If you are a founder in the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) dreaming of building a “Unicorn,” you’ve probably been told to follow a specific script: raise money, work 24/7, and hope for the best. But Kareem Amin, the Co-Founder and CEO of Clay, just rewrote that script. Clay isn’t just another tech company; it’s a powerhouse valued at over <head>.5 billion – with sights set on <head>0 billion– that is fundamentally changing how businesses grow. The “Lost Years” – Why Wandering is Actually Part of the PlanThe “Selling” Trap – Why <head>00 Million Wasn’t Enough !The “Give Up” Strategy – A Psychological HackHigh-Intensity Tactics – Slack, Demos, and 5-Minute FixesThe MENA Founder’s Advantage – Protecting the “Small Flames” But Kareem’s journey wasn’t a straight line. It was a wild ride of “lost years,” failed experiments, and a deep psychological shift that every founder needs to hear. Here is the deep dive into the mind of Clay’s CEO, the journey of the startup, and some “cheat codes” for founders from the MENA region. The “Lost Years” – Why Wandering is Actually Part of the Plan Most people see Clay’s success today and think it happened overnight, but the reality is much more chaotic. Between 2017 and 2022, Kareem describes himself as “wandering” in a way that most founders would find terrifying. He had already sold a company called Frame for <head>00 million before starting Clay, but even with that success, he felt lost and would walk the streets of New York telling anyone who asked that he “didn’t know” what he was doing. This period wasn’t wasted time…It was a necessary phase of exploration where the team tried a dozen different ideas, from a tool like Pinterest for links to various internal business tools. For MENA founders, the pressure to look successful immediately can be crushing, but Kareem’s journey shows that you have to protect your “small flames”—those tiny, weird ideas that might seem like a waste of time to outsiders—until they are strong enough to grow. The team’s ability to “stay in the darkness” was validated when they raised a massive <head>2.5 million from Sequoia Capital in 2019, despite having only three employees and zero customers at the time. They weren’t selling a finished product; they were selling a massive vision of the “spreadsheet of the 21st century” and a high-quality team that knew how to navigate uncertainty. Kareem explains that venture capitalists look for that 1% chance that a company could become a billion-dollar “sovereign” entity, and they are willing to wait for the story to develop. This teaches us that for global-scale success, your “story” and your “team” are often more important than your initial traction, provided you are targeting a market large enough to matter. The “Selling” Trap – Why <head>00 Million Wasn’t Enough ! One of Kareem’s most controversial insights is about his first big win. While selling his first company for <head>00 million sounds like the ultimate dream, Kareem actually considers it a learning moment about the dangers of selling too early. He realized that by selling Frame, he lost the “upside” of seeing how big the idea could truly become, and he ended up working within a “dysfunctional” larger organization where he felt his impact was limited. This experience changed his entire approach to Clay; he told his investors from day one that because he had already made money, he wasn’t looking for a quick exit—he was looking to build something legendary and “sovereign”. This mindset is a massive vibe shift for founders who are often taught to “exit” as soon as possible. Kareem’s physical journey was just as intentional. After leaving Egypt and studying at McGill, he worked at Microsoft in Seattle primarily to secure his immigration status – a reality many MENA founders face. However, he eventually chose New York City as Clay’s home over Silicon Valley because it reminded him of Cairo’s energy and density. He felt that NYC offered a “hustle” and a mix of people that made him feel more alive, proving that you don’t have to follow the herd to San Francisco to build a world-class tech company. For him, being in an environment that matched his personal energy was more important than being in the traditional “startup capital”. The “Give Up” Strategy – A Psychological Hack Perhaps the deepest insight from Kareem is his psychological hack for success: he believes you have to “give up” on the desire to be successful to actually win. He argues that the obsession with “looking” like a successful CEO – being busy, taking constant meetings, and acting the part – actually stops you from doing the real, gritty work. When he finally let go of the ego and the fear of looking “stupid” or failing, he was free to take the real risks that Clay needed to break out. He stopped “pretending” to build a company and started actually listening to the truth of the product and the users. This mental shift allowed the team to adopt what Kareem calls “contra-consist