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.