🎬 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 Marwan Imam (LinkedIn), Co-Founder and Senior Creative Consultant at Peace Cake.

My name is Marwan Imam, I’m a Co-Founder and Senior Creative Consultant at Peace Cake, an online video content creation — I don’t want to call it agency, but — agency. We create videos for our own channels, and we create videos for our clients.

I graduated from the American University in Cairo in 2011 with majors in mechanical engineering and arts, and a minor in film. When I graduated, I decided I wasn’t going to work in mechanical engineering — I loved it, but I quickly realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do in life. At that point, I’d been editing videos since seventh grade. The concept of online videos back then was basically downloading clips from anime or video games and cutting them up to Lincoln Park and Eminem music. That was all the rage back then. I didn’t know that these were the formative years that would lead me to YouTube eventually, but looking back now, it all evolved from there.

When I graduated, I knew part of me was always into filmmaking, but at that point, I was also interested in comics. Because I wanted to be a comic artist and writer, a friend of mine and I decided to build our own publishing house, and we modeled it after the Japanese publishers — think Shonen Jump. The idea behind it was, instead of me just making comics, I wanted to open the doors for other people as well.

Unfortunately, I was very young and optimistic, and getting the word out wasn’t easy. We got around for a bit, our first issue was in Virgin, Diwan, and other places, but the second issue never saw the light. From there, I got a job at ThePlanet (Studios). I came in as a graphic designer, and during my first week, they had a video position open, and I took it. They then decided to start a video department — which was me.

I was “the video department” for four years, until I decided I wanted to start my own thing. This was around 2014, when I decided to make that move. YouTube was growing, and I saw the potential in that. When I talked to the people that I’m now partners with, they also saw the potential — we saw the writing on the wall.

The idea behind Peace Cake was born in 2014, and Peace Cake officially launched around 2015. Back then, there was no market for YouTube videos. We created that market. We just knew we wanted to make videos. The unique thing about Peace Cake — what makes us special — is that it was us that truly kicked off that practice in Egypt. There were other people who had tried before, but they died out quickly, whereas we stuck around.

The plan was, we were going to do our own original content, and we were going to do advertising to pay the bills, to keep the lights on. We started off with YouTube sketches, and soon we started hiring creative teams. After doing a few sketches, Yaya [Yahia El Sady] wanted to test out his idea for a cheesy pickup line show — which eventually would turn into Romanseya Manseya. We’ve had viral hits before, and the thing with virality is that it dies.

Romanseya Manseya was our first consistent hit. It made us realize, “this is how content should be done.” There are always times when you believe you’re successful. The first viral hit? We felt successful. The 2019 Pepsi Ramadan AD campaign we did? That was a moment when we felt super successful.

There were several milestones as we were going when we felt as though we were there, we had made it, and honestly, that’s the fun part about this job. When you think you’re successful, you’ll always hit another milestone where that previous success pales in comparison. You should never be satisfied with just one milestone.

Looking to the future, I see expansion for Peace Cake in the next five years across the Middle East, from Morocco to the Levant. I want Peace Cake to be a full-on multinational company, operating in Lebanon, Saudi, Tunisia, Morocco, and all throughout the region. How are we planning on getting there? Well, that’s under wraps for now.

I’m the kind of person who’s always thinking about the biggest, grandest way to do something, but I’ve learned recently to question myself and ask, ‘is this the most fiscally conservative thing I could be doing right now?’. Maneuvering through the recent economic challenges fell into the hands of [Peace Cake’s] amazing CEO Kareem Abou Gamrah; he’s been the one pulling his hair out making it work. The other partners and I would challenge his every move, try to force him to spend more, but he has a way of managing things that just works. I was thinking more so on the creative side and [Abou Gamrah] on the practical side. That balance in ideologies is what makes it work.

I don’t think the industry is still fully-established, I believe it’s still in its nascent stages. We’re constantly changing and constantly pushing into the next level.

If there’s one thing I would like to change about the industry is how it is perceived. Clients often look down on what we do as lesser than traditional media, but at this point, we’re as big — if not bigger — than traditional media. Another thing I’d change, especially when it comes to content, is to get rid of the competition narrative, it takes collaboration to propel an industry forward.

The most rewarding aspect of being a part of Peace Cake is feeling people’s love. People appreciate what we do, even if it’s just entertainment — though I’d argue that entertainment is a huge thing. Putting a smile on people’s faces is in itself very rewarding. Watching the talents you discovered grow is also very rewarding. We’re not just helping ourselves grow, we’re helping the scene grow.

The hardest part is the fact that not only are you in constant competition with every creator in existence, you’re in constant competition with an algorithm. You’re just trying to convince a robot that your work is worthy of being seen by other people, and that robot only understands numbers.

As I grew older, I realized that the thing called work-life balance that people kept talking about is not really about work-life balance. You need to be living life, and love your work. I don’t think of work as work because I love it so much — but the fact is, if we’re not living our lives and just working all the time, this is when burnout happens.

Burnout doesn’t happen because you work too much, burnout happens because we’re not living our lives. Spending time with your family and your kids is the refresh button that makes you want to go back and do better. If you’re doing all this work for your family, what’s the point if you don’t spend time with them?

I’ve recently read The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and this is actually a book that people kept telling me to read, and once I did, I realized why: so many of the ideas Rubin discusses are ones that I’ve had. It’s a book on why creative people do what they do, and the philosophy behind creativity. It led to a lot of introspection on the way I do things.

If I weren’t one of the brains behind Peace Cake, I’d probably be in film, which I’m actually working on now — so I haven’t given up on that. I want to be making cinema, and honestly speaking, since Peace Cake is running on its own legs, it’s time for me to start expanding into other things I’ve wanted to explore.

I wouldn’t give myself any advice if I were to meet my younger self. A lot of what I’ve learned happened through me trying and failing — despite warnings. Even if I went back and gave myself advice, my younger self probably wouldn’t listen, and it’s that defiance that got me where I am today.

Though if I were to give advice to budding entrepreneurs, I’d say keep doing what you’re doing, don’t change, but keep an open mind. Everyone has a different perspective for a reason, and even if you deem their advice wrong, there’s probably something there for you. Do not close your eyes and ears off. Give up on control, and embrace failure. You can never control everything, and you will always fail.

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