Mohamed El-Fatatry is a student and a startup-entrepreneur
Mohamed el-Fatatry has lived for over 10 years in Finland. It was the year 2014 when he started to study in Turku University of Applied Sciences, to be precis in International Business Degree Programme. For him Turku University of Applied Sciences appeared as a flexible organization, full of enthusiasm and entrepreneurial.
- I think the main advantage was TUAS's flexibility and recognition of my previous studies and work experience. This allowed me to complete the IB degree in 2 years which is great as I am getting really busy with Masar and it would have been really tough to extend it any further.
In May Mohamed El-Fatatry was at Turku University of Applied Sciences lecturing about startup entrepreneurship. Over 100 students heard him during the Capstone Innovation Project.
Mohamed el-Fatatry is gruating during this spring:
- Masar is in full force and I am going to immediately go and lead our sales operations in the Middle East & Africa. This means we are working on launching new solar projects as well as launching consumer smart energy solutions such as battery charging digital kiosks in shopping malls, airports and home solutions such as backup home storage etc.
How did Masar get started? It was the Fall 2014 when Mohamed desided to participate The Internationalization Practice Project:
- Mohamed and his group started to develop Masar. And in addition to that they also desided to participate Rockstart, and they did get to 1 000 000 € prize to continue developing the business in Amsterdam, tells lecturer Matti Kuikka from Turku University of Applied Sciences.
- I think it was good to have a team of students to work together and concieve the original idea of Masar which won us the place at Rockstart Smart Energy Accelerator which was a good start for the company.
Nowadays Masar's vision is to catalyze the transition towards renewable and smart energy in the Middle East & Africa, starting from solar as it is obviously a huge untapped resource in that region which can help it transition faster than the rest of the world.
Think your studyin time as a journey
What was them main message for students?
- I hope that you could look at your school journey as a preparation for what comes after. Try to figure out a direction you would like to take, and whether you have entrepreneur DNA or are more suited for a regular job, guides el-Fatatry.
For his point of view the schooling time is the best time to figure out these kinds of things as it would otherwise be inconvenient/costly to do it once you have entered the working life.
- Althought some people have a DNA that can't function in a normal organization and they need the autonomy and creative possibilities offered by entrepreneurship, says el-Fatatry.
- And for these people, they can't help themselves. They must find a way to realize their energy and entrepreneurship is a great way to do that.
But every entrepreneur should be prepared that it might not amount to huge success, at least not in the beginning and may not amount to wealth either. The journey is important, the destination i.e. massive success is secondary.
So again, try to find your dream, and pursue it. Use the resources you have as a student, not just to have fun but also boost your chances of success after graduation.
- I would like to see TUAS as the most entrepreneurial school in Finland and I think we have all the tools to create international success stories. Masar has already done it, Mohamed closes.