PM — Are NFTs over?

Happy hump day, friends. We’re nearly at the end of the business week, the month, and the whole year — and the news cycle is starting to take its cue.

PSA- Banks will be off on Sunday, 1 January to mark the end of their fiscal year and will be returning to work on Monday, 2 January, Hapi Journal reports, citing a statement from the Central Bank of Egypt. The EGX has also followed suit and declared Sunday a holiday in light of banks’ closure, in a statement seen by Enterprise.

Enterprise will also be off: Tomorrow is the last day EnterpriseAM and EnterprisePM will be publishing issues until Monday, 2 January. Both editions will be off this Thursday, 29 December and on Sunday, 1 January. Our publishing schedule will return to normal at the appointed hour on Monday, 2 January.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

EGAS kicks off oil + gas exploration tender: State-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) launched today a tender for 12 new oil and gas exploration blocks in the Mediterranean and Nile Delta, according to an Oil Ministry statement. The tender includes six onshore blocks and another six offshore blocks. Companies interested in participating in the tender have until 12pm on 30 April 2023 to submit their bids.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

The reopening of China in a “decisive break” with covid-zero policies continues to lead the conversation in the international business press this afternoon. As Beijing removes strict policies on quarantine requirements and travel restrictions, Chinese citizens are beginning to make international travel plans for the first time in nearly three years, while US stock futures are also rallying on the policy u-turn. The story is getting ink from the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, and CNBC.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• It’s official: There are exceptions for FX withdrawal limits. The Central Bank of Egypt yesterday confirmed reports that people withdrawing FX overseas for medical or educational purposes will be exempt from withdrawal limits.
• Yet another bidder vying for Pachin: Eagle Chemicals wants to acquire 100% of Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) for EGP 29.5 a share, the highest offer Pachin has received yet.
• Banks to secure FX for letters of credit to help clear import backlogs? El Sisi suggested that banks will in the next four days acquire the foreign currency required to cover letters of credit for goods stuck at ports.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Companies have T-minus four days to register with the Egyptian Tax Authority’s e-invoicing system after the Finance Ministry earlier this month gave companies an additional two weeks. Only 150k companies had signed up to the new system as of the end of November, well below a sought goal of 1 mn companies to register under the system.

REMEMBER- This deadline no longer applies to the self-employed: The Finance Ministry pushed the deadline for self-employed professionals — including doctors, pharmacists and lawyers — to 30 April 2023 after widespread opposition to the system.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect temperatures to fall to 19°C during the day tomorrow before falling to a crisp 10°C in the evening, our favorite weather app tells us.

With the NFT market on life support, creators are pivoting to real-world assets to stay afloat: The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been plummeting since April amid a broader sell-off of crypto made worse by the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX, the Financial Times reports. Sales of NFTs fell 87% since March of this year to just USD 17 bn, compared with USD 19 bn spent on NFTs in the first quarter of the year alone. Makers of popular NFT collections are left trying to expand their brands beyond the blockchain universe by using their branded characters and art to sell merchandise and create Disney-inspired entertainment franchises. Some are already reaping the rewards of their pivots, with one brand — Pudgy Penguins — seeing the price of its NFTs more than triple to around USD 5.7k in December.

But some think NFTs are beyond rescue: “The fundamental model of NFTs didn’t work. It was a bubble that has burst and is not going to happen again,” said one analyst. Others claim that with values of NFTs plummeting, the brands are doomed to fail in the real world. “Once there has been a disconnect between the valuation and the product, they can never become a Disney-type brand,” said the analyst.

Meta is still committed to AR: Despite major losses, Meta’s Reality Labs division spent close to USD 10 bn last year — around half their budget — on augmented reality (AR), The Verge reports. The company’s goal is to develop slimmer, lighter, and faster AR glasses that are crucial to the Metaverse ecosystem. Last year Reality Labs released the Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses — equipped with cameras for an on-go Instagrammable experience — followed by the Meta Quest Pro headset marketed for designers, architects and other creatives

AR vs VR: AR is a mix of the real world and computer generated content using sensor cameras and GPS to capture the user’s surroundings in-depth and then generate a real life 3D image — think Google Glass. VR, on the other hand, is a completely immersive environment that is computer generated, like Meta Quest, Oculus Quest, and HP Reverb. VR is both a software and a hardware that immerse the user in a computer generated virtual world.

