Amr Shawki, director at CVentures: My Morning Routine looks each week 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 Amr Shawki, a director at CVentures, Egypt’s first corporate venture capital firm focused primarily on fintech.

My name is Amr Shawki, I’m 35 years’ old, and I’m the son of an engineer and a statistician. My wife, Sara El Masry, and I have two children: Rouqaya, who’s 8, and Zeinedin, who’s 11. I’m from Maadi but have plans to move to the Fifth Settlement in the near future.

I’ve been working at CIB for almost 14 years — and now that I reflect on it, it’s crazy how quickly time flies. Since graduating from college, I’ve been fortunate enough to have an inspiring career across several business lines at CIB. To be part of an environment that fosters learning, innovation, and empowerment is something I value greatly.

I recently joined CVentures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIB, as a director responsible for portfolio management. My colleagues and I spend a considerable amount of time speaking to smart and progressive founders with ambitious dreams, from all over the world. We explore and challenge new ideas and business models, exchange thoughts with cross-border investors, CIB stakeholders and other members of our partner network, including but not limited to subject matter experts and innovation executives. Though our primary aim is to invest in companies creating meaningful change in financial services, we are also interested in other tech and tech-enabled value-creating businesses.

My line of work requires a lot of critical and strategic thinking — being bold and imaginative is a must. Most of what we invest in is a shared vision of the future. Engaging with next-generation entrepreneurs is what consumes our time and energy. We’re looking for the possible Collisons and Tenevs of the future (though we’re happy settling for a little less).

I wake up as early as 6:30 am, have my morning coffee, jump in the shower, get dressed, and we’re all out the door by 7:30 am. I drop Rouqaya and Zein off at school, which is my favorite part of the day. I usually plan to make it to the gym for early morning workouts but have consistently failed to do so for the past 10 years.

I’m often the first to arrive in the office, and that’s when I have time to myself. I read the news — Enterprise, BBC, and Bloomberg — and just when I think I have the office all to myself, my colleagues start charging in.

We’re currently a four-person team, running a CIB subsidiary with enough energy to light up Cairo. We all share the same passion for startups. Every week, we dedicate time to discussing our pipeline, organizing work schedules, and optimizing our pipeline selection (essentially engaging in deep analysis, evaluation, research and assessment). Additionally, we spend a considerable amount of time negotiating and structuring investment transactions with investment partners and target company founders.

My workdays are usually long — we work late hours. I often make a one-hour stop at the gym for weightlifting and cardio after work, and then pick up my kids from their after-school activities or pay my parents a visit, where I’m usually greeted with delicious home-cooked meals. I sometimes play soccer and squash. Generally, I end the day by reading, which provides me with some time to relax and reflect.

The last book I read was “Poor Economics,” by new Nobel Prize laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. It’s a real eye-opener, discussing the fundamentals of behavioral economics — one of my favorite topics. It specifically examines the philosophy of poor people’s economic decisions, as well as evaluating how this impacts social security programs usually spearheaded by governments.

Joker, the recently-released Todd Phillips film, is a masterpiece. I spent 10 minutes in silence after it ended, taking time to digest its depiction of a troubled individual living under such emotionally challenging conditions. I found the message quite impactful, especially its portrayal of a deeply distressing experience that often goes unnoticed by society.

CVentures implements a concentrated investment strategy, primarily focused on companies creating meaningful change in financial services. We invest in founders with deep market insights, defensible IP, major partnerships and strongly expansive markets. We provide smart, patient, and strategic capital to transformative businesses with high performance cultures. Additionally, when possible, it’s important that these companies complement CIB’s innovation agenda and demonstrate synergies to other portfolio companies.

Unjustifiable investment rounds are creating unnecessary distortions in startup valuations. The industry is likely to change for the better once more VCs are deeply engaged with founders, and limited partners demand responsible investing. Additionally, I’d like to see more digital-friendly regulations, ultimately enabling entrepreneurs to innovate with fewer restrictions (which gives room for more imaginative thinking), provided the system is well-governed, of course. A balanced approach is key. I’d also like to see more collaboration among key ecosystem stakeholders.

Our team is the reason for our success, thus far. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by competent, highly-driven professionals, interested in making a real change in financial services. We’re a founder-centric organization. We believe that the best investments are those made in mature management teams with experience in solving the problems they’re addressing. Additionally, our direct relationship with a leading financial services platform with cross-border ambitions gives us access — and on a case-by-case basis, the chance — to use a wide variety of resources and mechanisms designed to support portfolio companies and their respective teams, ultimately increasing the value for all stakeholders (CVentures included).

Believe it or not, arriving at investment decisions is the easy part of our job. Helping portfolio companies and their respective management teams execute their vision is where the real work comes in. The challenge is rolling up our sleeves, navigating markets and helping founders to build is something most people (of those I’ve spoken to) don’t pay a lot of attention to.

Other than reading (which I do quite extensively), I usually spend my free time with family and friends, playing sports, pursuing activities and other hobbies. I like nature, and enjoy spending time with my dog. I also enjoy card games. I’m a big fan of F1, and Ferrari is my preferred team. I’m also a big football fan, an Ahlawy, Manchester United-awy and Mo Salah-awy. I listen to lots of music, with classic rock being my favorite genre.

Staying organized is all about setting the right priorities in life. This is what sets the tone for everything, because organization then becomes based on the value and order that one assigns to each task. With practice, one learns how to allocate the right amount of time to each activity, making it easier to then integrate this into a daily routine.

There’s a Winston Churchill quote that I find to be deeply inspiring: "Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” Though Churchill was a politician, the sentiment is relevant to business. I believe that any company that fails to continue executing, and stops striving to achieve greatness, is mediocre. Our mindset, as thought and business leaders, should always be geared towards aspiring to become better.