Beyond Compare
Mahmoud Akrin, Founder & CEO of GoBazzar, explains how the start-up began and shares the company’s vision to become the world’s leading price comparison platform.
What is GoBazzar and what is your vision for the platform?
GoBazzar is a smart, real-time price comparison platform designed to help online shoppers make easy decisions. Our vision is to be the leading price comparison platform globally, with different verticals including retail, flights, hotels, car rentals, and more. In addition to price comparison, we also focus on coupons as we believe they play an important part in providing consumers with the best savings.
The platform will be intelligent enough to predict what you need without you thinking about it. We will achieve this by implementing AI that creates a marriage between community shopping and social commerce.
What was the inspiration behind GoBazzar?
After visiting a global summit, I realized that the online business segment was growing in the Middle East very rapidly and that there was a need to help consumers to save time and money when shopping online.
With your experience in starting and managing businesses, what advice would you give to up-andcoming entrepreneurs?
Having a clear idea supported by a well-defined strategy is essential. It is also important to research the market well and talk to other startups and learn from them. I would also advise new entrepreneurs to develop a minimum viable product – or MVP – test the market, and not be afraid to experiment.
For any business, having the right team with the same vision is critical too, and it is better to build your product in-house with your own development team if possible, but expect to spend a lot of money! As for third-party support, I would say always use top firms already in the market as they will help you expand quickly. It may be expensive, but it will be worth it in the end.
It’s also a good idea to apply to accelerators as they will guide and support you in your early journey. Attending seminars relevant to your industry can also help, and it’s important to network and always continue learning.
Last but not least, review you progress daily, as things will change!
How do you see the future of GoBazzar?
We plan to have full coverage in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the U.S., and the U.K. this year. We see GoBazzar as a one-stop solution for all consumers, providing clear information on price and availability. We want the GoBazzar name on everyone’s tongue as we become the norm for the global consumer. Soon enough, if you want to buy something then you’ll just “GoBazzar it.”