Innovative Mind, Passionate Intellect, And Dynamic Thinker

Originally published on Rowad Magazine

For most of his career Tarig El-Sheikh was renown for his shrewd investment banking skills, always exceling in his roles in the financial world. Little do many know that the skilled banker started his early career and education as a Molecular Biochemist. He worked in large multinational investment houses including the infamous Lehman Brothers until its demise in 2008. Now a successful yet humble entrepreneur, Tarig symbolizes the epitome of an entrepreneur with an honest journey to achievement.

When asked how he went from being a successful banker to an entrepreneur Tarig refers to how he moved from Molecular Biochemistry to banking and then entrepreneurship. He highlighted how his time at Lehman was a true foundation for many transferable skill sets and discipline required for executing any plan, but remaining flexible with ones approach to meet market dynamics and fluctuations while attending to customer needs. “I absolutely loved my time there as the bank was a “small bond house” when I joined. Everyone pitched in and acted as business owners whilst we tried to solve complex issues for our clients in often-uncharted territories. The experience was a rare opportunity and, I feel, left me well-equipped…” said Tarig during his interview with Rowad. For many a fruitful and successful career would be satisfactory to remain within an industry until retirement, but with Tarig his success in banking were not enough and he was looking to make a mark elsewhere. “It was the collapse of the fourth largest US Investment Bank with its 25,000 employees and $640 billion in assets that made me come to terms to the fact that the world is not always back and white but more shades of grey. After so many years of working so hard, it was an opportunity to take a step back and reassess the current state of the world and ask myself the question; “what dent do I want to make in the Universe?” “ Tarig explains as his trigger to move into the world of entrepreneurship and he has not looked back since!

IT IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT INNOVATION IS A KEY DRIVER TO SUCCESS FOR AN ENTREPRENEUR AND TARIG HAS ALWAYS SHOWN GREAT CREATIVITY IN EVERYTHING HE DOES…

Believe it or not, the inspirational Tarig showed signs of an entrepreneurial mind from the early nineties! “The earliest enterprise I can remember was a really cool and novel concept of “VHS video lending club” (VHS cassettes! Remember those!). I started the business with a good friend in the early 90s at school when we were only 10 years old. If this was technology enabled it would have been the beginnings of a “Netflix”! We were making really got “pocket money” until we got shut down by our school and told off by our parents! “ Tarig explains. I

It is without a doubt that innovation is a key driver to success for an entrepreneur and Tarig has always shown great creativity in everything he does, not limiting himself when faced with challenge which is shown when he established Knot Standard in 2011; an innovative spin to bespoke tailoring. When asked how Knot Standard all began, Tarig fills your mind with beautiful imagery of the story, “Like all good ventures, Knot Standard was born out of a need to solve a problem. The idea crept into my mind while I was living in London. An investment banker at the time, I kept getting complimented on my dapper suits. “3,000 pounds from Saville Row?” I would often get asked; “Nope, an affordable 100 GBP suit from Bur Dubai” would be my response. Men have always wanted to dress well, to wear bespoke men’s suits. But until now, bespoke tailoring was too expensive. In most of the West, in fact, this remains the case. Tailoring has become a dying profession, so consequently the cost of buying a custom suit has become prohibitively expensive only available to the very well off. The opposite case to what was happening in the East. Knot Standard uses technology to bridge that gap and makes custom suits accessible to the masses at attainable prices points”.

We cannot count how many times we hear that entrepreneurs identify opportunities in the market turning them into a venture and often it is to solve a problem. Tarig displayed that entrepreneurial characteristic with Aythan in 2014, now called Beneple, which he set up to deal with a challenge he personally faced. He was drowning in paperwork of managing daily operations and employees with his companies and went on to developing a solution to the problem of managing HR and Admin within a startup, which is a problem that him and his partners experienced running an SME. Beneple is an HR management platform that enables SMEs to manage all their HR needs – admin, benefits, compliance, and much more – all online, in one simple dashboard and not only affordable, but free (www.beneple.com). The genesis of the idea came from his 6-year-old son (who he originally named the company after), when he noticed how stressed his dad looked having to deal with his employees’ admin and healthcare insurance needs. Working in his last startup, Tarig had to manage a large number of employees on a daily basis, where he often found himself spending most of his time not focusing on the core business, but having to deal with admin tasks manually and mostly through disjointed spreadsheets! It was his son who highlighted his frustrations in how much time is wasted managing the day to day HR related admin tasks and suggested that his dad “fix it”. So, Tarig and his partners went and “fixed it”!

