Q&A: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER ARTO BENDIKEN

Q AWho is your role model?

Many. Paul Graham, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, there is any number of these.

I am a big reader. So, mostly, if I am naming somebody, it is because I have read what they have written.

And so, in the same vein, there is Peter Thiel – I have followed him for a long time and read everything that he said about these matters. And also, Marc Andreessen.

If you could start over again, is there anything you would do differently?

I guess I would not. It is going good.

What new skills have you learnt setting up Haltia?

I would say definitely on the fundraising front, I am learning a lot. Despite having raised [money] before, really there is always more to learn. And this looks to be an ongoing learning process still.

What is your advice to other entrepreneurs?

The first one, learn the fundamentals of whatever you are doing. The second one is do not give up too easily. Many people give up quite easily. And the third one would be, do not be afraid to fail … I have failed a few times. Failure is just learning and you move on.

What is your goal?

I want to basically help bring about the world that I grew up reading about. So, I am a consumer of science fiction, and that is why we are naming our meetings [AI gatherings in Dubai] the Asimov meet-up, after Isaac Asimov, who invented the (laws of) robotics, invented AI alignment, and invented prompt engineering 100 years ago.

I want to actually have the world a little closer to what I read about growing up instead of this kind of rut we have been stuck in for some decades. You know, we were promised flying cars, Back to the Future and all of that. And it is only the UAE making that happen and is serious about it. So, that is good.