He shared his experiences and lessons learned from building and investing in knowledge-based ventures. A pioneer of entrepreneurship in the Middle East, Tabaza was the first to obtain publishing rights for the Arabic edition of BYTE Middle East Magazine while at university and founding Arabia.com which gained the distinction of Yahoo! of the Middle East .
As Chairman and Managing Director of Riyada Ventures, he heads a firm specialising in providing venture capital services for knowledge-based industries such as technology, communication, health care and education.
It is with the unmixed love for tasting the unknown and testing untried territories that Tabaza has gone on to develop many entrepreneurial ventures.
Qatar Today spoke to Tabaza on his views on entrepreneurship, the cultural aspects of doing business the world over, the impact of digitalisation on business and the extent to which businesses in the Arab world need to modify its culture in order to become global successes.


|q|What are the most important factors for the success of a new business?
|a|When I look at a business opportunity, I consider three key factors: the people, the potential, and the product. I look for teams with proven track record and/or deep knowledge that are relevant to their proposed business case.
In terms of potential, and especially in the field of my practice, which is venture capital, I look for businesses with great growth potential. Businesses that can scale and expand, and that address large potential market. Last but not least is the product, and in this regard, I look for products with an edge that creates certain barrier of entry for the competition, which could come from proprietary technology, first mover advantage, or privileged relationships.

|q|Tracing your own biography, what inspired you to turn an entrepreneur, given the fact that you are a medical doctor by education?
|a|I always wanted to be a free person in terms of what I do and how I manage my life and business. I wanted to carry on my work and duties according to my own pace and my own priorities, and to enjoy what I do the most, and that has inspired me and pushed me to explore directions and strategies to enable me to do so.
The single most important event that signalled a change of direction for me was the economic independence that I felt when I received my first pay check while still at the university. It came from a newspaper that I was writing for. That for me was a proof that knowledge-services can generate attractive income, and since then, I have never looked back.

|q|Which of your enterprises have excited you the most and why?
|a|No doubt that Arabia.com, which remains to-date, in my view, the most ambitious and innovative internet business created in the Arab world and one of the most advanced portals worldwide at its time, has been my most exciting business as an entrepreneur. Arabia.com has greatly affected the Internet industry in the region at large, and has inspired many people and organizations to follow. The amount of innovation and hard work that was invested in it, in my view, has never been matched to date in this part of the world.
As a venture capitalist, I'm very excited about my current business, which is Riyada Ventures, and the many of the projects and initiatives that we are involved with, including venture capital funds, incubators, and direct seed and early stage investments that we make.

|q|How has digitalisation helped in new business creation?
Digitalisation, as manifested mainly in the Internet as we know it today, has created two types of opportunities, the first are those that are pure online businesses which leverage the internet as a global interactive network and build new businesses that are transaction-based or advertising-based, and these include businesses such as e-Bay, Google, and You Tube.
The second type of opportunities is where people leverage the advantages of the internet to take existing business models to new levels, and those include e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com, as well as many online arms of existing businesses such as online media and banking businesses.

|q|Of the countries that you have lived and worked in Ð Jordan, Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia Ð which one has special place in your mind and why?
|a|I have made it a point to invest in myself and live in each of these countries as I believe each of them has something unique to offer for the business and economic development of the region, and that true success can only be achieved through smart and unique arbitrage of talent, capital, and access to markets in these countries.
I also made sure that I enjoy what each country has to offer, and thus each one of them has a special place in my heart. I always miss the homely feeling of Jordan, the Nile and 24/7 lifestyle of Cairo, the modernism of the UAE, and the quietness of Saudi Arabia.

|q|Has business success anything to do with the culture of a country?
|a|Most definitely. However, it is my own belief and conviction that each country has a certain aspect of its culture that would help business succeed, and other aspects that could harm the odds of success. The challenge, in my view, is to identify the opportunity in each culture, and avoid the troublesome part.
For example, Egypt might not be the best country to do business in if you have lots of dealings with the government and/or other local organizations, and the business culture there seems to accept compliance and compromise of quality.
However, Egypt has an excellent culture for knowledge and intellectual property creation, and could server as an excellent centre for knowledge-based export services.

|q|The region has a distinct culture of its own. How much of it needs to be adapted when Arabs do business in other continents or when people from other continents come to do business here?
|a|The globalisation of the business culture has resulted in streamlining many of the deal- making cultures and traditions between the Arab world and the rest of the world. However, the key remaining difference is how you build a relationship and take it to a level where a business transaction is on the table.
In this part of the world, trust building remains the most important aspect for building a business relationship, and there is no short cut to go around that. Building trust differs between the various countries in the region.
For example, an aggressive deal making approach might work in Dubai, but it can potentially kill even the best deals in Saudi Arabia. Networking is also a key difference, and the region offers a great variety of networking styles and approaches that one has to adapt to. For example, a cold call might work in countries like Lebanon, but will never get you anywhere without a proper business introduction in Kuwait.

|q|Your advice to budding entrepreneurs?
|a|Success is a factor of hard work, and hard workers tend to be luckier that others in pursuing success. Couple hard work with persistence, and top that up with a high level of ethics and community payback and you have a great formula for success n