Power in Partnership: Efreshli Co-Founders Heba Elgabaly and Dina Elhaddad Two trailblazing women shaping the future of interior design in the MENA region.
By Tamara Pupic
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Cairo-based entrepreneur Heba Elgabaly has witnessed first-hand the interior design industry evolving. Only ten years ago, Elgabaly was an operator deeply embedded in the home furniture and design industry, where most designer products were out of reach for many and pricing was often non-transparent. Then, she noticed technology loosening the industry's laces. "In Egypt, Instagram started to really take off in our industry around 2013," she recalls. "That's when many brands started going online, product discovery skyrocketed, and customers needed curation from different places. People started sending me photos of furniture from other places asking for advice for a room or small space. There was no one serving this gap in the market yet. That's where I started to see that interior design was changing."
Elgabaly spent nine years as a partner at Eklego, a Cairo-based architecture, interior, and furniture design firm, where she always felt that there was a large segment of the market that could benefit from design services, and technology was starting to allow for more transparency, accessibility, and collaboration.
These three features have become guiding lights for her startup Efreshli. "I started up Efreshli in 2019, when I had already built a very strong network with interior designers and furniture brands," she says. "When you create an online platform, there is the question of who to get on first- the suppliers or the customers? Ideally, it's the suppliers, and that's much easier if they trust you," she says. "For Efreshli, the suppliers all came onboard, they welcomed the idea, it would help showcase their products, they loved the way it looked because we paid a lot of attention to the design and quality of the visualization. They also had nothing to lose as they would only pay if their products were sold and we charged low commissions."
"Along the way some people tried to convince me to increase the fees, they felt it was worth more and people would pay for it. But for me accessibility was a key part of our mission and that's what we were doing differently than others," she added. "Once we had a critical mass of brands online the customers started to flow in, they could purchase from any brand and it was possible to do just one room, which made it affordable and convenient and this was something new because interior design had been limited to full home projects and a premium segment. To make it accessible, there had to be a tech component to it, and from the beginning we hired both designers and software engineers to work hand-in-hand."
Today, Efreshli provides convenient furnishing and design services to help create a more accessible home shopping journey, all online. The platform showcases and sells thousands of products from over 200 of Egypt's top brands, and these collaborations are due to Elgabaly's strong ties within the industry. Over the years, Efreshli has developed a strong network of ecosystem players within the design and home space, facilitating interaction among stakeholders to drive innovation in the industry as a whole. With its 60-strong team, it now combines expertise in interior design, technology, marketing, and operations. Its growth potential did not go unnoticed by investors.
The Efreshi showroom in Cairo, Egypt. Source: Efreshli
In 2021, Efreshli raised a US$550,000 seed funding round, led by angel investor Tarek Sakr and property developer Marakez. More recently, it completed its seed funding round, led by Algebra Ventures, an Egyptian tech-focused venture capital firm, with participation from San Francisco-headquartered venture fund 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups), Dar Ventures, the venture capital arm of design and engineering consultancy Dar, and angel investors. The new capital will be used for enhancing Efreshli's offerings and expanding its product line; however, the fundraising process has also brought additional (and rather less common) benefit to Elgabaly and Efreshli. "Investors and I were talking about a co-founder for Efreshli, and I said that I was looking for someone in tech or product," Elgabaly recalls. "Laila at Algebra Ventures said, 'I think I know someone.' She's in San Francisco and she's at Google.' I'm like, 'Really?' I was skeptical because I had been interviewing people all the time, but I agreed for Laila to connect me with Dina."
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Just last year, Dina Elhaddad was a Silicon Valley-based Product Lead at Google, where she played a key role in developing industry-leading products like Google Assistant and Google Shopping. Few knew that she was contemplating moving back to her native Egypt. "There were two decisions for me," Elhaddad says. "A decision to go back to Egypt, and then the second one, to join Heba. My husband and I were in the Bay Area for about nine years, started our family there, and I had built my career at Google, but we always felt like something was missing and we wanted to be back to raise our kids close to their family and their culture in Egypt. I think that was a big part of the decision for us, and we felt like this was the right time for our family to go back home."
At first, given her location, Dina offered to join the advisory board at Efreshli, and the two started having regular bi-weekly calls. "There weren't any expectations besides advising the company, so we were able to have very honest discussions, get to know each other, understand our values, share our thoughts about where the company should be going," Elhaddad says. "When it was time for me to really consider that opportunity, I had already been really comfortable with Heba. That was the biggest part of the decision, besides believing in the company and its potential. Having the right partner and believing that you can succeed and achieve your shared ambitions and goals together is crucial."
However, Elhaddad admits that leaving Google was "an extremely hard decision." She adds, "I'm a very impact-driven person, and the kind of impact you have at a place like Google is unprecedented from a scale perspective. You're at the forefront of that technology. You're able to touch it, feel it, shape it. You are impacting hundreds of millions, billions of people, which is again, an unprecedented kind of scale, and you're working with some of the best people. But, at the same time, I felt something was always missing, and I didn't realize how much I missed it actually until I moved back to Egypt and went back to my startup roots. The missing part was creating and shaping a product holistically. In Google, you shape a product, but it's a product within the umbrella of Google. But within a startup, the kind of impact you have at the company level feels very different. Also, making a business impact in your home country also feels very personal."