But all these tech ambitions aren’t translating to income: Meta lost over USD 9 bn in 2022 and the losses are expected to continue in 2023, Meta disclosed in a statement.

The rise of synthetic food startups could support ethical eating habits: Startups creating synthetic meat and whey in labs through synthetic biology are helping create crueltyfree food alternatives that could upend the ethics of our eating habits, Virginia Postrel writes for the Wall Street Journal. These startups get their meat from cells grown in vats — large tanks used for holding liquids — and can then sell them to restaurants or individuals.

But there are cultural hurdles: Some activist groups are lobbying against these synthetic alternatives, arguing that “natural foods” coming directly from natural sources are healthier, and raising concerns around the kinds of synthetic chemicals used to create these foods. While it might take some time for synthetic foods to become mainstream, Postrel says there are signs it will become normalized sooner rather than later. The US Food and Drug Administration, for example, has for the first time approved lab grown chicken meat from San Francisco-based startup Upside Foods.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Watching Emily in Paris has become a Christmas tradition: The popular kitsch Netflix streamer is back for a third season, just in time for Christmas vacation. The show resumes where it left off with Emily juggling her many love interests and at a crossroads career-wise. Fans will enjoy watching Emily struggle to untangle her complicated relationships with Gabriel, Camille, and Aflie as they become more intertwined and complicated. Fashion, comical faux pas, and high drama are all back with a force and we’re grateful for the consistency, if nothing else.

⚽ The Egyptian League and the English Premier Leagues have games going today, so take your pick. The 10th week of the Egyptian League kicks off with Pyramids playing against Al-Ittihad Alexandria today at 5pm.

Meanwhile, the 7th week of the English Premier League continues today as Chelsea faces off against Bournemouth at 7:30pm, and Manchester United takes on Nottingham Forest at 10pm.

Don’t miss out on the intense battle at the Fantasy Enterprise Premier League. Join us and take the chance to win one of our prizes by clicking on this link or entering this code 8o4sut.

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Catch The Sinatras Christmas Night ft. Lynn Hisham at Room Art Space New Cairo tonight at 9pm. They’re hosting an incredible lineup playing the best winter jazz beats and Frank Sinatra tracks.

Head to Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza tonight at 8pm to enjoy hip hop tracks with Bonnie Blue, One Be Lo & friends.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Practical spiritual advice with The Four Arguments: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom: This self-help book by Don Miguel Ruiz tackles different ways to transform your life using a set of guidelines from the Ancient Toltec people. The four main arguments include being clear and concise with your words, not taking anything personally, avoiding assumptions, and always doing your best. The aim is to help readers cope with harmful behavior from others and learn how to manage their own suffering and sadness. The ancient wisdom shared in this book could alter your perspective on certain situations, navigating your way to a more positive experience and helping those stuck in dark places.

The EGX30 fell 0.5% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.29 bn (16.8% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 21.2% YTD.

In the green: Ibnsina Pharma (+3.0%), Cleopatra Hospitals (+2.8%) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+2.4%).

In the red: Palm Hills Development (-3.4%), Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling (-2.8%) and Qalaa Holdings (-2.8%).

OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK– Every Tuesday, Founder of the Week looks at how a successful member of Egypt’s startup community got their big break, asks about their experiences running a business, and gets their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Amr Mostafa (LinkedIn), founder of Milango.

My name is Amr Mostafa, and I’m 29 years old — almost 30. I studied Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Dalhousie University in Canada. I returned to Egypt and joined the Endeavor team in 2016. I worked there for four years, learning about the startup scene and how to scale a business from the ground up. From there, I joined Milango as founder and CEO in 2020.

