Ayham Gorani is a Germany-born entrepreneur and computer scientist who has been building digital businesses for nearly two decades. After founding and exiting his first company in Germany, he moved to the UAE in 2011, drawn by the region’s momentum and the opportunity to build where his technical skill set was needed most.As Co-Founder and CEO of Pemo, Ayham is focused on helping founders and finance teams reclaim time by modernizing how businesses manage spend. His approach blends long-term thinking with practical execution, shaped by real-world lessons in entrepreneurship, product building, and operating across fast-evolving markets.About This EpisodeIn this episode, Hilmarie sits down with Ayham Gorani to unpack the decisions behind building a fintech company in the GCC, from timing the market to navigating fragmented regulations and infrastructure gaps. Ayham shares why he waited years before launching Pemo, what it took to issue the first card, and how “building foundations before speed” helped the company scale.The conversation also gets tactical for founders: how to approach fundraising with discipline, why validation beats “is this a good idea?”, and how AI is reshaping fintech toward more automation and fewer interfaces. Ayham’s green pill moment is a reminder that growth often comes when there’s no one else to blame, and your success or failure comes down to knowing yourself.Quotes2:51 - Sometimes you just have to take the leap of faith and go for it, and the rest will come together.6:09 - I wanted to help founders and business leaders really focus on what matters.12:05 - We have built Pemo on a mindset that this is here to scale.12:21 - We have established a strong foundation when it comes to building Pemo. That is one of the decisions that we took early on.13:11 - I would probably add to that, I don't believe there is a right or wrong. And I believe as an entrepreneur, we have to be able to do both.13:44 - A few learnings that I had personally that in order to raise funds, it has to be a very structured approach with clear deadlines, with clear preparation and being ready to go to market to close around very quickly.14:59 - Build a team that can fundraise and that complements each other to get the traction that is needed to raise the funds.18:03 - The skill set of validating ideas before building anything is very important, not only for the entrepreneurship journey, but for anything in life. 19:50 - As entrepreneurs, we need to think of where the future is going and how the future will look, and then point in that direction and build the company accordingly.20:42 - You have to think about your data and how you manage your data.21:48 - Learn to validate.22:27 - Trust my instincts, to really look into my own faults and try to optimize them because there was no one else to blame if things failed.Useful LinksWebsite:https://www.pemo.io/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getpemo/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayhamg/ The Matrix Green Pill Podcast: https://thematrixgreenpill.com/Please review us: https://g.page/r/CS8IW35GvlraEAI/review