US consultancy 33voices talks the “secret” of Silicon Valley, and how MENA entrepreneurs can learn from it 

In its drive for innovation and economic growth and diversification, the UAE has over the years attracted the attention of many organisations centred around business development and venture building. 

One of these organisations is 33voices, a US-headquartered business design studio and execution partner that offers support to enterprising talent via an interesting mix of workshops, recorded interviews & podcasts, and tailored support.

With a backlog of 1600+ interviews spanning the past 17 years with some of the most prominent business builders, entrepreneurs, leaders, investors, authors and professors globally, 33voices offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn and be inspired by those that have ventured and achieved. 

“We have huge respect for those who take a lot of risks to advance their ideas, and we feel like we can give them access to the capabilities to build really great companies,” Moe Abdou, the Founder of 33voices, told the Abu Dhabi SME Hub. 

“What it is that differentiates us from other advisors or consultants is that we work with you to dig a few layers deep to really identify the root of the problem, to help solve the system rather than just the symptoms,” Stefan Beswick, Co-Founder at 33voices Middle East, explained.

33voices focuses on interviews as their main way of contributing to entrepreneurs because of the value of “personal stories,” which is something the company’s founder had identified over the 30+ years he’s been profiling entrepreneurs. 

“Topics like building a business, building teams, leadership and management, [all of these] are important, but far and away the number one thing that resonates with our [audience] is the personal stories of the individuals that we profile,” Abdou explained.

From his experience, delving into the human story behind that million-dollar product or groundbreaking project is much more interesting to most entrepreneurial audiences than simple coverage of the success and results of said undertaking.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Bill Gates or a professor at Stanford or a really talented 20-year old who’s trying to change the world,” he quipped. 

Core offerings 

The aforementioned interview directory is one part of 33voices’ offerings, which falls under what it calls the Signal initiative. This is comprised of:

Signal talks: short insights (6-8 minutes) where 33voices introduces entrepreneurs and leaders to a set of thinking tools and principles to help them reimagine the real-time growth issues and opportunities they’re wrestling with.

Signal talks+: extended sessions (30-45 min) with the entrepreneurs to take a deeper dive into a particular growth issue or opportunity that they’re facing, and to demonstrate ways in which the right tools and principles can accelerate their pace of execution and improve the odds of progress.

Signal sessions: online sessions hosted monthly with founders, entrepreneurs and leaders to discuss the hard realities of growing a business. These sessions are chosen on a specific topic curated from audience feedback.

MENA expansion and potential

Arriving in the Middle East a few years ago, 33voices works with regional incubators, accelerators, government entities, large corporations, SMEs and entrepreneurs to drive the ecosystem’s growth.

Originally hailing from the Middle East, Abdou found himself exposed professionally to the region five years ago when a US cybersercurity firm he was working with decided to expand here.

While it was a relatively young and burgeoning part of the world, Abdou still saw the potential. 

“Talent, opportunity, leadership - [they’re all there]. They just needed to get exposed to the type of thinking that's going to help them elevate their capabilities,” he noted. “We see tremendous upside potential in the region, a really genuine appetite for learning and building companies. We think some of the resources that we have, if they get in the hands of some of the right people, not only could this advance companies, but it could also help the region.”

“We see the commitment from the government entities pumping money into a lot of these incubators and accelerators, and that excites us, because we’re seeing a tremendous vision with a lot of capital being allocated to really [kickstart] this next generation of breakthrough businesses,” Beswick highlighted.

“And you don’t even need a breakthrough business,” Abdou noted. “You need to get a little company that stays little but makes a really good contribution and inspires other younger people to make a little company [of their own]. And if we have a bunch of little companies, cumulatively, that is going to [contribute] a tremendous amount, not only to the economy but to the confidence of the region. There are some really great things that can come out of it.”

The key to this, in Abdou’s opinion, is to build. The ecosystem needs to create and sustain spaces for like-minded individuals to come together and brainstorm and build a project or venture. 

WeWork co-working spaces at Hub71

“I think the cumulative impact of individuals and companies working together to build… that’s the secret of Silicon Valley. Go to any coffee shop, people are sitting there, working together, supporting one another. I think that’s where the magic happens. If we can create something that gives people an opportunity to think like that over [in the MENA region], I think that would be our contribution [as 33voices].”

Today, we already see this collaborative spirit Abdou spoke about being cultivated in the region, and especially in the UAE, via the myriad spaces being made available to entrepreneurs, like those at Hub71 or DIFC. With 33voices’ recent entry into the Middle East, Abdou and his team want to contribute to this effort.

“[As regional entrepreneurs,] we don’t have to build Google. We can just build something that helps me [as an entrepreneur] control my own destiny and helps the region start to say ‘Hey, we too can do some really exciting things in the world.’”