Typically, Almaha Almuhairi is either the youngest in the space, the only lady, or the only Emirati. Often, she’s all 3.
It’s a position that might quickly feel isolating– however the INSEAD MBA graduate has actually turned that into a power relocation, something that may involve a childhood that revolved around computer systems and plants. She was not allowed to utilize computer systems as a kid– but went on to pursue computer scienceAlmuhairi grew up in a home where computer systems were, until her 12th birthday, strictly off-limits. Her moms and dads, items of a more cautious generation, even wrote letters to her school to exempt her from computer class.
The outcome was foreseeable: she became even more curious. Consumed, even. At one point, she took apart her family home’s hulking desktop just to put it back together– within hours, by herself.
Her father discovered. The restriction against computer systems silently dissolved.
That early instinct to break things and put them back together once again would define her entire future. She even went on to study computer science at university.
However somewhere in between the lecture halls and the strain she felt from too much blue light, she saw something: she was spending 16-plus hours a day taking a look at screens.
She needed a hobby that got her hands filthy. She tried art. She tried sports. Then a childhood memory emerged. She had loved growing things. So, she picked up gardening once again– but this time it wasn’t decorative plants. It was food.
How a pandemic roof garden blew up into a companyWhat began as an individual experiment on her rooftop during the pandemic ultimately ended up being a viral minute. She ‘d shared a fast video with good friends demonstrating how she ‘d turned the space into a greenhouse … and it spread way beyond her group chat. Even government authorities connected.
Having the ability to grow food in the UAE is a huge offer. This is a country withoutfood security. Over 85% of its food is imported which indicates whenever there are disturbances to worldwide supply chains, price, and currency exchange rate, it’s hard to access to sufficient safe and nutritious food.
The UAE’s food fragility is most likely worsened due to the Israel-Iran war, as the closure of the strait of Hormuz is additional intensifying risks of food shortages. Almuhairi had been preaching about this for several years. She joined competition after competition throughout her undergraduate studies– start-up weekends, bootcamps, pitching events. In 2015, she won the distinguished Think Science nationwide competitors, pitching a wise home fridge created for growing microgreens. She did it without a university representative, nearly got expelled for missing a week of class to go to, and ended up receiving motivation from the Crown Prince of Dubai himself.
Business (Mahaya’s Farm) that emerged from that rooftop video is now 5 years of ages. Her soil product, Mahaya’s Super Potting Mix, has been best-in-category because its launch. She even has a trademarked item, the TerraPod, a pot that’s tech-enabled and designed to improve plant growth.
In any case, Almuhairi has actually built an online-first business model from the ground up, targeting home growers like herself at a time when the world had pulled away indoors and retail foot traffic had evaporated. It was a tactical bet that settled.
So, why the requirement to pursue an MBA still?After years of founding and running ventures, alongside a stint at Accenture as a management expert, Almuhairi made a decision that amazed some individuals: she signed up for INSEAD’s MBA program.
Most MBA candidates show up hoping to break into consulting or financing. Going versus the grain, Almuhairi arrived wanting to leave speaking with behind totally.
Although she currently had experience as a creator, she was truthful about what she did not have: official business structures. She comprehended ROI, read her own invoices, handled the numbers.
However she wanted the trustworthiness and the vocabulary to stand in front of financiers and VCs– people who had questioned her certifications, who had wondered aloud how somebody without an agriculture background and without an organization degree could lead an agri-tech company.
An INSEAD MBA would offer her that extra trustworthiness– and then some.
The choice of school was likewise deliberate. An one-year program with campuses spanning Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, INSEAD aligned exactly with her five-year strategy. She had no interest in programs anchored in the United States, as her organization was rooted in the Gulf and targeted towards global markets that mirror the nations that INSEAD’s mate originated from.
Being the female in the space Almuhairi graduated in July 2024. As her business, Mahaya’s, is still in the structure stages, she has actually selected to continue with a business job and is working at Amazon Web Solutions (AWS).
Technology, Almuhairi notes, is famously male-dominated. Agriculture provides a various paradox: the United Nations estimates that the majority of the world’s farmers are ladies, yet it is guys who disproportionately gain the financial rewards.
As an agri-tech creator, this leaves Almuhairi in a special position.
She has long experienced the double-edged truth of being visible as a female in STEM. At early bootcamps and competitors, she was in some cases chosen not totally on benefit but since organisers wanted female representation. She resented it.
She didn’t wish to be a token– she wished to walk into rooms that had other ladies in them.
That said, she is practical about advantage. In the UAE today, she argues, women in professional and entrepreneurial contexts often hold structural advantages over their male peers. After all, men face compulsory military service after graduation, while federal government efforts are actively funneling resources toward females in STEM. She takes none of that for given, however she doesn’t apologise for it either.
You take the advantages readily available to you, she states, and you build from there.
Her guidance to females looking to begin services is typically direct: don’t engineer a problem to solve. Look at your own life. Take a look at the spaces that irritate you daily, the ones that guys around you may not even discover.
The best companies, she thinks, are constructed by individuals who have lived the problem– not by people searching for one needlessly simply to be a founder.
Almaha Almuhairi is still, typically, the youngest in the room, the only female, the only Emirati. However she’s likewise, progressively, the one setting the agenda.