Thomas Baxendale chats with Claire Louvet, Oraib Kazimi & Nada Al Awadhi

On 27 June, in celebration of International Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Day, we recorded this special podcast episode during the launch of RAKBANK's She Means Business proposition, in collaboration with Crunchmoms.

Hosted by Thomas Baxendale, Executive Vice President, Head of Digital Business Banking at RAKBANK, the episode featured Claire Louvet*, Founder of Ô Naturel Boutique, Oraib Kazimi, Founder of Nibblz, and Nada Al Awadhi, Managing Cofounder of SPIN UP Indoor Cycling Studio, who shared their journeys, challenges, and lessons from building successful businesses in the UAE.

From turning personal pain points into thriving businesses to embracing AI, finding the right community, and navigating the realities of scaling, the conversation offered practical insights for founders at every stage. It also highlighted why the UAE continues to be one of the world's most supportive ecosystems for entrepreneurs and the importance of having a banking partner that combines digital innovation with a human touch.

Whether you're launching your first venture or growing an existing business, this episode is filled with inspiration and actionable advice to help you take the next step.

🎥 Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/4qCyBedKPZc?si=IV2jAn6MxQWBM9Jk 

#RAKBANK #DigitalWithAHumanTouch #BusinessBanking #50yearswithyou #InternationalMSMEDay #SheMeansBusiness #WomenEntrepreneurs #Crunchmoms

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Welcome back to the SME Suit Podcast, and today's a very special episode as we are celebrating International MSME Day. We are marking the occasion with the launch of Rackbank's new female entrepreneur package, designed to empower and support women-led businesses to start, to grow, and to scale. To bring this to life, I'm joined by three inspiring entrepreneurs, Claire Louvain, Araib Kasimi, and Nada al-Awaddi for a live panel discussion from today's event. So join us on today's special episode of the SME Super Podcast. Good evening. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Good evening. Hi.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

So we're here to talk about your amazing businesses, but let's start at the beginning. What was the first moment when you stopped talking about your idea and really moved into the execution of the business?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, so we started with family, and then when I first launched the business, we um launched it at Tripe Market. Uh so that's where we got to meet families, um parents, kids, uh, got them to really taste it, try it. From there, we saw how people liked it. Uh, they came back, we started getting um recurring customers with just uh validation, and we just we went for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Amazing, amazing. And how about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

So actually, I didn't have that idea. I never thought I was gonna be an entrepreneur. Um King DT for me was a kind of a personal thing uh that I was convinced for like my own usage. And then uh when I moved to Dubai, I became pregnant, had a really difficult time finding products I wanted to use for myself, so started bringing back suitcases of it uh for me. And then I discovered that other people around me wanted them as well, so bringing them back for them. And then one day I was doing physiotherapy rehab after my first uh pregnancy, and my physiotherapist was also in the clean beauty. We got on chatting, and she told me, I'm so happy I found this. Uh I found this shampoo, it's clean from my daughter finally. And I am usually the party pooper who tells people, actually, it's not really clean. So I told her, Oh, I'm excited, like just show me. So I look at the bottle, flip it, look at the ingredients, and it was just really good marketing, unfortunately. And this is when she told me, Man, like I just want to enter a store. I know that it's been checked, I don't have to worry about whether it's clean or not, and I can just buy. And when she said those words, this is when I thought, okay, I'll do that. Because I I I've been doing it anyway, I can't do it, and I cannot find what I want here in Dubai, so I'll build it. And this is how it started. So it's not like I had that idea for for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 2:39

And that how about yourself?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Um, it was mine was also quite a journey. So I went from starting my first business, which was uh book subscription called the Bookshelf, Bilingual Arabic and English. It did very well, but um not enough for me to expand. So I was overworked, tired, and at one point I was pregnant. Um, so I had to slow down the business. So I had to like pause the subscription, put it on hold, and just focus on myself, focus on my kids, focus on the pregnancy. And then my sister, who's my partner right now, came to me with a golden check and she's like, Nadal, let's start a spin studio together.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

A golden check, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Long story. But she came to me and she was like, I was always interested in the fitness industry. Um, I had the business background. And um, when she talked to me about like spinning, she was passionate about it, uh, going to another studio in Abu Dhabi, but too far away from her. But she talked to me about it and complained about the distance. I'm like, okay, start your own studio. And then so one day she came to me with the check. Uh, seven months pregnant. I was seven months pregnant, and she's like, Nada, let's start a spin studio together. Instead of saying, No, I'm I'm slowing down at the moment, I said, yes, let's do it. And the past was history, and here we are today, one year and a half.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