THE TERM “SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR” IS OFTEN MISUSED AND EXAGGERATED “MOST WOULD DESCRIBE THE TERM TO ALLUDE TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A GREAT IDEA, DEVELOPS A COMPANY BASED AROUND IT, AND THEN HANDS IT OFF POST-LAUNCH TO FOCUS ON THEIR NEXT BUSINESS ENTERPRISE.

The impetus behind the founding of Beneple was Tarig’s desire to rectify a common problem that all SMEs face – many SMEs around the world spend up to about 40% of their time on administrative tasks where often mundane, but essential. Rather than focusing on generating new lines of revenue and growing the business, Tarig found himself drowning in administrative paperwork, which was solved by Aythan, which was later acquired by a regulated financial services company and rebranded as Beneple (Benefits for People).

Another one of his ventures was Solve for Y, a Biotech Venture that he attempted with a dear friend out in San Francisco related to DNA reading, but couldn’t quite get it to take off for a multitude of reasons. Although it has been kept aside for now, it might be resuscitated in due time as the cost of reading DNA has come down to financially feasible levels to allow it to be attractive to startup again.

Tarig has been called numerous times in publications and by his peers as a serial entrepreneur, but is not comfortable wearing that label as he is not a big of the term. He has said that the term “serial entrepreneur” is often misused and exaggerated “Most would describe the term to allude to someone who has a great idea, develops a company based around it, and then hands it off post-launch to focus on their next business enterprise. This implies the act is done as second nature. The word “serial” also has negative connotations, like “serial killer” etc. “ To Tarig he believes that, “Entrepreneurs are professionals who make a career out of multiple businesses derived from real world needs. They often learn the nuances of different industries quickly and expertly. Above all, entrepreneurs earn the title after years of often not glamorous hard work, sleepless nights and dedication.”

As the creator of multiple businesses, Tarig has the challenge of being able to measure his success and to know when he should move on to the next idea. For Tarig when asked about success versus failure, he tells us “You have to keep in mind that failure and success are relative. If someone builds a company that after say five years has product, staff and operates profitably (thus providing its customers value and its employees an income) then from someone’s point of view it is a success. Then again if that company took external investment from one or more people who expect their capital returned with a minimum 10 times return, in which case it certainly was not a success. The odds are against you, statistically, most new ventures don’t survive past the first 3 years of their life. A Definite failure, although hopefully those involved learnt something along the way, in which they’re not. Again it’s relative.” From Tarig’s perspective, success is measured by positive cashflow, “Cashflow is what determines a startup’s failure or success. Once you attain that, it opens you up to exploring the option of selling or not. “

IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE (USUALLY FATAL ONE) IF ONE WERE TO GET EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THEIR ORIGINAL IDEA OR SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM.

We are well aware about the mistake many entrepreneurs make about getting emotionally attached to an idea, but we discovered when speaking with Tarig that it is not always negative to be emotionally attached as he describes his view he said “It would be a mistake (usually fatal one) if one were to get emotionally attached to their original idea or solution to the problem. It is far more effective to be emotionally attached (or better yet, obsessed with!) the problem rather than the idea. That helps keep you pushing forward for a different solution (as your first try will most likely fail) during those very challenging periods and late nights. It is easy to fall under the trap of falling in love with your original idea and forget the reason why you ventured into trying to solve the problem in the first place. “ Tarig has found himself making the same mistake himself from time to time of forgetting the main problem he was trying to resolve, which led him to start the venture. He was fortunate enough to surround himself with experienced advisors, who he describes, “ act as a sounding board. They often help ‘pull my head out of the trees to see the forest’ so that I can see the bigger picture and continually reassess the situation.”

