Nancy Madbouly, co-founder and CTO at Nanovate: 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 Nanovate co-founder and CTO Nancy Madbouly (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’m a new mom — which is a full-time job on its own. Before that, I spent the past eight years working across different areas in tech, from Web3 and blockchain to NFTs, DeFi, augmented reality, and now AI.

I’ve always worked in tech because this is something that I really like and love. I started creating content to educate people about technologies that weren’t widely popular in the Middle East. When I first started talking about crypto, most people thought it was a scam. This is when I started showing people where I’m coming from — that it’s actually not a scam and how they can use these new technologies to their advantage.

I then started shifting a bit into AI, because people didn’t know anything about it at the time. They only knew very little about blockchain systems. It was during the NFT wave — a space I was working in at the time.

I see myself as an entrepreneur, and I’ve always been one. I worked on a lot of projects, but I knew I eventually wanted to build something of my own. The timing didn’t feel right at the time. When I finally decided to go for it, I pitched the idea to my husband, who was incredibly supportive — he’s now my co-founder — and we took it from there.

At Nanovate, I wear two hats as co-founder and CTO. I lead the vision for tech. When it comes to anything from a tech aspect, I do it and plan it for my team of developers. We do the ideation of everything together, implement it, and create new technologies based on what we think is going to be right for the market.

The name Nanovate actually comes from combining Nancy and innovate. It was just a joke back then, but we really liked the name, so we stuck to it. Our vision is always to make everything easier for businesses so that they don’t have to code. Right now, we have a platform where you can create your own voice or chat agents without needing to code and integrate them with your socials or any phone number.

The most interesting trend in the industry right now is multi-agents like OpenClaw or anything following this framework — this is what’s going to build the next-gen AI models. The problem is that when you look at the market in Egypt, there is a lot of hype but very few actual builders. Most are building on n8n and don't actually own the actual tech behind it. If someone wants to invest in their company and do due diligence, they will find they don't have their own code.

I would love to see the Middle East in a place where we are actually building code and not just being consumers and users. This is why at Nanovate, we have everything built from scratch, code-wise. It’s our copyright — no one can take that from us. No one can close the platform because it’s ours.

My mornings look very different now than they used to. Before having my baby, I’d start my day with the gym, grab a coffee, and then head to the office. When I got pregnant, I kept the same routine until I gave birth — even though I couldn't drink coffee and was tired all the time. After giving birth, I started juggling everything. I usually wake up after very little sleep, feed my baby, get her ready, and head to the office with her. When she naps, I get a couple of hours of focused work in. Then, we go home and eat. If I have events or things to take care of, my husband or mom takes care of her. As new parents, we just figure things out as we go. We also have a dog, so it’s a lot.

I don’t really believe in work-life balance. My husband calls it “work-life harmony” instead of work-life balance, and I’m starting to agree with him, to be honest — even though I didn’t at first. It’s more about integrating everything rather than separating it — especially at this stage in life.

When I do get time to unwind, I usually just sit in bed and watch Netflix. I love serial killer documentaries and anything scientific. I was recently obsessed with the OceanGate submersible story, and I’m also really into physics, which ties back to my interest in AI.

One piece of advice that stuck with me is that “this too shall pass.” I went through a very difficult personal experience before having my daughter, where my son died at a very young age, and that quote helped me through it. It reminds you that both the hard times and the good times are temporary, so you just have to stay present and keep going.

Tags: