Not implying that the President was following me around, but we were in Qatar at the SAME TIME. Note flag bedecked buildings!
While global diplomacy was happening at the Royal Palace, I was at the Qatar Research, Development, and Innovation Council (QRDI) to support Sluicebox.ai – a cleantech startup I advise and invest in. Using some serious storytelling skills coupled with mind-blowing AI tech, we won a $100K competitive global bid from to support the country’s #1 aluminum manufacturer, Qalax, with their carbon emissions reporting. If that wasn’t exciting enough, Sluicebox helped Qalax shift its carbon and environmental reporting from taking months to minutes, and that crucial report won them a $20M soccer stadium deal in Saudi Arabia!
This is the intersection of all things that I love most: mentoring a phenomenal startup, connecting with a giant company, and seeing where governments accelerate innovation and progress. Most of all, I am continually blown away how storytelling is this phenomenal bridge that allows these connections to flourish and foster longer term relationships across cultures, industries and most importantly, one-on-one.
Perhaps this story should be called: A Canadian, Austrian, and American walk into a boardroom and meet new Qatari and Jordanian business partners to shout GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL on an amazing new Saudi project.
Don’t tell anyone, but the best part of any business trip for me is letting my inner anthropologist out. I bookended this trip [as I try to do in all new cities] with deep cultural dives. From The Museum of Islamic Art, one of the most spectacular collections in the Middle East to the National Museum [and its breathtaking architecture], an archeological dig, a reconstructed home, and the Museum of Slavery, the learnings were legendary.
My appreciation for Qatari culture and its incredible journey from a boom-to-bust pearl diving economy in the 1920’s to one of the richest countries following its discovery of oil in the 1970’s and the 3rd largest liquid natural gas repository in the world and one of the highest GDP per citizen in a country smaller than Connecticut. And even in the face of an economic blockade by its neighbors in 2017, they still help one of the most epic World Cup matches in 2022. Doha feels like a future forward city choosing innovation in a way that embraces sustainability while pursuing growth.
But out of all the things, the hospitality is what I’ll remember most. In my travels to 50+ countries, I’ve eaten more bugs, bees, and bizarre meats than I can count. For this New Yorker, a city of 1M pigeons, trying baked pigeon and rice was a shock to the system. It. Was. Fantastic. The myriad dishes of celebration with the board, the Sluicebox and Qalex teams and the QDRI officials were off the charts. Where else do you arrive with curiosity and return home with – my favorite – a five pound box of dates of every flavor.
