Understanding the UAE startup opportunity with Brad Gerstner and Ibrahim Ajami | E1751
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2023
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is presented by:
VEED makes it super easy for anyone (yes, you) to create great video. Filled with amazing features like templates, auto subtitles, text formatting, auto-resizing, a full suite of AI tools, and much more, VEED gives you the tools to engage your audience on any platform. Head to VEED.io to start creating incredible video content in minutes.
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Today’s show:
Altimeter’s Brad Gerstner and Mubadala's Ibrahim Ajami join Jason to discuss their first UAE impressions (1:33), how the country is attracting startup talent, unclogging the capital allocator log jam, and more (19:43)!
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Follow Brad: https://twitter.com/altcap
Follow Ibrahim: https://twitter.com/IbrahimAjami
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Brad and Ibrahim join Jason
(1:33) First impressions of the UAE
(10:25) Veed - Head to https://www.veed.io/pricing?utm_campaign=TWIS&utm_medium=Marketing&utm_source=YouTube and start creating professional-quality videos in minutes!
(11:55) The story of Mubadala
(19:43) Attracting talent to the UAE
(26:53) OpenPhone - Get 20% off your first six months at https://openphone.com/twist
(28:21) The shifting perspective of the UAE and the opportunity it presents
(35:07) The level of curiosity in Abu Dhabi
(37:02) iConnections - Get 20% off iConnections Miami 2024 event at http://iconnections.io/twist
(38:21) Adjusting to the changing market
(41:58) Mubadala’s portfolio and investing in SoftBank’s Vision Fund
(49:40) Getting fit
(56:27) Unclogging the manager log jam and the denominator problem
(1:04:59) Investing in relationships
(1:11:38) The progression of the UAE
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Follow Jason:
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The first time I met Bill Gurley, I went to his office in San Francisco and he walked into the |
| 0:05.7 | meeting with a folder that was full of research about our company and our CEO and he walked in and |
| 0:13.0 | said, you know, hey, I just read all these interviews about your CEO and he was asking all these |
| 0:18.4 | questions and he was so curious and I walked out of the meeting and I was like, wow, this is one |
| 0:22.8 | of the best venture capitalists in the world. It's been so much time trying to learn about who we |
| 0:28.1 | are before I even walked in. I've had so many meetings where I just walk in and people say, |
| 0:33.4 | what's mobilela anyways? This week in startups is brought to you by |
| 0:37.6 | Veed makes it super easy for anyone, yes you, to create great video filled with amazing |
| 0:43.9 | features like templates, auto subtitles, text formatting, auto resizing, a full suite of AI tools |
| 0:49.7 | and much more. Veed gives you the tools to engage your audience on any platform, head to Veed.io to |
| 0:56.8 | start creating incredible video content in minutes. Open phone brings your team's business calls, |
| 1:02.8 | text and contacts into one delightful app that works anywhere. Get 20% off your first six months |
| 1:08.8 | at openphone.com slash list and iConnections is a platform to connect and meet with elite |
| 1:16.1 | capital allocators through their online platform and bespoke events. The first 25 VC funds to |
| 1:22.0 | sign up for iConnections Miami 2024 event in January of next year will receive a 20% discount. |
| 1:28.8 | Head to iConnections.io slash twist to sign up today. |
| 1:33.6 | All right everybody welcome back to this week in startups I'm really excited because my friend |
| 1:37.6 | Brad Gersner from Altimeter Capital told me about a month ago that he was going to go to the |
| 1:44.0 | UAE the United Arab Emirates and he was going on a tour to meet with all of the different |
| 1:51.7 | family offices and funds over here and I said you know I've never been Brad and I invited myself |
| 1:56.8 | to come with you so I said do you want some company and you were gracious enough to say yes |
| 2:01.0 | and here we are in the UA. Thanks for having me it's been it's been just an incredible few days and |
... |
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