My Morning Routine: Sami Khoreibi, co-founder and executive chairman at Wisewell and founding partner at Incubayt

Sami Khoreibi, co-founder and executive chairman at Wisewell and founding partner at Incubayt: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Sami Khoreibi (LinkedIn), co-founder and executive chairman at Wisewell and founding partner at Incubayt.

My name is Sami Khoreibi. I am the founder and CEO of Incubayt Investments, as well as the founder and executive chairman of Wisewell. What I try to focus on is scaling sustainability throughout the Middle East and North Africa, with global ambitions. I spend virtually every day focused on that mission, and trying to bring great ideas both within what we do at [Wisewell] and by supporting entrepreneurs.

I grew up  in Toronto, and after graduating university, I started an energy company — Candax Energy — which went public in Toronto. That got me traveling to the region quite a bit, and I was excited by the potential that was being brought forward by the UAE. I decided to start a solar company with a few very good friends and co-founders, and that was what got my foot in the door in terms of entrepreneurship in sustainability and in the region. That company was called Environmena. We were the first solar company in the region based out of Abu Dhabi in 2007. It grew to do the first solar project in seven countries across the Middle East and North Africa. We later got acquired in 2017.

After we were acquired, I wanted to spend a lot of my time and effort investing in exciting businesses and startups with founders from across the region, with a focus on sustainability. That prompted the launch of Incubayt, an investment office focused on investing in companies at the crossroads of sustainability and technology.

While doing so, I started thinking about some ideas myself, and looking at what kind of sustainable opportunities are not being addressed today. That was the catalyst for Wisewell; it really started to address the challenges with drinking water across the region. Consumers today across the entire region, and, for the most part, across the globe, drink bottled water. It’s unsustainable, and it’s bad for our health. We figured there must be a better way, and that was the rationale behind building Wisewell, which is a technology company focused on delivering sustainable water through tech-enabled filtration systems.

It is often a big challenge to try to take on multiple roles. In order to be able to do so, you have to build a very strong, capable, and independent team around you. I take the independent part very seriously; you need to enable and trust your colleagues and peers to be able to make decisions and help the business move forward in the right way, while allowing me the ability to focus on what’s needed most.

At Incubayt, we invest very early into startups. We like to focus on early-stage businesses that have a positive impact — a lot of that is in climate tech, but we even go broader into health and wellness.

Often, we’re actually the first investor, and those entrepreneurs are often first-time founders, so there’s a lot of learning to do. I’m very happy to get to add value in terms of experience that I’ve had over the past 20 years as a founder, but it also takes up a lot of time. You have to be focused with the entrepreneurs, so I always like to carve out a few hours of my day to really be able to either spend time or support the entrepreneurs.

My vantage point as an investor really gives me perspective on a lot of different businesses in different sectors. That allows me to always have a very unique perspective when hiring. At Wisewell also, we’re looking at entering new markets and introducing additional product lines. We’re looking at building further team members, so that perspective helps guide my decisions at Wisewell too.

I’m very blessed to wake up with my family. I have three children — all six and under — and my wife. One of the things that really energizes me most is spending time with that morning cup of coffee and all of our kids and family in the kitchen.

Every morning and at the end of the day, I have to exercise, whether it’s tennis or going to the gym. Physical activity allows you to have a clear and puts you in a very positive mood before you go to work.

I’ll be at the office around between 8:30-9am usually depending on traffic. I like to get the immediate emails out of the way in the first hour of the morning, which really opens up your day for collaboration and conversation.

What I try to do every day is take a walk, either with a colleague or while taking a phone call, and I will spend at least half an hour walking while I’m in my meetings. I’m fortunate to be here in the DIFC where we have this amazing indoor and outdoor connectivity depending on the time of year. It just really allows me to reset, especially as the day goes on. It’s very important to get up, move, and reset, and I think a mistake I used to make was I wouldn’t reset. I would power through the day, but there’s a way to be productive and reset at the same time.

I think the more you love what you do, the more that work life balance comes into focus — and it’s a privilege when you get to that point in your career. If you’re enjoying the work and your work allows you to have the flexibility to also focus on other things that are important, it’s really important. All of these things complement each other. If one starts dropping, the others are impacted, so I kind of look at balance as the equilibrium of all the different components working hand in hand with each other. This goes back to having the right team that’s allowed independence and control in a way that creates sustainability in the long term.

On a professional level, I feel like we’ve hit a point here at Incubayt, and at Wisewell, where we’ve identified a set of incredibly exciting opportunities, and we’ve built a base which is ready to scale, so we’re no longer trying to find new things. I want to focus on growing what we have within our portfolio, and prioritize time with entrepreneurs, potentially investing in more businesses, but being extremely selective.

At Wisewell, we now have several thousand users in the UAE. We’re seeing that scale and seeing the impact of what we’re doing in terms of removing plastic bottles. What I want to do over the next five years is focus on scaling Wisewell and our portfolio companies.

On a personal level, over the past two years and with having little children, you realize that they grow up very quickly — so [I want to focus on] really being there and having valuable quality time [with them]. Every time I speak with somebody who’s got older children, or my own mother, they say don’t take this time for granted.

One of the best therapies for me is cooking while having a podcast on. I love long-form biographic podcasts, whether that’s talking about a company or an individual, or just a long interview with somebody who’s interesting. One of my favorite podcasts now that I listen to is called Acquired. Having time to go on evening walks with my wife after dinner is also a very nice way to reset before bed.

I think that the best piece of advice — and one that’s been sticking with me recently — was from my wife. She said that the impact of your mood and your words may seem like a very small thing to you, but it could have a very big effect on those around you.