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 Kareem El Daly (LinkedIn), founder and CEO of The Food Lab.

My name is Kareem El Daly, and I’m the founder and CEO of The Food Lab. After double majoring in Finance and Marketing at GUC, I entered the corporate world as part of LafargeHolcim’s corporate strategy team. Five years later, I moved to San Francisco to earn my MBA, and spent another five years managing McKesson’s oncology product portfolio. I loved the humane aspect of what I was doing, I loved the team, and I loved the overall experience I got out of it. But that’s when I decided to end my corporate career.

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, and I loved businesses that disrupted the status quo. Even though I had experience across multiple industries, when I decided to start my own business, I knew it had to be something that I actually loved and was passionate about. And I love food.

Some people eat to live, and others live to eat. I definitely live to eat. And because of the time I spent in San Francisco, I was fascinated with technology, and saw businesses like Uber and Airbnb continuously disrupting the status quo by disrupting models. That blew my mind, and is why I decided to incorporate the shared economy model in the F&B industry.

A business has to solve a problem. Usually, you see restaurants struggling with very thin margins, especially when it comes to delivery because you have all these aggregators eating a big chunk of the restaurant’s margin. And this is where the value of The Food Lab comes in.

The Food Lab is a virtual food brand cloud kitchen, with a hybrid business model that consists of two main verticals — Kaas (kitchen as a service), and own brands. Our tech-powered cloud kitchens help restaurants optimize and streamline their operations, meaning that the fixed costs that restaurants incur are shared across multiple brands, leaving them with a much better bottom line at the end of the month.

Even though we’ve launched more than 40 brands in the last three years, I don’t consider myself successful yet. To me, success means giving back to the people and the community around me. Helping people is what drives me, and I don’t think I’m anywhere near the limits of what I hope to accomplish. There’s always more that can be done — more lives to be touched and more ways to make a meaningful difference in the world.

Our vision is to become the biggest virtual food brand company in the region, and we’re working to achieve this within the coming years. We intend to start our cross-border expansion with the GCC. During this period, sustainable growth is crucial, and due to the current market dynamics, we will be focusing on countries that have healthy food delivery unit economics.

The F&B industry faced many challenges during the recent macroeconomic turbulence, but having the right team in place and providing them with the right tools was the main reason we were able to survive. The most important lesson we learned from this experience is agility. The ability to pivot quickly is key.

What I would like to change about the industry aligns with what we do at The Food Lab. The industry should incorporate technology to streamline F&B services, utilize data to interpret underlying trends, and make data-driven decisions — bringing new culinary experiences to the market. I believe that Egypt still has a lot to explore when it comes to different cuisines and a lot of the innovation we see elsewhere has yet to be reflected in the Egyptian market.

F&B is already a challenging industry, and The Food Lab is akin to five startups in one. This is one of the main reasons why we have no direct competition. We have an own brands business, KaaS, an aggregation business, a supply chain business, and a last-mile delivery business.

Seeing my initial vision for The Food Lab come to life and watching it grow is deeply satisfying. It’s a testament to the hard work, perseverance, and passion that has driven the business from its inception. That, alongside watching our employees grow with the company and achieve their career goals, is the most rewarding aspect of my job.

There are a hundred things you need to get done when you start a business. And it’s very, very hard to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Having the right team as the business grows helps you get there, eventually. You have to be able to rest knowing the business is in good hands during your time off.

Good planning is crucial when setting up a business, and that’s what I would tell my younger self. Something I always say now is “Plan the work, then work the plan.” Make sure your business addresses a genuine need or problem customers are facing. Hold onto your vision, but remain flexible in your approach. Young entrepreneurs need to be open to change and willing to adjust their sails to stay aligned with market demands.

Don’t be afraid of the unknown — embrace uncertainty as an integral part of the entrepreneurial journey. I know this because I took too much time to start my own. It’s never going to be the right time, so just start, and everything will follow. Take calculated risks, but trust your instincts. You will face challenges not just every day, but every hour. Having perseverance is imperative. If it was easy, everyone would have done it.

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