Taking on the responsibility of a first newborn child feels like mission impossible, without the danger of being caught out by enemy agents, although self-destructing napkins sound like a great idea. The founder of Nash2, (Bringing up), Mohaned Hamed spoke of a real challenge to him and his wife, which inspired them to provide a tech solution for new mums since 2018.
EG: Why did you start and what’s the passion behind?
Mohaned Hamed: As new parents, we know nothing about raising a human being. We did not know what she will eat, drink or when she will sleep. Actually, we did not know ourselves when we would rediscover sleep. We looked for info, tools and courses to help us. It was a hard journey, hence came the idea of Nash2 (the ‘2’ is pronounced like a catch in the voice as in south eastern English ‘See ya la’er’). Nash2 is a virtual assistant to ease the parenting experience and develop that experience. We were blessed with our daughter Ghazal on April 18 and we felt as if we had been thrown in the deep end.
EG: What is your background?
MH: Science, Cairo University. I graduated in 2012. I have elven years of experience in digital project management and content development. I have an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship from the Swiss School of Management.
EG: What are the issues you are solving and what is your value proposition?
MH: We are easing the parenting experience by offering various services and products as a virtual assistant. We are focusing now on kids interactive online courses, and we plan to expand to new services soon. Our value proposition is to offer unique content and easy access through our website to moms. Moms can message us on our social media channels at any time and get a response within two hours. We provide assistance for bringing up a child from the day of birth to 16 years old. So, we provide educational content for helping moms and their children in all aspects of life.
EG: Tell us more about the process, users and business model
MH: In three step a mother could contact us with her inquiry – info, service, product – then we recommend specific consultations according to her need. If it is a general question, the team replies from content we collect from experts in different areas of experience. If the case is much more complicated, we connect her with an expert that will reply through an online virtual channel. The cost is from LE150 to LE750. Nash2 profits from up to 30 per cent commission on every transaction. About 200,000 have used our website so far.
EG: What are your main challenges?
MH: We are in our growth phase so fundraising to fuel our growth, finding perfect members for our team and developing our services fast enough to reach growing demand — those are the challenges.
EG: What are your achievements and future plans?
MH: We have reached a breakeven last December. We have good brand recognition within the segment we are targeting. Between 10-15 percent of our customers are from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Europe and Canada, even though we are not focusing on the global market at the moment. We hope to offer a new service for moms to book one-to-one consultations with an expert in parenting and education.
EG: How do you find the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt?
MH: Many individuals are helping in various ways, although the bodies within the ecosystem have a long way to help young entrepreneurs.
