Our Get Started programme, which helps first-time entrepreneurs move from idea to actual business in 10 weeks, has seen more than 200 entrepreneurs launch their venture. This post is part of an ongoing series where we profile the many different kinds of entrepreneurs that have been part of the programme, how they came up with their ideas and what they learned. Anxious to get started yourself? Check out www.getstarted.nl

Name: Rami Zaki

Background: IT Consultant in business intelligence and big data for Teradata, originally from Egypt

Startup: Lbeitak

Hi Rami, the name of your startup Lbeitak sounds exotic! Can you tell me what is it about?

Lbeitak means ‘for your home’ in Arabic. Lbeitak is an online marketplace that sells household materials (DIY products) and offers installation & interior design consultation services. Lbeitak helps individuals and professionals (in the housing industry) to finish/renovate their property.

How did you come up with the idea to start a business like this?

In summer 2015, I was back visiting Egypt for the holidays after a period of working in the Netherlands. I was shopping with my wife for our house in Egypt. We had just bought our first house and were really excited to get it furnished. At the time, we were looking for taps and sinks so we went to the major retailers – in Egypt you have 3 big ones – but couldn’t find exactly what we wanted.

They mostly had the brand we liked, but not the color or vice versa. We needed to get to their distributors to get a wider selection per brand and that was a really frustrating experience. It was so tough to find exactly what we were looking for.

Around the same time, Mohab, a long-time friend, approached me with an idea of starting an online marketplace in the housing industry. Having just lived through this frustrating experience this could not have come at a more opportune time. We discussed the idea further with Samer (my brother) who is working in Egypt as a professional in the housing industry. With Samer and Mohab as my initial business partners, we felt like we had all the right ingredients to make the nest building experience both delightful and unforgettable.

Can you tell me more about the goals and objectives of Lbeitak?

We have initially set our short term goal as supporting the consumers in the Egyptian market in their home finishing/ renovating journey. Following a customer centric approach, the Lbeitak team has set off for a mission to understand the individual problems and needs of the key players in the housing industry, through a series of elaborated interviews and surveys.

The more we investigated the Egyptian market, the more we uncovered fundamental gaps in terms of the constrained consumer journey and the existing trading norms. The current market in Egypt is chaotic and governed by an oligopoly of a handful of suppliers and distributors.

Lbeitak will contribute in regulating the Egyptian market and putting the consumer back in the driver’s seat, while significantly improving the experience of the professionals as well as the suppliers operating in this sector.

What was the most challenging thing so far in the startup process?

I believe for us it is time management. Our team consists of 4 people all with day jobs. Besides my day job, I’m doing a part-time MBA at Rotterdam School of Management as well as this startup. Also one of our partners lives overseas, so it is crucial to utilize our time efficiently. The most important success factor/challenge is to keep the whole team motivated to work on Lbeitak even when they are tired because of their daily jobs.

What milestone are you most proud of so far?

There are two milestones that were really important for me. The first was bringing up the online system. Right now we have a platform for beta users. And the second was landing our first supplier.

And where will you be in five years?

In five years I would like us to be the Alibaba.com in Egypt for the housing industry and that anyone who wants to do anything related to his or her house will come to us first. We would also like customer service to be our brand and the reason people love us, similar to brands like Zappos.

Why did you decide to apply for Get Started?

Well, the MBA gives you a lot of theoretical constructs about business administration but I thought that I was missing the entrepreneurial spirit to really make it happen; putting your money where your mouth is. I didn’t want it to keep it at the theoretical level. I really wanted to get my hands dirty. There were two people from my MBA cohort in batch 1 of Get Started so they recommended this programme. I decided that if I wanted to make this business idea a reality, this will be our start.

What will you remember most from the programme?

My first day at the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship (ECE) campus. I came in here on the 11th floor of the ECE and I was blown away by the design. This building is made for entrepreneurs. It is not a typical boring corporate office. This environment inspires you to be creative and think out of the box.

And what is the best advice you’ve got during the programme?

It sounds very basic and unimportant, but it is all about knowing your customers. Get out there and get to know what they want. Lots of people build amazing things that nobody wants. That was actually the trigger for us. We needed customer validation. We were working on our idea in our own bubble – thousand miles away from our target market and did not really have any idea if anyone would like to buy our product/service.

So after some advice from the ECE coaches, we decided to compose an experiment board to test the waters. We built a survey and are still analysing the results. Additionally, we created a pilot to test the whole cycle with one supplier and a focus group, beta users that can play with the online platform and give us feedback so we can pivot where needed.

What advice do you have for others who want to start their own business?

My advice for others is simply to take actions. I’ve had many great business ideas all my life but never took them further. So it’s about living it, having confidence in it and just going for it. It is not about the idea. I realised that during the Get Started programme. In the beginning, we were very protective about our idea, but many people have ideas. It is actually about the ones who go the extra mile to make it happen.

Want to know more about Lbeitak and Rami’s team? See https://www.lbeitak.com/

Are you ready to launch your startup?! Applications for the new batch of our Get Started programme close on September 11! Apply now via www.getstarted.nl