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 Omar Abouzeid (LinkedIn), CEO and co-founder of VOO.

My name is Omar Abouzeid and I am the CEO and co-founder of VOO. VOO isn’t a typical online supermarket. It’s a premium online convenience store. I say premium because we’re not targeting the masses. We target a certain segment of the community: Mainly B+ and A or A+.

We founded VOO in December 2019. I was searching for a second stream of income. I actually studied law at Cairo University and was in the production business for over 19 years at OZ Productions long before my partners and I founded VOO. One of our partners, Mohamed Abou Ferrekha, introduced the idea to us and we were all on board. Each of us injected into the company, but we didn’t raise any external funding.

We saw a gap in the market and we filled it. People wanted convenience, and VOO gave that to them. It stood out in between its competitors for quick customer service and a selective range of products. Plus, the user experience is simple enough where the app becomes the user’s “buddy.”

We modeled the service on our own personal needs in order to deliver maximum convenience. And when the app took off and we realized it was becoming a success — I knew it was because we understood the customers and what they wanted.

Five years from now? We have a couple of verticals in mind that we are already working towards, all catering to the idea of the 360 degree convenience store. I, unfortunately, cannot disclose any of them just yet.

There were a couple of economic challenges that we faced over the years. The most recent one being the devaluation earlier this year. It was difficult to maintain the business while also, of course, keeping the employee salaries and supplier payments flowing.

Covid-19 on the other hand, was good for us. We actually received our company documentation one week before the lockdown and were the only online shop that was delivering past national curfew. Our main marketing strategy at the time was word of mouth, which was quite effective during that time because having an app that delivered all your needs straight to your door was something everyone needed.

The couriers are the face of our brand, so we are constantly working hard to ensure that their experience — along with that of the customers — is smooth through internal training sessions. One thing I would change about our industry would be creating a syndicate-like organization where they could receive training for more enhanced experiences.

We have already expanded quite a bit with our locations, but we aim to expand even further, because it truly is the most rewarding aspect of the business. How our model works is that we have our own fulfillment centers and we start delivering to a new location once we are able to open a fulfillment center in that area.

As fulfilling as it is, it also is the hardest part of the business. Our strategy is to grow slowly, in order to maintain the quality of the service. We wouldn’t want to just have more delivery locations at the cost of delivery time or training the couriers.

In terms of balancing between home and business, I’m no superman. There isn’t a strategy that I actively follow, I just manage it. I have to deal with this and deal with that. It’s hard, but you just get it done.

A book I love is Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It’s full of facts about the world, including crises that happened, and shows you how the world moved past it. It makes the scary things smaller. Rich Dad, Poor Dad is also a classic that I love. It guides you through the world of business and pushes you to take risks and unusual paths. It follows the mindset of “give away in order to gain.”

If I wasn’t one of the founders of VOO, I would probably still be in the production business, as evidenced by Meashots, a stock image agency I founded for the Middle East and Africa. VOO was actually built with the production mindset of “the show must go on,” because whatever happens, the orders need to be delivered and the service must continue, just like any production.

I wouldn’t change anything about the experience I had growing VOO. The challenges were useful, and they helped us understand the business better — there is nothing that we regret. We jumped in the middle of the ocean starting VOO, and we had to move forward. And that is the advice I would give to younger entrepreneurs: Move and deal with the circumstances. Take calculated risks, but be patient.

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