Fanera

Founded and scaled Fanera, the MENA region’s first AI + Web3 fan engagement platform, transforming football fans into active content creators and revenue earners. Positioned Fanera at the forefront of digital sports innovation, combining Generative AI personalization, LLM-powered content discovery, and blockchain monetization models.

Key Achievements & Impact:

LLM & AI Personalization: Implemented Large Language Models (LLMs) and ML algorithms for personalized content feeds, intelligent search, and fan sentiment analysis — boosting retention 4x (avg. 41 mins daily use).

Predictive Engagement (ML): Designed predictive ML systems to forecast fan activity, optimize gamification, and improve matchday engagement.

Web3 Monetization: Pioneered fan-first monetization models with NFT content sales, loyalty tokens, and blockchain-based rewards, creating new revenue streams for fans and clubs.

Global Scale: Grew Fanera to 1M+ daily views, 500K+ app downloads, and 60K+ monthly uploads across 15+ markets.

Funding & Investor Relations: Raised $800K+ from OTF, Flat6Labs, and WeFunder, positioning Fanera as a leading sports-tech startup in the MENA region.

Ecosystem Partnerships: Built alliances with football influencers, federations, and tech accelerators (Hub71, The Garage, UAE Pro League) to expand adoption.

Awards & Recognition: Winner of Challenge 22 (World Cup 2022 Host), HH Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah Informatics Award (2024), and recognized as one of the Top 20 SportsTech Startups globally.

Leadership & Culture: Scaled a cross-functional team (product, engineering, growth), fostering a culture of innovation, agility, and impact.

CEO Leading Web3 & AI-Powered Fan Engagement Platform

STORYME

Led strategic advisory for Storyme, an AI-first creative storytelling platform, driving business growth, AI integration, and early-stage fundraising. Contributed directly to refining product-market fit, strengthening investor positioning, and advancing the platform’s technical capabilities.

Key Achievements & Impact:

AI Strategy & Implementation: Architected the integration of Generative AI, LLMs, and NLP to enable automated content structuring, intelligent story-building, and Right-to-Left (RTL) language support, expanding accessibility across MENA markets.

Product Innovation: Defined the AI-driven product roadmap, aligning features with evolving market needs by embedding no-code design tools, personalization, and automation into the platform.

Go-to-Market Leadership: Designed customer segmentation strategies, revenue models, and market entry plans, accelerating user adoption and positioning Storyme for scalable growth.

Investor Relations & Fundraising: Spearheaded the creation of AI-focused investor narratives, including pitch decks and financial models, which enhanced visibility among seed and angel investors.

Agile Product Development: Instituted lean, feedback-driven workflows to accelerate iteration speed, improve user testing cycles, and validate AI-driven features.

This role combined AI innovation, product leadership, and business development, advancing Storyme’s mission to democratize digital storytelling through intelligent, GenAI-powered tools.

AI Business & Product Innovation Strategist

Feedo.ai

Founded and scaled Feedo.ai, an AI-first SaaS platform that automates applications, tenders, and funding submissions through Generative AI, LLMs, and intelligent autofill tools. Positioned Feedo at the intersection of AI productivity, product innovation, and startup enablement, helping entrepreneurs, students, and organizations save dozens of hours per application.

Key Achievements & Impact:

Product Management & AI Innovation: Directed the full product lifecycle from ideation to MVP, embedding LLMs, NLP, and predictive AI, enabling users to complete applications 70% faster and reduce form errors by 40%.

Customer Discovery & Product-Market Fit: Conducted 150+ customer discovery interviews and validation loops, refining personas for startups, job seekers, and scholarship applicants. Achieved 40% repeat usage within 3 months, signaling early product-market fit.

GTM & Growth Strategy: Designed and executed a go-to-market plan with targeted acquisition campaigns, early access waitlists (2,000+ signups), and partnerships with 5 accelerators/universities, driving rapid early adoption.

Dashboard & Data Management: Architected a smart application dashboard that now manages 1,000+ applications, with features for tracking, auto-populating forms, and progress visualization.

Investor & Market Positioning: Developed the AI-driven vision narrative that secured acceptance into multiple accelerator programs and positioned Feedo as a scalable SaaS play in global AI productivity markets.

Agile Execution: Built and led a 5-person cross-functional team, implementing lean workflows that cut feature iteration cycles from 4 weeks to 1 week through data-driven prioritization and user testing.

