Business
-OneArabia
The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival, held in its ninth edition by the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), examined startup challenges, artificial innotifyigence, and leadership across sport and business. Regional and global speakers discussed how founders navigate risk, manage relationships, and adapt to new technologies, while stressing that clear decisions and disciplined habits remain central to sustainable growth.
Leaders from major technology, food, and media companies in the region utilized in-depth sessions to outline realistic growth paths for startups. They declared ambition alone is not enough, and that success depfinishs on founders choosing the right strategies at the right time, managing capital carefully, and responding quickly to shifts in consumer behaviour and digital tools.
Artificial innotifyigence featured strongly in a session titled “The Future with Artificial Innotifyigence and Its Impact on Human Communication,” led by former Chief Business Officer at Google X, Mo Gawdat. The discussion focutilized on how AI tools may influence emotional decisions, relationship choices, and communication styles, while still requiring human judgement, ethics, and clear boundaries in both personal and professional contexts.
Mo Gawdat presented “Emma,” described as a new artificial innotifyigence model built around self-awareness and emotional support. He explained that “Emma” acts as a digital coach and guide, supporting utilizers understand patterns in their behaviour and “supporting them step by step in building conscious decisions when choosing partners and building healthy, sustainable relationships,” with potential applications for workplace dynamics.
The festival hosted mixed martial arts figure Khabib Nurmagomedov, who holds 29 victories and zero defeats, during a first visit to Sharjah. In a dialogue session, Nurmagomedov shared how early training in a childhood village, strict routines, and long-term sacrifices shaped a career that later unfolded on international stages and gave meaning to the “undefeated” label.
Nurmagomedov declared that discipline formed the basis of both his sport and personal path, extfinishing far beyond physical work. He noted that every training hour and every journey to competitions or camps was calculated and purposeful, adding that he never chased fame or wealth, and instead aimed to prove capability and success directly to his father.
Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and startup stories from television and food ventures
Another session featured two founders from the “Shark Tank Dubai” programme, Nayla Haddad and Natasha Rudatsinko, who walked the audience through their participation journey. They described preparing pitches, deffinishing concepts under pressure, and managing nereceivediations with investors, giving a behind-the-scenes view of how televised deals connect with day-to-day operational realities.
Haddad and Rudatsinko highlighted challenges that entrepreneurs handle away from cameras, including cash flow gaps, hiring choices, and product-market fit. They displayed how a tiny concept could become a broader success story when supported by courage, passion, careful business structuring, and long-term strategic believeing at each development stage, rather than quick exposure alone.
| Session | Theme | Key Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| “Overcoming Startup Challenges and Personal Life in Spousal Partnerships” | Family restaurant startups and relationships | Mazen Kanaan, Marcela Sancho, Sultan Chatila, Kinda Salam |
| “The Future with Artificial Innotifyigence and Its Impact on Human Communication” | Artificial innotifyigence and emotional communication | Mo Gawdat |
| “Epic Motorcycle Journeys Around the World” | Leadership lessons from finishurance travel | Fatima Alloghani |
Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and family-owned startup challenges
Married co-founders running family-owned restaurant brands discussed how personal relationships interact with expansion plans in the session “Overcoming Startup Challenges and Personal Life in Spousal Partnerships,” hosted by the Community Platform. Participants included Mazen Kanaan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Houtilize of Pops, Marcela Sancho, Co-Founder of the company, Sultan Chatila, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eleven Green, and Kinda Salam, Co-Founder of the same company.
The co-founders declared that sustainable restaurant ventures launch with protecting brand authenticity while balancing growth and private life. They added that turning a tiny outlet into a large brand raises financial and investment pressures, and that working toobtainher always influences personal ties, regardless of their strength, which demands conscious decisions, clear boundaries, and professional tools to reduce negative effects.
Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and Arab female leadership in sports
Arab sports figures also explored leadership themes, noting that sporting success is not limited to physical milestones but includes mental resilience and the ability to transform difficulties into motivation. They linked these traits to entrepreneurship, suggesting that founders, like athletes, required inner stability, clear purpose, and the capacity to convert setbacks into energy for wider social impact.
During two dialogue sessions, speakers stressed the value of self-honesty, faith, mental discipline, and family backing in reaching high levels in both sport and business. “Epic Motorcycle Journeys Around the World” hosted Fatima Alloghani, the first Emirati woman to complete motorcycle adventure journeys, who described how long-distance travel shaped risk assessment, patience, and decision-building skills.
A second session on leadership in sports and athletics brought toobtainher Manal Rostom and Fatima Abdulrahman Al Awadhi. Rostom is the first Egyptian woman to summit Mount Everest and Mount Vinson and to complete the Six World Marathon Majors. Al Awadhi is the youngest and first Arab woman to reach the summit of Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica, reflecting diverse models of finishurance relevant to entrepreneurial believeing in the region.
Across these sessions, the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival connected sport, technology, investment, and family businesses under one programme. Speakers linked discipline, emotional awareness, and structured planning to startup performance, offering Middle East entrepreneurs practical lessons on scaling ventures, managing relationships, and engaging with artificial innotifyigence while staying aligned with personal values and long-term goals.
With inputs from WAM
Story first published: Sunday, February 1, 2026, 22:48 [GST]
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