Meet Mohammed Aldhalaan and Dr. Abdulaziz AlSaeed, co-founders of Noon
Noon was founded in 2013 by Mohammed Aldhalaan and Dr. Abdulaziz AlSaeed, as a simple test prep website capitalising on the regional opportunity in private tutoring. Eight years down the line and thousands of data-driven experiments later, Noon has transformed into a full-fledged social learning platform that allows students to study with friends in groups, compete with one another, and join mass classes with top teachers.
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
A: Education is not an instant pleasure for many students, but it is a medium through which – when delivered effectively – can boost confidence and shape characters. This, alongside my parents both being teachers and doing a spot of teaching myself whilst studying for my PHD, was the reason I explored starting an edtech business.
I feel the current education system does not teach enough students at one time. Education, and the process of being taught by fantastic teachers is something that stays with a person for the rest of their life, and I wanted to leave this positive mark on as many people as possible. Today Noon teaches more than 16 million students.
M: Tech can be highly transformative and can impact millions of lives within education. Our end goal is to take Noon all the way to an IPO (Initial Public Offering). This incorporates our core value of ‘beyond self’ which means we intend to build something bigger than ourselves which will last for generations to come.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as an entrepreneur?
M: Approach with a discovery mindset. Your own ideas should never be the main focus, nor should seeking validation for them. It’s the validation that comes from data which ultimately wins.
A: Don’t be the smartest guy in the room.
Working with a co-founder can be tricky, so understanding and compromise is important. How have you both found the process of building a business together? What makes it work?
M: We have known each other for a long time. However, there are some essential ingredients to any working relationship that must always be present in our opinion, such as trust, communication and self-awareness. We have made sure that our relationship is healthy enough to weather any disputes or disagreements, as well as being able to hold each other accountable.
A: Our skills complement each other as well, adding a great balance to the relationship and how we navigate our friendship alongside this. We also know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, which helps.
What does your business offer its target audience?
M: At Noon, we want to provide a unique solution for the problem we see students face in education today - lack of motivation. We offer tutoring and free educational content through a ‘freemium’ model that allows all users access to rich, live learning experiences with peers, and only charge users for access to more advanced content.
A: We are also in the process of transforming Noon into an open platform; allowing brilliant teachers to start their own educational groups, cultivating their own following and generating additional income through excellent performance and positive reviews. We believe this approach not only dramatically improves student motivation, but allows exceptional teachers to teach thousands of students in one group, making high-quality education accessible and affordable to the masses.
With all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap. How do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?
M: Back in 2017, Noon innovated the edtech sector by being the first company to offer social learning at scale. We genuinely believed that from listening and talking to students we were able to anticipate and discover common pain points. However, it was clear no-one had cracked the biggest problem in education – boredom amongst students when learning.
A: Don’t get us wrong, our method was definitely a case of trial and error. We pivoted the business’s direction multiple times, we changed apps, operations and also the problem we were aiming to solve.
What plans do you have for Noon over the next two years?
M: There are a lot of plans in discussion at the moment for how we progress Noon today, tomorrow and in two years time. But there are three burning priorities for us currently.
M: First, we want to double down on social, peer to peer learning and build the foundation for global scaling. Recently our brand opened an office in London, something we see as a huge step in cementing our position within the edtech space, by working with some of the leading tech engineers in the UK.
A: Next, we aim to strengthen our market position by scaling our Noon Plus subscription and attract top educators in each key market we operate in.
M: Finally, to build our brand to achieve global status.
How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?
M: Company culture is the most important thing. To get it right means ensuring you hire the right people. Easier said than done I know, but this is vital.
A: Hiring for the culture fit rather than fitting the culture to the individual you have hired. Tolerating a bad culture fit for too long is a mistake. There is no point waiting until they have destroyed a lot of the culture before negotiations are being made to remove them from the business, as the damage could be irreparable.
What’s the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves?
M: Does the product I am creating fit the market I am creating it for? Nothing is more important than nailing the product.
What would be your top three tips to fellow entrepreneurs to look after their mental health?
M: Having the right people around you – especially in your executive team. These are the people you trust, respect and ultimately communicate with on a daily basis so it is important they have a positive impact on your wellbeing.
A: Be mindful of what gives you energy and what takes it away. Do the things you love more than the things you don’t. Where you can, try to outsource the things you don’t love doing as much.
A: Have someone – whether in your business or outside – around you that you are able to share exactly how you are feeling, safely knowing there will be no judgement.
How do you believe the evolution of tech will impact your industry over the next 10 years?
M: Tech will help the edtech industry move forwards, and then a couple of steps back. Much of what we have seen to date within our space has involved putting what happens offline, online - and in doing so, it becomes broken, losing the human touch. And no one appears to be fixing it.
The evolution of tech will enable only the best teachers to teach from anywhere in the world. AI will allow students to study at the right time, right place, with the right teacher and minimise any of the boundaries currently in place.
A: Amazing teachers are out there but sometimes hard to spot. The evolution of tech will help bring these to the forefront, from remote parts of the world, and allow our service, our ambition to be global.
Hiring the right team is vital in any business. What are your top three tips for hiring and developing engineering talent?
M: Start from the top down. Having great leaders already in place is the most effective way to attract the best engineering talent. For us, it was truly easier to hire an accomplished tech leader, than it was to hire an experienced engineer of five years in the industry. You can sell the mission, the dream and the vision to leaders and they understand their part. But for the engineers, they always ask, and rightly so ‘who am I going to learn from’ and ‘what’s in it for me’. You can’t offer that to them if the top leaders aren’t in place.
A: Great talent joins because of the mission and not because of the salaries. Having the right mission in place is a magnet for talent.
Retaining talent is more difficult than attracting, so try to hold on to your employees as much as possible. Allowing your employees to find themselves within the company by having the right structures, support systems and people in place will facilitate this. Challenge your employees. Encourage original thinking.