But why specifically a spin studio?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Because she was passionate. I know she was passionate about the sports. I was passionate about sports too. Um, and I tried it, and I really liked it. I liked the dark room, the um the coaches coaching you not just to perform, but also going like deeper into your personality is just like the adrenaline, the sports, the um the fitness part, but also the coaching part. Uh I tried it and I thought it was a really valid um idea. And we have demand for it in Abu Dhabi. So we studied it. Um I remember I told her yes. And the first thing we did, we go, we both got uh certified as instructors to you know understand the back uh ends of the business, and we did it. We didn't tell anyone. Uh we started working on the licensing and everything in the back end of until it was like we had the business license. I think my mom found out by mistake, like by coincidence, just finding the memorandum of understanding of the documents. It's like, yes. We didn't tell anyone until it was like done.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Oh, that's these these are such great stories, right? And founders, you know, from from companies that we speak to, individuals, entrepreneurs, they're struggling to find that one idea. All of these things have come from, you know, either homegrown areas such as yourself, or or problem areas such as yourself. What advice do you think you could provide founders who are struggling to find that one key idea and to launch their business from that? It's an open question, so you can jump in.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Someone who wants to have a business but doesn't know what to do.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Yeah. Say that they're working a full-time job, they know that they want to do something on their own, but they've got a thousand ideas. How do you silo down that idea?

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I know this sounds very cliche, but like find a pain point or solve a problem. For us, when we uh worked on spin-up, we really designed it for ourselves. We built it for ourselves. We wanted something that would cater to us, um, that would cater to our community, um, basically built from Abu Dhabi before Abu Dhabi. Um, and we still do that with everything. With every decision that we make, we consider like the clients before we make we make that decision. So really solve a problem because if you're you have a great service or a great problem, but you're not solving it a problem for anyone, no one is gonna buy from you.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, no, absolutely. But it's so fascinating that actually none of you actually wanted to be entrepreneurs initially, no?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I never thought I'd end up being an entrepreneur. I worked on the investor side of things throughout my career, and I just never thought I there was a problem, I couldn't find a solution for it. I'm like, let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

It's such an all of your stories are so inspiring for people that may be, you know, working and happy and productive lives and families and stuff, but that there's that one thing niggling in the back of their minds. Say, I could fix that. This this must be a problem for other people. Why is nobody doing it? And then, as you say, right, the the next step is just a leap to jump into that market. Okay, so people usually see the success of a business on Instagram, on social network. They see all of the glamour, but they don't see the pain and the struggle. Claire, what what was the first year of business like? And what were some of the struggles that you overcame?

SPEAKER_02 6:59

I had that idea that I was gonna, I know a lot of clean brands. So I was gonna go to them, me in Europe, in France, tell them, hey, I want to bring you to Dubai, I want to sell you there because there is a like a place in the market for you to take. So I was literally going to them telling them, I'm giving you my money, please take it so I can take your products. So for me, that was the easy part. I knew so many brands, I had so many ideas of what was gonna be on the website. And then when I started reaching out, it was actually complicated and I had conversations that took months and that led nowhere. So, and I'm glad I didn't know that before starting, actually. But it's this was the hard part is actually creating the offering that I had in mind for the people here is actually way harder than I thought it would be.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

And what was your thought process to try to get through that?

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Uh, first of all, I think I'm the annoying person who keeps you know reminding them I exist from time to time. Um and I found so I found a few brands that like loved the project and and agreed to uh to be on board. And then actually I pivoted to looking at what exists locally, what I couldn't find by myself before, like as a person just looking for products online. And I actually ended up finding a few brands that were already here that helped me launch. And I also, for example, recently found a brand that is made in the UAE that is launching here, and I'm actually super happy to promote local brands. I still aim to bring some brands from Europe here. Uh, I think having a mix would be ideal, but if I can help local businesses here, it's even better. So it actually gave me that space to do that instead of just bringing things that already exist out there.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Oh wow, okay. And Nada in a spinning studio, what what were the what were some of the challenges?

SPEAKER_00 8:43

A lot of challenges. Chaotic. Um like any uh bricker bricker motor business or like a physical business, um space, the correct space. Space finding the right space, um with the right like clientele and audience to target, and then um, you know, trying to get the uh design ready, the working with the consultant, and then the contractors finding the right contractor, and then actually, you know, um making sure your idea comes to life, and you know, all of the problems and the issues that come along. Um, and then having your sister as a partner and trying to navigate your relationships together. They never do business with family, no? They say, but I think um this one made us stronger. I mean, like as sisters and for the business, I don't think I would have lasted as long with anyone else.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Oh, wow. That's lovely.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yes. For me, I did it twice. I did it alone with the bookshelf and then with my sister this time. I think if I had someone to help me with the bookshelf, I wouldn't have been as exhausted and um ended up where and where it ended. Um so we are a stronger team for our community, for spin-up, for employees and coaches. Um, but yeah, navigating that the first year was also a challenge because thankfully al Hindalaya, we have a strong uh relationship as sisters, and that's why we wanted to do this together, because we knew we could handle it, but it was not easy. So we had to navigate that thin line between like, okay, now we're sisters, now we're partners. We need to separate that.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Where do you draw that line? Did it dinner time, 8 p.m.?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