Founder and Executive Director of AI & Digital Transformation

Project Rozana

I worked with Project Rozana to support their health diplomacy mission by introducing AI-driven solutions and business development strategies that expand access to critical healthcare services across borders.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

AI Strategy & Integration: Advised on the adoption of artificial intelligence tools to streamline data analysis, predict patient needs, and support resource allocation in cross-border medical initiatives.

Business Development: Identified new partnership opportunities, built cross-sector alliances, and supported funding strategies to scale the organization’s healthcare impact regionally.

Digital Innovation: Explored scalable digital platforms to enhance coordination between patients, medical transport services, and healthcare institutions across the Palestinian-Israeli context.

Impact Focus: Helped align technology solutions with Project Rozana’s health diplomacy model, reinforcing trust, transparency, and cross-community collaboration.

This engagement combined my expertise in AI, digital health solutions, and strategic growth to support Project Rozana’s mission of bridging healthcare gaps through innovation and collaboration.

Business Development & AI Consultant

Blockliz

At Blockliz, I served as a Web3 & AI Marketing & Business Development Consultant, leading initiatives across token launch strategy, AI-powered growth tools, influencer marketing, and blockchain advisory services.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

AI-Powered Campaigns: Integrated AI tools for audience targeting, predictive analytics, and content generation to enhance campaign efficiency and ROI.

Strategic Marketing: Designed and launched go-to-market strategies for Web3 projects including NFT collections, staking platforms, and token utilities.

Token Launch Execution: Advised on tokenomics, positioning, and multi-phase community growth plans for emerging Web3 tokens.

Influencer Partnerships: Built and scaled regional ambassador programs and KOL partnerships across MENA and Asia to increase awareness and adoption.

Business Development: Sourced high-potential leads, developed proposals, and secured partnerships for Blockliz’s blockchain consulting services.

Community Growth: Led XP-based campaigns via Zealy and Galxe, optimizing onboarding journeys and leveraging AI-driven segmentation to increase engagement and retention.

Skills: Artificial Intelligence (AI) · Web3 · Token Launch · Blockchain Strategy · Business Development · Influencer Marketing · Community Growth · AI Marketing Automation

Web3 Marketing & AI Business Development Consultant

Zimam Palestine

Led the design, development, and rollout of a youth-focused digital platform powered by AI, connecting young people in Palestine with jobs, workshops, and entrepreneurship programs. Positioned the platform as a scalable solution for youth empowerment through technology, AI-driven personalization, and digital inclusion.

Key Achievements & Impact:

Product Leadership: Defined the product vision, user journey, and roadmap, aligning platform features with Zimam’s mission to empower youth in the digital economy.

AI-Powered Matching: Architected and deployed intelligent recommendation algorithms (AI/ML) to match users with jobs, events, and content based on skills, interests, and location.

Personalization & Insights: Integrated AI tools for content personalization and automated recommendations, while enabling data insights to guide program design and measure outcomes.

Measured Results: Connected 2,000+ youth to opportunities in the first 3 months, demonstrating clear product-market validation.

Capacity Building: Designed and delivered workshops on pitching, startup ideation, and digital skills, engaging over 100 youth participants.

Strategy & Rollout: Partnered with the Zimam team to drive strategic adoption, user engagement campaigns, and impact measurement frameworks.

This role combined AI innovation, product strategy, and social impact, unlocking opportunities for young people through practical AI applications and entrepreneurial capacity-building.

AI & Product Development Consultant

Overview:
Directed IBM’s regional sales and market strategy, overseeing the full sales cycle, account development, and team leadership across multiple verticals. Delivered multi-million-dollar growth through a combination of enterprise solutions, client success, and data-driven forecasting.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

Grew annual revenue to $5 million by defining sales strategy, optimizing product distribution, and leading high-impact market campaigns.

Led client-focused sales initiatives for IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio, including Watson-powered solutions, driving enterprise adoption across finance, telecom, and government sectors.

Designed and delivered AI-focused enablement sessions and workshops for internal sales teams and external clients, equipping them with practical knowledge to position IBM’s AI technologies effectively.

Directed the sales of IBM’s software and digital transformation solutions, managing territories, quotas, and go-to-market execution across the region.

Increased IBM’s market share by 5% through account expansion, competitive positioning, and industry-specific solution selling.

Built and nurtured long-term relationships with key clients, consistently exceeding customer satisfaction benchmarks.

Managed forecasting, performance reporting, and pipeline analytics, delivering high-accuracy predictions and identifying growth opportunities.

