Karim Khorshed, CEO and co-founder, Cequens Egypt: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Karim Khorshed (LinkedIn), co-founder and CEO at communications platform provider Cequens.

My name is Karim Khorshed and I am a serial tech entrepreneur. I began my entrepreneurial journey in 1997, and I currently serve as the CEO and co-founder of Cequens, a cloud customer engagement platform encompassing reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty. Our solutions can be adapted and integrated with other existing customer systems, which helps companies to create stronger connections with their customers

We founded Cequens in January 2011. Despite the challenging time, we were able to not only survive but also scale our company. We now serve over 1k enterprises including global names like Google, Alibaba, and Telegram, and we operate from Egypt, the UAE, Pakistan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Morocco.

The most interesting trend in the industry right now is the increasing use of AI and machine learning, as well as communications platforms that are rapidly gaining momentum. This allows for a more tailored experience for businesses and their customers, which can improve customer satisfaction while reducing the operational costs for our clients.

I typically wake up around 7am and start my day by reading Enterprise. I also surf other media publications to stay updated with the most important developments across all markets. Afterwards, I develop a list of tasks to help me remain focused throughout the day.

My average day includes meetings with my leadership team and other stakeholders, as well as monitoring and analyzing the company and its overall performance.

The one constant in my chaotic day as CEO is a steady stream of caffeine [laughs]. Every day is a wild card holding a new challenge that needs to be tackled. I try to remain as focused and organized as I can — I write down my objectives and key results in order to make sure the team is aligned with the same goal and the company’s strategy. Thanks to the pandemic, we now work from home, and that helps a great deal with staying focused and getting things done as well.

My future plans include looking for tailored ways to scale up the company and the team further. I also want to share more of my experience with other entrepreneurs and help them navigate the startup world.

Despite the constant hustle, I try my best to maintain a healthy balance between work and play, but it’s very challenging. We have a long journey ahead of us to prepare the company to be ready for big steps to follow.

Whenever I have free time, I enjoy spending quality time with my spouse. We usually watch movies and TV shows — we can’t get enough of Friends. It’s just a great way to relax and disconnect from work. My day typically ends around 8pm.

There are many classic reads that I think are essential for entrepreneurs, such as The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries, and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. It examines the characteristics and practices of successful companies and offers insights and lessons for entrepreneurs looking to build stellar businesses.

If I could give someone trying to start their own business just one piece of advice, it would be to remain persistent — it is the only way to succeed. Being persistent will allow you to overcome obstacles and keep pushing towards your goals, despite any setbacks or failures.

The best piece of advice I was ever told was actually from my mom. She has raised us to believe that there is no challenge and that nothing is impossible. As long as we put our mind to achieving something, we can definitely do it.