Few investors in the Kingdom have had a front-row seat to as many inflection points as Yousef Al Yousefi. He studied at Harvard Business School during the 2008 financial crisis, helped set up Saudi Arabia’s first institutionally-backed VC fund, and was in the room as the blueprint for Vision 2030 was being drafted.

Today, as co-founder and CEO of Joa Capital, he is running a USD 40 mn private markets firm, sitting on the boards of listed corporations and government entities, and — by his own admission — figuring out fatherhood one parenting book at a time.

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. This week, we sat down with Al Yousefi to discuss his unconventional career arc, how he manages a founder-minded team, and what a front-row seat to a crisis actually feels like. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM: You’ve described your career in three phases — engineer, employee, then founder. Walk us through how each transition happened.

Yousef Al Yousefi: The engineer phase was very internationally diverse. My job description at Schlumberger was international mobile field engineer, so I started in Oman, moved to Egypt, then Mexico, and my last station was Abu Dhabi. Around 2008, being in Abu Dhabi exposed me to the management consulting industry, and I joined Booz Allen Hamilton — now Strategy& — for less than a year before getting accepted to Harvard Business School.

I joined my classmates in September 2008. That very month was when the global financial crisis happened. It was remarkable witnessing the world economy collapse while we were studying in business school. Post-Harvard, I spent time at Passport Capital in San Francisco — a hedge fund with significant allocation to venture capital in the energy space. Being in Silicon Valley was transformational. I got to know entrepreneurs and investors and see how business was done there. Then I joined the PIF’s technology investment arm, now called Taqnia.

While at Taqnia, we built a partnership with Riyadh Capital and launched what I believe was the first institutionally-backed VC fund in the Kingdom: the Riyadh Taqnia Fund. I co-founded it with Adel Ateeq, who went on to lead the Jada Fund of Funds. After meeting so many entrepreneurs, I simply wanted to become one myself.

In 2015, I co-founded Marco Partners, a consultancy focused on investment advisory for large corporates and government. My co-founders were Mazen Al Rumaih, now chairman of Banque Saudi Fransi, and Abdullah Al Jabbar, who became CEO of Sanabil.

By 2016 and 2017, we became very involved in the blueprint of Vision 2030, working directly with ministers and ministerial committees modernizing the economy, introducing private equity and venture capital frameworks, and reforming regulations to attract investment. We had a front-row seat to the transformation the Kingdom was going through.

From 2015 to 2020, we also invested some of our income in private ventures and built a track record. In 2021, we decided to formalize that into a licensed investment entity, Joa Capital, which I co-founded with Abdulrahman Mousa. We launched our first fund, S3 Ventures, in 2022. We now have over USD 40 mn in assets under management, with an advisory arm helping ventures and mid-sized corporates with capital market activities, and more recently a private debt arm supporting the fintechs we invest in.

E: You were at Harvard during the 2008 crisis. Do the current disruptions give you a sense of déjà vu?

YA: My philosophy is that if there is something you cannot control and cannot predict, it is always better to be optimistic — although I have to admit I am not always optimistic. I choose to be because there is no reason not to be.

I think the Kingdom is relatively shielded right now, mainly because of our ability to export oil through the western coast — hopefully that does not get further disrupted. But beyond that, I see a positive social effect that tends to accompany every crisis — people get closer to each other. Communities become more self-reliant. We have seen GCC countries rise above their differences in recent weeks.

For our investment thesis specifically, one thing I expect to accelerate significantly is self-reliance in technology, particularly in defense-adjacent fields — AI, IoT, cybersecurity. Many historians argue Silicon Valley would not have existed without defense R&D spending. Whenever public-sector attention sharpens on defense, it typically trickles down positively to the broader tech sector.

E: Joa Capital is a young, small firm. How do you manage the team without over-engineering things?

YA: Trust is the main element of my management style. Regular face-time is important. I do have to be honest, I think we can do a lot better with formal management systems. When you are a five-year-old company, it is sometimes a matter of priorities.

With a company this young, everyone on the team needs to think and act like a founder. That is one of our filtering criteria from day one. During any probation period, we test commitment and founder mindset. It requires less involvement from me in the details, but I need to be involved daily in managing direction — and in building the kind of trust where any issue can be raised openly without hesitation.

Our objective in the next five years is to build better management systems, reporting systems for clients, and training programs for junior employees. Whether we do that organically or through combining forces with a larger firm, we are open to both.

E: Walk us through your day, start to finish.

YA:Before the workday starts, I like to spend time with my family and my kids over breakfast before they go to school — I have two boys, four-and-a-half and three.

Every other day, I have a personal trainer for exercise. I tried to manage it on my own, but it proved very difficult, especially with a busy social calendar in the evenings. You need someone holding you accountable to actually get to the gym.

After that, I am in the office by 9-10am. Meetings with the team, portfolio companies, prospective investments, or investors. A lot of what takes me out of the office are board meetings at larger companies, which typically consume three or four hours of any given day.

E: And when you step away from work entirely?

YA: Until recently, I had pets in the desert — rare-breed camels. It was an interesting social experiment and a cultural journey into camel ownership and breeding. My heritage is actually more of a farming culture, not a nomadic camel-herding one, but Saudi has many subcultures. A friend created a farm with rare breeds and I started going every weekend, learning about breeding and buying. The camels I was involved with were in the Mazayin category — the beauty contest camels, judged on appearance and physique rather than speed or milk production.

On the sporting side, golf, tennis, padel, and skiing when I travel. I also enjoy camping whenever someone else does the organizing. Some friends have all the gear and the sites, so when the weather is good around Riyadh, we go out.

Yousef’s recommendations

What he’s reading: The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. I am trying to use my spare time to understand modern theories on how children think. I left my parents’ house at 17, so most of my siblings were still children when I left. Raising kids is a new territory for me.

What he’s watching: The last series I watched was Yellowstone — I am only in season two. What I liked about it is the clash of cultures within one country: Native American, cowboy, and New York real estate financier, all colliding in the same place, each with their own internal tensions. The drama feels realistic and human, not overblown.

What he’s listening to: Harry Stebbings’ podcast 20VC. It is one of the most informative podcasts interviewing leaders across the VC and tech world.

A piece of advice that stuck: First, people will always forget what you say, but they will always remember how you made them feel. There must be respect, even in disagreements and disputes. Second, doing one thing and doing it well is better than doing many things poorly. That is how you scale a business. It is also what made me focus on establishing one fund and making it a success before expanding further.