Hashim Alsharif
I live in Riyadh and started Loura, which builds operational intelligence software for the GCC. Before that I led Current Accounts at Tamara, Saudi Arabia's largest fintech, which I joined at 18 as its youngest product manager. I grew up in Saudi Arabia and am largely self-taught. I learned English playing Multi Theft Auto and have been building things since I was a kid.
- WritingEssays and notes on finance, product, credit, AI, and company building.
- BooksA running list of what shaped how I think.
Things I'm interested in
- Time. Everything below is downstream of one belief: we get a short window here, and the only reasonable response is to keep moving forward.
- Emerging market company archetypes. The best companies in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Gulf don't look like their Silicon Valley analogues. They look like each other.
- Capital. How capital gets allocated in emerging markets, and why so much of it goes to the wrong places. I think about this more than is probably healthy.
- Non-traditional paths. I was Tamara's first hire without a degree. Most of what I know about payments, credit, and software I taught myself. What would it look like if the region's talent systems were built around demonstrated ability rather than credentials?
- AI. The interesting question now is what AI does to industries that never digitized in the first place. That is what I am discovering at Loura.