Entrepreneurs in Egypt: Shereen Karam

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 In News

Young entrepreneurs in Egypt are part of a new wave of self-employment sweeping the nation, and Mostafa Shahat writes about them.


Even though the entrepreneurship revolution has shaped the future of Egypt’s communities, as young people nowadays are starting their companies instead of working in big established corporates, the unemployment problem still exists.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt still growing, but it is not yet well developed enough to support those who want to expand or grow, so young people end up working in corporations to be financially secure.

The unemployment problem has many contributing factors that are not only concentrated on the lack of skills or/and qualifications – for instance, companies simply can’t retain their young, talented employees because of the insufficiency of benefits and compensations and their capabilities of creating a professional, healthy work environment where everyone feels appreciated and rewarded.

It requires an investment to create this kind of environment and to offer the varieties of benefits that most small and medium companies can’t afford. That’s when they leave young talented people with only one option: leaving the company and having to search for another suitable opportunity.

Profolio Consulting came up with a new approach that is the first of its kind in Egypt. It helps startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) take care of their business by outsourcing their operational issues, from setting up a legal presence to taking care of all employees matters to handling social insurance and payroll, at a very affordable cost and with high quality. The brand values are based on the concept of ‘you’: we grow as you grow.

Shereen Karam, Founder has had extensive work experience in Human Resources field over the last twelve years in several countries all over the world. Shereen is one of the few entrepreneurs who garnered the courage to leave the corporate life and start her own venture.

Shereen earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She pursued her postgraduate certificate in the Human Resources Management field at the American University in Cairo, and she started her career in HR in 2005. She worked in several local and international companies until she became HR Manager for Santeon, a multinational company where she managed over than 100 employees in four countries in Africa and Asia.

‘I was confident, and ready to take the challenge. I trusted my skills, abilities and experiences to launch Profolio’, says Shereen.

In less than two years, the company started to build partnerships with ten big entities, from banks to insurance companies and law firms, and more than twelve SMEs.

‘Our company supports startups and SMEs by connecting them with our partners’ law firms, marketing agencies, banks and insurance companies’, says Shereen. ‘We care about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt. We want to help startups and SMEs grow and expand. That’s why we are introducing them to our partners who could help them to do so’, she adds.

Shereen has excellent entrepreneurial skills. She is always seeking new challenges. One of the unique services that she started offering is helping international companies who want to open an office in Egypt with establishing the legal presence, banking process, and operations.

‘By doing so, we are encouraging investors to franchise their companies in Egypt. Eventually that will support not only the entrepreneurial ecosystem but the whole country’s economy status as well’, says Shereen.

Shereen is a dreamer and visionary entrepreneur, full of enthusiasm and energy. This is only one of the many ideas that she is planning to implement in Egypt.


Article submitted by Mostafa Shahat, the volunteer responsible for Arabic guest bloggers in the MENA region and an entrepreneur who has established one of the most successful youth communities in Egypt, Goal Oriented Learners.

Mostafa studied social entrepreneurship in USA and is currently the Middle East & North Africa representative at StudySearch (Nigeria) and the Egypt representative for All Events in City (India). Mostafa is also a reporter at Nudge Sustainability Hub. Email him at mshahat@golteam.org and check out his other blog A Syrian’s Success in Egypt and more from his Entrepreneurs in Egypt series.


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