Ihsan Jawad is the founder of Zawya which was acquired by Thomson Reuters and one of the first exits in the MENA tech ecosystem. Today, Ihsan is General Partner at STV, a leading Saudi venture capital firm.

Ihsan is one of the few people in MENA who has transitioned from building & scaling a tech company to now becoming a leading investor in the region.

I heard Ihsan say a couple of important things in this conversation:

• Entrepreneurs who have a conviction to solve a problem that’s bigger than just making money are in it for the right reasons

• Founders have to find the right balance between listening / humility and stubbornness / persistence

• Take as much capital as you can, when you can

• Finding inner peace is the ultimate success

• Having a mentor is a great to ...