<p>In this episode of <em>The CTO Show with Mehmet</em>, I sit down with <strong>Khaled Nazif</strong>, COO of <strong>DSquares</strong>, one of the most influential yet quietly powerful enterprise loyalty platforms in the MENA region.</p><p><br></p><p>Khaled shares his journey from <strong>Stanford and Silicon Valley</strong> back to the region, where he helped scale DSquares into a <strong>150M+ end-user platform</strong> serving banks, telcos, governments, and large enterprises across <strong>16 countries</strong>.</p><p><br></p><p>We go deep into what loyalty really means today, why most companies still misunderstand it, how culture breaks at scale if you are not intentional, and what founders in emerging markets can learn from Silicon Valley without copying it blindly.</p><p><br></p><p>This is a conversation about <strong>scale, systems, leadership, and long-term thinking</strong>.</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>👤 About the Guest</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Khaled Nazif</strong> is the Chief Operating Officer at <strong>DSquares</strong>, a leading white-labeled loyalty and engagement platform powering some of the largest enterprises and government programs across MENA and Africa.</p><p><br></p><p>Before returning to the region, Khaled spent nearly a decade in <strong>Silicon Valley</strong>, earning his MBA from <strong>Stanford</strong>, founding a B2B SaaS startup, and later working at <strong>Zendesk</strong>. He brings a rare blend of <strong>operator discipline, startup grit, and enterprise execution</strong> to scaling regional platforms.</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalednazif/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/khalednazif/</a></p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🧠 Key Takeaways</strong></p><p> • Why <strong>loyalty is misunderstood</strong> and often wrongly treated as a cost center</p><p> • How DSquares scaled <strong>without VC hype</strong> and stayed bootstrapped for 13 years</p><p> • What it really means to move from a <strong>“pirate” startup culture to a “navy” scale-up</strong></p><p> • Why <strong>government loyalty programs</strong> are not an oxymoron</p><p> • The importance of <strong>productization</strong> when scaling enterprise platforms</p><p> • How culture breaks after ~150 people and what leaders must do proactively</p><p> • What MENA founders can learn from Silicon Valley and what they should ignore</p><p> • Why failure must be normalized for ecosystems to truly mature</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🎯 What You Will Learn</strong></p><p> • How to scale enterprise platforms across multiple countries and cultures</p><p> • How loyalty, data, and behavior change intersect at scale</p><p> • Why leadership transitions matter more than founder heroics</p><p> • How to think long-term when building in emerging markets</p><p> • Why execution discipline beats hype cycles every time</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>⏱ Episode Highlights &amp; Timestamps</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>00:00</strong> – Welcome and introduction</p><p><strong>02:00</strong> – Khaled’s journey from Stanford to Silicon Valley</p><p><strong>05:30</strong> – What DSquares really does and why most people don’t know it</p><p><strong>09:00</strong> – Scaling loyalty across banks, telcos, and governments</p><p><strong>13:30</strong> – Loyalty vs transactions: what most companies get wrong</p><p><strong>18:00</strong> – Using data and gamification to influence behavior</p><p><strong>23:00</strong> – Loyalty as a revenue driver, not a cost center</p><p><strong>27:30</strong> – Bootstrapping DSquares and resisting VC pressure</p><p><strong>33:00</strong> – Replacing a founder and scaling leadership responsibly</p><p><strong>38:30</strong> – The 150-employee culture breaking point</p><p><strong>45:00</strong> – Pirate vs Navy mindset and operational maturity</p><p><strong>51:00</strong> – Silicon Valley lessons that actually work in MENA</p><p><strong>57:00</strong> – Failure, risk-taking, and ecosystem maturity</p><p><strong>01:03:00</strong> – Advice for founders building in emerging markets</p><p><strong>01:08:00</strong> – Closing thoughts and where to connect with Khaled</p><p><br></p><p>⸻</p><p><br></p><p><strong>🔗 Resources &amp; Mentions</strong></p><p> • <strong>DSquares</strong> – Enterprise Loyalty &amp; Engagement Platform : <a href="https://dsquares.com/">https://dsquares.com/</a></p><p> • Book referenced: <em>Blitzscaling</em> by Reid Hoffman</p>