Life+ Meets: Muhammad, Rajai, and Adnan, founders of Yalla Reyada

Published in

Life+ Collective

11 min readFeb 25, 2021

Starting from fitness, spreading an ecosystem in Palestine

This is Part 2/2 of our interview with the founders of Yalla Reyada.
Part 1 is here, and you can also catch up on the whole interview on our Life+ Podcast!

― What makes you most excited about what you’re building and what it could look like in the future?

Adnan: Hmm. What we’re building today is accessible to everyone and can scale up so quickly, and we can expand our influence. That’s what I like most about it. I do sports a lot. I have so many running and football communities I’m part of, but it’s always a small group of people meeting and influencing each other. But with this, we have great potential.

Muhammad: Every day, we can make a change. Here, it’s not like we’re living in London or Tokyo. It’s not the perfect place. It’s not perfect in London or Tokyo, but it’s not that perfect here. But every day we can change ― two things. Every day, we wake up, we can do things that, for the people, it’s ‘Wow’. Every day we can make people amazed.

You know, I’ve sacrificed part of my life studying at the Hebrew University, which is [a university that is] rated something like 64 in the world. Now I’m working to change this with the team I have. We have a great team. I believe we can change the infrastructure here. It’s a hard task to do, but it’s merely a task. It’s not our goal. What’s exciting about it is that we can make changes every day. And this is a good thing.

Rajai: I think for me, what’s exciting per se is actually turning the vision into reality. When I saw our product as a prototype, and when I first saw it available in all the stores, I thought, ‘Okay. That’s amazing. That’s exciting.’ It’s the sort of excitement that comes step by step.

When it comes to long-term perspectives, what excites me is implementing the whole vision of changing lives, leaving a blueprint in the fitness community, and creating a brand in the MENA region. That’s our long-term vision on fitness, sponsoring people, and so on. With fitness, people rely on globalised brands, but the whole Western brands have taken over. So we can actually create something here, and we can generate more potential for Arabs. And that’s the whole vision. The main point here is to change people’s lives and create a healthier lifestyle for the Arabs. We want to reach the people who can speak English, especially Arabic speakers who can or want to change their lives and progress and develop.

― What lies ahead for you? Where do you see yourselves in the future?

Muhammad: We see our company as the first sports brand in the MENA region. Hopefully, we see ourselves changing lives. When I go to Tel Aviv, I see the ‘green’ changes over there, such as going vegan. Meanwhile, in the Arab world, there’s nothing like that. There’s no vegan. There’s no vegetarian. There’s nothing. Nowadays, we’re living in the past in the MENA region. Meanwhile, I go to Tel Aviv; I live in the future. So I want to take this and move it to the whole MENA region as well.

When we first started, Adnan said, ‘Guys, let’s study from the best, let’s ask them and get mentorship from the best.’ So we asked ourselves, who are the best here in our industry? Then we found out there is no industry. There’s no fitness industry in the MENA region. We tend to rely on importing things from Europe, for instance, or from the States. And we’re not doing something for ourselves. Hopefully, we’re gonna do this, and we’re gonna do this big. Very big.

Rajai: Someone has to start. So I think that that’s us, that’s the whole thing.

There’s always someone who starts whatever industry it is. I took this opportunity, and I think we are all capable of the chemistry we have. My favourite thing about our team is that we have this huge chemistry ― we actually get along well, and we have the same vision.

This is one of the main success factors, in my opinion. Hopefully, we would be the first people to be a reference in the future for other people trying to build something from scratch, whether it’s the fitness industry or startups in general.

Emma: I think you guys love what you do so much. You’re starting from your community, spreading it with the sense of a mission. The excitement that I feel is that you’re making it with very strategic and concrete steps.

― If you are to name two things on what you love about Yalla Reyada, what would they be? It can be about the team, the idea, anything.

Adnan: I want to say the team: that I have every day with these guys and the rest of the people working with us. We have a shared vision. And I love to surround myself with people who share the same vision as me. I’m a goal-oriented person. These people share this goal with me and my vision. They satisfy me a lot ― well, proud, but never satisfied. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is that there’s freedom in this kind of startup: freedom of work, the place, the time. I would highly prefer that than other kinds of traditional jobs.

Rajai: As for me, the first point that Adnan mentioned is actually the most important one. I’m working with like-minded people. We have great chemistry, and we’re great together, honestly ― that’s a great asset to have. The second thing, on a personal level, I’m getting so many experiences that I wouldn’t have gained anywhere. This is purely this: you wake up every day, excited to work and learn more things, always going with trial and error, trying to make calculated risks. I don’t think I could have ever had such an experience with great people, such as Adnan and Muhammad and everyone else in our team. It’s just a blessing, honestly.

Muhammad: My first point is ― it’s gonna be boring to say this again, but it’s just as they said ― in our company, when you think about something, you share it with the team, and we can turn it into reality. In other companies, you have strict positions and everything. (I know it in Hebrew. I wanted to say it in Hebrew.) Anyway, that’s what makes our work different and exciting.

The second point is that we are doing a Masters in life. Instead of going to university, we’re doing this in reality. Every day, we meet people. We do things. We take risks. The risks are so, so amazing. It’s a bad word, but it’s a great feeling, taking risks every day. And this is a great thing.

There’s also a third point: in our company, we have no positions. We are all like a family. We don’t have working hours, though we’re doing all the tasks and everything. This is a new thing to introduce to our community, and we’re liking it. We’re liking it.

Emma: I can really sense the feeling of trust between you, which probably extends to the larger team. Savs and I work from Tokyo and London, and we’ve met in person very few times, Still, because we have trust and know where we want to go, that really takes me out of ‘Zoom fatigue’ because the content is more [important] than the interface. Sometimes you just need to be focused on what’s happening in front of you.

