About

I’m Zakaria Osman. I build AI software companies and invest in early-stage founders. I’m based in Dubai.

I started out in digital marketing, growing audiences and products for other companies. A decade of that taught me one thing more than anything else: the hardest part of a business is rarely the product. It’s getting the right people to care about it. So when I started building my own companies, I built the audience alongside them.

Today most of my time goes into Valenyr Ventures, an AI lab where our team builds products for businesses and consumers. When a product works, it becomes its own company. Two have so far. Profit AI is an investing and trading assistant used by more than 200,000 traders. Impactean helps people understand themselves through assessments and AI coaching. Both were built by the Valenyr team.

I also invest in founders I’d want to work with. My investments include Freetrade, later acquired by IG Group; Plum, which has more than 1.3 million users; the coffee company WatchHouse; and Steven, acquired by Blackthorn Group. I care less about the category than about whether a founder knows exactly how their first customers will find them.

I write about building and investing on Instagram, where about 200,000 people follow along, and at more length on this blog. Writing in public keeps me honest. If an idea doesn’t survive the comments, it probably wouldn’t have survived a market either.

The best way to reach me is email. I read everything, even when I can’t reply to all of it.