I realized it was time to start my own business in 2020. I’ve been monitoring the VC market since 2017, which was worth USD 22 mn at the time. However, by 2020, the total VC capital exceeded USD 100 mn, and startups were raising USD 40 mn and more. This gave me the green light that the market was booming and it was time to start my own business.

What motivated me to penetrate the startup market were my partners Ahmad Coucha, Bassem El Hady, Bahy Aboelezz, and Ali Ibrahim. Having the chance to work with such great minds overruled any other path for me — I was lucky enough to enter the market with great partners, and we successfully kept Milango running during the covid-19 pandemic, and the external crisis that’s been a challenge to every business out there.

Milango is a prop-tech company. We digitize interactions between community managers and community members. We offer a fully customizable and fully modular mobile application for members, and community managers. Our product is divided into two parts, one for the end-user and the other fully controlled by the community manager — look and feel of the application, the content, invoices and all services provided through it. It’s a digital transformation tool for any manager.

The best part of my job is introducing a new product to the market, and working alongside a very dedicated team who shares the same mindset. Communicating with clients is also a very exciting part of my job, as I see how happy they are with the product, and the impact of it on their work. The worst part of my job is continuously dealing with external problems, such as the covid-19 pandemic, and now the devaluation of the currency, and rising inflation.

Our investors include A15 — they led our founding round with a USD six figure investment. We also have a future funding plan, which we will disclose soon.

Milango’s plans for growth include scaling up. Our product is a plug-and-play model, so it’s a matter of finding the right partners. Once we are able to lock the right match, we will be able to scale up quite quickly. Our growth includes a flagship application, with a new line of features to be launched with El Gouna as our first client using the latest update. Our mid-term plan is regional expansion in the Gulf. We’re already seeing interest in the GCC and discussing the potential of adopting our solutions with a number of clients. Regarding our long-term plan, we will hopefully be able to expand beyond the Middle East and we will be studying all potential options. We’re also currently focusing on three verticals — commercial, residential, and sports — and perhaps we will expand on that as well.

If I only had enough money to do one thing, I would spend it on hiring more people. At the end of the day, the company’s all about its team. The team builds the product and keeps the customer satisfied. They also come up with new concepts for ways to expand, and generate new revenue streams.

Being founder of a startup is a lonely journey. Although you’re managing a full team and reporting to a board, you are still lonely on the founder level — meaning that you serve as a solo executive, and there’s no one to share this experience with.

I gave up my social life in the process of starting Milango, and if you ask any founder the same question, they will probably tell you the same thing. However, I don’t think it’s a loss because it’s all about prioritizing your time. Once you have a vision and you want to achieve it, you become very decisive with how you want to spend your time and energy and with whom.

If I couldn’t build the business I have now, I would’ve started another business for sure. I would’ve probably done something related to technology and music. I would also consider the market gaps, and try to address them.

In my freetime, I like to play music. I fire up the modest studio setup I have, and just use it to produce some electronic music for myself, as a form of unwinding and releasing stress.

The last great thing I read is The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. It’s quite an accurate book when it comes to business, depicting every situation you might encounter as a founder. I also recommend listening to Not Investment Advice. They wrap up what happens every week every Wednesday, and it keeps me well-rounded.

I believe Flapkap is killing it. It is actually co-founded by one of my partners, Ahmed Coucha, and I believe they are doing a great job. They have great offerings, and it’s a necessity for today’s market — providing financial services for e-commerce.

If I could give someone starting their own business just one piece of advice, it would be: “If you need someone to motivate you, then do not start.” The reason I say this is because there will be days where you will completely run out of energy, and if you can’t motivate yourself, then it’s game over for you. There is also another quote that I respect very much: “Startups don’t fail when they run out of money, they fail when the founders run out of energy,” and I strongly believe in this.

I go by the famous quote by Peter Drucker “culture eats strategy for breakfast” when selecting my team members. Of course I look at their technical capabilities, but assessing whether this caliber would be a good fit for the culture we’re trying to build is essential. Without a culture in place, nothing will get done. They have to fit into the company’s culture and the strategy we are creating.