See, that that's what that's the challenge we needed to work around. But eventually we got better at it. Now we just like pick up because uh at the beginning it was challenging, but now we pick up on each other's cues. We know when to separate things. Okay, this is like our time. This is business time. This is when we finish and make all of our decisions. We sit down and we get it done. Uh obviously, as things come up and like you try to solve problems as you go, um, like entrepreneurs always do, but we we did work around it and now we're we work better for it.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

Amazing. And Robert, how about you in the snack business?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Um at the end of the day, I'm trying to I'm trying to build a product that is supposed to go on shelves and compete with other brands.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

There's thousands, right? It must be very difficult. How do you differentiate yourself?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

How do you differentiate yourself? How do you build your brand name? I have a community that I started with. I have a community that supports the brand and it's it's a growing one. And um uh it's it's taking us to places. Uh, and we've uh we we've come a long way where we are today. It's uh yeah. So so it's definitely it's an ongoing challenge.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Well, running business is a continuous challenge, right? How how do you structure your time then between the business? It's uh you know it's an interesting point to sort of pivot off yours, which is you've got lives, you've got families.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Um I'm not gonna lie, and and at the beginning it's very messy. The first year was very messy, especially with a newborn. And we started working on spin-up when I was pregnant. I gave birth while we were building the perfect timing to start a business. Perfect timing. So, but the first year, I I used to work at night when the kids are asleep because that's the only time I could work. So I like for months, I would only sleep like a couple of hours, um, prioritizing everything, everyone and everything but myself. Um, but then it got easier as the team grew bigger, as the community grew bigger, as we um brought in more clients and more attention and our revenues stabilized. Um, I started like, you know, um handing over the responsibilities to other people. That's when I managed to, you know, get some of the time back. Um last week was the first time I have a vacation in like three years.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Really?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Without the like without the kids. It's the first time I traveled without the kids since like five years. Wow. So it was the first time where like, yeah, for the past four years where I like I completely disconnected and I really needed that. But like that's the reality of running your own business. Yeah, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

You get the flexibility of choosing what you want to do, hopefully doing what you love.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

No bosses, no bosses, unless you have investors, in which case, you know, you have to navigate those guys.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

And also then when does work stop and when does personal life start? It's actually quite blurry. I mean, I know for me right now, I'm working weekends. Right now, it's the summer, everybody's talking about their vacation plan. I'm like, yes, my laptop is my vacation plan. So, and I think it's as long as you still enjoy and I'm still happy to do that, and I don't see it as a chore or something that I really like I'm scared of doing and I don't want to open my laptop, then I think it's okay. But exactly, when's the fine line of making sure you take care of yourself, making sure you sleep? Personally, I cannot. If I right now I don't sleep because of my kids who are very young, and I cannot work at night. I would love to, but at night p.m. on my computer, I I just I know I'm not gonna do the quality of the work that I want to provide, so it's just not an option, which makes it very challenging.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

Just have the AI agents working in the night and then you can do the work during the day.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

HR department. Yeah. The AI has actually been a game changer. I don't know for you. But I never thought two years ago when I thought, okay, I'm like, I'm gonna start a business. AI was LLMs were barely a thing back then. And now Claude is a full-time employee.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

I mean 100%.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Being able to set up agents and co-work that do different skills and different skill sets. So you can have a HR agent, you can have an engineering agent front end, design. Anything is possible now. We're in a completely different world than we were a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Much more cost effective as well. If you think about the stuff that we need to needed to outsource, um, doing it now through AI is very efficient.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Yeah, it's really interesting to learn about the challenges that we've gone through as individuals. How did you identify was the the first point where you needed to hire an individual? Was that in the first year? Was it in the first months? How how did you each navigate that?

SPEAKER_01 14:44

I had to hire someone from the start because I wasn't gonna spend my time in production. Uh it's it's a food business at the end of the day, and so much had to be done outside of the kitchen. Um so so I had I had to hire someone uh right from the start.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Um How did how did you go about finding the right talent then? Because in in business, you have an HR department, you write a job description, you say go find me somebody, and then you interview, right? But if you And that's still hard, but if you're uh on your own starting a business, you you got nobody to call on.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

You you got nobody, but you you just have to do it all on your own, just like the lady said. You you wear the multiple hats that you do, and one of them is HR, something that Claude can't help you with sometimes. So I I um I uh I went about interviewing uh a number of people. I found someone I liked, I who who f who I felt comfortable with. And I um I gave her a chance, and she is with me until today, and I'm uh yeah, very uh proud of having her on my team.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

So Claire, do you think being a female entrepreneur and founder has provided opportunities in in the way that you set up your company or in the UA in particular?

