For the love of the game

I love competition. I built an entire company on the conviction that competition is the essence of why humanity keeps pushing forward. The core of what we do at Untap is empowering innovators to showcase their talent and intellectual brilliance through participating in the programs our customers run, essentially competing for opportunities.

And Untap itself is the inspiration I had participating in a competition - Startup Weekend Alexandria - back in 2011. It was a very early version of what eventually came to life.

I remember during my participation at Startup Weekend 2011 that I was teaching at The German University in Cairo. I became obsessed with studying the concept of open innovation platforms, completely taken by the likes of InnoCentive and NineSigma. I was fully convinced that open innovation would enable Egypt to get a shortcut towards restoring itself as an innovation powerhouse.

Untap back then originated from an idea called “Min Masr” or “From Egypt”. It was our revolution’s euphoria that gave me the very initial push.

The idea I had at Startup Weekend re-emerged many years later as Untap - first as a SaaS for competition management, then evolving into the SaaS operating system for innovation and talent management platforms.

I love competition. And I love making competitions. They create more opportunities for innovators everywhere. And they spurred Untap, now empowering millions of participants and hundreds of organizations from all corners of the world to connect and bring so many opportunities to life.

Here’s to the love of the game - in innovation, in sports, in arts, in science, and in every corner of our human experience.