Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival highlights the challenges of startups

Sharjah, February 1st / WAM / The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival reviewed the challenges of startup companies and the impact of artificial intelligence on their path.

In this regard, the festival, in its ninth session, organized by the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center “Sheraa”, hosted Habib Nurmagomedov, the legend of mixed martial arts, who has 29 victories against zero losses in his first visit to Sharjah, in a dialogue session during which he revealed the secrets of his rise to the top and how the victories and his title “The Undefeated” were not just numbers, but rather the result of years of dedication, intense training, and personal sacrifices that extended from his childhood in his village until he ascended the world’s platforms.

Habib Nurmagomedov stressed that discipline is the cornerstone of his sports and life career, explaining that discipline is not limited to physical training only, but includes mental and psychological commitment as well. He stressed that every hour he spent in the club halls and every trip he took to competitions or training camps was calculated, precise and purposeful, and that he never thought about fame or money, but rather about proving his ability to excel and excel in front of his father.

While the festival hosted an exceptional dialogue session that brought together two pioneering graduates of the “Shark Tank Dubai” program, Nayla Haddad and Natasha Rodatsenko, who shared details of their experience of participating in the program and how they defended their ideas and succeeded in convincing investors.

The two guests shed light on the realistic challenges facing entrepreneurs away from the spotlight and cameras, and presented a living example of how to transform an idea or emerging project into a comprehensive success story, while highlighting the importance of boldness, passion, business structuring, and strategic thinking in every step.

While pairs of owners of family companies in the field of restaurants confirmed as founding partners that building a sustainable project begins with adhering to the originality of the brand and balancing the relationship with the requirements of expansion, pointing out that the decision to shift to building a “major brand” multiplies the challenges and puts the two partners in financial and investment pressures, and that joint work affects the relationship, regardless of the strength of the partnership, which requires conscious decisions and professional tools to mitigate these effects to the minimum possible extent.

This came in a dialogue session entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Startups and the Personal Life of Marital Partnerships,” hosted by the “Community Platform,” with the participation of Mazen Kanaan, co-founder and CEO of “House of Pops,” Marcela Sancho, co-founder of the same company, along with Sultan Shatila, co-founder and CEO of “Eleven Green” restaurant, and Kinda Salam, co-founder of the same company.

In a dialogue session entitled “The Future with Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Human Communication,” Mohamed Jawdat, former CEO of Google

The festival witnessed in-depth dialogue sessions in which leaders from major technology, food and media companies in the region participated, during which they presented entrepreneurs with a realistic and frank vision of growth paths, stressing that success is not only linked to ambition, but rather to the founders’ ability to make the right decision at the right time.

While Arab female athletes expressed their vision of the meaning of leadership in sports and athletics, stressing that success is not measured by physical achievements alone, but rather by the ability to build mental toughness and transform personal challenges into motivation to continue and create an impact that goes beyond the individual to society.

The speakers highlighted the importance of honesty with oneself, faith, mental discipline, and family support as essential elements in the path to sporting and entrepreneurial excellence.

This came during two dialogue sessions within the festival’s activities, the first entitled “Epic Motorcycle Trips Around the World”, which hosted Fatima Al-Loughani, the first Emirati woman to ride a motorcycle on adventure trips, and the second on leadership in sports and athletics, in which Manal Rostom, the first Egyptian to climb the summit of Mount Everest and Mount Vinson, and the first Egyptian to complete the six major marathon races in the world, and Fatima Abdel Rahman Al-Awadi, the youngest and first Arab woman to reach the summit of Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, participated.

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