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Yes, I think actually Dubai has been amazing for that. It's very dynamic. Um, and you have a lot of great networks. Actually, the offering is there's probably wim too many networks. And Crunch Mom, for example, is the network that I joined, and it provides this amazing community of women that supports you. Um, whether it's because you're a mom and you just want to connect with fellow moms or you want to build something, um, they can also put you in touch with founders who are more advanced on the journey. Uh, and for that, I think it's amazing. Like being a woman gives you access to those networks. And I really personally like it, it brought me a lot, and this is why I'm here today, actually.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

How did you find crunch moms?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

If I remember well on my feed, uh Instagram worked really well. Uh, I think they just popped and I saw them a few times of like, I should go, I should go. It's one of those things that I regret not going to sooner. I was I was like, this is something I should do, this is something I should do. And then I think I postponed it a bit too long. Um, but um one day I actually made it to one of those uh networking events, and I've been a member ever since.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Community is so important, right? Um, and it's it's a it's a narrative that's been prevalent in all of the episodes that we've had, right? In particular to the UAE. So if you go back to the UK, there are co-working spaces and there are like events that happen in hotels and things, but nothing on the scale that the UAE is doing. Abu Dhabi Dubai and all of the other Emirates as well, these big communities of just like-minded individuals wanting to start businesses. How have you found you know, engaging with these uh communities, Nada? How how has that helped you along?

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Definitely a big plus. I mean, I I also have been a Crunch Mums member since 2021. And um, at the beginning of my um, you know, entrepreneurship journey, it was very lonely. So talking to other entrepreneurs and learning about their challenges, what is working for them, what's not working for them. Before I hired a team or, you know, we grew the company, this was the previous business, it was very lonely. So having that support and learning about different tools that otherwise you would not have learned about was very powerful for sure. Um, and the setup in the UAE um definitely like encourages entrepreneurs to, you know, go after their ideas. But then also, you know, when you start a business um that's community-centered, like spin up, um, and focus on building that momentum, they definitely like people notice and come back to you. Um, for us as a business, for example, like, you know, with the past year has been very challenging. Um, and at one point we felt like, okay, this is it. We we will definitely not get through this. But we did because we persevered, and then the community, when we stayed consistent with them, they stayed consistent with us. So having the infrastructure that's set up in the UAE um helped us as a business for sure. To not only create our own like business communities where we support each other as female founders or as businesses, but also we support our clients and then our clients support us back. So it's a very nice self-sustaining system.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Yes, yes, yes, for sure. That's really good. And you mentioned that you've been in with crunch moms for quite some time now. How have they helped you?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

They are so active. They are the number of things that we are just doing over this past month, or I can't keep up with my calendar. Uh but yeah, so it's it's great exposure. Um, you learn a lot. You're you learn a lot through them and with them and connection.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

No, it's so it's so important for businesses to or people starting new businesses, be part of a community, right? And feel supported. I think the UAE does that amazingly, and like no other jurisdiction that certainly I've ever been into. So I think some of the questions that we receive from people wanting to start a business in the UAE is that the UAE landscape seems a bit complicated. There are multiple trade license authorities, they're in different jurisdictions, they allow different things when you're starting a company. How easy is it to do business in the UAE from your perspective? And how how was it setting up your businesses for the first time?

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I think it was a it was a very easy and smooth journey. Um they've they've set it up in a way where where anyone can really come in. I mean, particularly for residents. We live here, so it was very easy for me to set up a company, open a bank account, hire employees, um renew, go on with the life. Everything is easy, everything is digital, you've got help, you've got support. Um it's uh it's it's it's been a great experience.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Amazing. And Claire, what about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 20:26

I uh went the route of hiring a consultant. I actually happened to, in one of those networking events, meet someone who specialized into uh cosmetics because yes, I had a trade license part, but I also have to have all the product that I import approved by the Dubai municipality and it becomes technical. And that's the part that to be honest, I didn't want to have to deal with, but also I think you need some knowledge to be able to do that and also the right connections. So I I was lucky, but again, I found that found that person really easily because it's Dubai and you just you network a little bit, and you're always gonna find someone who says, Oh, I know someone who can help you and put you in touch, and it's done. So that person did my trade license and is also helping me import products when I need it. So super easy as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Another same.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I mean, uh I can't like that, like think of a government that creates centers that helps clients to set up businesses. It's been very easy um for us and um in terms of licensing, hiring. Um so the infrastructure is really built well to support entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

Yeah, I mean, I I've been here for coming up to 14 years now into the UAE. And I've seen it grow in leaps and bounds. So from paper processes at the well-known trade license authorities, having to collect paper documents to completely digitized processes, right? We have facial recognition technology, biometrics, we have EFR, we have everything stored in UAE paths, all of these things have now come in to make the journey of opening a business much more seamless and digital and efficient for people. That's great from my perspective as a head of digital for Rackbank business banking because I can consume all of these services and then put them into the digital journeys and make our banking onboarding a lot more efficient and effective for customers. So I I think it's going to continue to become more digitized. You know, with the AI era, all of that stuff's going to come in. You know, we're testing in the places where we need to test them and deploying it very, very safely internally. But I think from what I've seen over the past 14 years, it's it's like no other jurisdiction. There are there are there are two models, right? One is you can have specialized free zones for specialized things, which I think add to this community feeling that we've talked about, or you can have one centralized one. I think the UAE has the ability to do both. And it's it's it's something that's also that's come from uh conversations that we've had with with other founders. We've gone through this era of of insourcing things into the UAE, insourcing businesses, insourcing trade, insourcing products. All right. So we talked about your you know, going from ideation of the company to starting up, setting up with a trade license authorities, and then and then starting with your idea. How have you managed the growth of your business, Nada, from that that idea stage really into like a when you're starting to get orders? How are you managing getting interest in your business?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Okay, so because we're a service business, uh consistency is very important. So making sure that we uh set up the right systems for our employees or our coaches for our team to be able to deliver the same service uh for the clients. And it's a whole experience that we're selling. So it needs not to be perfect, obviously 100%, but we need to be close to perfect because we're offering a premium service. So making sure that everything, that our team is set up well enough to perform their job, um, that they have the systems, the right systems set up for them to be able to do their jobs, um, that we're listening to clients' feedback, um, that we know what's working and keep doing the right things that keep clients coming back.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

So that's really interesting. I think one thing that we receive a lot of feedback on is like CRM systems, you know, client relationship management systems. So you you touched on a point there, that you you listen to your customer. I presume that goes into some form of system, but then you're learning and adapting to that. That's something that businesses really struggle on.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

So could you it's not an easy process, um, but it's something that I've been working on very passionately. Um tracking what works for clients and then feeding it back, um, seeing how consistent or when our clients consistent, because we're we're we're in the fitness industry and there are seasons, for example. Um, when it's um January, January and December, our our attendance drops. So we anticipate that in advance and try to like, you know, do challenges. And um, I remember the first year we anticipated summer to be very slow, completely wrong. Summer was amazing for us. Uh August last year was our best month yet. So I'm very excited about this, August. So looking at like your numbers is very important. Um, looking, what did the team do do well in that month? Let's do it again. And then when it's time to like grow, always working on marketing. Um, at the beginning, it's getting your content right. What resonates with people? What can what do people connect with? What do they share? And then, okay, now we're at a stage where we need to like, you know, move on to the next stage, which is invest in ads and paid marketing. Um, what is working there? Um, who's good, so bringing in new clients since we've exhausted our like pool at the moment. So really it boils down to the numbers, but you need to be um, you know, ready to read them. If you're not looking in the right direction, then there's no point.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

There's a lot of data points there. So you can collect. So one of the things I've seen quite a lot is a lot of collection of information. They have no idea which direction to go in, right? Because they're just looking at spreadsheets full of data. You have customers saying they're happy, there's some customers with some feedback. How do how do you draw the line between you know being very data driven, but then also allowing for like inspiration of your team? How do how do you review it with your team, for example?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

So it depends, obviously, between case to case, but um, I think the team is always inspired, especially for us, because the clients give you feedback immediately. So that's what inspires the team when they receive positive feedback. Um, and then when they receive encouragement from management as well. If you work really hard and your work goes unnoticed, you're not going to work as hard the next month or the next year. So if you're rewarded, even by just like saying, Oh, well done, you know, I love, for example, messaging in the WhatsApp group and the team WhatsApp group saying, great job to this coach or to this barista or to this receptionist. I've received this incredible feedback and I they actually share the feedback. So it goes a long way when you raise the morale of the team. That's number one. And then when they see their work actually benefiting people, like we have, for example, um clients that come to us and say, like, you know, Spin-up has helped me through my depression, spin-up has done this for me. I've lost 20 kgs since I've started spinning in the studio. This place feels like home. So that's all like, you know, gives you momentum. And then again, focus on focusing on what's work. Like, for example, if today we do this challenge and it didn't work so well and didn't sell, okay, then we don't do it again. It's a learning curve. And it's okay to make mistakes and make like, you know, make offers that clients don't take, but then that means you're one offer closer to the one that they'll take, you know.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

And I I guess anchoring all of that to a core purpose or a single like North Star, what is what is the North Star of your company?

SPEAKER_00 27:58

I would say our mission is to help people become a stronger version and a happier version of themselves while making sure obviously that they're safe. Because, you know, in sports, you need to make people make sure people are set up safely, um, that they enjoy the workout, but they're also benefiting from the workout, that every time they leave the door, they feel stronger than the day before, the week before, the month before.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

That's amazing. And Claire, what about you? How have you managed your various stages of growth?

