Leaving MENAbytes to start something new
TLDR: I have left the editorial of MENAbytes to build something new, but will continue to serve as a board member of the outlet.
Not many know or remember but the first piece of content that was published on MENAbytes had nothing to do with startups. Published about five years ago — on January 7, 2017, it talked about self-evaluation and setting personal goals. A month later, an infographic detailing Careem’s journey as a company (until that point) was published (as the first piece on tech/startups) and it went viral, getting thousands of reads on the website and hundreds of shares on social media.
I still remember that I had reached out to Christian Eid who was leading Careem’s marketing at the time, on Twitter, to pitch the idea of publishing this infographic. I needed them to be on board with this as I didn’t want to rely only on the publicly available information/data for it. Long story short: he was kind enough to respond and share some additional details. The infographic was published within a week and that’s how I started covering startups.
Back then, MENAbytes was a blog on Qraar, a recruitment platform I was building for tech startups in the region. That’s what it had started as. As I was building a product that would’ve primarily served technology startups (and talent), I thought it was a good idea to start with a blog (thinking it would help with building the network plus would be great for SEO).
Four months after starting the blog, I spun it off as an independent outlet, calling it MENAbytes. As the content published on the blog was receiving really good engagement in terms of the number of reads, and shares, and comments on social media, it made sense to move it to an independent brand and see where it goes. As I was working on both MENAbytes and Qraar part-time, I had to choose between them and I decided to focus my efforts on building a media outlet focused on startups in the Middle East & North Africa.
I did not know anything about VC or startups back then but the writing helped. Whenever I wanted to write/report on anything, I used to spend a lot of time researching the topic, companies, and people behind them. Every single piece that I wrote helped me learn something new and that’s the part that I enjoyed the most about building MENAbytes.
In these five years, I have written and published over 1,500 pieces (including one piece that I wrote on the day of my wedding — that’s the most memorable one). For the first three years, I was working part-time on MENAbytes so it wasn’t easy. I was able to consistently publish content and grow the outlet because I loved what I was doing.
But as the cliché goes, all good things come to an end. I stopped writing (reporting) on MENAbytes towards the end of July earlier this year to start something new. RiseUp, the parent company of MENAbytes, is currently in the process of hiring a new editor who will take the outlet forward. I will continue to own a minority stake in the outlet and serve as a board member to help shape its overall strategy. But I would no longer be involved in the day-to-day things and editorial. I may also continue to write opinions (and educational content) but won’t report anymore.
In five years, MENAbytes has grown to become the leading startup media outlet for the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan, but there is still so much to do. I am proud of some of the things that I have been able to achieve for it but if I am being honest, I wasn’t able to execute even 20 percent of the vision I had set. I hope that with RiseUp’s support, the new management team and independent editorial staff will be able to realize the vision, grow MENAbytes further and expand it beyond online media.
In addition to continuing to break the biggest stories from tech and startup ecosystems of the region, the new team will also have to focus on expanding the coverage to deep dives on topics and (technology) companies that people care about. In the last eighteen months or so, most of the coverage on MENAbytes has been around investments or acquisitions, which is not healthy for an outlet that is the go-to source for all-thing startups in the Middle East. The first three years of the outlet included coverage well beyond investments and that’s what I hope, the new team will bring back with MENAbytes 2.0.
I’d like to close this by thanking everyone who has helped me over the last five years: Omar Kassim, Farouk Kadous, Racha Ghamlouch, Sartaj Anand, the entire RiseUp team, and most importantly the readers of MENAbytes.
If you’d like to stay in touch with me, you can follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn. Or email me at zubairnaeem [at] gmail [dot] com. To pitch a story to MENAbytes, you can write to hello [at] menabytes [dot] com.