OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Fadi Antaki, co-founder and CEO of The Fashion Kingdom (LinkedIn).

My name is Fadi Antaki and I am the co-founder and CEO of The Fashion Kingdom (TFK) and general partner at A15. I graduated from AUC in the late ‘90s with a degree in business administration and for the first couple of years I worked in the family business which is retail and manufacturing ready-made garments. I was responsible for quality control at the factories and also worked to begin incorporating technology. That was back in 1997, so everyone in Egypt was just beginning to use Microsoft Excel. I realized that I was more inclined toward tech, so I left the family business and began working at LINKdotNET in 2000, an internet service provider that was relatively new at the time. The company was later acquired by Global Telecom Holding (formerly Orascom Telecom Holding).

I’ve had various roles in companies under the Orascom umbrella. After I left LINKdotNET I began working at ARPU+, which was founded in 2003 and is now an A15 subsidiary; I eventually became CEO of that company. I then served as CEO of OTVentures, a subsidiary of Orascom Investment Holding that later became A15, an Egyptian VC.

I wanted to get my hands dirty and work on operation and execution. Working at a VC means you’re supporting people who are building something and even though you’re involved, you’re just monitoring. In 2019, my co-founders and I founded TFK and I took on a more silent role at A15.

I decided to start TFK because I had the urge to build something and I thought it was time to get out of my comfort zone. I brought to the table a bit of fashion industry knowledge that I learned through the family business, my tech know-how, and the experience that I've gained running companies.

TFK is an e-commerce platform that combines tech and fashion to offer customers a more pleasant shopping experience. It enables customers to buy products from multiple brands and makes the experience more enjoyable through features styling advice and outfit recommendations and enabling in-store returns for items purchased online.

We’re also very focused on our partners on the supply side. We sell both local and international brands. We do not just act as a reseller for those brands, but rather as more of a digital partner. New up-and-coming brands often want to place their focus on the products themselves but get sidetracked by the operational and logistical concerns like storing inventory, warehousing or things like digital photography and so that’s where we come in and offer support. We help brands with their marketing and other operational aspects to allow them to focus on their core business and create better products.

The best part of my job is making TFK a fun place to work. The passion that comes with creating something new is the best part of the process of building a company. Being able to employ and create jobs is very rewarding. Involving everyone at the company, from the office boy to top management, in meeting the company’s targets creates a sense of inclusion.

The stress and overthinking that comes with the territory of doing something new are the worst part of my job. The fear of failure builds on the stress and makes me unable to think clearly at times. I’ve never worked in e-commerce before so my self-doubt was very high and it took a while for me to get over this, it’s tough especially when you’re raising money for the company and are getting a lot of no’s.

There are several financial and operational KPIs that I look at regularly. From a financial perspective, I look at our gross income margins, the top line, and customers’ cart size. You have to have a plan that enables you to eventually become a profitable company. From an operational perspective, I look at our delivery time and fulfillment time so how long it takes to ship out an order, and how many days it takes to deliver an order. In terms of customer service, I also look at how many tickets we resolve every hour.

TFK recently closed a USD 2.6 mn seed round co-led by CVentures (CIB’s VC arm) and A15. Lotus Capital, Raba Capital, Sunny Side Venture Partners, Foundation Ventures, and Cairo Angels also invested.

Some of our future plans include expanding to other markets and offering our partner brands a wider range of services. We want to provide brands with more data, such as the price range to stick to in order to appeal to a certain target for a specific product, especially since TFK is more focused on the mass market and fast fashion. Other examples include what products or colors perform better seasonally, any type of data that could help them optimize their product offerings, expand their target market, or whatever their goal may be.

When choosing my current founding and management team I looked at consistency and resilience. I looked for people who were eager to learn. None of TFK’s co-founders had any prior experience with e-commerce. We all had to learn together. I can’t work with people with a big ego. Both my co-founders are humble and team players.

In my spare time, I enjoy playing padel tennis, which I’ve been passionate about for the last five years. I’ve also done yoga and meditation for stress relief and it's really an efficient way to manage stress. When I have the time I love to travel with my family and discover new places.

Robin Sharma’s book, The 5 AM Club, gave me the resilience I needed to not collapse under pressure when I was building TFK. I’m currently reading another one of Sharma’s books, The Everyday Hero Manifesto. His books are all about personal development and have helped me improve my life on a professional and personal level.