Savs: Exactly. I think high trust, humour, and experimentation. That’s the recipe in a way. But that trust element is really important, and it’s something you have to work at. I don’t think it comes naturally to anyone ― I don’t really want to speak too much about our experiences, since this is your interview ―

Muhammad: I’d love to hear.

Savs: ― it takes some conscious effort. Emma and I went through a phase where we were just doing very functional meetings: ‘we’re going to do operations’; ‘we’re going to do a talk on content’; ‘we’re going to do our weekly reports’. We weren’t spending any time together as people. And we weren’t building that trust. We were just doing work, and they’re two very different things.

Now that we’ve dedicated time to just chat ― we’ve got Slack up and running, we have WhatsApp to talk about our lives ―I never realised the importance of that until we got it so wrong. I think we were both feeling quite depressed, but you just make one small change, and it’s just transformed our working relationship.

Emma: You have to be curious to do that, too. You have to be open, curious, loving, and willing, I guess.

Muhammad: Wow. This is a daily problem.

Emma: Especially during a lockdown. So I think that’s a 2020 problem.

― How do you guys keep yourselves happy when you can’t go out or work out?

Rajai: Other than kicking back and chilling and going out with friends, I work out daily. I try to go for runs. At least now, with the whole COVID thing, I don’t go to a private gym, so I choose to work out at home. I’m still doing it. And it’s a great time that I’m happy that I have. That’s what keeps you sane. What about you guys?

Adnan: Work out. First word.

Muhammad: With the lockdown, we turned from gym-aholics into run-aholics. So we run every day, but now the weather is not that good. So we tend to ‘jump-in-a-room-aholic’ now.

Adnan: Actually, one more thing. I started cooking nutritious food.

Savs: That’s good! There’s a guy in the UK on Instagram, he’s called ‘the body coach’. And he does videos that show you can work out anywhere. He had a series of hotel room workouts, in really tiny rooms. Actually, it really works, and it’s kind of motivating to watch someone else do that. So even when people are stuck in a tiny flat in London, there’s no excuse not to work out. It feels really great. Cook yourself something nice and see the positives, you know ― it’s a good way.

Emma: Take care of yourself and be happy. Very important.

Muhammad: Believe me, if we had enough money, we would do great things for changing what we could do in small spaces. We were thinking about something with VR ― with our startup is still far, but we have ideas.

― Speaking of ideas, what are your next steps, whether it’s activities in small places or food channels? What’s coming up in the future?

Muhammad: We’re now building our merchandise line. After that, we’re taking steps towards the big things. First of all, we’re continuing to work on our app, then we’ll build our brand, and change lives here. If we had enough money, we would open gyms, and then we could do things with VR. It’s a long checklist.

On top of that, we’re now building our studio to showcase things and so on.

Rajai: To sum some things up, what we’re trying to do is develop our app further and try our best to make it better as we gather more data, since we kick-started the whole thing and launched. Of course, there’s always going to be room for improvement. So that’s our first goal for the near future.

Also, we’re kick-starting the project of activewear. We’ll work on that in the next few months. At the same time, we’re building our own studio, where we’re going to do podcasts and photoshoots and everything, including shooting programmes to develop the whole quality of our content in general.

Long-term plans: there are so many ideas. I’m not sure so much when it comes to the tech side because this is built on the basis of technology. Adnan, do you want to take it from here?

Adnan: First, I want to focus on achieving and succeeding in our current step. Then, we can jump to the next one. But there are questions that I always ask myself: How can I motivate people to exercise or eat more nutritiously? How can I bring it to them in a new modern way? I’m always researching this. All of us have this question.

Savs: The more I look at early-stage ideas, the more it seems to me that anyone can have an idea. Anyone can have an idea, but it takes not just execution, but a certain way of thinking and motivating and acting on those thoughts to make it happen.

I think one thing people in the Valley are really obsessed with is, well, how come that person succeeded, and I didn’t, but we had the same idea? I think it has to do with all kinds of factors that aren’t obvious: things to do with culture, what your family did, and so on. I’m busy with my work, but it’s something that I want to dig into more. So when I do ― when I press the button on that study ― I know the three people I’m calling first.

― Would you like to give your final comments to our listeners and readers?

Muhammad: I want to tell everyone that if they have a dream, they have to go for it: to think big and go for it. Don’t listen to other people. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Just go for your dreams. And then eventually, if you fail, you would’ve had a great experience with it. Again, and again, and again, say you’re going to succeed. That’s a great thing to do, and I hope to see a better world through that.

Adnan: There are lots to say, but there’s a code, a maxim, that I love to say: don’t focus on beauty standards, focus on health standards. And we need the whole world to think like that and work on that.

Rajai: I would like to say, thank you all for listening, and I’ll leave you with something cliche, but I really believe in it. So: you’ve got to think outside the box to change something. Pursue what you love. That’s it. Whether it’s fitness or business or anything, just pursue what you love, and not be afraid of what other people think. Because once you succeed, trust me, you wouldn’t give a single crap. (Sorry for the language.)

Emma: Nice.

Adnan: One more thing, “Investing in our health and mind is the best investment we can do in our lives”.

Rajai: Thank you for this opportunity, honestly. It’s nice.

Muhammad: This is our first interview in English, so thank you so much.

Savs: It was wonderful!

Muhammad: Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. And hopefully we’ll meet soon, whenever we can.

Savs: Stay in touch!

Emma: Thank you so much for your time. And have a good weekend!

Muhammad: You too! Salam.