Reaping the rewards
The MENA region’s achieving women
Sonia Weymuller Co-founder, VentureSouq
H
aving known the value of mentorship throughout her career, be it during her time working at places like Microsoft and Viacom, or even when she established her own early-stage equity funding platform VentureSouq, Sonia Weymuller today doesn’t hesitate in paying it forward- she’s a proactive mentor to not just entrepreneurs, but also to nonentrepreneurs and students as well. “This entails a wide spectrum of types of guidance,” she says. “From honest pitch and investor feedback as well as access to industry experience and relevant contacts, to openly sharing success and war stories or contributing to leadership and confidence building. Some would say I am quite candid as a mentor. This is true; I don’t sugarcoat things. As an effective mentor, you need to be honest and pragmatic, but also inquisitive and empathetic.” Weymuller recently signed on to be a mentor for the second edition of the e7 Daughters of the Emirates project, and her enthusiasm for the year-long program that sees young UAEbased women coming together to better their community can be easily seen. “Mentoring is an incredibly enriching experience,” Weymuller explains. “I
was once asked at a conference what quality I owed my success to. While other panelists mentioned determination, grit and competitiveness, my answer was simple: altruism. Listening and guiding someone through his or her journey also makes you humbly reflect on, and sometimes redefine, your own. The ability to be present, to challenge, encourage, motivate and support is vital especially in a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem such as ours.” Weymuller’s approach to mentorship notwithstanding, many professional women in the MENA region often say that they simply don’t have the time to spare for mentoring someone else. But Weymuller says doing so doesn’t need to follow a rigid system. “My approach to mentorship has been
“Some would say I am quite candid as a mentor. This is true; I don’t sugarcoat things. As an effective mentor, you need to be honest and pragmatic, but also inquisitive and empathetic.” an informal one,” she says. “I operate with an open-door policy, and don’t hold ‘office hours,’ per se. If a mentee has a question, they email me; if it warrants a longer conversation or brainstorm, I will make time to meet in person or schedule a Skype session if they are abroad. The type of mentorship relationship you establish will also depend on the type of mentor you represent for that person– are you an industry, leadership or connector type mentor, or all of these combined? The amount of time you choose to devote to mentoring is entirely up to you. However, mentoring is a commitment; it may not be for everyone. Don’t do it half-heartedly. If you do decide to do it though, enjoy the journey: it’s a priceless experience!”
Iman Ben Chaibah Founder, Sail Publishing
S
ince launching Sail eMagazine in 2010, Iman Ben Chaibah has come a long way in her journey as an entrepreneur- her portfolio today includes Sail Publishing, a digital publishing house for online magazines and ebooks, and special print editions. But that is not to say that this Emirati lady has reached the levels of startup success as, say, a Steve Jobs, or a Mark Zuckerberg- on the contrary, a cursory glance at her Twitter timeline (@ImanBenChaibah) would be enough to understand that this is an entrepreneur still navigating several challenges with her growing enterprise. But while others may have been tempted to call it quits with the business, Ben Chaibah has steadfastly refused to- and the reason for this can be essentially drawn back to her vision for Sail. “Being genuinely interested in the craft of reading and
writing tremendously helped sustain and preserve Sail as a vehicle to nurture writers and original content,” she says. “And it’s what held it back from deviating into running what’s commercial, rather than what’s intelligent and useful content for Emirati youth.” But while the hurdles along her path may be aplenty, Ben Chaibah is also getting better at dealing with them. “One of the major personal challenges I keep going through with Sail is that being a very private and introverted person, I tend to not exactly push for the business in every potential platform that I attend, and find it a little difficult to talk about the amazing success and growth and value the magazine and the publishing side has achieved, because it often feels like talking about myself. I still work at it with having the right mentors and support systems that help me shape my message in a way that works with who I am, without feeling like fraudulent in it. It’s not easy, and it’s about pushing myself out of my comfort zone constantly- which does pay off every now and then.”
Iman Ben Chaibah, founder, Sail Publishing
may 2016 Entrepreneur
47