Elhaddad now steps in as the co-founder and Chief Product Officer (CPO) to propel Efreshli's product and technology forward. Within her new responsibilities, Elhaddad is especially eager to use her knowledge and experience to cultivate local talent in Egypt. "I believe that people are everything, and I learned this both at Google and from my startup experience as well," she says. "Hiring the right talent and spending enough time on career development and career coaching is as important as doing the job, because that's the only way you can scale. I think Heba has built a fantastic team."
Expanding on the lessons that she learnt from Google, Elhaddad adds, "The other thing I learned, which is critical in a startup, but even at a big place like Google, is being iterative. You can have a great idea, but you might get surprised by how differently it could resonate with your customers. Therefore, being able to strip things down to a minimum viable possible product or idea, and being able to iterate and test it in smaller increments is key. I am also very big on numbers. At Google, I've seen the scale of that, and how numbers can inform your decisions and shape your ideas and plans. That's why I like to set goals and think about what to expect from certain endeavors. If anyone on my team comes with an idea, I need to have a discussion about the expected outcomes of the new product or feature. But having said that, I've also come to realize that numbers alone might not be enough, so balancing that with intuition is key."
Lastly, Elhaddad believes that good teams are built through effective communication. "I learned that over-communicating and making everything explicit is important in today's world where we work in hybrid environments," she says. "It's very easy for people to drift off, and unless you're communicat- ing and over-communicating, it's very easy to go in separate directions. I really like being very clear on communication and overemphasizing things to make sure that everyone's going in the same direction and to avoid any mishaps."
The powerful duo have two big goals ahead of them; firstly, they aim for Efreshli to become the leading destination for all things home in the MENA region. "We already have 200 brands and a lot of categories, but we will continue to expand our offering so that we really are able to cater for all your home needs across different price points. Plus, we also have a showroom in Cairo, and we're now thinking how we can bridge the gap between offline and online and convert our showroom visitors into interior design users," Elhaddad says. "In addition, we also aim to tap into the overall ecosystem, meaning that we're trying to become a destination for everyone in that space, not just the consumers."
Their second goal is to expand Efreshli into the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the near future. "We were able to create a convenient and accessible interior design offering in Egypt, but it's needed everywhere," Elgabaly explains. "We've built something that can work in different markets with certain adaptations. There are pieces that could be centralized and would benefit from economies of scale, such as our technol- ogy. Likely, the tech team will remain in Egypt. The product itself, whether the vendor portal or the way we interact with our vendors or the consumer facing side of the business can be easily tailored and stretched to these markets while managing it from Egypt. But there are pieces to it that need to be adapted and localized, such as local partnerships and business development teams on the ground, that have to be adapted for each country."
Elgabaly and Elhaddad, who are both Harvard MBA graduates, will now combine their complementary skills - Elgabaly's industry knowledge and connections and Elhad- dad's tech prowess - to make high-quality interior design accessible for consumers across the MENA region. On that path, the entrepreneurial duo is well aware of industry trends. "Personalization is a big one," Elhaddad says. "Nothing gets more personal than your home. Personalization is generally a trend in all industries, but specifically in this space. It's almost an expectation of all custom- ers. When you look at global players, you see personalized recommendations and customizations options, and so, everyone is now trying to cater for that need in a scalable way. Efreshli actually got ahead of that trend because one of our core tenants is to offer a personalized, one-on-one, and accessible solution. We are now focused on using technology to scale personalization in a more meaningful way. Another trend is, of course, artificial intelligence (AI) that is really going to shake up the interior design industry, and we're looking at the right AI applications for our businesses."
With its finger on the pulse of interior design trends and the co-founders' expertise and deep understanding of local market needs, Efreshli is set to shape the future of the industry in the region, and before we part ways, I ask Elgabaly for advice for other founders from her journey of building Efreshli so far. "The vision that you have for your business is not going to go from point A to Z exactly the way you want it," she says. "You have to know that your vision is Z, but you have to be flexible that it is going to take a few curves to get there. You're going to set a goal, and somebody is going to do it a little bit differently than you would, and you have to be ok with that. Otherwise, you can try to do it alone, but you're not going to go very far. So, it's all about getting the best people that you can find, empowering them, and getting comfortable with things not following that direct straight line that you envisioned."
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Laila Hassan, General Partner at Algebra Ventures
"We are committed to supporting startups that are pushing the boundaries of innovation to address significant market gaps. Efreshli is a perfect fit as they are transforming the interior design business model in Egypt and the MENA region by enabling affordable design personalization and diverse product selection through technology. We believe in the incredible potential of Heba and Dina as co-founders, and their dedication to creating a platform that democratizes design for consumers is truly inspiring. By investing in Efreshli, we are not just backing a business; we are championing a movement that empowers individuals to create personalized spaces in their homes. We are excited to be part of this journey and look forward to seeing Efreshli set new standards in the industry."
Nader Aboushadi Co-founder and Director of Dar Ventures
"Dar Ventures looks to foster innovation in the AEC space, offering a unique proposition of smart capital and industry support. With Efreshli's journey being right at the intersection of design, technology, and sustainability they align with all what's core to us at Dar Ventures.The disruption to the industry, coupled with the transformation the company is undergoing are very exciting. With Heba's vision, strong leadership and drive, combined with Dina's technological/digital expertise, we believe Efreshli is well-positioned to scale and grow."
