1984: Bonr in Paris, France. Second of 5 brothers (A basketball team)

1989: Started school in Morocco. Yes, I’m a product of the moroccan school system

1995: Went to Disney Land, Orlando, Florida. Yes, at that age, paradise exists on earth

1999: Started playing basketball for FUS Rabat. Which saved me from a lot of bad stuff

2003: Went to Canada to study mechatronics engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal. Never thought that humanity could withstand living in -40 C

2006: Got married to the love of my life. We met in highschool !

2008: My first (and last) job as an engineering consultant for the aerospace industry at Dassault Systems Canada. It’s true, some private jets’ toilet sinks are gold plated, can you believe that !

2008: Lina is born, I’m a father @24

2009: Started a DESS in HEC Montréal in project management. My dream was to become a project manager…

2010: Launched my first entrepreneurial adventure: cellphonepartsexpress.com

2011: Safa & Marwa, my twin daughters are born. The perfect timing to move back to Morocco and launch a new startup :)

2012: Launched my first hardware startup, Next Level SARL. Oh boy ! It’s crazy difficult to successfully operate a tech startup in Morocco !

2014: Screw that ! Nobody is interested in tech products. Now, I’m a mexican food restaurant owner in Tangier, Morocco

2017: The restaurant was the biggest mistake of my life. So ? Destination: Guangzhou’s Canton fair in China. I discovered electric bycicles

2018: My second startup is born, Velo Volt SARL. I’m wholeselling electric bicycles now

2019: Climbed mount Toubkal (4167 meters), an awsome experience

2021: Insight Solutions S.A is born. A startup whose goal is to augment life in urban areas throught IOT and software

2021: Started an executive MBA at UM6P’s Africa business school & Columbia business school. One should never stop learning

I have very few friends outside of work. I spend 99% of my non-work time with my family. I love to travel and discover new places with them. I don’t enjoy soccer and even more sitting in a café to watch it or watch any other sport. For me, cafés are made for work or for strategizing with my coworkers or my wife. Politics discussions bore me. Talking for the sake of talking is a waste of precious time, time that has to be spent taking actions. I got married at 22 and had my first kid at 24 and I’m very lucky to have made those decision. I only watch TV when I’m exhausted and can’t think productively anymore, and even then I feel guilty for not spending that time with my kids.

Be it in work, religion, science, or any other field.

My mind freezes when someone hammers a fact as an absolute truth. Any idea has to be justified with proofs for it to be absorbed by my brain.

Contradictions frustrate me.

I work for a vision and a purpose. Money happens to be a by-prodcut of my work

I feel I’m an entrepreneur by design.

The only time I worked for someone else was when I got my bachelor’s degree from the university. Freshly out of college and newly married, I spent three years in Dassault Systems Canada only to realize that that lifestyle wasn’t made for me. There was nothing wrong with it but I knew I had to have a bigger impact on the world.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy at all. There were times when life got really tough on me and my little family. Like the time when my daughter had to have a surgery that I couldn’t afford, or the time when the complete net worth of me and my family was approximately -23 dirhams.

I can say it loud and clear, if it wasn’t for so many angels that god put in my way, like my parents, my wife and many others, I would have never been able to aspire to be an entrepreneur.

Lhamdoullah :)