Almentor.net- Changing the way education and learning is delivered and consumed.
With smartphones and the ever-increasing internet penetration, and its speed, e-learning is the future landscape!
We’re seeing a flourishing of startups that target the market for online learning and Almentor.net is one of the leaders in this space in the UAE.
Ihab Fikry along with his four talented co-founders are bringing a revolutionary wave in the higher education industry of Middle-East and Africa by with Almentor.net .
For those uninitiated, it’s an online video marketplace for e-learning and professionals that offers video courses and motivational/informative talks in Arabic and English.
They aim at creating hope and developing people.
What did you do before you started ‘Almentor.net’?
I used to have three hats,
1. Management researcher, lecturer and consultant
2. Professional Author (published tens of articles and 4 best sellers in management)
I’ve published several best seller books, in Arabic, presenting my own theories regarding the most important and critical management related topics that I personally believe are regretfully missed within big parts of the mindsets in this part of the world!
3. Multinational expat for more than 20 years.
My last station before I decide to dedicate 100% of my professional life to “almentor.net” was with ExxonMobil corporation.
What motivated you to start a company, or build a product, in this particular space of online learning platform?
We cannot wait for the reform of the whole education system in the Arab world, which may and may not happen anytime soon …
So, I decided along with my co-founders to innovate, run and manage a state-of-the-art video educational platform that is directed to all Arabs around the world!
We looked at the Arab world and saw a gap in skills, where the majority of Arab youth didn’t have any access to great mentoring in their language. To inspire Arab self-learners to excel and reach their greatest potential Almentor.net was created!
And this is only the very first step to practically and effectively support in creating hope and developing our people.
Can you tell me how the current business model of ‘Almentor.net’ works?
We simply offer video courses and motivational/informative talks in Arabic and English.
Our courses are being offered to both individual learners and corporates in very competitive prices, where learners have lifetime access to any purchased course through his/her library on “almentor.net”
Can traditional education keep pace with the speed of digital?
Digital learning will be blended eventually with all education subjects, so traditional learning can keep pace only with the right blending formula!
What apps, software, or tools you can’t live without? Why?
We can all live without apps, software and any kind of tools. We will breath, eat and sleep without any kind of technology tool.
Only if we decide to sacrifice the daily normal and average life then we will have no option but to have at least one application dedicated for each critical aspect of our lives…
Online banking / social media and communication apps / continuous education and academic learning / navigation and map apps / are a few important ones.
Ihab Fikry, Founder And CEO Of Almentor.net
How has the market responded to your products/services? Why do you think that is so?
In only 11 months of operations, we have reached to more than 26 million learners around the world!
-2 million among them have visited our platform with around 100K subscribers…
Technology can offer millions of Arab students the opportunity to develop their capabilities and We’re glad that we’ve had an extremely beautiful and excellent response from the market!
And I personally believe that all of it relates back to four major things,
and that is the high-quality content, educational media handling, Arabic content and easy to use technology.
The Go-To HUB for Online Learning and Personal Development.
How do you see the industry evolving in the long run?
Some of the prominent trends that the market is witnessing include increasing demand for distance learning, e-learning, government programs and initiatives, growing penetration of internet and mobile learning
According to the recent related Bloomberg report, 325 Billion USD will be the e-learning industry’s annual turnover by 2025!!
What’s that one thing you wish somebody told you when you first became a CEO”?
CEO of a start-up is not just an executing officer, there’s more to what meets the eye! He’s an innovator and a salesman, who produces ideas and sells it to the stockholders…
You’ll be a CEO only when your business is self sustained for at least three years.
Do you have any plans to add in more languages?
Apart from Arabic and English, we also have some Spanish and French content too.
Yes, there definitely are plans to add more as we go and according to a well-studied and formulated plan.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And what advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
The best advice I’d like to give is do it right from all aspects then even if the market is slow in responding to your products, you’ll have a good story to tell your investors!
And the best part is they will listen to it carefully and will believe in your project even more.