Collaborated cross-functionally with product, marketing, and technical teams to align sales strategy with business goals and client needs.

Mentored and developed a high-performing team, fostering consultative selling techniques and a culture of ownership.

Led Strategic Sales & Market Expansion in Tech Solutions and AI 

Sabbar Organization

Founded Sabbar, a nonprofit digital platform dedicated to empowering less fortunate Palestinians by sharing their stories through video, fostering awareness, empathy, and direct community support. Positioned Sabbar as a pioneering tech-for-good initiative blending storytelling, product innovation, and digital engagement.

Key Achievements & Impact:

Visionary Leadership: Spearheaded the creation of a digital storytelling platform, connecting hundreds of families with global donors and supporters while showcasing the power of technology for social impact.

Community Reach: Facilitated the sharing of 50+ impactful stories, directly funding 10+ family cases with over $80,000 raised to provide critical support.

Volunteer Network: Recruited and managed a community of 100+ volunteers, building a mission-driven culture with strong accountability and collaboration.

Product & Platform Innovation: Defined the product roadmap, user journey, and content workflows, ensuring stories were produced, distributed, and measured with impact-driven KPIs.

Growth & Stakeholder Engagement: Developed outreach and partnership strategies that expanded visibility and mobilized community engagement, positioning Sabbar as a trusted nonprofit brand.

Operational Strategy: Oversaw fundraising, financial planning, and program execution, ensuring platform sustainability and scalability.

Founder | Nonprofit Visionary | Head of product

SoukTel

As CTO and co-founder of Souktel, I led the end-to-end design, development, and scaling of digital platforms that connected job seekers with employers across 15 countries and 4 continents. My role spanned technology strategy, AI-driven product innovation, business intelligence, and international expansion, positioning Souktel as one of the first large-scale digital job-matching platforms in the MENA region and emerging markets.

Key Achievements & Impact:

Product Architecture & Scale: Designed and implemented the platform’s core architecture, scaling to serve hundreds of thousands of job seekers and match 350+ candidates monthly through mobile-first and SMS-based technologies.

AI/ML Integration: Pioneered early AI-powered matching features using rule-based logic, multilingual intent analysis, and later piloted machine learning models to predict employment outcomes — laying the foundation for personalization and insights.

Conversational AI & UX: Integrated AI-driven SMS chat flows that guided users through applications, reducing dropout rates by 30%, significantly improving conversion in low-connectivity regions.

Data & BI Strategy: Embedded real-time analytics, dashboards, and reporting tools to track KPIs, optimize employer-jobseeker matches, and support donor/government reporting requirements.

Product Leadership: Defined and executed the technology roadmap, aligning with market needs, local regulations, and strategic partnership opportunities.

Agile Team Leadership: Built and managed cross-functional teams (product, engineering, customer success), driving Agile delivery and continuous product rollouts across multiple geographies.

Global Expansion: Spearheaded localization, compliance, and product enhancements to support international growth, adapting to diverse market conditions while ensuring platform reliability.

CTO | Led Global Expansion to 15 Countries | AI and Product Innovation Strategist

Palestine Telecommunications (Paltel) Group

As the youngest Head of Product at Paltel, Palestine’s leading telecom provider, I oversaw the development and optimization of high-impact digital services, handling 3M+ daily transactions. My work focused on streamlining operations, launching customer-centric products, and driving digital transformation across key business units.

Key Achievements & Impact:

Product Leadership: Managed end-to-end product development for high-traffic telecom systems, ensuring scalability and reliability for millions of users.

Operational Efficiency: Tripled service efficiency by redesigning product workflows, cutting bottlenecks, and improving time-to-resolution across core services.

Data & BI Innovation: Introduced rule-based automation and data-driven analytics for customer service, enabling faster query resolution and reducing support load by 20%.

Product Roadmap & Delivery: Developed dynamic product roadmaps, prioritized features, and coordinated launches across engineering, marketing, and customer service.

Customer-Centric Enhancements: Leveraged customer insights and market data to guide product improvements, reducing churn and increasing adoption of digital services.

Performance & Recognition: Delivered measurable improvements in system uptime, user satisfaction, and processing speed, earning Employee of the Month recognition among 1,500 staff.

AI Head of Product | Increased Efficiency 3x | Handled 3M Transactions Daily

I’m a 5X award-winning entrepreneur and product growth strategist who thrives at the intersection of Web3, AI, and innovation. Over the past 15+ years, I’ve built six companies (with two successful exits) and led product, tech, and marketing teams across startup and enterprise environments. Along the way, I’ve developed 50+ international solutions and digital products used by millions.

