Where innovation knows no boundaries

Hello 24six9 fam!

From cracking Saudi to teenage founders to a room full of people sharing what building actually costs. July covered a lot of ground for a handful of gatherings.

Here's what went down.

Riyadh chapter x Gingo Foundation Unlock KSA - July 9th

Everyone wants to crack Saudi. Very few actually do.

We teamed up with the Gingo Foundation to fix that. Bringing in Dr. Faisal Althenayan, who's spent 25 years inside Aramco and Aramco Ventures at the center of Saudi innovation and venture capital. To an international room spanning Dubai, the UK, Finland, and Germany, he broke down what Vision 2030 actually means for a startup - not the media version, but how the money really moves, who the real buyers are, and what they need to see before they say yes.

His sharpest point cut straight to why so many founders stall:

"Most people don't understand the Saudi vision and the market. They mention it in their deck and think that catches attention. But in reality, this is not how it works."

The takeaway: stop quoting Vision 2030 back at people, and start speaking the language of the entities actually spending the money.

Riyadh Idea Lab - July 14th

Conversations flowed, ideas came fast, and the range was wild: an e-commerce marketplace, an EdTech platform, cybersecurity, and autonomous mining tech, all in one night.

The moment everyone remembers? Saad Qureshi,15 years old - presenting Bokataa, the world's first country-of-origin marketplace. His friend, also 15, took the floor too. Turns out the future showed up early.

Riyadh Idea Lab - July 28th

You don't need a finished idea to walk into the lab, just the guts to say the unfinished one out loud. Three founders did exactly that:

Muhamed Elnaggar brought Naggar AI, making research analysis affordable without losing anyone's trust in it. Ashraf AbulJebain brought GearZ, one app trying to hold everything a car owner deals with, insurance to mechanics and back. And Mohammed Althawab brought a football academy pitch that turned into a real conversation about finding talent at 8, not 14 with 2034 on everyone's mind.

Three problems with nothing in common, one room that showed up for all of them. As Ashraf put it:

"Pitching raw, early-stage ideas takes guts, but the supportive energy and great conversations from this community made it completely worth it."

Dubai Founders Unfiltered: "The Floor is Yours" - July 31st

This one outgrew the plan. We set up for a modest room but the community had different plans. The room filled fast, founders, builders, and a handful of Emirati investors scouting for something worth backing.

The format was simple: drop the pitch, drop the polish deck, and talk about what building actually feels like. Not the tidy LinkedIn version, but the real journey. The near-misses, the doubts, the costs nobody advertises. Someone even showed up with no company and no idea yet, just the strive to build something.

One line from the night stayed with us:

"The right people for your founder journey might not always be your friends and family."

That's exactly why this community exists.

That was July you missed, here’s what’s worth keeping an eye out for in August:

Riyadh Founders Workshop, Build the Founder Before the Company - August 11th

You've perfected the pitch, built the product, even set up the whole company. But have you built the person running it? A hands-on workshop led by Adel Abdulkarim Mazi, bringing 22 years and 30+ ventures' worth of "been there, done that" to the room.

Dubai Idea Lab - August 14th

Got an idea? No slides? No problem. The lab lands in Dubai. Your space to test whether that vision can actually become a startup. Pitch with a well sorted deck or improve it, with or without the numbers. Real feedback, just impact. Want in? The floor's open.

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We look forward to bringing you the most exciting and meaningful events, opportunities, and connections, designed to help you thrive.

Have an excellent rest of the month!

Team 24six9