Startup Loft

 There's a reason why over 80% of startup unicorns are on AWS! AWS is known for helping startups grow and scale. For over 14 years, we’ve been supporting the world’s most successful startups as they build on AWS, throughout their journey from early stage to scaleup. Join us to hear the journey of a UAE-homegrown B2B Startup and the role technology will play in driving their vision forward.Speaker: Yasmine Habib - Account Manager, AWS & Ahmed Abdelrahman – CTO, Bayzat

 This intro session provides a great starting point for founders to understand exactly how to use Gen AI in the startup journey BEYOND THE HYPE, without any technical jargon. We will explore Gen AI from a birds-eye view about how it can impact your business revenue and costs, in a deep-dive to understand the different kinds of Gen AI services and their pricing, as well as a timeline of the which kind of Gen AI is most impactful for each stage of the startup journey. Finally, we will end up creating our ideal startup co-founder with a bit of prompt engineering. If you're looking for an easy to understand high-level view to completely understand the incredible potential (and limitations) of Gen AI and a jumping off point into the next deeper sessions, look no further!Speaker: Basil Fateen - Principal Startup Advocate, AWS & Akshat Prakash – CTO, Camb.ai

 In the vibrant UAE and MENA Startup ecosystem, Venture Capitalists are key to unlocking growth and scalability. This panel discussion, 'Unlocking Growth: VCs Sharing Strategies for Scaling MENA Startups,' brings together leading VCs to share their insights on essential scaling strategies and opportunities of the region. Additionally, the panel will address the importance of embracing emerging technologies like Generative AI.Speaker: David Roldan - Head of Startup Business Development - EMEA, AWS & Tunc Ozgul - Business Development Manager, AWS & Sonia Gokhale - General Partner & Co-Founder, VentureSouq & Rabih Khoury - Managing Partner & Chief Exit Officer, Middle East Venture Partners & Rana Abdel Latif – Partner, Speedinvest & Sharif El-Badawi - Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Future District Fund

 In today's competitive market, gaining an edge is crucial for startup success. By integrating generative AI, startups can unlock a competitive advantage by transforming their operations. This session dives into how to craft a robust GenAI architecture from the ground up, demonstrating through a live demo the transformative power of GenAI in enhancing business operations. Learn how to navigate the GenAI landscape through practical applications.Speaker: Saubia Khan - Solutions Architect, AWS & Alexis Philippart de Foy - Solutions Architect, AWS

School won't teach you how to be a CTO, and resources for startup CTOs are scarce. The path to becoming a top CTO is varied, with many first-time CTOs coming from diverse backgrounds, such as technical lead, architect, developer, or researcher at larger companies or startups. But don't worry! In this session, you'll learn from the best of the best - experienced CTOs from the hottest startups out there. They'll spill their secrets and share essential tips to help you kick off your CTO journey on the right foot.Speaker: Nicolas David - Solutions Architect, AWS & Saman Darkan – CTO, Kitopi & Tomek Henschke – CTO, SpiderSilk

Startup founders share their mistakes along the way and what they learned from them. This session will host four remarkable startup founders on stage to openly reveal what they know now that they didn’t know then, their business challenges and how they coped with them. A great opportunity to learn from leaders’ personal insights.Speaker: Basil Fateen - Principal Startup Advocate, AWS & Zohare Haider – CEO, Jalebi & Junaid Abdullah – Founder, iBlinkX & Racha Ghamlouch – Founder, Digital Digest & Rachel Hu - Cofounder & CEO, CambioML