caution before we go any further, which is best encapsulated by Invygo’s Eslam Hussein;

This isn’t a guide to shortcuts, nor a definitive manual to be followed blindly.

Ultimately, there is no one right way – this guide is testament to this as much as anything else.

Take from it what makes sense.

We’ve distilled our learnings for this first edition across six essential steps:

Table of contents

1. Know the problem (like, really know it)

• Start by scratching your own itch
• Better the devil you know
• Look for frustrations you can solve better
• B2B ≠ B2C – and that matters early

2. Find Your First, Fastest Path to Trust

• Obsess over service
• Deliver the product yourself
• Sacrifice scalability early
• Make your first users feel seen

3. Define – and Redefine – Your Ideal Customer

• Build an early ICP (even if it’s wrong)
• Use feedback loops to stress-test your assumptions
• Chase clarity over consensus
• Track who actually converts and stays

4. Weaponise Feedback

• Design tight feedback loops
• Don’t overreact to every request
• Know when to follow the user – and when to lead
• Build flexibly, not perfectly

5. Earn Retention with Relentless Service

• Separate churn types: voluntary vs circumstantial
• Define retention based on real behaviour
• Build trust through over-service
• Know when to move on

6. Turn Customers Into Distribution 

• Create referral moments
• Lean into community-led growth
• Follow your customers across geographies
• Build virality through trust, not tricks

Thank you to Mostafa Amin (Breadfast), Mark Chahwan (Sarwa), Julie Barbier-Leblan (Merit), Eslam Hussain (Invygo), Mohamed Al Fayed (Grubtech), Mohammad AlRazaz (OTO), and Kevin Kilty (Hubpay) for opening their playbooks – and for sharing the kind of wisdom that can only be earned through doing.

Their stories prove that in a region as diverse and complex as this one, clarity, care, and consistency still scale best.

Now, let’s dig into it.

Step 1: Know the problem (like, really know it)

Every startup begins with a story – but the really good ones begin with a problem.

And no, not a “market opportunity”, or a slide from a consulting deck.

A real, lived problem. The kind that irritates, slows you down, and only feels obvious in hindsight – after you’ve had the misfortune of being burned by it firsthand.

In MENA, this kind of closeness matters even more. When infrastructure is inconsistent and workflows are manual, understanding friction at a human level is often the only reliable way to build something people will actually use.

You can’t outsource that understanding. And if you try to fake it, you’ll be found out – sooner rather than later.

Among the founders we spoke to, one common denominator stood out: they didn’t begin with a pitch – they began with pain.

For some, it was personal. For others, professional – buried in spreadsheets, meetings, or broken routines. But in every case, they knew the problem so intimately that their insight didn’t feel like mere detached analysis – it felt closer to memory.

This is where the real work begins. Not with funding. Not with hiring. But by getting so close to the mess that the solution feels obvious – and the urgency to fix it becomes non-negotiable.

Start by Scratching Your Own Itch

Startups don’t always begin with strategy. Sometimes, they begin with irritation.

A broken UX. A clunky form. A process that should take five minutes – but instead takes five weeks.

When a founder solves a problem they’ve lived with, the result often has a level of precision, immediacy, and relevance that’s hard to fake.

They understand the user not because they researched them, but in many cases because they were them.

Mark Chahwan, Co-Founder & CEO, Sarwa

When you build from personal pain, you often gain three things fast: specificity, language, and conviction.

• Specificity in the problem – because you’ve experienced it in granular, often grating detail.

• Language – because you instinctively know how your users talk, what they fear, and what relief sounds like.

• And conviction – because you’re not chasing validation; you’re chasing resolution.

The best early-stage differentiation often comes from this kind of closeness. It sharpens how you talk to customers, how you pitch investors, even how you write copy.