Viaka Newsletter: Investing in early-stage European founders with Omar Hedeya!
This week, we sat down with Omar Hedeya, an investor with 10x Founders!
What do you currently do?
VC Investor at 10x Founders by day, building my own VC Copilot by night
What prompted you to go down this career path and how did you get into this field?
Anxiety!
During my 3rd semester in my Masters, I noticed that I was just wasting my life through "studying" instead of learning. This lead to pretty bad anxiety, which luckily forced me to take sometime off to figure out what I want to do in life.
Long story short, I discovered the world of startups and the idea that you can actually "shape the future" through organizing people in new companies and I got hooked.
I ended up finishing my masters in AI, but never worked full-time in the field. I pivoted completely into VC and coding only my own side projects
What originally got you interested in connecting with the MENA startup ecosystem and other like-minded folks?
The Forty-Eighters is a generation of Europeans who supported the "European Spring" of revolutions in 1848. After having their dreams of democracy absolutely crushed, many of them opted to leave to the "new world".
Reading about them, I could not help but see the uncanny similarities between their lives and that of my generation. I guess we are the first generation out of the MENA region to emigrate in such numbers after the failure of the "arab spring".
I believe, similar to the Forty-Eighters, we should deploy our talents and skill to make the world slightly better. The first step is indeed through Entrepreneurship, solving problems, and building capital.
But how do you start in a continent where you know no one?
That's why I am interested in meeting like-minded folks
What types of connections are you looking to make through Viaka? This can be from the MENA side, as well as with other MENA-connected folks in the Viaka Network
I would love to talk to founders who are just starting out, people thinking about building their own company and would like to have a sparring partner, or also fellow investors.
If someone needs help with anything, feel free to shoot me a message
Bonus: favorite dish from the MENA world?
Molokheyya (The Egyptian way with all due respect to our Levantine friends :D)
Upcoming Events
Below is a list of upcoming events from the Viaka Network & beyond over the next couple of weeks!
BuildPalestine’s Annual Summit 🇵🇸 kicks off on October 7th and 8th, covering topics such as alternative funding pathways for sustainable Palestinian development. Register here.
Viaka Side Event During Gitex/Northstar 👋 On October 16th, we’re hosting a panel discussion on “Building Global Businesses from Dubai” at the Intelak Hub in Dubai - RSVP Here.
TechWadi Annual Forum Tickets are LIVE! 🎉 Grab early bird tickets today for the premier annual gathering of the MENA diaspora in tech on November 5th in San Francisco. Tickets here
If you’d like to share an event in this newsletter, we encourage you to join the Viaka Network and share the event with info@viaka.net!
Work Opportunities
Recent job openings from the Viaka Network & beyond. If you apply, let me know so I can also make a personal introduction.
Skali is hiring a Technical Lead - Apply here
ABANA is hiring an intern for the Fall - Apply here
If you’d like to share a job posting in this newsletter, we encourage you to join the Viaka Network and share the event with info@viaka.net!
Reads of the Week
Viaka has launched a Network Reading List, where Network members are encouraged to submit media suggestions of their own.
Check out Viaka’s full reading list here.
That’s it for this week. Thank you! 👋
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