Andrew Lau is located in Boston now, but is a California native. He grew up in Oakland, and calls himself the odd duck who went west instead of east, like most people. He went to the north east for school, and stayed to be apart of the startup world, interestingly enough with his current co-founders. Outside of tech, he's married to an AP Calculus teacher, and has two daughters. He enjoys cooking and making new cuisine with his kids. Fun fact, he is a certified barbecue judge in Kansas City, and has come to Texas a time or two to tour the Texas Monthly list.

Andrew met his current co-founders in 1999. Recently, they re-connected, recalling the successes and camaraderie they had during their startup days. They recalled that the act of leading engineering teams is hard - and they wanted to build something that makes that easier.

This is the creation story of Jellyfish.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Tecla
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://jellyfish.co/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/amlau/

Ayush Agarwal is a techy trying to code his way out of things. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science, but more importantly, he discovered entrepreneurship in college, inspired by his successful classmates. He spent years gathering experience in different startup verticals, including fintech. But outside of tech, he loves to play badminton, cricket, and hangout with friends. He is also big into Chess, which he mentioned enjoying Chess.com, as well as our recent interview with their CTO, Josh Levine.

When Ayush met his now co-founder, they started to think through businesses and how much goes into setting up payments, taxes, etc. They started to dream about building this layer of payments, to enable builders to send and receive global payments easily, so they can focus on their core competencies.

This is the creation story of Dodo Payments.

Sponsors

• PropelAuth
• Tecla
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://dodopayments.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagarwal1012/

Josh Ho was into tech at a young age. In high school, which was around the time of bulletin boards and AOL online, he had to code a way to connect windows to the internet using TCP/IP. Outside of tech, he is married with a family. He notes that because he is in tech, people perceive him to be younger in age. He plays handball, and has been into the sport since he was younger.

Prior to his current venture, Josh had a SaaS product he attempted to launch that didn't work out. While he was getting his car worked on at a dealership, he noticed patrons being referred to salesmen in real time - and he started to think, who manages this sort of thing for other businesses?

This is the creation story of Referral Rock.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://referralrock.com/
• https://mojoho.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuajho/

Austin Vance grew up in Oklahoma, but takes residence outside of Denver, Colorado now. He is a father of 3 boys, who are also 3 in under - so he's quite busy. He loves woodworking, and teaching his oldest son how to ski. When it comes to food, he loves all of it in general - but has been drawn to asian fusion lately. And he enjoys reading business books, and sci fi - of which, Blade Runner was mentioned number one.

Austin had several experiences with consulting firms, where they operated under traditional "land and expand" models. IE, increasing the footprint of their teams. He felt passionate about building a services company that was designed to deprecate itself - starting with the wide world of DevOps.

This is the creation story of Focused.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://focused.io/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinbv/

Jason Schappert grew up in an entrepreneurial family. His Mom and Dad were always working together, and never had jobs. Jason's first job was working for his parents pest control company, where he crafted his understanding of what success looked like. Outside of tech, he is married with 3 kids, and is very into all of their sports. Fun fact, his kids enjoy doing their homeschooling in the office with their Dad, listening to calls and asking big questions - so business is actually what they do for fun.

For 16 years, Jason grew and ran a business in aviation. After a successful exit, he and his wife Magda were considering what to do next. She quickly remembered all of the things Jason did behind the scenes to setup their personal finances for success, in the midst of a chaotic startup life.

This is the creation story of Moola.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://moo.la/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonschappert/

Tameem Hourani was born in the Middle East, on a small island. He came to the states, Boston specifically, for school in 2006. He planned on 4 years of engineering, which turned into 19 years of life. He became a citizen of the US during COVID, and spent many years of his career at Wayfair, which he throughly enjoyed. But outside of tech, he is a new father and spends a lot of time with his newborn. He loves being in the ocean, scuba diving, kite surfing and along side that, collecting vintage watches.

In the past, Tameem had been burned by consulting firms. He saw a gap in the industry, and when he left his prior role at Wayfair, he wanted to become a trusted, transparent technology partner - the one that he had longed for in his previous roles.

This is the creation story of RapDev.

Sponsors

• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.rapdev.io/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tameem-hourani/

Shahar Azulay has had many opportunities to get into tech throughout his life. He started digging into cyber security when he was 17 years old, where he learned the basics of deep tech that he still utilizes to this day. He's a startup guy, and has had the opportunity to be the first employee many times over. Outside of tech, he's married with 3 boys and a dog. He lives in the country side, and loves to spend time in nature and cook, as he was a semi professional chef at one point.

Shahar and his co-founder are veterans when it comes to using observability platforms for their systems. They wanted to build a platform that balanced the needs of the system, with a lower cost of a fully functional platform.

This is the creation story of Groundcover.

Sponsors

• Rapyd Cloud
• Speakeasy
• QA Wolf
• SnapTrade

Links

• https://www.groundcover.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahar-azulay-54156bb4

Today, we are releasing another episode in our series entitled Minting Unicorns - Blockchain, AI and Dubai, sponsored by the City of Dubai.

Dubai is the new global center of gravity, connecting the world in a way few places can. As a hub for trade, tourism, innovation, and finance, Dubai offers the ideal environment for startups and scale-ups to thrive. Entrepreneurs find a home here, whether in health-tech, fintech, AI, or renewable energy, supported by SME-focused programs that empower high-potential companies to scale globally. From flexible regulations to tax incentives, world-class infrastructure to access to global investors managing $1 trillion, Dubai understands what businesses need to scale fast.

In this episode, we are excited to speak with Imad Gharzeddine, the visionary CEO and Co-Founder of Mamo, a pioneering fintech platform simplifying payments and empowering businesses in the MENA region.

• Questions:

1. Tell us and our audience a little bit about yourself and the journey that led you to founding Mamo.
2. What is Mamo, and what specific problem are you solving in the fintech space?
3. Mamo is often described as a company simplifying payments for businesses and individuals in the region. What inspired this mission, and how has the journey been so far?
4. What fundamental principles guided the creation of the product, and how has it evolved over time?
5. Why did you choose Dubai as the base for Mamo? What advantages does the city offer to startups in the fintech space?
6. What opportunities have you capitalized on that you believe are unique to Dubai or the MENA region?
7. Mamo is known for promoting financial inclusion. How do your products and services cater to underserved communities in the region?"
8. How does Mamo incorporate cutting-edge technologies, like AI or blockchain, into its offerings to stay ahead of the curve?
9. As a leader, what’s your approach to building a strong and innovative team at Mamo?
10. What lessons have you learned as a CEO scaling a fintech startup in such a competitive and rapidly evolving market?
11. With Dubai emerging as a fintech hub, where do you see the industry heading in the next decade?
12. What advice would you give to fintech startups or entrepreneurs looking to expand into Dubai or the broader MENA region?

Links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/imadgharazeddine/
• https://www.mamopay.com/
• https://blockchaincenter.ae/
• https://dubaiaicampus.com/
• https://www.difc.ae/
• https://www.investindubai.gov.ae/en/why-dubai/d33-agenda