The old proverb says, “it takes a village to raise a child,” but what does it take to raise an idea from the ground up? Ideas are worthwhile, but only when they leave the confines of the mind through execution. The birth of an idea to the outside world is no easy feat; it takes time, effort, and teamwork for something to make a true impact and impression.
Business startups are an interesting lens to look at the birth, growth, and (sometimes) death of ideas. According to Forbes, 90% of startups fail, while the other 10% struggle against the current to stablize themselves and embed themselves in the market (Patel,2022).
This week, Business Forward spotlights the story of an Egyptian startup, LRNOVA, currently in the phase of embedding itself as one of the players in the market of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. LRNOVA was part of the most recent Spring 2024 cohort of AUC Venture Lab Startup Accelerator in the School of Business at the American University in Cairo. The startup was fully launched almost a year ago, in December 2023. The Business Forward team talked to LRNOVA’s co-founder, Mohamed Amer, to reflect and gain insight on the experience of an AI newly launched company in the Egyptian market.
“I am not the type of person to give up and accept the circumstances I find myself in. We must work hard to breakthrough and live the life that we strive for,” says Amer who started his professional life as a graduate from the Faculty of Agriculture at Al Azhar University, a complete switch from where he dedicates most of his time today. Currently, Amer has over 16 years of experience in education, training, and corporate human development. He is also a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD), a credential that requires leveling up to an international standard with regards to ability to train and impact corporate employees. Almost 20 years ago, Amer made the decision to completely shift his sights towards the field of training, particularly optimizing the work culture within corporate businesses. From then, sprouted a passion for the idea of providing training as a service for the improvement of others.
In his own personal story, it is not hard to miss Amer’s dedication to honing in his skills, particularly through training. “I have always been interested in technology, so I started to teach myself skills, so I can be able to integrate the newest tech in my work as a corporate trainer,” Amer further highlighted that he was one of the first to implement interactive training in Egypt, during his work as a corporate trainer. In other words, Amer fully believes in the power of proper training on corporate culture. For instance, in the precarious case of startups, those which received appropriate training report an average sales growth of 72.5% compared to 30.3% in those which did not take any training (Corboz,2023). Statistics like previous HEC Paris-backed numbers suggest that there is a market need for businesses that provide training, but what kind of training?
LRNOVA’s main mission is to provide AI-generated educational and training content using open sources from the internet as well as customer databases to provide a customized experience of the material produced. The catch about LRNOVA is that not only does it use AI to generate its content, it also uses human-like avatars to present it. “When we were thinking of LRNOVA, we thought of the time, costs, and efforts that could be optimized if educational content became readily available to produce,” says Amer explaining the niche that the startup seeks. Training programs often need a high budgetary allocation especially if implemented company wide. Moreover, setting a specific training time for all employees to be present is often time-consuming; with usually no training material to go back to for future references, in-person training is slowly losing its edge. LRNOVA allows its users both individuals and corporations to create training content at their own leisure through using an application, an accessible user interface that allows them to generate their customized educational content as well as select the AI presenter or “avatar” to use for presenting video content. In other words, LRNOVA aims to make the full process of training in-house.
Being a trainer myself, I assure you that AI will not take over the role of human instructors. Artificial Intelligence is only a helping hand through which we can achieve more efficiency and cost-effective solutions. In my opinion, those who think that AI is meant to replace humans, are not really realizing the full potential that comes with harnessing it as a helping tool , says Amer with regards to the possibility of an AI takeover in the field of corporate training.
Currently, LRNOVA is in its project-based phase which means that the team is currently proposing the idea to different corporations and then implementing individual projects for them. “The aim is that LRNOVA is eventually launched as a full software that customers can use at their own leisure without assistance from our time,” says Amer underlining the current goal the startup is gearing itself towards. This soft implementation phase is helping the team refine their understanding of customer needs and the general demands of the B2B Software as a Service market (SaaS).
As part of the process of better understanding their own business model, Amer decided to submit the idea to none other than AUC Venture Lab (V-Lab). “Funnily enough, our introduction to V-Lab came from another graduate of the accelerator program, who also happens to be a relative to my wife – the founder of SWVL, Mohamed Kandil,” says Amer of the coincidence that opened his eyes to the impact V-Lab that hit so close home, yet a such a large and successful scale. While Amer has his 16-year experience up his sleeve, his startup needed much more guidance as well as exposure to the ecosystem of AI-led startups as well as the Egyptian startup scene as a whole.
When we had our idea assessed by the admission committee of AUC Venture Lab, we were still at the very beginning, we didn’t even have a domain. We decided to take the risk, created a Minimum Product Value (MPV), and luckily we were accepted from the first round because the team believed in us and the potential – says Amer of the process of admission into the Spring 2024 cohort of the Startup Accelerator.
Working with V-Lab has helped LRNOVA’s team in honing in their skills for the next phase gearing up towards the full launch as well as gave them a head-start through representation in the startup community as one of the program’s graduates. So far, LRNOVA’s generative AI educational solutions has been able to save up to 90% of the costs to customers, making the product ever more competitive compared to in-person training.
All of these positive milestones do not mean, however, that the startup is still facing challenges such as the lack of a solid AI-based infrastructure in Egypt. Nonetheless, this gives all the more reason to have more ideas like LRNOVA brought to the forefront, opening up more room in the market for AI innovations. With growing entrepreneurs like Amer taking risks to go through unexplored terrains, the Egyptian economy has more hope in growing and recovering.
“We have to always take risks. I say, the bigger the risk, the bigger the rizq (blessing in Arabic). Maybe that’s why the words sound so similar!” jokes Amer.