At Fanera, I built a Web3-enabled fan engagement platform from scratch, scaling it to 1M+ daily views, 500K+ users, and $800K+ in funding. We didn’t just build an app — we created a movement that empowers fans to monetize their voice through NFTs, predictive games, and AI personalization.

Previously at Souktel, I scaled job platforms to 15 countries, and at Paltel I led product strategy for over 3M daily telecom users. At IBM, I directed $5M+ in enterprise sales, combining strategic planning with hands-on execution.

To deepen my expertise in AI, product leadership, and data-driven innovation, I completed advanced training in Generative AI, Responsible AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs). Highlights include:

Google AI Essentials – foundations of AI, ML, and business applications.

Generative AI & Responsible AI – ethical AI deployment and real-world use cases.

Introduction to Large Language Models – design, fine-tuning, and scaling.

GenAI for Executives – AI adoption, digital transformation, and growth strategy.

Chat with Your Data (AI-SQL) – data analytics and automation with AI.

Generative AI Database Design with ChatGPT – scalable AI-driven systems.

This training strengthens my ability to bridge AI research with business impact — from designing AI-powered products to ensuring responsible deployment, compliance, and user-centric innovation.

🔹 Actively exploring executive roles such as:
CPO | CTO | CEO | VP/Director of Product, Marketing, or Innovation — especially within Web3, AI, SaaS, or digital transformation, where I can drive user growth, revenue, and innovation.

Key Skills & Keywords:
Web3 Strategy | AI Product Innovation | Growth Marketing | Startup Scaling | Product-Market Fit | Investor Relations | GTM Execution | Data-Driven Growth | Token Economy | Team Leadership | Digital Transformation | SaaS | NFT Monetization | Executive Strategy | Agile | Deep Tech | Fan Engagement

Let’s connect if you’re building something bold — and need someone who’s done it from idea to scale.

Mo Zaid Kilany

DQ Ventures

DQventures de-risks entrepreneurship for professionals who want to start their own business. We work exclusively with people who have not yet left their employment, and work with them over 10-18 months to build a "minimum viable business". Only when they see signs of success (first revenue and/or funding) do they resign and take over full time. While our co-founders bring expertise that gives their business a much-needed unfair advantage; we bring experience in starting, funding, growing, and selling high-growth technology companies. It's all about finding great people who have identified and can solve a problem, then using our knowledge and contacts to de-risk the first, "zero-to-one" phase of the journey. If you know someone who's dying to start their own company, we would love an introduction and will find a way to say thank you.

General Partner

#dltledgers

As part of the senior team based out of the Singapore HQ, I acted as a crossover between sales and marketing. I owned a number of enterprise accounts, building relationships from scratch and owning the end-to-end sales process. I also spearheaded the upgrade of the company's corporate communications and marketing tools. I worked with the founder, sales, marketing, and product teams to build a story, partnerships, reputation, media presence, and set of use cases, aimed at making it easier for corporate customers to start their blockchain journey.

Chief Marketing Officer | Enterprise Software Sales | Blockchain | Sustainability | Traceability

HackerTrail

Responsible for go-to-market, sales, and expanding HackerTrail's footprint - first in its home markets of Singapore and India, then in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and beyond.

Head of Growth

HackerTrail.com is an award winning recruitment solution for the technology industry, designed to source and connect the right technology candidates with the right employer. Recruitment can be unpredictable, so HackerTrail uses a combination of proprietary technology, gamification and human instinct to ensure a consistent output for clients, while delivering a slick and positive experience for our diverse pool of job seekers.

Advisor

Medra Capital

Early stage investments in:
Appvance (still operating) • Boatbound (acquired) • evvnt • Incrediblue (buyback) • Knowledge Transmission (closed) • Mover (acquired by Microsoft) • PocketFM (closed) • Zyllem (closed) • Sailogy (still operating) • sugru (acquired) • Tailster (still operating) • Vantage Power (acquired)

Director

Scaled Networks

Scaled was created to make it easier and cheaper to manage shift work. It was a mobile platform for iOS and Android, designed for employers of all sizes to recruit and manage temporary workers without relying on staffing agencies. Despite raising SGD3.5m in investment, a 15% no-show rate made the business too unreliable and it couldn't scale. Following a painful 2 years, with many lessons learned, Scaled ceased operating in 2018.

