Tariq Sanad began his career at Gulf Air prior to  spending almost a decade at Procter & Gamble where he climbed the corporate ladder from a Financial Analyst all the way to Group Finance Manager for the MENA region.

His first foray into startups was as an entrepreneur and the Managing Director of Lime & Tonic Dubai.  After winding down Lime & Tonic Dubai’s operations, he joined Careem as the Chief Marketing Officer where he served for over a year before onto his next challenge at Fetchr to serve as the Chief Financial Officer.

Over the last two years at Fetchr, he has witnessed and be part of the company’s massive growth and expansion.

Listen to learn more about his journey and where he sees it all going.

Enjoy the show!

Posted on April 16, 2018

Show Notes:

• 01:30 – Pragmatism, University and Studying Accounting

• 03:00 – Starting at P&G, just when it was opening up it’s office in Dubai

• 04:00 – Moving to Dubai back in the early 2000’s

• 05:00 – From becoming a pilot to an accountant

• 06:15 – Climbing the corporate ladder at P&G

• 08:00 – His first entrepreneurial venture following P&G with Lime & Tonic

• 08:45 – A podcast & a Twitter exchange sparked his entrepreneurial journey

• 10:00 – How he took a calculated risk when starting his first startup

• 11:00 – The decision whether to go back to the corporate world after the first failed startup or to join an up and coming startup called Careem

• 12:00 – His transition from finance guy to Chief Marketing Officer

• 12:30 – Your role in a startup is solving problems

• 14:00 – Moving from Careem to Fetchr and how he learned from every venture he was involved in

• 15:00 – Return to his financial role as a CFO at another scaling startup

• 16:00 – The employee growth at Fetchr since his joining

• 17:45 – The Oman Post Joint Venture and how serves as validation for what Fetchr is achieving

• 18:15 – Fetchr’s specialized offerings to various market segments and building customized solutions

• 23:00 – Low barriers to entry and building for the long term with scaling

• 25:00 – How healthy competition is for the startup ecosystem

• 26:00 – Tariq’s optimistic outlook for upcoming Fetchr projects in the works for 2018

• 27:00 – Walking as a health and mental exercise

• 28:00 – Recharging himself by investing time in the people around him

• 30:00 – On not having a role model and instead focusing on building his own story

• 31:30 – The importance of understanding your team and connecting with them

• 33:15 – A typical day in Tariq’s workday

• 35:00 – A book he highly recommends to people interested in managing a team

• 35:45 – Unleashing trapped potential by remembering that life is short

• 36:30 – “You make your own time”

• 37:15 – He would love to see a greener Dubai, an even more sustainable city

• 38:15 – Be more confident; things aren’t as complex as they seem as long as you break it down

• 39:15 – His advice to potential entrepreneur’s out there about taking calculated risks

• 40:00 – The importance of tackling big problems