We recently interviewed Monah Al Jneibi, the Founder and Owner of BFF Gram, a social networking application that combines everything on a single platform. This social platform focuses on building and sharing meaningful knowledge, helping its users lead a meaningful and fulfilling life. Monah Al Jneibi is highly skilled in the domains of business planning, development, change management, knowledge management, business strategy, coaching, to name a few.
As the founder and owner of BFF Gram, she has multiple responsibilities, such as leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy, evaluating the company’s success, etc. Apart from these, Monah Al Jneibi has bagged various honors and recognition in years of her career path. Let’s learn more about Monah and her journey through this interview below.
Start of the Journey
We started the interview by asking, “Which career path led you to where you are today?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “It all started at Abu Dhabi pensions fund when I was asked to work on knowledge management (KM) in 2009. From there, my passion grew for capturing and sharing knowledge using traditional and innovative tools. This was done through my day-to-day job. However, I was also able to pursue my passion after I established my first company in KM consultancy. As a company, we developed a concept known today as UAE National Games and Active Play to promote knowledge transfer from subject matter experts to our players through game-based learning.
The work continued; back in 2012, where I presented a prototype of what’s known today as Metaverse; back then, it was a very ambitious concept for people to understand, unlike today. So since 2017, I’ve been working on a social media application that represents what we are today, a social networking platform with knowledge management as its foundation and its three main pillars: know yourself better, meaningful connections, and the building of knowledge blocks. With the launch of this application which is currently in beta release, it will be the first social media application with different features and modules than today’s social media developed by a woman internationally.”
Inspiration Behind Building The Brand
We were intrigued to learn about the significant factors that inspired Monah Al Jneibi to establish the successful business she owns today. We asked, “What inspired you to develop the idea for your company?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “The story behind the business idea is based on my 13 years of experience in knowledge management (KM). The area of KM entails the understanding of capturing and sharing knowledge. The aim is to encourage individuals of the public to capture their knowledge in an interactive application. The application also incorporates concepts like gamification and a one-stop shop.
Research shows that most social networking applications focus on one or two aspects of KM. However, the end goal of this project is to combine most, if not all, aspects of KM incorporated with concepts like European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and Self Awareness.”
Monah Al Jneibi continued, “We will develop our business by developing and managing an application, which will entail building an active sales team, delivering quality service, monitoring competitors, identifying new opportunities, and forming strategic partnerships with third-party providers.
Here are stories to shed light on why the founder personally chose to start this business:
- Crowdfunding: As a family, we celebrate birthdays and go on summer trips, but we need pre-approvals to crowdfund privately.
- Savings: As a founder, I look to create an application that accumulates savings with less commission/interest rate on my own or with others within an agreed duration.
- Family Trees: As a founder, I am half Emirati and half Welsh. My father’s family is originally from Oman, and I wonder if my ancestors are from somewhere else. Interestingly, my mother’s family has pure German ancestors. As of today, I have no contact with my extended family members based in other countries.
- Classmate Trees: As a founder, I have photos of myself with classmates. However, today, I need help contacting them directly. What if we had an app that allowed classmates to join a group in a tree layout once confirmed by each other to avoid fake users joining the group?
- Diaries: As a founder, I look to create an e-diary for my late grandfather. The application will allow family members to contribute to an e-diary to gather photos and stories of my grandfather. Such an e-diary will easily be shared with the next generations to come.
- Knowledge: As a founder, I look to capture my parents’ personal knowledge & experiences, like who to go to when I need my car fixed or the best route to take when driving. Such information will help the current generation avoid reinventing the wheel.
- Advice: As an entrepreneur, I found it hard to approach successful entrepreneurs to ask them for guidance and mentorship. As of today, there is no easy way to reach a wide range of subject matter experts and book appointments with them.
- Tasks: As a family, we do barbecue nights in winter, and all discussions, planning, and delegation are done through texting. But planning a barbecue night or a summer trip is equal to planning a project for work. Why not have an app that helps plan successful and stress-free family events by allowing users to create tasks, delegate and do follow-ups.”
