(1) Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Kareem Ayyad, founder of Cerebian. I work on expanding (exponentially) the way humans interact with computers and each other.
(2) In two sentences or less, describe how you participate in the startup ecosystem.
At Cerebian we’re building what we call a “Brain OS”.
Participated in multiple prime accelerator programs and regularly attend networking and community events as well as participating in speaking engagements that require my expertise.
(3) What are you currently reading right now and would recommend to others?
Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets.
(4) What makes you stay in the startup ecosystem?
My passion for [emerging] tech combined with the fact that most breakthrough innovations are pioneered by startups.
You are who you surround yourself with; the smartest people I know are in one way or another involved in the startup ecosystem.
(5) What drives your passion about the startup ecosystem?
My passion for the startup ecosystem is driven by the type of people I luckily get to interact with and the potential impact of technology on people’s lives.
I love startups. Wearing multiple hats and learning at an incredible pace. Accomplishing in days what normally takes weeks or much longer
The idea that you can build something that can make life more meaningful for others or solve some of their true pains and challenges and positively impact their lives is really profound.
(6) Where do you see the startup ecosystem in 5 years?
It’s hard to predict. Especially nowadays with innovation cycles becoming shorter than ever.
I really hope to see more focus on hard-tech and emerging fields which act as infrastructures for innovation that other people can build upon.
I believe that category defining technologies have the highest potential for impact. The more economical they become to launch the more impact we’ll see.
A major change I can envision is that we will see multiples of what we see today coming from emerging markets. As emerging markets continue to contain some of the globe’s fastest growing markets, such as healthcare and financial services, we will see a sharply rising contribution to the global innovation market from emerging markets.
(7) How has failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
I’ve failed countless times so far and by my definition of success I’m definitely not there, yet.
It did make me a lot more resilient. I realize that it takes significant effort to accomplish something meaningful regardless of how ambitious that is. So you might as well fail forward to succeed doing what you love.
(8) What is one of the best worthwhile investments you’ve ever made (could be financial, time, energy, etc.)?
Learning how to code. I’ve been coding for 15 years. I studied Law and found myself back in tech. Regardless of what industry a person is in, being able to bring an idea to life is priceless. It is intellectual freedom.
(9) What do you do to refocus yourself when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused?
I go back to plain pen and paper to dump my thoughts in a structured manner.
I find this to be true everywhere but especially in startups; there are always many things you ought to do, but only one thing you should be working on at a given point in time.
I recalibrate to find that, and proceed from there.
(10) What’s one piece of advice you would give someone trying to break into the startup ecosystem?
Hang out at incubators/accelerators/startup communities, basically around other startups. You’d be surprised how much you can learn from other startups and founders in such a short time. Typically, they are experts in their respective fields.
If you’re starting a company you will never feel ‘ready’.
It gets incredibly difficult at times that any sane person would quit. So just make sure you’re not doing it for the sake of doing it, but doing it for a reason that drives you unquestionably, each and every day, a feeling that many people refer to as “passion”.
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