About

Hello,

If you are here, then you are interested in knowing more than just a simple resume providing the basic information. On this page, you will find my background, and my journey that led me to what I am today.

My studies

I majored in Architecture which honed my skill at looking at the bigger picture but maintaining a perfect attention to detail. My architectural designs were always able to solve complex problems and requirements while adhering to applicable laws, budgets, and design constraints while proving to be beautiful and humanly useable.

Despite my success in my architecture major, I always had a knack for technology in general and software development in particular. Therefore, I decided to shift my career and had a 2-year study in Computer Science adding more knowledge and skills to my toolkit.

Early days

I started my professional life by establishing my own small business in Aswan, in Upper Egypt, where I lived during my academic years. I ventured into realms of web design, digital marketing, and eCommerce systems in the early 2000s where these things were advanced topics for the average Joe. My first introduction to ERP systems was at this stage discovering TinyERP, that was renamed to OpenERP, and now Odoo.

In November 2010, I moved back to Cairo and joined my family’s business, iTranslate Group. This was my second startup that required me to wear all the hats that matched my skills and abilities. I participated in building the online presence along with digital marketing, recruiting and hiring, translation, subtitling, managing all cloud and technological services, e.g., servers and hosting services and emails; and before all, strategy planning.
Of course, one of the roles I played in iTranslate, was customizing and administrating OpenERP 6.1.

Four years later, the business was stable and growing and it felt like everyday tasks are redundant, repetitive and unsafe for the whole family lay all their eggs in one basket. It was clear for me that I should move on and build something new, and I already had a few customers, including other family and friends’ businesses proving existing needs in the local market and eligibility of the idea.

The Cubex Age

With a proved market need and my track record in customizing and implementing ERP systems, it felt predetermined to build my new startup in 2014, Cubex Solutions, around it. Cubex was the first in the local market to provide 360° business consulting services, that included ERP and digital transformation of course, and one of the first established businesses to offer Odoo, and its close cousin Tryton, to its clients.

The decision to provide the full consulting package was natural as implementing an ERP will always require changes in the business itself to follow best practices, and changes in the ERP itself to accommodate unique needs and requirements, just to name a few reasons. But few months later, it was clear that Cubex should narrow down its scope and focus what it can do best, and even narrow it further down to only one system, Odoo.

I am only a human and I needed partners to help my grow Cubex beyond my own abilities and capacities. During this time, I came across another business trying to build something in the same market and niche and we signed a collaboration agreement. According to this agreement, Cubex was to work in the background executing the technical side of the project, while the partner company, NeoNile for Computer Systems, should be the marketing and sales agent.

The Failed Merger

In 2016, for legal reasons and to facilitate operations, we decided a merger between the two companies, Cubex and NeoNile for Software and Integrated System that was rebranded later in 2020 to Primera Solutions. I admit of making the mistake of believing that trust and good people are enough to build a successful business. We had some clients, opportunities to expand and everything seemed good. But time told otherwise.

Leaving sales, marketing, and contracting responsibilities to other partners, I started to notice the early signs of the coming storm. Some of these signs were marketing and sales based on just reduced pricing, vague legal contracts without clear sign off terms or responsibility boundaries. Two years later, in 2020 and with the brand change, the disaster happened, and Primera went into an endless loop.

Due to the reasons above, Primera could not cover its operational costs, so it tried to generate more sales at the same reduced prices. At the same time, it could not deliver projects due to unbounded responsibilities on Primera’s side. The end result was generating more sales to cover already late and open projects that joined the queue.

The Split

At this stage, I found it was enough. No matter what I do or say, the other partners were too optimistic and looking at sales figures regardless to anything else and turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to my warnings and advise. I decided to follow my intuition and experience and jumped off the sinking ship.

When I jumped off, I found myself lost in the sea. The Cubex brand was dormant and completely off the market grid for four full years, from 2016 to 2020. I didn’t have the finances to rebuild it from the ground up again, and I had to support myself at the same time. With new challenges on the board like local currency devaluation, and businesses already struggling with realities imposed by COVID-19, employment was not the logical choice.

I turned to the internet and freelancing platforms offering my experiences and talents to new markets that can offer me two things: an income stream in a stable currency, and markets and communities that do not struggle as much as the local market.

The Present

Now, in 2023, I am a successful freelancer on Upwork, planning my wedding, and looking into rebuilding Cubex in 2024.

As for Primera Solutions, my old partners got back in touch asking for my help and while it feels sad to find every prophecy of mine came true, I admit feeling blessed to be able to foresee the signs and acted upon them. These paths that I followed taught me to trust myself, experiences, skills and abilities. I am thankful for the journey that led me to what I am today.

If you are interested in following my news and updates, check my blog posts.

Thank you for taking the time to read my journey in life.