Evolving Priorities
Over the years of functioning in the industry, businesses tend to shape their priorities per the latest trends. We asked, “How have your priorities in terms of business evolved since you first started?”
Monah Al Jneibi replied, “I am still adding to my timeline on Instagram, it shows that it started with becoming a single parent, wanting to prove myself as a mother and a business owner and that one day I will make it. I have learnt a lot from reading and watching documentaries but of course knowledge is much easier than execution, which involves looking for people to work on the project, registering the company, to understanding what I want the employees to achieve and how they can implement it. As intrapreneurs, we have a vision, but we’re not taught how to do business daily.”
Monah Al Jneibi added, “It’s not been easy, I learnt from my mistakes and from the decisions I made; I can tell you that I’ve chosen the wrong people in the past, signed contracts with wrong companies, and therefore haven’t seen immediate results to my vision, but that is what makes me who I am today – like my mother says – perseverance, persistence, and patience and that either makes you or breaks you.
I’ve been in situations where people can see my passion in my eyes while talking about the project, and others who underestimate what I can bring to the table and assume they can take advantage of my time or finances for their own gain. I’ve always been a confident and strong person, but I’ve also always been an introvert who finds it hard to be in the spotlight, and I had to learn how to accept that as part of managing a business.”
Major Obstacles In The Market
Challenges are an inevitable part of any business, and efficiently overcoming them holds importance. So we asked, “What are the most challenging situations your company overcomes?”
Monah Al Jneibi replied,
- Family/work balance: Besides having a family, being a single parent, and working full time, I still had to find time to work on the things that I am most passionate about, so one day I can make a mark.
- Outsourcing work: It takes time to know exactly who to approach, and how they will either commit or deliver the project. There were a lot of misunderstandings, delays, and financial constraints.
- Financial constraints: The difficulty in understanding how much it will cost for employees, outsourcing projects, and personal day-to-day expenses with establishing and running a company. That being said, it is essential to depend on your personal budget and not seek a loan from the bank, even if it takes longer to finish the project.
“What’s the critical strength to overcome it?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared,
- Family/work balance: Business owners will look for team members for their projects, but the hardest thing to do is acknowledge and understand what skills and experiences they bring to the table and how it can be utilized to achieve the mission. That in itself motivates employees to do exactly what they love to do while achieving the ultimate goal.
- Outsourcing work: Building a network, whether it’s on a professional platform or talking to people you know, would be the closest you can get to the right person or company inwhich to outsource the work to. But even with being careful, asking around, and relying on referrals, you can still outsource the work to the wrong person or company, but that will only add to your downfalls or quick wins and add to the knowledge and experience you gain from such interactions.
- Financial constraints: It’s good to attend courses and entrepreneurship programs to enlighten yourself on the aspects of business, for example, doing a financial cashflow or a stakeholder/investor slide deck. Sometimes to overcome financial constraints, I would suggest doing rounds of family/friends crowdfunding. People will only invest if they understand the potential of the project even if it’s only a prototype.
Stand-Out Factors
We wanted to learn about the unique features of Monah Al Jneibi’s company that makes it different from the crowd. We asked, “What makes your company stand out from all the other businesses in your industry?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “Personal information of over 235 million social media users leaked due to an insecure database. You probably remember the significant data leak from Social Data discovered by the cybersecurity company Comparitech in 2020.
Now imagine it’s your information that has been stolen.
Your name, phone number, email address, profile picture, biographical information, and location data. Your personal information → available to anyone with access to the database.
All of Social Datas’ clients and any hacker who noticed the leak had access to it. The truth is that most people agree that data breach is a RISK that worries them.”
She continued, “But unfortunately, what they do is:
- Download many apps to deal with their daily tasks
- Accept terms and conditions they don’t read
- Use social media apps that focus on advertisements
- Getting the information they need takes too long because it is scattered ● Information is all over the place, and some is even lost
- Lose time going from one app to another
Now, why is this happening?
