From Founder to Funder

​This fireside chat explores the journey from building companies to backing them. It brings together two operators who have lived both sides of the startup equation: Chris Rogers, an entrepreneur-turned-investor, and Magnus Olsson, who co-founded one of the region’s most iconic tech companies and is now actively investing in the next generation of founders.

​As the MENA ecosystem matures, more founders are becoming funders. This session offers an honest, experience-led look at:

• ​From building to backing: how founder experience shapes investment decisions
• Founder–funder dynamics: expectations, support, and boundaries after investment
• People vs patterns: intuition versus models in founder-led investing
• Paying it forward: reinvesting success to strengthen the ecosystem