Mohamed Aladdin, general partner at DPI Venture Capital: 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 DPI Venture Capital General Partner Mohamed Aladdin (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Mohamed Aladdin. I’m a general partner of DPI Venture Capital — the venture capital arm of Development Partners International. We are a fintech-enabled-focused fund. As a general partner, I look after many topics across the firm — from investments to portfolio management, fundraising, and fund operations.

I’ve been working in the venture capital space in the Middle East and Africa since 2020 — first for a Dubai-based fund that operates in the Middle East and Africa, where I covered early-stage investments, with a main focus on series A and beyond. Prior to MENA, I worked with a couple of corporate venture capital firms based out of Germany investing in late-stage and growth-stage technology companies across the US and Europe, which spanned multiple domains, such as SaaS, fintech, mobility, and other sectors.

I then moved and shifted my focus toward emerging markets. I started with Southeast Asia and some parts of Africa before moving back to the region to join Global Ventures, then Development Partners International to build the venture capital platform alongside my partner, Ashley Lewis. Now as DPI Venture Capital, we advise the biggest fintech-focused venture capital fund in Africa, the Nclude fund. I think of myself more as an operator-turned-investor, rather than following the traditional finance path to crack into the world of private equity and venture capital. Given my background, which spans tech strategy, business development, product management, and venture capital, among other things, I’m really passionate about unlocking capital to empower mission-driven founders to build innovative solutions that solve real problems in underserved markets.

DPI is a private equity firm founded in 2007. We’ve been in the market for 18 years. It started as a private equity fund manager advising multiple funds focusing on Africa, which has been the main market. Now, after eighteen years, DPI has grown to advise more than USD 3.3 bn in assets under management. The firm has portfolio companies in more than 20 countries in Africa that are active in 44 markets across the continent. This year was big for DPI on the VC side, with the official launch of DPI Venture Capital. We’ve completed the transaction of advising the Nclude fund, the largest fintech-focused fund for Africa, and advised on 12 new VC investment transactions.

We are very long-term partners in the Egyptian market. We’ve contributed over USD 1 bn out of our total assets under management to investments just in Egyptian markets. On the investment side, I primarily focus on venture capital. I look into sourcing and screening new investment windows, vetting their investment rationale, conducting due diligence and negotiating transaction terms, as well as assessing and vetting follow-on capital into our existing portfolio companies.

The portfolio management side takes a big portion of my day, as I work across our 13 portfolio companies to date. I look at their needs and how we can help and support them. I’m also an active board director and observer across multiple boards within our portfolio companies.

We have our first fund, which is called Nclude — it’s a fintech-enabled fund that focuses on Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa. DPI acts as the fund’s advisor. We invest all the way from seed stages to series C, and we’re very long-term partners to our companies.

One of the biggest trends within the fintech space that we are currently focusing on at DPI — and are very excited about — is how AI will enable big changes in core financial services. AI is redefining major software concepts and business models that the entire technology market was heavily relying on, such as SaaS. It’s redefining how we think about solutions and the way that we solve problems — not only from an efficiency perspective, but from accuracy, speed, and scalability too. It’s also solving new problems that were not visible prior to unlocking AI capabilities.

I like to wake up early, but I also believe in a good amount of sleep and a good sleep cycle, so I like to get at least seven hours a day. It really helps a lot with my focus and energy. I usually wake up around 6:30am, and I’m up and running by 7am. I take one hour just for myself, in silence — getting my coffee, reflecting on yesterday, and thinking of the priorities I would like to achieve, and what I need to do today.

Then, I take the second hour of the day to get a sense of where the market is at, since my job demands a lot of market awareness. If there is no major news that I need to dive deeper into, I use the second hour to either read a little bit about a new topic of interest, or to listen to podcasts — it really depends on my mood and the day. With everything that’s been happening over the past few years — from trade wars to macroeconomic shifts and changes in market microdynamics — it helps us a lot as fund managers to stay on top of global and local market dynamics on a daily basis.

Then, I check my email and set two or three priorities for the day, balancing between personal and professional targets. I then kick off my day with external meetings, usually at 10am.

I have yearly goals, but I try to break them down into smaller tasks. By the end of the day, I look at one or two things that I’ve done differently. I do the same reflection on a weekly and monthly basis. Measuring progress and reflecting on route optimization, if required, to achieve my yearly goals. It doesn’t have to be work-related; it can be anything personal — whether it’s family or a call to a friend I haven’t been in touch with for a while.

Coffee is for sure a constant in my day, as well as my hour of silence in the morning. I also like to call my mom and make sure that she’s ok and having a good morning. On the professional side, it’s definitely checking emails, making sure that we’re on top of things, and setting a priority for each day. If I don’t set my priorities and daily goals, the day will kind of scramble in different directions.

In order to achieve a goal, it’s not easy. You need to make some sacrifices and understand that sometimes you need to work very long hours. But you also need to be conscious that sometimes, you need to have a break, because resting is working. You can go for two or three weeks, maybe without a proper weekend, and that’s fine, but you also need to understand your limitations, your body’s needs, and feel them accordingly. Keeping your physical and mental health in line is really important.

About 70-80% of my holidays and days off are spent going on a quick scuba diving trip. Being under the water is a type of meditation; you disconnect completely from whatever is on the ground. Looking at how marine life interacts with each other puts me in a very different mindset.

One book that I really like is The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It’s kind of a playbook that’s great not only from a business-building perspective, but also for life generally. The first concept it introduces is the mindset of trying out things in a very minimal way, instead of going all in, and how it can help shape our perspectives. I’ve applied these concepts in my personal life, even more so than in my professional life.

I also like to spend some time whenever I can to listen to the 20VC podcast; it’s a great way to hear diverse investor perspectives.

On a professional level, my priority in the near future is to ensure that DPI Venture Capital delivers on its promise of generating meaningful returns for its investors, as we’re looking at an almost 10-year fund cycle. I’m also focusing on creating impact through our investments, whether by opening new doors for growth, building new kinds of regional players, changing the way that people interact, and making life easier for businesses and consumers in a healthy and meaningful way.

I really believe a lot in ethical investment, and it’s something I work toward. It is all too common for technology to use visual triggers to encourage impulsive buying, placing profit over the actual well-being of the user. I strive to operate differently by prioritizing the customer’s needs over playing on the impulsiveness of the consumer.

My favorite advice that I’ve been given in my professional career is to not chase what’s popular, but solve what’s painful. It was given to me by a previous manager and mentor I was working with many years ago. There is a lot of hype-driven investing in our industry, and I think it’s always a matter of checking if a startup is simply popular or if it is actually solving a major pain point.

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links to our background as well as external sources.)

Tags: