Simon Sharp, senior partner at Global Ventures: 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 Simon Sharp (LinkedIn), senior partner at Global Ventures. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I’m Simon Sharp. I’m a senior partner at Global Ventures. I’ve lived in the region for nearly six years. Before that, I was working in the UK as a venture capitalist. I had the privilege of moving to the region and joining Global Ventures in its early phases, and have been with the firm since.

Global Ventures focuses on investing in early stage companies, and I lead the investment team, so I spend most of my time working with and investing in founders. We focus on tech-enabled or tech-driven businesses, typically at the Series A stage, but it can be slightly earlier or later.

Our main region of focus is the Middle East and Africa. We’re based in the UAE, and that’s the market where we have strong connections, but we’re ultimately looking to invest into founders that are looking to grow their businesses globally.

Our portfolio is around 70-80% or so from the region, and then opportunistically, we’ll invest in ones from outside the region with founders who are from here or who plan to expand here. That’s where we can add value rather than just provide capital and sit back and watch.

Despite the macroeconomic events that have hit VC funding over the past few years, when we take a step back and look at the region, we see a tenfold increase in VC funding from just USD 300 mn seven or eight years ago to around USD 3.5 bn in the last couple of years. Some articles out there are saying that the region is one of the fastest growing venture ecosystems globally, so we’re super excited by what we’re seeing.

We always look at things like demographics, and the region has a population of around 60-70% below the age of 35. You have a consumer base which is very tech-savvy and wants to utilize that technology, whereas in other demographics around the world, it’s mostly the reverse dynamic. When you’ve got a pocket of around 2 bn people across the Middle East Africa, that’s a great place to be building technology.

After this downturn of funding in 2021 and 2022, there has been a real shift towards creating a sustainable business, as opposed to growth at all costs. You can still see that message resonating with founders, who are more aware now that it’s not always going to be easy to raise that next round of capital, so their ability to tell their story and push into growth to make it a growth capital story is becoming more important and more common.

We’re also starting to see some more consolidation over the last year or two across the board where you see different geographic focuses or slightly different customer bases come together rather than grow (and struggle) separately.

Our early funds were focused on fintech, when the economy was really shifting from a cash-based one to more of a digital one. It’s one of the most well funded sectors within venture capital in the region, and probably globally as well, because you’ll always have deeper subsector-focused layers within that space, and it cuts across nearly every business. We’ve also leaned heavily into e-commerce, especially in Saudi Arabia.

What we think is underfunded is healthtech, which has been on our radar actually for the last four or five years. We’re also more interested in supply chain recently, again because of its broad scope and the position of the region as a trade hub. Agritech is also a sector that we’ve heavily looked at, especially since the region is more concerned now with food security.

I always get up around 6:30am and I’m in the gym by around 7:15am. That hour sets me up for the day. I’m very much a healthy body, healthy mind type of guy, and it really helps me come to work with complete clarity, not like I’ve just rolled out of bed. It’s like meditation for me, so that’s a non-negotiable.

Every day, I’m either at the office or I’m out meeting or working with founders. The reality is every day is different, and I think that’s what makes it so exciting for me, because I’m not at my computer all day working on one thing. On an average day I may have two or three meetings with founders, and they could be founders I’ve never met before, and sometimes from sectors I’ve never thought of before. So I go into every meeting knowing that I’m going to learn something new.

I sit on the board of around 10 companies, so there’s board meetings that also take up plenty of time. I try to do a good mix of in-person and online. I do as much in person as possible because I think it really helps build that relationship and you learn much more than online. We’ll also be thinking about our portfolio construction, how our current fund is shaping up, transactions in the pipeline, and what trends we’re seeing.

A bit like in the mornings, I have an hour in the evening where I spend time cooking and eating with my wife. That’s another off period for me where I’m away from the phone and computer. But the reality is our founders and investors are in different time zones, so it is one of those jobs where you’re always on, and I enjoy that. I also personally like traveling, so I really enjoy getting to do that a lot.

What’s exciting me from a work perspective is where we are as an ecosystem, because we are seeing lots of companies get to that Series B stage where there needs to be that next round of funding and a clear path towards an exit. It’s becoming ever more important for us to support founders through that phase. It’s true that it takes a village, so we have to be plugged into the ecosystem at large — it’s not about just providing capital, but about the relationship we have with other investors and other VCs, so that we can help the ecosystem grow like we see in other more mature markets. That’s going to allow more capital to funnel back into the earlier stages.

One book that I read in the last six months that really resonated with me was The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. As an expat in the region, I find it really interesting because it’s about how you work with people from different cultures starting with your communication style to the little things that you might take for granted but are inherent in people because of their culture.

The one piece of advice I’ve received that has resonated with me is: Be the type of leader that you would want to work for. It was one of my bosses in my earlier career who said that, and I really respected him and the way he worked with people — he always got his hands dirty and had a lot of respect for his colleagues, so that’s something that stayed with me.

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