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 Omar ElDessouky (LinkedIn), co-founder and CEO of property co-ownership startup Seqoon.

My name is Omar ElDessouky, and I’m the co-founder of Seqoon. I graduated from AUC last summer with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. I started working on Seqoon with my co-founder Mohamed El Khatib. He was finishing up his master’s degree in Cambridge at the time, and I was still in my last year of university.

We first had the idea for Seqoon while we were at the North Coast, looking at housing prices. We discovered that there is a gap in the market for Gen Z, millennials, and others who want to buy a second home for investment or use, but there is a financial barrier. So we began researching our concept, which is co-owning a property for use and investment, and whether similar models existed. We found Pacaso in the US, which sparked a global prop-tech revolution, and were eager to see if the same model would solve the problem in Egypt.

We created a quick website on Wix to test out the market. We were overwhelmed by the number of people who accessed the site, and this helped us to collect data about the nature of our customers, their average budget, and we further built on the concept from there. Now, we handle the scheduling, the usage, and we also help out if an owner wants to sell their shares.

I grew up working with and learning from my father, who owns a construction company. I didn’t have the fear of starting a business because I had already experienced its inner workings. Therefore, my partner and I were looking for a challenge. We wanted to address the most pressing issue in Egypt’s largest market, which is real estate and affordability. We knew that starting a company at this age would be difficult, in terms of attracting high-caliber and convincing investors — but this challenge motivated us even more.

The best part of my job is coming into the office every day and working with the great team that we’ve built. We have a lot of interesting people on the team, so it’s always a pleasure to interact with them. The most difficult aspect of my job is dealing with the day-to-day logistics of running a business, such as accounting and paperwork. It isn’t enjoyable for anyone, but it’s something that has to be done.

The three most important KPIs that we look at on a regular basis include the burn rate. It’s the most important metric right now, and I believe that many startups are looking at it as well since the economic situation is unstable. Moreover, we look at the number of house shares we sell per month, the number of houses we have, how quickly we can finish up an entire house, and the number of shares multiplied by the number of houses, as well as the lead conversion rate.

Seqoon has raised USD 500k in a pre-seed funding round. We also have some angel investors, including Scott Bond (LinkedIn), who is the vice president and country manager of Property Finder in the UAE.

Right now, we’re keeping our heads down and concentrating on gaining as much traction as possible before approaching investors for another round. However, we are looking for opportunities across MENA. We now have a presence in Gouna, Soma Bay, and Sokhna, and we’re looking to expand to the North Coast, after which we’ll raise again and enter the Gulf.

If I could give someone starting their own business just one piece of advice, it would be to find a great mentor — someone who already has a skill in the game and can help you learn a lot. I usually consult my father whenever I need to fix a difficult problem. He founded his construction company at the age of 23 and now it is one of Egypt’s largest contractors. I’m very proud of his accomplishments, and he is unquestionably the person to confide in.

Being founder of a startup could be a lonely journey, but it helps to have co-founders. When you start a business, you are constantly under pressure, and even if you have a great team, they will not be dealing with the same issues, so the co-founders are the only people who can balance this pressure together.

I turn to books for inspiration. I like to read a lot. It’s extremely helpful and I see it as a spiritual and mindful time off. A lot of what I read is about startups, as well as self-help books. The last great thing I read is The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone. I also recently watched The Godfather again which is my all-time favorite movie, and I listen to all of Y Combinator’s podcasts.

I don’t have a lot of spare time, but when I do, I spend it playing chess. I have a chess obsession. I was actually just playing right before the interview [laughs].

If I had to exit my business tomorrow, I would do it through an IPO, and I would definitely stay on as an employee.

My family was initially skeptical of my career choice. They couldn’t understand why I would want to branch out on my own when we have a stable family business. But as we grew Seqoon into a company and demonstrated that we knew what we were doing, that quickly changed and they now show a lot of support.

I believe that Flexstock and Khazna are two startups that are killing it. Anything in the logistics industry at the moment is very helpful for the country.

I’d like to see a lot more younger founders in the local start up scene. It is very consolidated right now — people with similar experiences and age, who make sense to be the pioneers. Therefore, I’d like to see more young entrepreneurs enter the scene.