Journey since the beginning of career.
Started my career as a teenager who couldn’t wait to work, but it was so hard to get a chance. That’s what I remember clearly, I got rejected time after time due to not having experience, but I thought how can I have previous experience if I’m only 17 years old? The first half of my career was super tough, taking low salaries, working a lot, and then I got my big break. I started a role at Dow Jones and worked in the Venture Capital & Private Equity team and that was amazing. I was able to transfer my skills to a new industry and the learning curve was steep. To this day I remain grateful to my amazing management team – Guido Schenk, Robert Hughes & Bill Yong. They were incredibly supportive leaders and gave me the opportunity I longed for. I wish more Managers were as empowering as they were if you’re reading this. THANK YOU.
Source of motivation
I have seen the place I was born in and opportunities are limited and people are in poverty. Thanks to my grandad and dad getting a job in the UK, our lives changed forever. This was not just a job to them, it was a lifeline, and thanks to this, generations have been changed. Not everyone is lucky to get an opportunity, so my job is to create these chances for others and give back and create dignified work and health. Technology has the ability to create scalable equality in society.
Challenges faced withstanding the complexities of the industry.
Where do I start? There have been so many and continue to be. Being a woman leader in tech from the Middle East is harder than I thought. At some point, you talk to investors and that’s a mainly a male dominated world (globally, not just in the region). I don’t fit the idea of what an entrepreneur looks like, throw a couple of children in and that enforces the judgement even more. But it couldn’t be further from the truth, as a mum you juggle a lot and I’m used to working all hours, my startups are like my children too. Some people have never run a startup before, I have for years and it’s my way of life. My children inspire me and whenever we launch any new AI-powered video product, they are the first ones I test it on. After all it has to be simple enough for a 5 year old to understand! You have to focus and not be distracted by the negative energy. The more successful you become, the more people want to tear you down, this is something I don’t understand. But you do get stronger over time and just need to focus on running forward at speed and as a woman..in heels!
Details about your company and its unique services/products.
Searchie is the original company we developed in 2018, which is an AI-powered video platform for those who are applying for jobs. It is also being used to evaluate the competencies of existing teams. More focus needs to shift to personality and untapped potential, not a history of what people have done. We’re allowing companies to focus on
the future and potential of each person, all through remote screening tools-something of huge value for these days.
In March 2020 we pivoted and launched Mediscreen – this is a virtual video powered triage to help doctors, governments, employers and health authorities prescreen on the scale. It’s being used for COVID-19 and some doctors have also started using it for Virtual Cardiac prescreening too. It is also helping employers phase back to work safely or help safeguard employees through regular checks. This will change the face of health care forever and CNN and CNBC have also featured it. In the era of virtual work and health, we are strongly positioned to leverage both through our businesses. Timing is everything and we are fortunate that we were able to build solutions for current challenges which we could not have predicted a year ago.
Current industry scenario from your perspective.
Well the HR industry will have huge challenges, the unemployment rate is very high and will continue to rise globally. Companies will receive much more applicants per role – this is the exact problem we are fixing – our AI can interview every single person and give them a chance to all be assessed in the same way, regardless of gender, age, nationality and status. The employers will then get the top 5. Full profiles with videos, personality reports and CV all digital in one place. This is creating diversity and inclusion, we are helping fix bias in the recruitment process. With regards to the Healthcare industry there is a massive opportunity. Every country is looking to digitise and create more efficient virtual healthcare, Mediscreen is well positioned to take advantage of this shift and assist in the transformation. It is estimated that $11.7 trillion dollars will be spent in healthcare between now and 2022 and $670 billion will be generated in 2020, from AI powered systems, these are the sort of numbers we like to see! Major achievements Searchie was voted as 1 of the top 10 companies shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution in 2019 by the World Economic Forum. We were flown to join global leaders and have discussions with Professor Klaus Schwab (Chairman of World Economic Forum) who is a remarkable person.
Mediscreen was developed in 14 days and launched during COVID-19 and has customers globally and growing fast, pivoted into healthcare has been a great move.
Future Perspective.
We are focusing on ensuring our platform can handle huge scale, across many countries. Our goal is to become a $100 million dollar company by July 2021.
Advise to the budding entrepreneurs.
Are you sure you want to do it??? You have to be obsessed, tough and hardworking. Please don’t think you can work the hours you want and that’s the only reason you want to be an entrepreneur. You will work more hours than you could ever imagine – if you still want to do it and don’t mind sleepless nights, sacrificing comfort, holidays, weekends, lifestyle…then do it! But do it with your whole soul vested into the venture and don’t give up at the first hurdle. You will break and fall apart time and time again, but wow…..the highs are out of this world! You won’t get this same kind of feeling in any corporate job. Nothing comes close to that feeling of building something from scratch and seeing it grow into a impactful, successful, global company.