You’ll hear VCs emphasize the importance of investing in great founders, or that the greatest single variable they consider in their investment decision is the quality and strength of the founders, especially in the earlier stages (Seed to Series A). But what exactly does that mean? What does a “great founder” look like in our markets (MENA, Turkey, and Pakistan)?

Objective Attributes

We took a sample of the top 100 companies in MENA, Turkey, and Pakistan based on the size of exit and/or total capital raised in the past 10 years. Obviously, these metrics are not perfect stand-ins for success (especially total capital raised), but they do provide a useful analogue for a potential trajectory of success given the sample size for exits in the region remains relatively small.

We then examined the profiles of the founders in each of those 100 companies and identified what can be construed as key success factors/variables in their profiles from public data available. The variables/attributes we looked at are as follows:

• Education/university
• Number of years of work experience at the time of setting up the startup
• Industry from past work experience
• Previous workplaces/corporate experience
• Prior startup experience

General Observations:

From our sample, we found the following commonalities amongst founders:

• 72% of founders had prior startup experience or had previously founded a company
• 59% had attended elite universities (either at undergraduate or graduate levels). We defined elite here as the top 250 ranked universities globally
• Roughly 75% had over 5 years of professional work experience, with 45% having 10+ years at the time of founding the company

Education

The most represented universities, accounting for nearly 20% of the sample collectively, were as follows:

• The American University of Cairo
• King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
• Columbia University
• Stanford University
• INSEAD

Previous Workplaces

The most common previous workplaces, accounting for roughly 7% of all founders in the sample, were:

• Careem
• McKinsey

Note: This variable ended up being quite fragmented, with no company/group of companies accounting for a significant plurality of the sample.

Prior Work Experience by Industry

The most common industries in prior work experience, accounting for roughly 62%, were:

• Technology (either prior startups or large corporates such as Meta, Google, Microsoft, etc.)
• Finance (specifically corporate finance, investment banking, etc.)

From the above, we can deduce that successful founders in the region in the past 10 years do have some specific attributes/common profiles as follows:

• Previous startup experience, especially founding a company
• Attendance of a globally recognized university (though this can be subjective)
• Mid-career professionals with over 10+ years of professional work experience
• Experience at a tech company and/or corporate finance experience

I caution using the above to predict the future success of founders as there are many examples that buck this trend. However, I think it is a useful tool in starting to think about what has driven past success and why these variables might matter. It might not be, for example, that the education itself is useful, but rather it supports access to global networks that would help support the overall success of a startup.

While the above may help narrow down the profile of a “good” founder, there are also other more subjective traits to consider.

Qualitative Attributes:

On the qualitative side, and this is deeply subjective, I’ve found the common traits the most successful founders exhibit are:

• Clarity of vision: Ability to clearly articulate the depth of the problem and how the proposed solution is effective in tackling the aforementioned pain point. Example: Hosam Arab at Tabby. Very often, we see founders with great solutions/products with unclear problems. This signals a lack of understanding of the underlying market/problems and/or internal ability to drive towards a goal.
• Multiple founder teams: Multi-founder teams – ideally with some complementarity (e.g., technical + commercial founders). Example: Anass Boumediene and Mehdi Oudghiri from Eyewa. The flip-side of this is that one of the most common reasons for startup failure is founder and team discord/infighting. Having multiple founders opens up the risk of internal conflict vs single-founder companies.
• Confidence: Near maniacal confidence in the ability of themselves and their team to deliver on their stated goals and vision and belief in their stated solution. Example: Jad Antoun at Huspy. Founders will get bombarded with detractors from different stakeholders including clients, investors, team members, etc. The ability to see through the noise and continue moving towards a stated goal is a critical piece of success.
• Ability to change course: Not to counter the above, but there is a fine line between confidence/self-belief and delusional thinking. The very best founders straddle this line perfectly. Great founders can internalize and synthesize data and come up with an objective output that may require a hard pivot or change in direction. Example: Mostafa Kandil at Swvl. Founders that stay the course no matter what without reacting appropriately to signals coming in from the market tend not to get very far.
• Immense humility: There are some big exceptions to this rule both locally and globally but in general, I've found successful founders tend to have a great sense of humility and self-awareness. Examples: Samih Toukan, Hussam Khouri, and Ronaldo Mouchawar from Maktoob.com and Souq.com. Hubris can be self-defeating for a founder. Having humility that you don’t have all the answers and showing grace in victory and success is a trait that unfortunately eludes too many people.
• Incredible tenacity and grit: Starting a business and seeing it through is not glamorous. Having lived vicariously through the hundreds of founders I’ve worked with over the years, I’ve seen firsthand what a painful and arduous process building a company can be. Being able to take the punches and continue is a critical part of being an entrepreneur. Example: Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani from Floward and Talabat.

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