OUR FOUNDER OF THE WEEK- Every Tuesday, Founder of the Week looks at how a successful member of Egypt’s startup community got their big break, asks about their experiences running a business, and gets their advice for budding entrepreneurs. Speaking to us this week is Farida El Sabh ( LinkedIn), co-founder of Lanalou.

My name is Farida El Sabh and I am the co-founder of Lanalou, an Egyptian brand that produces creative child-related products such as cosmetics, tailored kids’ furniture, and educational flash cards to nurture the child’s mind, body, and soul. I am now a mother of two and I graduated from the American University in Cairo (AUC) majoring in theater with a psychology minor. During my senior year, I worked with a digital marketing agency called ripplemark as an intern and I continued working with them for two years after graduating, and then I started establishing my own brand.

My eldest daughter, Lana, was the main inspiration for my brand, which I named after her nickname. The idea came up when I gave birth during covid-19 as I was supposed to travel to the US where my mother lives and stock up all the baby essentials such as clothes, books, and cosmetics from there. Unfortunately, flights were suspended globally and I was not able to travel. I started creating and designing educational flash cards for Lana myself and surprisingly my family and friends loved it and they wanted me to make similar ones for them. So, I thought of starting my own brand and flash cards were my first product. We printed them in four languages — English, French, Arabic, German.

The best part of my job is the positive feedback I get from my customers. I’m filled with joy when a parent tells me their child started to love reading after using your flash cards and book. Also, when a parent tells me that there is a notable improvement in their daughter’s/son’s hair condition after using our hair products.

The hardest part of my job is to hire qualified people in my team. I always search extensively until I find the skilled people who truly believe in the brand’s purpose and goals to fit in the required positions.

If I could give someone who is thinking of starting their own business just one piece of advice, it would be to exist first and everything will flow afterwards — just keep on pushing and be persistent.

The three most important KPIs that I look at everyday are the brand’s online sales, adding new products, while maintaining our quality, and the number of places we are selling products at. We already have our products placed in a number of pharmacies and supermarkets.

I don’t feel like being a founder of a startup is a lonely journey, as I have a strong supportive team that always has my back.

Lanalou is a self-financed business — we did not formally receive any external funds.

All of the business’ income is invested back in the company. If I would target investors or external funding in the future, I would choose strategic funding partners who have the same beliefs and vision, move the brand forward, and add to it.

My short-term growth plan is to add new meaningful products to the brand, mainly in the educational and cosmetics lines. My long-term goal is to expand our brand inside and outside Egypt and start exporting our products.

My family is very supportive and they truly believe in what I am doing. I always turn to Mohamed Hammouda ( LinkedIn) , my husband and the co-founder of Lanalou, when I need to fix a difficult problem in my work. I trust him blindly and he always supports me and solves complicated problems. My kids are very proud of their mother, especially my eldest daughter, who feels so happy seeing her nickname on the shelves of the supermarket.

I love to learn and get my mind nourished, so books truly inspire my mind and soul. The book I am currently reading is Traction: Get a Grip on your Business by Gino Wickman, which helps any entrepreneur to develop your business efficiently. Also, Kindergarten is Too Late by Masaru Ibuka inspired me a lot through my motherhood journey and when I started my business.

Working out is one hobby I’ve recently adopted with my husband. I always workout at 6am in the morning and this puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day and helps me function better at work and at home with my kids.

One startup that I think is killing it is Thndr. Their work to simplify investing and facilitate access to the right tools and resources to empower investors is a great idea.

If I weren’t building the business I’m building now, I would have started another business — I don’t think I would be an employee or work in my family business.

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