It is of course a fact that not all startups succeed, but it is not always easy to know when is the best time to cut your losses and move to the next idea. When discussing the phrase ‘cutting your losses’ Tarig passionately jumps to clarify that it is important to “to make a distinction between ‘cutting your losses’ and ‘quitting’. You should never quit! It is perfectly reasonable for someone to make a logical decision to stop and know when to move on. In fact, everyone should write down their personal “Forget this” clause at the same time as when they write their original business plan (which, by the way, becomes obsolete the second you finish writing it!). It is important to be responsible and honest with yourself and know your personal risk appetite. Objectively find the point in your venture when you know you’ll stop, and stick to it. You owe it to yourself and your family to avoid the double-down dangers of a gambler. Entrepreneurs are not gamblers they are calculated risk takers. Although you may walk away from your business, it doesn’t mean you have quit as an entrepreneur.”

A good way of looking at it for Tarig is when starting any new venture, whether an employee establishing a new division, or for one of his own businesses, the default state of the start up is, by definition, “failure”. It is his job to “Un-fail” it.

TARIG METAPHORICALLY DESCRIBES THE RELATIONSHIP WITH PARTNERS IN A VENTURE AS A MARRIAGE AND THE START UP IS THE BABY.

Most entrepreneurs do not start up their businesses solo and the same is true for Tarig. That in mind, it is also common for many entrepreneurs to face challenges with their partners especially when strategy and growth come into play. It is not the easiest recipe to believe to manage relationships with partners, but Tarig offers stimulating advice that is an asset to any entrepreneur and can be used by those who are entrepreneurs within an organization “I’ve experienced situations where having cofounders helped and hurt startups in their search for success. There’s a brilliant book called “The Founders Dilemma” which gives statistical evidence supporting that a few (2 to 3) cofounders are the most likely to be successful in a new venture. Personally, I think most situations call for a founding team where each person has a clear role. Cofounder dynamics are probably the second biggest killer of startups (After running out of cash of course – read – no cash flow!).”

Tarig metaphorically describes the relationship with partners in a venture as a marriage and the start up is the baby. His advice when managing these relationships is like that for any good ‘marriage’ it is vital to base the relationship on:

Honesty: so that each assumption is challenged and the risk of one mindedness does not occur Trust and Respect: in the skills of the other founders to execute and deliver in what they are good at Continuous Communication

Tarig has a reputation of to believing in social causes and giving back to the community. He plays an active role as a Trustee in a wonderful NGO called Reach The Children (www.reachthechildren.org). He spends a few weeks every year working with young orphans and doing volunteer work in schools and hospitals in East Africa; Kenya and Uganda to be specific. Over the years they have helped develop and implement many micro-enterprise projects like “Grandma’s Garden” that have been successful in creating a sustainable source of food and income for the inhabitatnts of these lesser privileged areas. With such dedication to social causes, it is only obvious that we should learn of his opinion about social entrepreneurship. When we asked him his views, he told us that currently, he is immersed in a lot of books on the topic of social entrepreneurship. It’s too premature for him come to any conclusions yet, but did say he would like to be asked that same question in a couple of months.

EACH PERSON HAS THEIR OWN DEFINITION OF SUCCESS AND FOR TARIG, SUCCESS IS QUANTIFIED BY HOW BIG A DENT YOU MAKE IN THE UNIVERSE!

Funding is always a challenge startups face especially at early/seed stages. This was of course something that Tarig could not shy away from. Although he sees the issue of funding as a broad topic that cannot be answered without specifics of the stage of the company, on a general note for very early stage companies funding from Angels and Angel groups, he believes, is probably the best initial source of capital. That’s usually where him and his partners have started and he emphasizes that “Raising capital for your venture is always a challenging endeavor and consumes a significant amount of time. “

Entrepreneurs often belong to different communities, such as societies, incubators, accelerators, clusters etc. Although not a steadfast rule with all his startups, Tarig’s current venture Beneple was the first company to go through the Astrolabs program, one of the regional accelerators in the MENA region located in the DMCC freezone in Dubai. “Entrepreneurial communities that cluster in co-working spaces like Astrolabs (www.astrolabs.com) can be immensely helpful in increasing the chances of your start ups success. Many provide access to capital and venture funding for scaling, access to skilled mentors, good connectivity and infrastructure, lower set-up costs etc. so all the benefits one gains from clustering.” is what Tarig truly sees as a benefit from communities and clusters. More importantly being a part of the AstroLabs support community helped him tremendously, “It’s a real community! That’s what separates a commodity desk rental from a truly inclusive and valuable cluster or hub for founders.”

