Behind AHOY: Selling first startup at 16yo for $160k, ending up on the street and now building his 24th company.
Jamil Shinawi is sharing his personal journey from a cocky teen entrepreneur to a serial unicorn founder, mentor, and enabler of one of the biggest startup communities in the UAE.
Many of you might know Jamil Shinawi as a founder of AHOY, Actual VC and the 24SIX9 startup community.
During our catch up, Jamil was very open about his startup journey that started when he was 14yo, playing in his garage, being curious with tech and physics and accidentally making millions.
How this experiences shaped him as a person, entrepreneur and father is something he’s sharing with you in this interview.
And also what’s occupying his brain right now - the AHOY, the next tech conglomerate from MENA to the world.
Jamil, thank you for sipping coffee with me and sharing your story.
Let’s jump in
Are you a born entrepreneur or have you become one eventually?
In a nutshell, I started by accident actually. When I was 14, I created a device that became an important component of building small laptops. It was a garage project, I didn't have a company or office, but I had customers on three different continents. I found them online.
I've been writing code since I was eight and used to develop online forums, charging $3,000 to $4,000 to launch something like Reddit, known as VBulletin.
But, looking back, I think my biggest issue is that I succeeded before I failed at the beginning, which is honestly a bad thing. When you crash, you crash really hard.
How did you come up with the right problems to solve?
I never did anything because it's a problem to solve. I enjoyed creating something new, and then after creating it, I tried to utilize it and see where I could use it.
Yes, it kind of solves a problem post-factum, but I had to look for the problem for the solution I already had. There isn't one right way to do anything. In some cases, my approach works, and in others, defining the problem and solving it first is the only way.
What is AHOY, and what is your focus with the company now?
AHOY, my current company, started when I was doing consultancy for disaster mitigation and wrote an algorithm for evacuation planning. This algorithm, an orchestrator, decides on decisions related to movement in space, like in situations of plane crashes or earthquakes. We have expanded to provide developer tools in more than 68 countries, working with governments, enterprises, and developers.
Our focus now is on growing the company, which is profitable and growing rapidly, and on helping governments improve quality of life, save lives, and enhance GDP and the environment.
You have three products at the moment, right? Where do you see the biggest pull from your customers?
Yes, we have three middleware products currently that are built on top of the main tech stack.
The biggest pull from our customers comes from their ability to adapt our technologies to their specific needs. For instance, our flow algorithm, initially designed for traffic management, was ingeniously adapted by another company for controlling liquid flow in a cooling system. It's not just about the technology we create but how it's being used to solve real-world problems in creative ways.
That’s why we love to work with other developers, give them our tech and see what happens. We license the stack, it runs on premise, and we don’t steal anyone’s data.
How did you build your team, and what values are important for you?
Everyone in my team, including the engineers, is an entrepreneur. They all (maybe except one) previously built their companies or ideally work on their new projects now, in their free time.
It’s more of a coincidence, not an intention - as I’m constantly surrounded by other founders. But it gives the team an extra skill set that’s hard to find in other companies.
Tell me more about the 24SIX9 community - why have you started it in the first place?
It all started around May this year, again by accident. I was advising a couple of startups every Friday in a cafe, having an open door policy, so people started bringing other people, and in 2 weeks, we were about 50.
We moved this to a Whatsapp and weekly Friday meetings for pitching and networking where founders, investors, subject matter experts meet. The group has more than 1000 members now in the uae and 9000 globally.
We meet in cities across the globe, including New York, Singapore, Berlin, Singapore, Seoul, Saudi, Dubai, and Jordan. The ultimate idea is to cultivate a culture of helping each other without expecting anything in return. We share failures, successes, contacts, and strive to eradicate the elitism prevalent in fundraising here in the region.
I’m steering the overall principles of the group but letting it live on its own, giving others a chance to take a lead in different community initiatives.
How would you describe the Dubai tech and startup scene?
The Dubai tech and startup scene are growing, but it's not without its challenges, especially when it comes to raising funds. There's a certain level of elitism in fundraising here, and if you're building something new that investors can't imagine, it's difficult to raise money. This has been a significant challenge for us at AHOY.
If you're doing something truly innovative, it can be hard to raise funds. Investors may question why American VCs haven't invested if you're any good. The level of risk-taking is much lower here.
My advice would be to focus on building a profitable company that can scale, rather than chasing the unicorn.
And the second advice would be don’t live in isolation. Find your community here in Dubai and network. Everything is about the right connections and learnings you can get from others.
What anti-patterns do you see across startups and founders as their advisor?
Chasing the billion-dollar valuation is definitely one. Nothing beats having a scalable, profitable business.
I would say that 40% of all problems in the startups in the region come from the lack of decisiveness because there's a culture of hypocrisy where we have to be nice to each other. I think that is toxic. I think it would be better if we were all just very honest.
On decisiveness, I mean even making a decision to start a company and then making daily decisions that will make the business grow. Thinking about how this decision will impact your personal life - If entering entrepreneurship while having a life partner, you’re putting the relationship at risk. And when you enter a relationship while building your business, you’re putting the business at risk. If you have kids, you’ll probably neglect them a bit, not being the perfect parent. I ended my late marriage due to this.
I'm not saying it's a rule, but in many cases, it happens. And you have to decide what you want from life.
How do you keep up to date, interesting resources, people to follow?
I’m extremely curious, more than a cat. I read a lot - scientific papers, articles, books. I also like to write but don’t publish.
I sleep 5 hours a day max, and my last day off was in February. I like doing a lot of stuff at the same time and learn a lot of new things.
I don’t code anymore; I would just end up angry at how bad I became. But having the curious, engineering mindset is key.
Obviously also talking to a lot of people who know their shit and consuming information as a sandwich. Understanding the basis and output and whatever is in the middle I usually forget.
Thank you, Jamil, for honestly sharing your story without downplaying the hardship of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Kristina
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