The conventional "words of wisdom" tend to suggest that entrepreneurs should focus on one thing and make it great, but Egyptian-British national Mahamad El Tanahy doesn't quite buy that.
As the founder and managing director of Bright Creations, a digital agency and software house that provides digital product development, digital marketing and enterprise software development services, Tanahy believes he has just the right team to launch not one and not two, but three new startups simultaneously.
"I think we are great at building products. That’s what we love, that’s what we’re good at and that’s what we’ll continue to do. I like to think that we have one of the best teams in the region and that’s what we are trying to take to the next level," Tanahy told StepFeed.
Currently Tanahy and his team are launching three very different startups: PassIn (an app tracking employee attendance), Nav&Go (a smartphone app that makes indoor navigation easy for public spaces including malls, events, universities, museums and airports) and Travel Bucket (a travel app that simplifies the trip planning and booking process based on friends' recommendations).
"To ensure we’re successful in each startup, we already have separate project managers and technical teams and are hiring separate product managers with sole responsibility for each specific product. Each product manager is the internal lead responsible for that product and has the operational teams reporting to them," Tanahy said.
"The advantage is that we’ll be able to operate each product as a lightweight startup on the marketing, roadmap, financials and operations, rather than technical delivery, which is covered by the project managers, and the distracting work of HR, IT, legal and other supportive functions."
Tanahy explained that eventually each new startup will become its own separate organization. However, in the meantime, Tanahy plans on "leveraging the industry network, skills, experience and support of Bright Creations to build the new startups."
With offices in Cairo and Dubai and a team that has worked on projects with top clients such as Du, Google, MBC, Dubai Silicon Oasis and the Saudi Ministry of Labor among others, it would seem that Tanahy has the network, skills and experience he needs to succeed.
The one thing that Tanahy emphasizes is how crucial it is to have the right team.
"Launching your first startup is not easy, there is bound to be massive challenges and things will never go smoothly. The only thing that will get you through the challenges is the right team," he said.
Speaking from his own experience, Tanahy said that the hardest aspect of launching a startup was "the mental challenge of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship."
"You’ll wake up one day and everything will look breezy. You’ll have the vision there right in front of you and you know its within your grasp. Then something happens and everything is doom and gloom. The main thing is to hang in there and have the support structure from family, friends and mentors."
And Tanahy's last words of advice to ambitious entrepreneurs like him?
"Don’t listen to the naysayers, everything is impossible until it’s possible. And yes, that’s an Arnold Schwarzenegger quote too, but its true!"