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 Yasmeen Khamis (LinkedIn), co-founder of the Doodle Factory.

My name is Yasmeen Kamis, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Doodle Factory, an Egyptian brand that designs products using doodles by children in need to meet their educational, medical and shelter needs. I double majored in Business Administration and History at the American University in Cairo (AUC). After graduating, I worked for a while with Ahl Masr Foundation, which treats burn victims without charge, but didn’t stay there for very long.

I decided it was time to build my own business because I was working with children and wanted a way to help them that went beyond donations. I wanted to create a product that is attractive for people to buy, but also has a cause and story behind it. While I was at Ahl Masr, I worked on a project with Farah El Masry, who then became my business partner. We decided to establish a company and start our business as we both love art and children.

Doodle Factory’s mission is to drive social impact through creative design solutions. We look to partner with businesses to create innovative and impactful products and ideas that support underprivileged children — and hopefully in the process inspire hope and make a difference in the world. Every project starts with us hosting an art session for children to doodle, paint, and draw freely. We then take these drawings as they are and print them on a variety of products such as laptop sleeves, make-up bags, notebooks, clothes, and kitchen sets. We originally started selling these products directly through a B2C model, but we’ve also recently shifted to B2B and started designing products for other brands.

The art sessions we start our process with really keep me going and inspire me.I love spending time with children and witnessing their creativity and the joy they get out of the session.

We’re currently working on a big project with Sightful Hearts to help 100 visually impaired childrenand build the first ed-tech learning center in Egypt equipped especially for them.

The most important KPIs that we focus on are the number of clients we have and the number of products we produce and sell. It’s not necessarily a business KPI, but we care a lot about the number of children we make smile every week and support through the Doodle Factory.

We started out bootstrapping the business and didn’t formally raise funds. All of the business’ income is invested back in the company, and we also generate income through partnerships with other brands. Acquiring new investments are not on our list in the near future but in the long run we are looking forward to attracting new ones and expanding in markets outside Egypt. We are now more concerned with developing our portfolio and creating more products with the same business model.

Establishing your own business is not easy at all — and it’s definitely a lonely journey. I always find myself stuck in the struggle of pushing myself forward when I fail or feel myself falling back; as a founder you have to take most of the decisions, especially the hard ones, and it’s your responsibility whether they succeed or fail. I do sometimes struggle with burnout, especially with the current challenges of the economic circumstances.

We went through some hardships as a business during covid-19, which was not easy at all to cope with. We had to change our presence from being hybrid — with both a brick and mortar store and an online presence — to an entirely online brand. We faced financial pressure after the currency devaluation, which affected our brand a lot in terms of production.

Family has played an important role throughout my journey as a founder. My father and sister were very supportive from the very beginning and they believed in Doodle Factory and its mission. My husband has always been caring and helpful as well. My mother initially didn’t really grasp or support the idea of Doodle Factory — she’s had a long, stable career as a banker, so entrepreneurship was something new to her. But once she saw our success and saw people wearing our products, she got on board and is really happy for us.

If I could give someone who is thinking of starting their own business just one piece of advice, it would be to plan well and effectively, breathe, and make sure you are balancing between your dedication and passion for your business and your social life and mental health wellness.

I got a lot of inspiration from the founder of Toms shoes, Blake Mycoskie. He developed aone for one model — for every shoe the brand sells, it gives away one pair “to fund community development programs, health and education.” I realized that I can follow a similar model and produce a purposeful product to support children.

One of my favorite local brands is Kilim. I think they’re doing a great job; if I didn’t have Doodle Factory, I would have built something similar to Kilim that combines heritage and development at the same time.

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