SPEAKER_02 28:24

There's two things like there's the customer exactly and your mission at heart, and there's the numbers. When you're about to launch or the beginning, you can redo your business plan again and again and again and play with those numbers and feel very comfortable with your pretty spreadsheet. But the reality is until you actually start, I I honestly think I spent too long on a useless spreadsheet business plan. Um I think it boils down to being very disciplined once you start in looking at your burn rate, your cash rate. What can I actually afford to do? How much does it cost me to actually run? Personally, I'm still trying to keep it very lean. So I haven't hired anyone, for example. I work with a lot of um freelancers or agencies or partners, but I'm still a solo entrepreneur for now.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

That's a conscious choice, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:09

It is, it is. And I know that that it will have its limits, but for now, this is what I'm comfortable doing. And then it goes down exactly to what choice do you do? Do I take first of all, what do I have the time to do? And then where do I invest? Is it gonna be paid ads, for example? So it's that constant balance of what can I afford doing? And then trial and there's a lot of trial and error. Yeah. Of trying to, okay, particularly with paid ads. Definitely. It's been a journey.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

And I we get a lot of feedback about Google Ads.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

It's tricky paid ads. I'm still trying, uh putting some out there, seeing the feedback, trying again. But for me, I think back to customer feedback. I once received that email. So I noticed a customer placed an order and didn't use the discount code that you can have on the websites. Any new customers allowed the discount code to as a welcome, it's which is pretty standard. That person didn't use it. I sent her an email saying, Hey, thank you so much for your order. Really appreciate it. By the way, I saw you didn't use it. So here's a personalized one for you. So for your next order, you'll be able to have it. And she answered me, she answered me saying, first of all, that I never see that level of service.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

No, large companies miss this level of stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:11

And I'm aware that this is something I can do now, and I will have to figure out how I can still be able to offer that kind of service when I'm bigger, right? And there's way more orders. But I'm very happy I did that. And then she told me, like she was really happy, and then she told me, like, I'm so happy you created that place because since I'm pregnant, I've been looking for those kind of products and I couldn't find them. So then I even got feedback that because when you launch something, you you're convinced it's useful, but hearing it from customers and actually happy with it, this is what makes it all uh worth it.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

No, it's amazing that you're, you know, I I think a lot of people would struggle to maintain that level of personalization and you know, being close to the customer as they grow. I guess the perception is that you grow apart from that because it becomes an automated or a mechanical kind of system.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

And for me, this is my brand. I'm starting this to help people, to help women. And every time I meet someone, I'm like, please DM me on Instagram and I'm having a conversation all the time where they're showing, hey, I'm using this, what do you think? And I know it's not scalable because at some point I won't be able to answer all those messages. And I'm actually working now on how tech can help. How can you keep the human touch, but also scale what can be scalable and optimize these relationships? But to me, this is what keeps me going, and I actually enjoy those moments. So I choose personally to spend time on this, uh, which means you're not doing something else in the meantime, for sure. It's always a it's always a balancing act, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Uh how have you managed your stages of growth?

SPEAKER_01 31:37

So I think um something I've uh I've learned to do uh is uh and that's that's delegation. You can't grow without delegating. You really can't grow. I was very involved in the production. But then in order to scale, in order to go out, speak to people, do one of the other jobs I'm supposed to be doing, I just I had to delegate. And in the food business, you're something I've been working for so long on. I'm like giving it to somebody that too. It's your baby, right? It's my baby that I have to trust with. And uh, but you just you yeah, you have to you have to delegate, I think, to scale it in as you grow.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

It's amazing that you've navigated that, right? Because some a lot of the businesses we see, people are almost burnt out trying to get the thing up and room because they're not delegating, because they're they're trying to do every part of the business. I think a core part of it is is understanding what your strength is and what your contribution to the business is, where is your time best spent, and then identifying people that can then support that system.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

And as we wear our multiple hats, you have to in in my line of business, what's what I need to be doing is um selling, selling the product, finding uh new partners to work with, finding just be be out there where wherever I can delegate, I'm trying to delegate.

SPEAKER_03 32:58

And I guess a question to all of you are there are there parts of the business that you actively steer away from on any given day on any given day?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

You mean trying to avoid? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

It's actually fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

That's a very hard question.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

I thought it would be an immediate finances doing the books.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

I'm a bit of an analytical nerd, so I actually I I I come from a marketing background in corporates, so doing like dashboards and analytics and understanding what works and what doesn't. And also in my job, I mean I literally have to turn every label and read every ingredients to decide if something is clean or not and it's gonna make it to the website. So I have to go into every detail. So I actually enjoy that part.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Now I hate doing scheduling for the shifts, for example. I stopped doing that a while ago and dedicated it to someone else. I'm not doing it again. Um, dealing with suppliers. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah. Difficult?

