Tarik Chebib took Capital.com from startup to regional leader in the UAE, scaling to 70 people in six months while cracking organic social growth in a way that established competitors still can't replicate.
Rather than continuing to hire, Tarik paused to rebuild how the business operated. He's focused on creating processes that don't require constant human intervention – a mindset shift that's changing how he allocates resources.
In episode 3 of Open Equity, we’re diving into how he hires top talent in competitive markets, why he still jumps on sales calls with his team, and the cultural mistakes that kill most scaling efforts in the Middle East.
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https://www.openequity.co.uk/newsletter00:00 Introduction
01:40 Building Capital.com from scratch in the UAE post-COVID
04:00 Scaling from a small team to 70 people quickly
06:49 Why recruiting top talent in emerging markets is so hard
09:21 Dubai’s startup ecosystem and regulatory evolution
12:52 The potential (and limits) of private markets for retail investors
16:01 Cracking short-form Arabic content to reach new audiences
18:00 Building organic reach with 100M+ social media views
20:46 Experimenting with non-traditional hires to create breakout content
22:50 How elite sports shaped his leadership style and mindset
27:55 Cultivating trust, motivation, and ownership in young teams
28:58 Advice for founders scaling serious, not lifestyle businesses in Dubai
30:47 The cultural nuances of trust and relationship-building in MENA
31:09 Emergence of M&A and family offices in the GCC
37:40 Expanding Capital.com across verticals and social-driven communities
40:52 The strategic impact of AI on content and operations
42:45 How to empower the team as a CEO
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