{"id":102859,"date":"2025-11-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/11\/27\/my-morning-routine-baraa-koshak-founder-and-ceo-of-abwab-ai\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:00:00","slug":"my-morning-routine-baraa-koshak-founder-and-ceo-of-abwab-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/11\/27\/my-morning-routine-baraa-koshak-founder-and-ceo-of-abwab-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"My Morning Routine: Baraa Koshak, founder and CEO of Abwab.ai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baraa Koshak, Founder and CEO of Abwab.ai:<\/strong> Every week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day \u2014 and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. We spoke to the founder and CEO of Abwab.ai<\/a> Baraa Koshak (LinkedIn<\/a>). Edited excerpts from our conversation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am Baraa Koshak.<\/strong> I come from a technical background, with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Boston University. I launched my first startup in 2016, which focused on music education. I was trying to learn how to play the lute; it was a mission impossible. So, I built an audio signal processing algorithm that listens to you, analyzes the sound, gives you performance feedback, and gamifies the whole process. <\/p>\n

I worked for McKinsey to get some commercial experience before I continued building<\/strong>. I soon left the job because I am a builder: I like to create something meaningful and impactful with my own hands.<\/p>\n

I got to know Essam Alnahdi, and we decided to build Hala, where I was part of the <\/strong>founding team and the chief product officer.<\/strong> We took it from a company with no license and no product to one having 500k individual customers and over 80k business accounts. I kept learning from the get-go, as there were a lot of mistakes. At the time, there was almost no product talent in the region, so I had to build that knowledge, base, and capability from the ground up.<\/p>\n

I was headhunted by London-based digital bank Revolut. <\/strong>There, I gained extensive experience in building products at a global scale. I also learned how to utilize data for behavioral insights and credit analysis, which gave me food for thought about what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

At this point I wondered: W<\/strong>hy not build something significant and impactful starting in <\/strong>my home, Saudi Arabia, and the region?<\/strong> I moved back to Riyadh and started Abwab.ai<\/a> three years ago. We offer the infrastructure and technology that automates the whole process of SME funding \u2014 from collecting documents to doing the due diligence, which takes up to 6-8 weeks. The platform reduced the cost by 70% and the processing time by 90%.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a consistent routine.<\/strong> I\u2019m known among my friends to be \u201caddicted to novelty,\u201d and I think that's true. Being a founder suits me well, because every six months, my role changes. I wake up two hours before going to the office, then I work out. If you work out, you connect to your body, which means less noise, more movement, and more clarity. If I'm physically strained, I do some breathing or journaling, just to get my mind straight. After that, I start the working day.<\/p>\n

Unwinding from work lies in having healthy boundaries, and life-work balance actually <\/strong>pays off quite well.<\/strong> If your nervous system is regulated and you're feeling confident and safe, you'll make much better decisions. Also, not giving things more than they matter is key.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a very curious person, reading quenches my thirst<\/strong>. I recommend two essential books to read if it is your first time building a company: Zero to One, and Running Agile. Meanwhile, The Mom Test book tells you how to get insights from customers and helps with the journey of discovering clients.<\/p>\n

My advice is always to have a forward-looking mindset<\/strong>, and nothing will be able to stop you. It's not about dismissing challenges, but rather giving them the space, acknowledging them, and then moving on. My motto in life is \u201cbe curious, and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My advice is always to have a forward-looking mindset<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3646],"tags":[2439,2660],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-102859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-morning-routine","tag-ai","tag-smes","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"732852b9-ad31-45ef-a657-3780649f8dc2","order":"12","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/11\/2070.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"My Morning Routine: Baraa Koshak, founder and CEO of Abwab.ai","related_issue":[102838],"teaser":"My advice is always to have a forward-looking mindset","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/11\/.6479a0e6-156f-43bf-b1c5-afc5221c0661.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nMy Morning Routine: Baraa Koshak, founder and CEO of Abwab.ai - 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