
The FWDstart Podcast is a weekly show at the intersection of venture capital, startups, and strategic industries shaping the MENA region. Each episode features candid conversations with founders, investors, and operators behind the region’s most ambitious companies, from frontier AI and fintech infrastructure to climate tech, construction, energy, and space.
| Publishes | Weekly | Episodes | 15 | Founded | 6 months ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | BusinessEntrepreneurshipInvesting | |||

In this episode, we sit down with Deepali Nangia and Rana Abdel Latif, the partners leading Speedinvest's first dedicated Middle East and Africa fund, a flagship vehicle for the Vienna-based firm that's been quietly investing across emerging markets ... more
In this episode, we sit down with Mahdi Yahya, the founder of Ori, which has just been acquired by Brookfield Asset Management and merged into Radiant, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company combining power, capital, compute, and software ... more
In this episode, we sit down with Alex Epure, co-founder and CEO of Qureos, an AI-powered hiring platform that's just raised a $5M seed round led by Prosus. Alex spent nine years at Cisco, moved to Dubai, and then went from managing global enterprise... more
In this episode, we sit down with Glenn Harwood, co-founder of AlgoDriven, who has just completed an all-cash exit to Emergence Software, a San Francisco-based hold-forever software company. Glenn started selling cars at Mercedes-Benz in Australia at... more
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Apple Podcasts | #64 |
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This show focuses on venture capital, startups, and strategic industries driving the MENA region, with candid conversations from founders, investors, and operators behind ambitious companies across climate tech, AI, fintech infrastructure, real estate, and construction. Recent episodes highlight how regional ecosystems adapt Western models to local markets, the politics and opportunity of tech-enabled sectors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and beyond, and the tension between rapid innovation and cultural context. A recurring thread is the push to democratize investment and supervision in high-growth areas, from tokenized real estate to AI-enabled learning, while emphasizing humility, community ties, and practical execution over hype. The format co... more
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FWDstart launched 6 months ago and published 15 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
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Recent guests on FWDstart include:
1. Alina Truhina
2. Nafez Dakkak
3. Arya Bolurfrushan
4. Ibrahim Manna
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