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 Youssef Galal (LinkedIn), Co-founder of Klickit.

My Name is Youssef Galal, and I’m the co-founder and head of technology at KlickIt. I graduated with a double major in Computer Science and Business Administration from the American University in Cairo (AUC). I co-founded KlickIt in 2017, originally naming it Q-Less, during my senior year at university along with my fellow colleagues Saeed Talaat, Hashim Ibrahim, and Walid Abo ElNour.

That timeline explains why most of my career has been at KlickIt — although I also took on multiple internships during my undergrad studies, the most remarkable of which were in L’Oreal and Emirates NBD in Dubai. I also worked as a full-time engineer for almost two years at Dell Technologies, parallel to my work on KlickIt.

Klickit is a platform that offers a secure and consolidated fee management system for educational institutions. Also, it facilitates a no-hassle payment experience forparents allowing them to pay the school/university/nursery fees digitally using various payment methods such as credit cards, wallets, payment aggregators, POS, etc.

It all started when we were at university and we used to wait in queues for hours to pay our tuition fees, which made us think of creating a platform that would help parents and students pay their tuition fees in a more convenient way. That’s why we decided to build KlickIt.

I gave up an appealing job offer that I received from a big consulting company in the UAE when I graduated from university. I took a risk then, and I chose to invest more time and effort in Klickit, especially as we were in the early stages of launching the platform.

The best part of my job is that it is moving at a fast pace — I witness the real impacts of my ideas and efforts instantly. Also, being a co-founder of a startup gave me wider exposure to different business aspects, since I take on more responsibilities and work with all teams closely. I might not have had this chance if I was working in a larger, systematic corporation.

The worst part of my job is the intense amount of stress that I go through constantly, especially considering our current economic circumstances.

If I could give one piece of advice to someone who is thinking of starting their own business, it would be to always believe in your idea — never lose hope, and stay resilient.

The three most important KPIs that I look at everyday are: The total throughput of the platform, the number of parents that are using the platform, and the number of transactions taking place on the platform. Also, we are always keen to measure the level of satisfaction of our customers through the app rates.

My family has been extremely supportive from the onset, and they always give a hand of help during the hard times. My parents supported me financially in the early stages of Klickit as I did not have a stable salary yet.

I believe that my startup journey was not lonely:I always feel that my co-founders are my second family — we have been together through all the ups and downs since we started.

Klickit’s raised funds with a total of USD 770k. Our main investors were EFG Hermes Finance, Camel Ventures, and an angel investor. We definitely would need another round of investments to help finance our growth plans, especially outside of Egypt.

For the short-term growth plan, we are currently exploring potential expansion in countries across Africa and the GCC. We already launched Klickit in the UAE, where it was operational through the current academic year.

When it comes to long-term growth, we are dreaming of expanding more and having a positive impact in several countries.

If I would exit my business tomorrow, I would do so through an IPO or sell it to a bigger global player.

My down time is filled with sports, which has always been a major part of my life. I have been playing tennis professionally since I was five years old, and I began coaching after I graduated. I also got into coaching padel, so it takes up almost all of my freetime.

Of the businesses killing it out nowadays, I would nominate Breadfast and Rabbit.

If I couldn’t build the business I am building now, I think I would have been doing something related to the sports industry, whether proceeding as a full-time coach, or having a business operating in this field.

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