Creators of apps need to gain knowledge management skills and have the user’s benefit in mind.
What you need is an application created by someone who understands that:
- Change is needed
- Users’ data is not for sale
- Users’ privacy is important
- Safe content is important
And with this, create an application that helps you:
- Know yourself better
- Creates meaningful interactions
- Offers knowledge blocks
Well, that’s what I have created with BFF Gram.”
KPIs For Measuring Business Success
“What KPIs do you use to measure your business success?”
Monah shared, “Having a business strategy with KPIs or performance indicators plus a business model is very important. I was fortunate enough to have that experience from my professional day-to-day job, and we as a team were able to develop such documents. So our version is to become the number one social media application in both Apple Store and Google Play.
And to achieve that, our three pillars internally are safeguarding user data, outstanding customer service, innovation, and creativity from both developers and users.”
Current Services
To learn more about the available services of her company, we asked Monah Al Jneibi, “Tell us something about your services. What are you working on now?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “BFF Gram aims to be one of the most popular social networking platforms globally after launching in the UK. This multi-feature application will be known for its family/friends/advisors’ networking capabilities.”
Effective Teamwork
Building trust and encouraging the entire team is paramount for the success of any business. We asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “Since the establishment of my first company in 2011, my challenge was working full-time and then finding time after that for my own business. The employees were working online from home. The employees can tell you how much they enjoyed working for the company, whether in 2011 or 2019 with BFF Gram, because it was and still is about what they can bring to the table that they are passionate about and can deliver with quality.”
Monah Al Jneibi added, “There is only such burnout if we are organizing an event that needs our attention. Employees can take time off or attend to personal matters if their work is finished. How do I know the work is done, especially when things are done online and from home? We adopted a platform where everyone knows what’s happening every minute, and decisions can be taken immediately.
The only thing I would consider was a challenge between 2011 and 2020, and most likely my employees would agree, is when I had a full-time job, I had limited time to review and approve many aspects of the business promptly. Otherwise, assigning the work to the right person would always help speed the process. I can call and text my employees day or night, and they will always reply, which shows how committed we all are to achieving our goal.”
Adapting To the Latest Technologies
Transforming the business to meet the market trends and adopt fresh technology has equal importance for its success. We asked, “How do you stay on top of new technologies and trends in your industry?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “Internally and on the platform, we encourage anyone and everyone to add the latest news and trends. We all are aware of what kind of competition we’re up against. As a business owner, researching the latest news on the different trends and what companies are doing in our industry is key to knowing how far and how fast one needs to move, and in some cases, when to announce updates and changes because of someone else’s downfall.”
Advice To Beginners
We asked Monah Al Jneibi to say a few words addressing the beginners who are starting in the same field so that they can develop an idea about the industry. We asked, “What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
Monah Al Jneibi replied, “My advice is to find a mentor or mentors who can support you in your journey with no cost associated and, more importantly, they should understand and believe in your project. I am always eager to mentor entrepreneurs and share my insights on how to start a business.
Entrepreneurs would always want to dream big, but my advice is to start small; building small blocks will eventually get you to dream big and achieve your goals. Lastly, never underestimate the balance between family and work because when you’re successful, they will be there to cheer, and when you fall, they will lift you up.”
Recognitions So Far
To understand the honors received by Monah Al Jneibi and her company, we asked, “What recognition and awards are given to the company or founder?”
Monah Al Jneibi shared, “I have been recognized as one of 51 Emirati Women Achievers in 2022 and will receive the following 2 awards in September 2023.
- Global 200 Inspirational Leaders
- Asian’s 100 Women Power Leaders
The Welsh Government & EU funded initiative has accepted and supported the company. The launch of BFF Gram will be from the UK to the world and is currently in BETA Release at 98% for both iOS and Android.”
Connect with Monah Al Jneibi on LinkedIn.
Find The BFF Gram on LinkedIn, Instagram, or visit https://www.bffgram.com/.
