Mohamed Elshabrawy, CEO and co-founder of SehaTech. Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Mohamed Elshabrawy, CEO and co-founder of SehaTech (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Mohamed El Shabrawy. I’m the CEO and co-founder of SehaTech. My background is in medicine — I worked as an anesthetist in NHS England for 12 years before moving back home to Egypt in 2022. I launched SehaTech with my friends of 25 years, Mostafa Tarek and Omar Shawky. I’m married and a father of two, who are called Mostafa and Jamila.

SehaTech is a healthcare technology entity that builds healthcare products. What we’re trying to improve is health ins. penetration, which doesn’t exceed 5% in the Egyptian private sector. We’re making policies run more efficiently and cost-effectively, eliminating money wasted on abuse and errors. This makes coverage cheaper and more affordable for average companies, entities, or individuals and families. We hope to one day see 100 mn insured Egyptians, and 100% penetration. We also look forward to replicating this experience across the region.

The idea for SehaTech came from reflecting on my own personal struggles. My father, who was also a doctor, suffered from prostate cancer for 10 years. We were a well-off family, but the medical expenses were still devastating. It doesn’t matter how much money you have — health emergencies will knock you down and consume all your resources.

During my time in the NHS, I envied the quality of healthcare in the UK. I believe that healthcare coverage should be mandatory — it’s not a luxury, it’s as necessary as food and water. But in Egypt and the rest of the region, 70% of people pay for medical treatments out of their own pocket, which means that the state of healthcare isn’t a medical issue, it’s a financial one.

That’s what made me who I am today. I saw a system that covers everyone medically, giving healthcare to those without financial means, felt firsthand what it was like to have your finances razed by the lack of coverage, and decided to put my money where my mouth is, with the help of Mostafa and Omar. It took us a couple of years of brainstorming, studying the market, and understanding what we needed to do before we finally started executing it in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, we held two investment rounds totaling USD 2 mn.

I’ve always thought of my responsibilities this way: I’m not a CEO — I’m a conductor or a coach. My job is to make sure that all departments work in a synchronized way and in harmony to achieve our goals. I make sure the whole team is working together, passing the ball, until we score a goal and win the match. It’s important to me to look at it that way, because a lot of founders fall into a big trip — they’re operational people by nature, and it’s easy to get dragged into one vertical of your company or one problem after another. It’s crucial to take a few steps back, make sure you don’t get dragged into playing the match by yourself, and remember you’re just the coach.

Two important things are happening on a regulatory level. The ins. industry is becoming more regulated by the Financial Regulatory Authority — they’ve issued a unified ins. law, which means the market will become more regulated and attract more external players and investors, creating a healthier market to work in. Second, we saw the launch of the universal health ins. system a few years ago, which is similar to the NHS and the French system, insuring everyone to a certain limit. We don’t have the ability to cover everyone endlessly, but everyone will at least have basic coverage for medical needs. We think SehaTech is in a great position to enable such an initiative and become its infrastructural backbone.

I’m not a morning person, but my morning routine is very important to me. A lot of people think successful founders and CEOs have great morning routines because they’re morning people by nature, but the only reason I have a morning routine is because I understand the importance of it. I wake up everyday at 7:30am to drop my kids off at school. Afterwards, I do one of three things up until 9:30am — go to the gym, play tennis with my friends, or have coffee with my friends. Then I go back home, shower, put my suit on, and head to work. I go through my emails from 10:30am to 11am — never before that. In the coming hour, I have my regular weekly meetings with my operational team, my finance team, and my human resources team. After that is a rollercoaster.

I try to dedicate specific time slots to problem-solving and firefighting, as any founder will find themselves having to do. I also have time for a short break, where I’ll have lunch, pray, and regain my energy. But otherwise, it’s back-to-back meetings until 8–9pm. I meet with ins. companies, ins. brokers, healthcare providers, and clients — both current and potential. Then I go back to my office for a couple of hours and finish some things up before going home.

I stay on track by making a to-do list for each day for some structure. I know everything I’m doing at the top of each week. Having structure is very important to staying organized and focused, because you can very easily get sucked into one problem — even if it’s minor — just because it’s the first thing you were faced with that day or that week. You have to prioritize.

I think the new generation overemphasizes the importance of work-life balance. If you want to be successful, if you want to build something for yourself and have a great future, you have to understand that there’s a balance, but it might not be 50/50. I always say I’m not just a CEO — I’m a father, a husband, a son, a brother, and a friend. Each of these roles are equally important to me. I keep a strict schedule of what I do with my son, my daughter, my family, and my friends. It’s all about fitting all your roles into your schedule.

My schedule is divided into three priorities — one for family commitments, work commitments, and friend commitments. They’re all equally important. My son’s sports practice is as important as a meeting. Going out with my friends is a commitment I have to honor — that’s my role as a friend. That means prioritizing family- or friend-related emergencies over work sometimes.

Overdoing work-life balance is counterproductive, but you have to make sure you’re also focusing on your other roles as a human being — with your family and friends — alongside getting the work done.

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