Nadine Hanafi is a role model that we should all look up to. The young Moroccan woman was selected in 2014 as one of the 100 best entrepreneurs under the age of 35 and was awarded by the United Nations in New York. Three years later, she was ranked among the most influencial Arabs under 40 years old in the world. Portrait. Nadine Hanafi is a Moroccan entrepreneur who has been based in the United States since 2004. She has embraced entrepreneurship through her business venture «We are Visual». The 30-year-old woman has managed to stand out in the business world . «The mission of We are Visual is to prove that Powerpoint is not boring. I want to tell people that Powerpoint is a powerful tool with which they can get creative. Our objective is to take the boring Powerpoint presentations and transform them, to help them tell a visual story while being original», explains Nadine Hanafi to Yabiladi in an enthusiastic way. Her business has seen light under completely coincidental circumstances. After studying international trade in Florida, Nadine Hanafi worked as a marketing director at a travel agency in Miami : «One of the agency's graphic designers was not there to make a Powerpoint presentation. I took care of it. I enjoyed my work, and then one thing led to another and I became the «Powerpoint girl» of the company.» «I started leading training sessions for my colleagues. It became more enjoyable than my job as a marketing manager. I did that in addition to my job. One day I said to myself : 'I am not getting paid for the extra work I do'. When I did my market research, I realized there was a demand in that niche market. During six months started paving the way and putting money aside. In August 2013, it was the beginning of my venture», recalls the entrepreneur. A happy coincidence and hard work The Agadir native has always been moved by the desire of creating her own business. «I was just waiting for the perfect idea,» she said. «When I was studying at the university, I worked to pay my bills, rent, and so on. I took some time off of my studies at some point because I loved working. I worked in the mortgage industry just before the subprime crisis. I have gained expertise in sales and that has helped me enormously to accomplish what I do, and then I resumed my studies in international trade,» Nadine Hanafi adds. The beginning of «We are Visual» have not been easy. The Moroccan businesswoman worked hard, created presentations and published them on Slideshare, «the Youtube of Powerpoint», and she was chosen to appear on their front page. «I had put $7,000 aside, that was all I had to invest in the website and to get by until the business start making profit. I left Miami to live in Melbourne (Florida) where rent was much cheaper», adds Nadine Hanafi. She then applied to work with TedTalks, and they hired her immediately «they sent me an e-mail after 45 minutes and said, «where were you ? We were waiting for you, «she said while laughing. Meanwhile, Nadine Hanafi was publishing everything she has created on social media. «What I did not know was that an American journalist from Fast Company magazine had been following me for months on Twitter. In March 2014, I received an e-mail from this journalist who wanted to interview me. At the time, I had an 8-month-old start-up. As soon as this interview was published, I started recieving calls from customers that any start-up founder would have dreamed of, including Disney, General Electric... Around 1,400 companies called me. It surprised me because these companies have their own graphics department. I was 26 years old at the time». Digital Nomad Nadine Hanafi now lives between Marrakech and Miami. «I hired people in Miami and I had a self-awareness moment: I was not happy. I was working from 9 to 5 and had my own personal problems to manage. I lost the passion for what I was doing. I fired everybody and since then I've been running my company exclusively online». «I'm a digital nomad», she adds,«it is a trend of entrepreneurs who choose to put their quality of life ahead of money. Instead of growing their business, they grow their income. They build completely virtual companies. You hire people on the other side of the world that you recruit on every project, so you can work from anywhere and all you need is an Internet connection.» This Minnesota native studied at the French high school of Agadir. In 2004, she flew to California to study. For a year, she kept a pied-à-terre in Marrakech: «I was feeling homesick and now I live between Marrakech and Miami. That's the best decision I've made. I feel good in Morocco». The thirty-year-old said loudly: «We need more Moroccan women entrepreneurs. More examples are needed. I want to tell Moroccan women to succeed in areas other than beauty,» she says. «Go ahead, do not feel discouraged. The feeling you get as an entrepreneur is well worth all the suffering that comes with it. It's a very good feeling to know that you are self-sufficient and that you have achieved something, especially in a field where you can make a difference.»
