My Morning Routine: Waseem Afzal, founder and CEO of Fast Ventures
This post has been originally published on Enterprise UAE Edition, My Morning Routine: Waseem Afzal, founder and CEO of Fast Ventures
My litmus test is, if I removed myself from the company, would it still run?
Waseem Afzal, founder and CEO of Fast Ventures: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the business community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Waseem Afzal (LinkedIn), founder and CEO of Fast Ventures. Edited excerpts from our conversation:
I'm Waseem. I come from an agency background and spent 16 years at Omnicom Media Group in a variety of leadership roles. After that, I did three years at TikTok, where I was responsible for monetization of the app's ads business across the Middle East. Then I founded Platformance and the holding company Fast Ventures, which are low-funnel growth acquisition businesses designed to drive growth for a wide cross-section of advertisers in the region.
It all started during my time at TikTok. I could clearly see the industry was at a crossroads. There were two sides: one part of the industry remained quite traditional, while a new generation of digital-native advertisers was emerging. These businesses had no physical footprint and were heavily focused on customer acquisition rather than vanity metrics like engagement or awareness.
I felt that if we could bootstrap a platform focused on growth acquisition, we could address a clear gap in the market. We launched Platformance first, and just over two years later, we’ve onboarded over 200 advertisers across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the broader region. We've grown to a team of 140 people, mostly based in Dubai, with smaller teams in Riyadh and Cairo.
Fast is more than a name — it's the DNA of who we are. Each letter stands for something: Future Adaptive Specialist Teams. Our business is structured around three pillars: supporting businesses around customer acquisition, incubating ad tech solutions that are homegrown and respond to regional gaps, and building consumer-facing brands for Gen Z and millennials in the region.
Three trends are shaping the industry in the Middle East right now. First, AI. It’s changing the way we do business, connect with consumers, and operate as organizations. One of our entities, Lion, is an AI-first creative shop where 100% of the work is fully developed by AI. This lets us ship faster, iterate constantly, and improve speed to market.
Second, the rise of micro-creators. We've seen a shift from macro-influencers to micro and nano creators, who tend to move the needle on sales far more effectively. Community ambassadors and small creators are becoming central to performance marketing.
The third is retail media. There's a growing appetite to tap into previously elusive platforms — from quick-commerce apps to ride-hailing services like Careem — that are opening up their ecosystems to advertisers. There's a global stat floating around that all media will become retail media by 2030. We’re not there yet regionally, but the momentum is building.
A typical day for me is about firing on multiple cylinders. We're a rocket ship that's flying and still being built midair. I’m hands-on with our go-to-market strategy, product development, engineering timelines, and internal process design. I come from a very process-driven background. My litmus test is, if I removed myself from the company, would it still run? A year and a half ago, we might have collapsed. Today, I think the business would do just fine.
Cashflow is a major part of my day, too. We’re bootstrapped, and payment cycles can be three to four months, so I spend a lot of time making sure we remain cashflow positive while fueling growth.
My mornings start with numbers. Each of the six entities within Fast Ventures is automated from a revenue management point of view. So after my first coffee, I go through our dashboards to see how we’re performing. I track client KPIs and red or green arrows tell me which areas need intervention. It’s a habit that ensures I'm never blindsided.
I don’t get much sleep during the week. I’m usually the last person sending messages on our internal channels at night and the first to be up and active the next morning. I try to pace myself through the day, but I like starting with a clear head and a sense of where we are performance-wise.
That said, I do make time for myself. I spend quality time with my parents, nieces, and nephews, especially on weekends. I work out regularly, partly because I love food and need to balance it out. On Saturdays, I sleep in, have breakfast with family, hit the gym, and go out in the evening. That’s my way of resetting.
We’ve achieved a lot, but Fast Ventures is just getting started. Over the next two to three years, we want to become a credible enabler between brands, consumers, and technology. Our vision is to become a homegrown ad tech alternative to global platforms and to simplify the complexity of digital for a new generation of advertisers.
Personally, I’d like to slow down a little. It’s been a fantastic run over the past two and a half years, but I’ve been going at full throttle. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by an incredible leadership team, and that gives me the space to step back a bit and be more intentional with my time. I want to focus on the things that only I can do, the decisions and actions that truly need me, and start giving more time to myself.
I’ve been hooked on the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast lately. They’re on episode 300, and I’ve probably listened to half of it in just a few weeks. Maxwell is one of the most credible voices on leadership out there, and he covers everything from building high-performance teams to leading through change — stuff we as founders always need to have top of mind. I usually listen while working out. I’m also into The Mindset Mentor, which is more personal, about staying grounded, managing stress, and keeping sane through the madness.
The best advice I’ve ever received is to stay at the center of change. When you're in the middle of change, you're always learning. When you're learning, you're evolving. When you're evolving, you're relevant. And when you're relevant, you're in demand. That advice has guided every career move I've made.