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Yes, it can be. And when you're managing at the beginning, you have to do it as an entrepreneur, obviously. Um, but then hopefully this as the team grows because it gets hectic here. There's so many conversations to keep track of dates, deliveries, and stuff like that. So I agree.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

I was gonna say logistics. And there is one thing when I have events or pop-ups and I have to plan everything and go from A to B and I'm by myself, carrying boxes and things. This is not the most glamorous and fun part. But uh yeah, it has to be done.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Great stuff. Because Rackbank has a significant portion of the SME market. So we did a lot of data, and we have a lot of female-led businesses. So it's uh it's over 10% of our actual portfolio, so sole female entrepreneurs. We wanted to do something very specific for them. Market research, understanding what's in the market, understand where the gaps are. And we we discovered two main themes, right? One is that from the surface of it, the the needs of a female entrepreneur and a male entrepreneur are basically the same. What we found in our research was that women were kept craving community, they were craving the support mechanisms that are you know available in the UA. And connecting those two two things together could be very, very powerful. So that's where we led with the with the package. Um and we hope it will be a success. We're launching it tonight.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

Congratulations. Thanks. Okay, and uh yeah, it's gonna be a fully supported product. It will evolve over time. It will connect it to other things that we're working on as well from a digital land of physical perspective. Um, and yeah, we really hope that it's a successful product.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Nice. I I think it will be. I'm I'm in already. I have a question. Sure. Because I would easily just switch to rock rock bank, but this would be uh like how about your payroll?

SPEAKER_03 35:40

Mm-hmm. So we have payroll.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

We have wage protection system automated through our digital banking.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Okay, so I can do it as a business owner myself.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

100%. So you can go on our web uh-based platform or mobile, and you can, you know, run all of your payrolls through that system. It's the government uh all of payroll in the UA is is run by the WPS system. We're upgrading it continuously alongside our our government partners as well. But it's it's a key product for us as well. It's very important to get that right.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

For me, that's like a selling point. Like, yeah, can you can we do digital or like online payroll?

SPEAKER_03 36:15

Yes, 100%. Okay. When it comes to growth in your business, having a human when something goes wrong, speaking to an RM, speaking from a service perspective, that's why we're very, very proud of our tagline, which is you know digital with a human touch. So we're there. We're open for business. We're digital. But when you need to speak to a human, you can speak to a human. Yeah, yeah. So we have a very, very good relationship management unit. Every customer gets an RM. So you have a physical person that you can call, you can speak to. And this has been really, really important during the recent crisis that we've been through. Customers have obviously had questions, they're nervous, or they they want something um urgent or immediate to happen to their account, and they can get through to us across different service lines. So we're pushing very, very hard on the digital side, so it's really good for me, but also on the physical and omni-channel approach, you know, we're we're always there and we're always open. But from a from a support perspective, um, what types of things do you think would have helped you early on in your journey? Ab, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 37:19

We're family and friends who I was able to reach out to. They are people with experience and what I'm working in, people who have, I mean, I was starting something that I hadn't worked in before. So it was great having them there, just a phone call away to call up and be like, hi, can you help me out? So mentorship for sure.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

Uh I was lucky that I had one mentor, um, a person that um that has its own startup and was incorporated before. And when I shared my idea, he really kindly like helped me structure things and just brainstorm things. Um, so that helped. Like it would be great to have access to that the same, but in a more maybe structured manner with more mentors depending on the topics that you want to address as well, or the network that you need, because I do believe that I think it's true anywhere, but it's really true here. The network and the people you know are gonna make a huge difference. Yeah, not only in your success, but how quickly maybe you can move things. So I'm lucky I had that person, but I think I would have loved to have something a bit more structured, a bit bigger in terms of reach to certain mentors and then capital. I and I've known that from the start. I know that I'm gonna need to raise funds to be able to scale up because it's the skincare and beauty industry, it's just that competitive that the brands I'm competing with have budgets that I will never be able to match if I don't raise funds. And it's not just that, I want to add a tech layer. Like there's so much that I would love to do. That being said, raising funds is an art in itself. Again, it goes back to also the network that you have. And it's almost a full-time job in the sense of like preparing. I went to pitch nights, which is it's both frightening and very exciting. Um, it takes a lot of work to prep, it takes a lot of uh involvement and work to spend the time doing those pitch nights, for example, and meeting investors and again networking. How do you run that and your business at the same time? So having that answers to those questions, first of all, but then maybe also an easy way to access capital and how to navigate this first round, those first rounds would be super useful.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

How did you find getting access to capital? Either through obviously you're looking at venture capital in certain instances, but then through the banking system.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

So I have if I'm honest, I haven't done a deep dive, but what I heard didn't encourage me like looking into it more. First of all, I a lot of people told me, and I don't know if that's true, that you needed to have like a five-year track record to have a system, like a good set of banks, not Rackbanks. So well, see, there you go. So you need to be out there. So I didn't even, I was like, okay, I'm just starting. Uh and also there's something a bit frightening at the idea of taking a loan when you don't know if it's gonna work or not. Committing to a loan to me is not it's not really something that I felt like ready for.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