Over the last couple of years Tarig, has from time to time had the opportunity to invest in other early stage start-ups. It’s usually a venture where he has had really good chemistry with and was impressed by the founding team. Essentially, he shares the passion and vision for the product or service and also looking to innovate in large and addressable market segment. He has never considered working in Venture Capital regionally. He sees the MENA entrepreneurship ecosystem as relatively young and has lot of room for progress and growth.

Each person has their own definition of success and for Tarig, success is quantified by how big a dent you make in the universe! He believes that if the impact of what someone has created has bettered the lives of people and the planet then they are on the way. He says “It doesn’t matter whether you’ve invent a better chip that plays a critical role connecting the current 6.8 billion mobile phones or you have designed the world’s most comfortable toilet seat that touches millions (literally) , so long as the impact is a large and positive one.”

People sometimes say that they are ‘born entrepreneurs’, but Tarig does not believe that we are born into any particular predefined role or title, but rather we are what we make of ourselves. He thinks that almost everyone has the ability to develop those skills if they chose to. Everyone one has their own strengths and weaknesses, it’s important to be able to identify what those are, be comfortable working outside a standard regimented structure and be an innate problem solver.

FAMILY IS IMPORTANT TO TARIG AND IS THE “WHY?” IN WHAT HE WANTS TO DO.

Being an investment banker meant long hours and barely anytime for Tarig, but how much of that has changed for Tarig as an entrepreneur, “Well, let’s see, I went from working 60 to 80 hours per week to working 100 hours per week. The only change maybe is that I have a little but more choice on when to put in those hours — my wife will tell you that I have no idea how to switch off or achieve balance (and she’s always right!). Entrepreneurship is a way of life, it’s not a job title to be measured in hours.“

Family is important to Tarig and is the “why?” in what he wants to do. His ideal weekend would be playing football with his sons at the park. Whenever possible, he spends his free time with his children as these are in their formative years that no amount of money or success can bring back.

Being innovative is key for progress and it is also important to know how to drive innovation in startup and growing businesses. What has worked well in Tarig’s experience is the ability to always be able to take a step back view starting from principal levels.

Tarig simply defines innovation as the creation of either (or a combination of a few or all):

  1. New Market
  2. New Product
  3. New Service
  4. New Process

When thinking of innovation, Tarig advises not to start with the technology, the idea, or even market research. He emphasizes that one should start with the basic problem and outlining root causes and then innovate from there. Ideally always accepting that this should be a constantly evolving and iterative process and shouldn’t stop there.

The journey for Tarig El-Sheikh, the avid entrepreneur or as he prefers calling himself; the professional entrepreneur has not come to an end, but rather a continual one.

He does not have the desire to build ten companies over the course of his life. He wants to be known for doing one thing better than anyone else in his given field. He has learned (and continues to learn) a lot having started a couple of companies already – with some failing, one “making it”, and another yet to be determined. These lessons have been invaluable from one to the next.

IT’S ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOT FIXATE ON FAILURE. WELCOME IT, LEARN FROM IT AND BUILD ON IT TOWARDS SUCCESS.

Everyone has a story or anecdote to share and to match Tarig’s extensive interest in reading and his real-life experiences make it difficult for him to narrow it down to one.

He has been very fortunate in life and grateful to every opportunity that he has received. One story that comes clearly to his mind comes from early on in his career when he ran into his boss’s office to frantically explain a challenge we were about to face. He calmly responded: “Tarig, I don’t pay you for problems. I pay you for solutions.”

Ever since then, those words have stuck with him.

Tarig advises fellow entrepreneurs that,“It’s also important to not fixate on failure. Welcome it, learn from it and build on it towards success. 100 failures are 100 lessons learnt that form the steps towards achieving your goals.”

The professional entrepreneur Tarig has shown us how his passion, determination, and dynamism are a testament to his success rendering those who learn of his story positively speechless.

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