The Untold Secret to Sports Success | Nada Zaher & GRID | ندي زاهر

Nada Zaher is the founder and CEO of GRID, Egypt’s hottest company right now in athlete and sports management. She’s an athlete herself having played tennis from a young age and pursued it further in Columbia University where she was a leading figure on the captain of the team. Along with her passion for sports, she’s an integral part of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt, co-creating the Egypt Entrepreneur Awards a few years back. She later joined Right to Dream and helped lead FC Masar while also supporting youth achieve their dreams of studying abroad and going pro. Now, she’s going all in on GRID.

She talks about:

🟦 What it takes to get into an Ivy League school

🟦 What really matters in athlete personal branding

🟦 How to land deals as an athlete

🟦 How an athlete can and should protect themselves and their rights

🟦 The struggles of operating in a greed-driven industry

🟦 How lonely being a CEO can be and how to overcome it

🟦 What Egypt and Egyptian athletes need to do to get gold

(00:00) Intro

(01:18) Her Start as an Entrepreneur

(03:49) Her Tennis and Athletic Experience

(06:47) What You Learn From Individual Sports

(10:40) The Loneliness of Being a CEO

(11:42) Social Media as an Advantage

(13:24) Pursuing an Ivy League Education (How She Got In)

(16:31) Her Coach’s Belief In Her and Her Impact

(20:13) Creating a Roster of Players

(21:17) Learnings from Columbia and NYC

(22:55) Do Athletes Have The Same Opportunities Today?

(24:18) The Change in the Mindset of Egyptian Athletes and their Parents

(26:10) The Bill Campbell Award

(28:39) The Power of Networks and Being in Corporate

(31:32) The Return to Egypt and Starting the First Startup

(35:26) Co-creating Egypt Entrepreneur Awards (EEA)

(38:46) Leaving Behind Guaranteed Success to Pursue Passion

(40:00) Biggest Impact Story with Right To Dream

(41:39) What Does GRID Mean?

(43:11) Why Build GRID?

(44:24) What Does GRID Do?

(47:19) Why Doesn’t Egypt Invest in Its Athletes?

(49:13) What is the Minimum Age for an Athlete to Find Representation?

(51:33) What are the Criteria for Being Represented and Getting Sponsored?

(52:34) Do You Invest in “Potential”?

(55:45) Building a Startup Founder Is Harder Second Time Around

(57:54) How Is a Sponsorship Deal Structured and Who Are the Stakeholders?

(01:04:09) Athletic Personal Branding Gap in Egypt

(01:05:06) Athletic Retirement and Post Career Planning

(01:08:18) The Dirty Industry

(01:10:36) Protecting Your Rights as an Athlete

(01:12:08) Advantages in a Male Dominated Industry

(01:13:36) Changes in Culture Norms for Athletes to Thrive

(01:16:06) How She Signed Her First 10 Athletes?

(01:17:52) Being an Athlete Founder

(01:20:49) The Dream

(01:23:44) Fears, Connections and Becoming

If you’re an athlete or an aspiring entrepreneur, then this one is for you.

Thanks for listening—please don't forget to follow!

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Where to find Nada

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