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 Sabrine Assem (LinkedIn), founder of the all-in-on competition management platform for innovation-driven organizations, Untap Technologies.

My name is Sabrine Assem and I’m the founder of Untap Technologies. I’m a 35-year-old Alexandria native. I graduated from GUC with a bachelor’s in information systems and innovative technology, and I hold a master’s degree in digital innovation and information systems from the UK’s Warwick Business School. I began teaching at GUC in 2010, where I worked for three years before founding my first company, Solvermine, which failed due to many external factors. Afterwards, I worked as a consultant for the German Arab Chamber of Commerce and the German Ministry of Economic Affairs right before launching Untap Technologies in 2019.

I first came up with the idea for Untap Technologies when I was approached by Dell Technologies as an innovation consultant. They needed support in managing and streamlining the process for a new regional student competition for graduation projects across the MENA region, Africa, and Turkey. So we launched Untap Technologies as a competition management platform. We created software that enables organizations to easily and quickly plan, launch, and manage online innovation challenges, creative contests, hackathons, grants, scholarships, and basically anything that requires application handling.

Untap Technologies offers a streamlined holistic experience that goes beyond just providing software. We provide content, templates, and try to find communities of participants that fit the purpose of the program and its outreach plan — through initial filtration and overall support to make sure the program is successful. Our services also cover publicizing and collecting applications, as well as partially automated initial filtration. We also cover the screening process and the evaluation process.

Our work with Dell Technologies is a success story, having covered eight editions called Envision the Future. We ran alongside it several hackathons and virtual hiring events, summer internship programs and innovation challenges. We powered over 150 programs so far, ranging from a creative design contest in Australia, to the biggest photography contest in the world happening in the UK. We also power innovation challenges and pressing issues-related programs for the Saudi government.

I was always inspired to establish my own company. My first-ever visit to Silicon Valley when I was quite young gave me the chance to learn about the startup ecosystem, and convinced me that I should pursue entrepreneurship. During my master’s studies, I learned more about the concept of open innovation, which prompted me to create Solvermine.

I gave up a lot of freedom and the stability of working for an established institution while founding my own business. However, I was so passionate about the idea and what it was trying to solve that I declined all of the offers that came my way. I gave up the potential to explore other opportunities, my mental health and well-being, and sacrificed a lot of my quality time with family as well.

The best part of my job is my team. I also enjoy working closely with customers and brainstorming to generate the best programs possible. The worst part of my job is the administrative work, like working with legal papers.

If I could give someone starting their own business just one piece of advice, I would tell them to practice listening. When you listen and pay attention, you automatically grow from your side and give the person speaking — whether it’s a team member or customer — the kind of attention that they would appreciate. There is always someone out there to learn something from if you are a great listener.

When I’m facing a difficult problem at work, I always turn to my partners and investors for advice. However, on a daily basis, I always solve issues with my teammates, especially with our chief growth officer, Maggie Adel. She's been a true asset to Untap since 2019.

So far, Untap has successfully raised USD 670k, and our main investors include Flat6labs, Loay El Shawarby, Ocean X, Techstars, Faisal Al Abulsalam, Fouad Alnazawi, Ali Alqahtani, and Ibrahim Alzuhimeel. We are also working with a leading innovation consulting firm in Saudi, but we won’t be able to disclose any more information until we sign the agreement.

The three most important KPIs we look at are cash flow, customer acquisition and the number of leads we have in our pipeline. We also look at the number of programs we launch per week, the converts we pay and the engagement level. We have a dashboard that monitors everything related to the business.

We are not looking to raise soon. Once we receive the ongoing funding with the leading consultancy firm in Saudi, we are planning to take a break to work and focus on the business for six to eight months before starting our fundraising efforts around July 2023.

If I were to exit my business tomorrow, I would do it through an acquisition by an innovation consultancy. I would also stay on as an employee as I’m passionate about Untap’s concept, regardless of having majority shares.

It took my family a while to get on board with the concept of founding my own business. However, now that I have launched Untap and it proved to be a success, they are very supportive.

If I hadn't started Untap Technologies, I probably would have built another business. Since I have a strong passion for education, working in edtech or teaching seems like something I would have done.

I believe that Instabug is killing it. The fact that they went through so many challenges since 2012 and came out stronger than before is something that inspires me everyday.

If I only had enough money to do one thing, I would invest in the company, particularly in the product itself.