Five by Friday: Obaid Ahmed

Q1: Take me back to the moment you became the person you are now. What happened, and how did you come to what you do today?

I don’t think there was a single moment. It was a series of moments where I realized I was more interested in building than following.

I grew up fascinated by technology and problem-solving. Early in my career, I worked at BlackBerry and IBM and on the side helped companies build their first MVP product. I was very curious about how to turn my technical skills into a company.

That curiosity eventually pushed me toward entrepreneurship.

The defining chapter was Botmock. We started before conversational AI was mainstream because we believed conversations would become a primary interface between humans and technology. At the time, most people thought chatbots were a gimmick. We spent years helping teams design, prototype, and test conversational experiences before the market was ready.

Building Botmock taught me that entrepreneurship is not about having the right answers. It’s about having conviction long enough to survive being wrong, adapt, and keep moving forward.

Today, whether I’m building AI products, advising startups, or investing time in founders, the mission remains the same: help people use technology to solve meaningful problems at scale.

Q2: What’s the belief you hold that most people around you disagree with, and what did it cost you to keep believing it?

I believe we’re entering a world where small, highly-leveraged teams will outperform much larger organizations.

For most of my career, the assumption was that scale required headcount. More engineers. More managers. More departments.

I think AI fundamentally changes that equation.

A small team equipped with the right tools can now accomplish what previously required dozens or hundreds of people. The companies that win won’t necessarily be the ones with the most employees; they’ll be the ones that learn the fastest and execute the fastest.

Q3: Why did you start Botmock? What was the hardest part of the journey, and what is the ultimate goal now?

Botmock started from a simple observation.

Designers had tools for websites and mobile apps. Product teams had tools for interfaces. But nobody had a good way to design conversations.

We believed that if conversations were going to become a major interaction model, teams would need a way to prototype and test them before investing in development.

The hardest part wasn’t technology. It was timing.

We were building for a future that hadn’t arrived yet. We spent years educating the market, explaining why conversational experiences mattered, and convincing people that this wasn’t a niche trend.

The acquisition by Walmart validated that vision, but it also reinforced an important lesson: success often comes from seeing something slightly earlier than everyone else and having the patience to stay with it.

Today, my focus is broader than a single company.

The goal is helping shape how humans interact with AI. Whether that’s through products, investments, mentoring founders, or building new companies, I’m interested in the same fundamental question: how do we make powerful technology accessible and useful to everyday people?

Q4: What’s your advice to Muslims trying to get into a similar space and make an impact?

First, stop waiting for permission.

Our community has incredible talent, but many people underestimate their ability to contribute globally. Technology is one of the few industries where your ideas matter more than where you were born.

Second, develop both competence and character.

Technical skills will open doors. Character will determine whether those doors stay open. Integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, and excellence are not just Islamic values, they are competitive advantages.

Third, build things.

Don’t spend years consuming content about startups. Create something. Launch something. Help a customer. Learn from reality.

Finally, think bigger.

For too long, we have been conditioned to seek stability rather than create opportunity. We need more builders, founders, researchers, scientists, and investors who are creating value for humanity while remaining grounded in Islamic principles.

The Ummah doesn’t need more spectators. It needs more builders.

Q5: What should the Ummah be focused on for the next 10 years?

Three things: education, ownership, and technology.

Education because every long-term transformation starts with knowledge.

Ownership because communities that do not own businesses, intellectual property, media, platforms, and institutions ultimately depend on those who do.

Technology because AI will reshape economies, labor markets, education, healthcare, and national competitiveness faster than most people realize.

The next decade will create enormous shifts in power and opportunity. The question is whether we will participate as consumers or creators.

My hope is that we choose creation.

Not simply to become wealthy, but to solve problems, create opportunities, and leave behind institutions that benefit future generations.

The golden ages of Islamic civilization were not built by people waiting for change. They were built by people who pursued knowledge, took risks, built institutions, and contributed to humanity.

That challenge remains the same today.

About Five by Friday

Five by Friday is a weekly newsletter interviewing successful Muslim founders in the startup space, sharing their experience through five questions. New interview every Friday.

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