The tech kid is now a VC veteran who has watched the ecosystem grow with her

Stephanie Nour Prince (LinkedIn) has spent over two decades inside MENA’s startup ecosystem, being part of almost every stage of its growth: working at an early-stage tech firm before the word “startup” caught on here, then at Wamda as the region’s venture scene began taking shape, and eventually co-founding Nuwa Capital.

Today, alongside her role as co-founder and partner at Nuwa Capital, she also chairs the Middle East Venture Capital Association (MEVCA), overseeing two distinct ends of that ecosystem: investing in early-stage companies while also working on the infrastructure needed to make the region’s VC market easier to understand, access, and navigate.

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 spoke with Prince about how she grew up watching MENA’s startup ecosystem form and flourish, where venture capital goes from here, and why her mornings are strictly protected. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM: Take us back to the beginning. How did you get into venture capital?

Stephanie Nour Prince (SP): I was a kid who was geeking out on different types of tech and the interplay between hardware and software, so the natural evolution was to study computer science. But I quickly realized that building software wasn’t necessarily where I wanted to be. I was behind the screen, building features and solving bugs, and while it was interesting, I could see there were whole businesses being built around technology. I thought I might be better suited to looking at things from a different lens.

I joined a startup about 20 years ago, before we were really calling them startups. Because we

were a small team, I got exposure to product, business development, brand, community, and working with the board. We also made every mistake in the book, which was a great learning experience in understanding what leadership is and isn’t.

E: How did your foray into startups lead to Nuwa Capital?

SP: I joined Wamda in 2012, and I was extremely privileged to join at that time. The idea was to build an ecosystem development platform around entrepreneurship in the region. We had media, programs, research, and a fund, so we had a 360-degree view of the ecosystem.

By 2019, we could see that the market was at a major inflection point. Careem’s acquisition by Uber was one of the big signals. You had more capital coming into the asset class, including family offices, corporates, and government-linked pools of capital. At the same time, the caliber of founders was changing. You had repeat founders and people who had previously led products or businesses at scale deciding to build their own companies. That was the flywheel we were seeing in practice. We came together and launched Nuwa in early 2020.

E: Has the current regional conflict created another inflection point for venture capital?

SP: Perhaps. One thing we’ve seen over the past few months is foreign capital receding. Some foreign entities are pausing development in the region for now. I see this partly as a reset. There was some tourist capital in the market, and perhaps this is a necessary reset. But there is also a lot of capital within the region to sustain the ecosystem. Where it gets tricky is for later-stage companies. Early-stage capital is available, but when companies reach pre-Series B, Series B and beyond, they need larger rounds. If the tickets you’re getting don’t match the size of the round, it simply takes longer to raise.

E: What do the next five years of the ecosystem need to look like?

SP: Early-stage infrastructure has mostly been built out. What we need now are bridges. I would like to see more transparency in the ecosystem, an easier path to later-stage capital, and a much more developed secondary market. We talk a lot about exits, but not every company is destined to IPO, and that’s completely fine.

Historically, we’ve had acquisitions by global competitors, and that will continue. But we’ll also see more regional companies and traditional businesses acquiring startups, and, importantly, more secondary transactions. That last stitch between venture capital and private equity still needs to be built. If you have a great-performing asset but the whole company isn’t being sold, there should be a way to hand it over to the right investor to take it through its next phase.

E: Switching gears, please tell us what your mornings look like?

SP: I travel quite a bit, so I’m based between Riyadh and Dubai. Structure becomes paramount because otherwise you could easily lose yourself to doing a little bit of everything. I’m very protective of my mornings. Before I get to work, I speak with family and spend time with my dogs. When I’m at the office, I block time for myself and try to get the heavy lifting done. I usually have three or four things that absolutely need to get done that day, and I try to knock them out in one go.

The afternoons are much more people-facing. I work on capital formation at Nuwa, so that means fundraising and spending time with the people who trust us with their capital. I love that part of the job — grabbing coffee, meeting people, and catching up.

E: What is one constant ritual that keeps you grounded?

SP: I’m extremely routine-oriented. I find a lot of comfort in that. It could be the exact same breakfast every day, coffee, calling loved ones, driving to work. I also have morning briefs I’ve built on Claude. I’ll go through those, the news and EnterpriseAM, but I’ll also deliberately read things myself rather than have everything fed to me.

The other part is getting outside. People joke about the importance of “touching grass,” but there is something real in that. It can be such a fast-paced environment that it’s easy to lose touch with what makes us human. Since the pandemic, we’ve had dogs, and they’ve opened up a completely different side of the UAE for me. When the weather allows, we’ll hike, go to the islands, and spend time in nature.

E: How do you view work-life balance?

SP: I don’t know if you can ever really have work-life balance. That assumes you should have it all at all times, which is a crazy standard to hold yourself to. For me, it’s about knowing when to focus on what. There will always be more work to do in this industry, so you have to be disciplined about disconnecting. You’re not doing a service to anybody if you don’t.

After a certain time, only family has access to me on WhatsApp, unless there’s an emergency. Otherwise, it can wait until it makes sense for me to pay attention.

Stephanie’s favorites

What she’s listening to: Acquired, Capital Allocators, Superclusters, 20VC, The Mo Show.

What she’s reading: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green.

Best advice she’s received: “Your plate’s always going to be full. What matters is what you pick first.” Prince says the advice, from her early days at Wamda, has stayed with her as her responsibilities have multiplied: get good at deciding where you spend your time, and who gets access to it.