Um, but maybe if I had answered to those questions or if there was somewhere where you can go and ask those questions and see what are the different options and what happens, for example, that if you cannot pay back your loan, because for me, this is where my brain goes directly, it could be helpful, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

I guess it's the the marrying in those two things, right? From the from the founder and the business's perspective, they need to be sure that, okay, I'm now ready for this level of financing. But then I think there's a lot of work for for banks to do on making the financing journeys a lot easier. It's something that we're very, very proud of and we put a lot of time and effort into. We're one of the predominant lenders to small businesses in the UA. We lend in degrees of magnitude more than other banks. And we've remained open through the toughest times. So it's it's something that we've really built our business on. Um, you know, in Q1 this year we loaned 1.5 billion to businesses in the UA. So huge amounts when other banks are retracting because of obviously the the environment they're in and things that are happening geopolitically. But, you know, we have a full and broad range of products from a financial perspective, whether it's secured, unsecured, or partially secured. We've just launched a new uh loan against your property type product. You know, so we've got a wide range of things that that SMEs can pick from that hopefully make them a little less nervous when they're looking for take that big step when it comes to financing. All right, so rapid fire questions that we prepared in advance. Um Nada, we'll start with you. If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Yeah, just relax.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Very good, very good advice, Claire.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Surround yourself uh with the community as soon as you can.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

I think um don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.

SPEAKER_03 41:51

Those are all excellent pieces of advice. Coffee meeting with any entrepreneur who would you like to have coffee with?

SPEAKER_02 41:59

Founder of Wolf. Uh her name is Juliette Levy, she created Oh My Cream, which is a web uh he launched her website and stores in France in Beauty. And now she has a whole network and it's she built a really cool ecosystem, so I would love to sit with her and pick her brain. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Um I think it'll be um the founder of um the RX Bar. His name is Peter Hall. Um it's it's an American brand that went viral. He did his story is inspiring and how one change that he did to his packaging just what was the change to the packaging? He simplified it. He removed everything, left four lines on it saying exactly what's in it, and it just it went viral.

SPEAKER_03 42:46

Oh wow. Okay. One book that everybody should read?

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Delivering happiness. It's the person who built uh it's I think it was a platform for shoes, if I'm not mistaken, this huge website in the US, and it became almost a competitor to Amazon and had those huge runs of investments and his story is a bunch of up and down and going all in. But at the heart of everything, it was always going back to the customer. Is the customer happy? Can we do better by the customer? Um, and how it worked, even if it was a lot of like a difficult journey. And it's really inspiring.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Ah, I might pick that one up.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Um, this one's for um founders, I think it'll be the the lean startup.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

I love the lean startup. Teaches you about how to MVP minimum viable product, something that we we use a lot in technical development. What is the smallest workable version? It's now called lovable product. I think they've evolved it a little bit. What is the smallest version of the product that you would like to launch to the market? How can you get that out? Without overcomplicating it. It teaches you not to overcomplicate your ideas and spend all the time thinking about it and iterating before launching. Because it says that the best way to find out whether you got product market fit is to put it in front of customers and just ask them. And it seems that 99% of people don't do that when they start companies. They just spend all of the time doing the spreadsheets. One app that you can't run your business without Google Drive.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Yeah, for Google Drive, Google Workspace for sure. Ah, but also our booking system. Yeah, our booking system. Yeah, because I can use less efficient if you didn't have a place um. Yeah, our booking system and our like drives, shred drives.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

For me, that would be Whisperflow. Whisperflow is that AI app that transcribes everything you say. So I used to, when I started at LMs, I used to type on Chat GPT to explain what I wanted. Man, what a waste of time. Whisperflow, I just talk. So I'm that person in a cafe who talks to her computer, and it even if I talk in a low voice, it catches everything. And instead of like typing five lines, I get 10 and half the time. And it's just so much more efficient, and you get way better results from Cloud because you just give so much more details.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Yeah, and it's storing that and learning each each iteration.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

So Whisperflow, and then it's not nice on my phone. So when I send, I send a lot very long WhatsApps, I feel very sorry because I just forgot I used to miss a voice note and then I'm just on WhisperFlow and then it just spaces the whole the whole message, but I love it.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Very good.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

I think it's uh uh Claude is one and uh and uh sheets Excel or Google Sheets or just um my life is running on sheets at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

So And have you have you used Claude to collect them all together? They're learning from each other.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

They are, they are. They are crunch mobs are helping with that.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Okay. Uh final question. Um one word that defines entrepreneurship for you.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

Messi. Uh recalibration. I think it's uh resilience. Resilience, you have to be resilient. Whatever comes your way, you just you have to try again, you have to try a different way, you have to what a way to end.

SPEAKER_03 45:58

Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure listening to your stories and having you share your insights with us. Thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Thank you.