The Chemistry Engineer, Suna had a passion for her study, but after working as a teacher for a while, Suna realized that teaching theoretical chemistry wasn’t fulfilling her love for the field. Suna then took a career shift, and started working as a product manager. But Suna always wanted to have an impact, she knew she had the capabilities to make a change with the goal to build a 100% Palestinian company.
The pain point which ultimately articulated her “why” emerged from noticing a variety of emotional resilience among Palestinians who face similar challenges and context, which fueled her desire to launch Tawazon- the world’s #1 meditation platform in Arabic, which offers daily short and scientifically proven meditation sessions – hence offering mental flexibility for anyone.
Suna embarked by recruiting and onboarding the right c-level solid expertise people to build a platform that later grew organically and gained traction, attracting the attention of international companies, leading to partnerships with Apple and Stripe, as well as a seed investment round from Ibtikar Fund, and winning world class competitions, to the point where Tawazon now have users from 69 countries.
Suna and her team faced numerous challenges as they expanded successfully. Virtual team management during the Covid-19 Pandemic, as well as forcing the team to adapt to online communication tools and prioritize decision making, were critical.
Nonetheless, the team has created a positive culture in which everyone understands what they want to achieve and how Tawazon can help them get there. They also cherish and celebrate small and large victories along the way, such as being featured by Apple, Alexa, and Amazon. On the other hand, they learn from their mistakes and leave room for improvement, as Suna recognized she couldn’t do everything herself, and instead learned to trust the people she hires, allowing work to be done efficiently and effectively.
Tawazon’s CEO has some great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, including being persistent in the face of adversity and not giving up because the road to entrepreneurship is full of bumps along the way, as well as being proactive about learning, always being curious and ready to learn new things.
