MENAbytes Podcast: Building and exiting an ecommerce marketplace in MENA with Omar Kassim

We started experimenting with a podcast earlier this year when we launched a weekly series where we used to share some of the biggest tech and startup stories from the region. But after receiving feedback from you, we decided to change the format and today we’re launching the all new MENAbytes Podcast, where we will be interviewing founders, VCs and other stakeholders from different startup ecosystem of Middle East & North Africa to talk about building companies, growing them, raising funds, and a lot more.

In our first episode, we’re joined by Dubai-based entrepreneur Omar Kassim who had founded JadoPado, an ecommerce marketplace back in 2010 that went on to raise about $8 million in two rounds led by BECO Capital and eventually exited to Noon last year. Omar joined Noon as a CTO but left the company within few weeks and has been building different digital products since then. Esanjo, the product studio founded and led by Omar has also been consulting different technology companies in the region to help them with different things.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Building and exiting an ecommerce marketplace in MENA
• Challenges they faced and the lessons they learned while building it
• Choosing investors and acquirers
• What Esanjo is building now: Lunatap and more.
• Building a remote organization from MENA (hint: VoIP ban)
• Advice for the startup founders who are just starting their journey
• Omar’s favorite startup

You can also listen to the MENAbytes Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Castbox, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Stitcher. We’ll see you next week!