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 Farah El Ashiry (LinkedIn), founder of Fufa.

My name is Farah El Ashiry and I’m the founder of Fufa, a clothing brand offering uniquely designed, locally made, high-quality garments with a drive to showcase Egyptian culture. I studied Integrated Marketing Communication at the American University in Cairo, although I always wanted to study fashion. My family wasn’t keen on me traveling abroad to study, so my dad enrolled me in a full-time, three-year program at the Italian Fashion Academy in Dokki, which I completed in parallel with my full-time bachelor’s degree at AUC.

Before I graduated, I started my first business — although I didn’t consider it a business at the time, and treated it more as more of a project. The business, which I called Bint El Balad, initially started making printed cushions and garments before shifting to evening wear and customized dresses for a few clients. I then began transitioning to readymade garments, starting with a small collection I called Petite Bourgeoisie. Later on, my grandmother gave me fabrics she had from Tokyo that were vibrant and colorful, which I used to make the first Fufa beach collection. It started with a 42-piece collection for the summer, which I launched in August 2014. The first batch got sold right away, so I made another batch, which I also sold out quickly, and that was the starting point. From there, I gradually started releasing casual wear and fall pieces that were bohemian-inspired and unique.

My pieces proved to be special because most fashion or clothing businesses starting out at the same time were focused on evening wear and soiree gowns — beach wear wasn’t very available from local businesses in Egypt, so my products were niche. I gave myself six months to see where things would go and whether it was feasible to continue as a business. If it didn’t work out, I planned to get a job in the marketing industry.

I never really planned on starting my own business — I initially planned to get experience at a fashion house or a production house after graduating, but when I found that there was huge demand for what I was doing, the momentum was too much to just stop and go work elsewhere. Four months after releasing our first collection at Fufa, I doubled down: I bought a workshop, I bought my first industrial sewing machine, and hired a dedicated seamstress, and decided to keep going and gauge demand as we grew.

For the longest time — maybe for years — I felt like it was just a project, not a business, because it was a one (wo)man show [laughs]. I only had the seamstress I hired, along with a tailor who had been teaching me how to tailor and alter garments since I was young. There were a lot of things that I learned on the fly and as the business grew, like how to set up an online presence, the details of order fulfillment and packaging, merchandising, photoshoots, how to approach stores to display my products — it’s a long list of things that go into building a strong business. I dedicated time for myself to do several internships to better understand these things, including at factories producing for Zara and Stradivarius, and businesses outside of Egypt that produce swimwear, as well as taking courses on inspiration building for fashion brands. Studying at the Italian Fashion Academy gave me the technical skills I needed, but the business side wasn’t part of my studies.

Fufa has come a long way from where it started. I initially started making my products with fabrics I got from my grandmother or sourced from the market, but then began moving more towards using unique fabrics that tell a story. I needed to learn the ins and outs of making textiles and textile patterns, and I remember my grandfather telling me to take a tour around Egypt to get inspiration from different areas in the country. We now have our own textile printing line and we create collections based on destinations around the country, such as Fayoum, El Gouna, and Nubia.

I feel like there’s a lot that I gave up as I was building my business — the challenges sometimes feel endless. It’s exciting, but there are lots of challenges. Every step or component of the business, such as the retail component or going online, has challenges or problems to iron out. Because I learned things as I went along, rather than learning the business side of things, it sometimes feels like I gave up a lot of time because everything needed patience. Still, if you were to ask me whether I would prefer a 9-5 or working on my business, I would choose Fufa any day. It’s a business, but it also still feels like a hobby because I’m passionate about and love what I do.

The best part of my job is that I love being in a creative industry where I can create something from scratch. After launching collections showcasing different destinations in Egypt, we realized our impact not only on the touristic side of these areas in the country, but also on their local populations. We work with so many women breadwinners and have a dedicated production line employing women who can’t necessarily venture out of their homes and work at a factory, so we actually bring sewing machines to their homes so that they can have an income. I also love that our brand is focused on sustainability and that we have the chance to work with lots of NGOs in Egypt to support sustainability.

The worst part of the job is that being both the founder and creative director means I have to attend to business matters and decisions that I don’t necessarily want to handle — everything from the legal side, to tax and finance. They’re foreign concepts that I’m not fond of or interested in per se, but it comes with the territory of being a business owner and I have to be part of these decisions. I would much rather only focus on the creative side — designing the fabrics, directing photoshoots, that kind of stuff — but there’s actually a great extent to which they go hand in hand: Understanding the business aspect of things actually helps guide my creative decisions.

We have a lot of growth plans for Fufa, including setting up new branches of our brick and mortar store — particularly expanding our concept store, which we set up in Diplo in Sahel to showcase products from Egyptian brands that share a similar ethos with Fufa. We also want to expand internationally, starting with beach destinations such as Greece, Spain, and Italy. We also have our eyes on other markets such as Australia and the US, where we actually get a lot of international orders, and we want to cater to these customers.

I have a big support network of mentors in different industries that I rely on for advice for my business. For each part of the business, I know the go-to people I feel comfortable talking to and who have been with me on the journey since the beginning, so they know what the best next step is.

The startup scene in Egypt has been really booming since I started Fufa, and there are so many businesses that I think are doing a great job in every industry. One of my mentors and close friends is Hossam Taher, who founded Orcas, so seeing him grow his business has given me a lot of inspiration for my own journey.

If I wasn’t in the fashion scene or industry, I would probably be doing something in the tourism industry. Egypt has so much to offer and show beyond the historic tourist attractions, and I would love to actively participate in showcasing these attractions and our unique destinations in a special way.

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