Founder

Sugru / FormFormForm Ltd

An advanced materials business based in London, which invented a "mouldable glue" referred to in the Telegraph as "the best thing since Sellotape and Blu-Tack".

Board Observer

evvnt

Evvnt's platform allows anyone who's organising an event to promote the details across hundreds of different online listings sites by completing one simple form. Active partnerships with Facebook, Timeout, and many of the world's leading news organisations.

Investor and Board Observer

Vantage Power LTD

An amazing company that's retrofitting patented hybrid systems into double-decker buses around the world. One of Medra's most promising portfolio companies, which has already received several approaches from hopeful acquirers.

The Orange Cow

I was one of four Internet entrepreneurs that launched several money-making schemes online. The business was self-funded by charging for online marketing advice, SEO, copywriting, reputation management and lead generation. The company is still operating - consulting on digital and partnership marketing in the food and travel sectors, while marketing several own branded products, including premium biodegradable coffee capsules for Nespresso machines (see more here: http://thefoodieslarder.com/).

Competitive FM

Sat on the board of this FM and technology consultancy, supporting the executive team with strategy, corporate governance, and sales and marketing. Following a successful global software implementation, the company was closed and some of the profits invested via a new company, Medra Capital, of which I was also a director.

I’m a former founder and investor who is now one of three partners at DQventures. We help senior professionals transition from the corporate world into owning and running their own company, using our startup experiences, successes and failures to de-risk the entrepreneurial journey for others.

The people we work with? Exclusively senior professionals. To qualify, you need to be employed, and you need an idea that, for some reason, is totally aligned to your experience. In other words, we’re looking for people with “unfair advantage”.

If you know someone fantastic, who would love to start their own company, if only they didn't have to work, we'd love to meet them.

-> They can sign up to our quarterly updates here: https://dqventures.com
-> Read about how we got started here: https://www.dqventures.com/about/
-> Or see our business model here: https://www.dqventures.com/how-does-dqventures-work/

Thank you.

James Green

This might come across as a flex, but it genuinely isn't.

I'm sharing because, alongside Arjun and Oliver (and more recently Leanne, Darius and Sam), I've been building DQventures for more than 5 years, many of which have been filled with uncertainty.

We've had some success: we've turned $1.5m of investment into a 14.82% average stake in 16 companies across 11 countries.

On paper, we're worth millions... (again! [wife rolls eyes].)

It's been fun and I've continued to learn every day. I also feel fortunate to be bringing something completely new to the world, which for the most part is working.

But...

Like the founder of most new ventures, I've lost count of the number of sleepless nights I've had. I'd guess somewhere between 100 and 200.

Many times I've felt like we'd have to close DQventures and that it would all be just a flash in the pan. 

Deep down I KNOW we're creating something special, but that hasn't stopped the FUD. [That's "fear, uncertainty and doubt" to any non-crypto investors.]

At my lowest moments, I've wondered: "What the hell am I going to do now?!" (at the age of 49, I think I'm virtually unemployable).

So – for me – the last few months, like Ron Burgundy, have been "kind of a big deal".

I'm sharing the images below, because it's proof (to myself - my biggest critic) that I'm finally doing something that's helping people.

The emails below came inside a week of each other, and were from people who've experienced DQventures for the first time.

For me, this is a big milestone. Not only is it the culmination of a lifetime of successes and failures in entrepreneurship, but also it's validation that we're building something with DQ that really matters. Maybe not to you, and certainly not to everyone, but to some. 

And that's a pretty good feeling.

To the entrepreneurs out there who are experiencing doubt, I feel your pain. I just hope that, in their own small way, messages like this can be extra inspiration for you to keep pushing. If what you're doing truly benefits someone, and you have the energy to keep experimenting, there's a decent chance you'll make it.

Someone I've been following for a while, Coach Parin [link in comments], shared something yesterday, which really struck a chord with me. It was this:

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

It's a quote from Albert Einstein. 

Legend has it, he knew a thing or two.

...

Thanks to everyone who's supported me and DQ along the way - whether you're an investor or someone who's liked or commented on my posts, it all makes a difference. I'm grateful. 

Here's to the next chapter!

🚀 Helping Experienced Professionals Launch Startups Without Leaving Their Job. 📈 Founder and Investor in 100 Companies. 🔔 Follow me for insights, learnings, tips and stories about entrepreneurship.

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Mo Zaid Kilany

James Green

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