Tuesday, Nov 4th, 2025
Knowledge
What to Do After TechFest: A Builder’s Guide to Follow-Through
What to Do After TechFest: A Builder’s Guide to Follow-Through
On October 25th, more than 400 builders, investors, designers, and dreamers filled Nestwork in Doha. For a few hours, the room pulsed with energy. Ideas flowed, conversations sparked, and new collaborations began to take shape. But as with every great event, the real test of impact starts when everyone goes home.
So, what happens next?
For Founders: Follow up with Purpose
Many founders left TechFest with new contacts, fresh ideas and renewed motivation. The next step is turning that energy into real progress.
Start by reviewing everyone you met and prioritizing by value:
Who can help you hit your next milestone?
Who can challenge your thinking?
Who can open doors to potential partners or customers?
Then, follow up with intention. Avoid generic “Great meeting you” messages. Instead, make it specific:
“You mentioned building for Saudi SMEs. Here’s how we’re tackling that problem in Qatar. Would love your feedback.”
This is how real relationships start. And often, the most valuable follow-ups aren’t with investors, but with fellow founders who share the same challenges. Those peer conversations can turn into accountability partnerships that drive long-term growth.
For Investors: Turn Conversations into Conviction
The best investors know that great opportunities rarely come from cold emails. They come from real conversations. So don’t wait for pitch decks to land in your inbox. Instead, ask questions that test clarity and conviction:
What problem are you solving differently, and why now?
What assumptions are you still validating?
What would it take to break your model, and how are you planning for that?
In a region moving this quickly, conviction becomes a competitive advantage. The investors who build relationships early, stay close to the ground and listen with curiosity will be the ones who recognize value before the rest of the world catches on.
For Creatives and Talent: Keep Showing Up
Designers, engineers, and community builders are the quiet force behind every thriving ecosystem. But the connections you made at TechFest will fade quickly if you retreat back into your silo.
Here’s how to keep the momentum going:
Document your process: Show how you’re solving problems, not just what the final product looks like. A post about a design decision or a line of code can inspire someone you’ve never met.
Teach while you learn: Create short reflections about your tools, workflows, or experiments. When you explain something publicly, you sharpen your own thinking and build credibility over time.
Collaborate in public spaces: Join online communities, attend local meetups, and contribute to open-source or shared projects. Every small exchange compounds into recognition and trust.
Be consistent: Visibility grows quietly. You don’t need “virality”, just regular proof that you’re building with intention.
The people who keep showing up, online and offline, become magnets for opportunity.
For Policymakers and Enablers: Stay in the Conversation
At TechFest, many regulators and ecosystem enablers showed up ready to engage and that presence sent a powerful message of openness.
But presence alone isn’t enough. The real value lies in what happens next and here is how:
Follow up with intent: Reach out to two or three founders you met at TechFest. Ask specific questions about the obstacles they face, from licensing to funding or talent retention.
Turn insights into pilots: Use event takeaways to design small, testable policy experiments or partnership programs that respond to what you heard, not just what’s on paper.
Bridge silos: Bring together stakeholders who rarely sit in the same room such as founders, investors and government bodies. True innovation often happens when unlikely collaborators talk honestly.
Signal openness: Publish short reflections or host follow-up listening sessions. Publicly engaging with the ecosystem builds trust and encourages more founders to speak up.
Lasting change in MENA’s tech ecosystem rarely starts with formal legislation. It begins when policymakers choose to keep listening after the applause.
For Everyone: Reflect Before You Move On
In the weeks that follow a major event is where growth either compounds or disappears.
Take one afternoon to process what you experienced.
What conversations left a mark on you?
What problems kept resurfacing across sessions?
What part of your work feels newly urgent?
Then pick one action. Just one. Send that follow-up message. Write down that idea. Reach out to that person. Build from there.
Final Word
TechFest 2025 was proof that MENA’s builder movement is growing stronger, louder, and more connected. But the future will be shaped not by the people who attended, but by those who act on what they learned.
Now that TechFest is over, let’s keep building.
For Founders: Follow up with Purpose
Many founders left TechFest with new contacts, fresh ideas and renewed motivation. The next step is turning that energy into real progress.
Start by reviewing everyone you met and prioritizing by value:
Who can help you hit your next milestone?
Who can challenge your thinking?
Who can open doors to potential partners or customers?
Then, follow up with intention. Avoid generic “Great meeting you” messages. Instead, make it specific:
“You mentioned building for Saudi SMEs. Here’s how we’re tackling that problem in Qatar. Would love your feedback.”
This is how real relationships start. And often, the most valuable follow-ups aren’t with investors, but with fellow founders who share the same challenges. Those peer conversations can turn into accountability partnerships that drive long-term growth.
For Investors: Turn Conversations into Conviction
The best investors know that great opportunities rarely come from cold emails. They come from real conversations. So don’t wait for pitch decks to land in your inbox. Instead, ask questions that test clarity and conviction:
What problem are you solving differently, and why now?
What assumptions are you still validating?
What would it take to break your model, and how are you planning for that?
In a region moving this quickly, conviction becomes a competitive advantage. The investors who build relationships early, stay close to the ground and listen with curiosity will be the ones who recognize value before the rest of the world catches on.
For Creatives and Talent: Keep Showing Up
Designers, engineers, and community builders are the quiet force behind every thriving ecosystem. But the connections you made at TechFest will fade quickly if you retreat back into your silo.
Here’s how to keep the momentum going:
Document your process: Show how you’re solving problems, not just what the final product looks like. A post about a design decision or a line of code can inspire someone you’ve never met.
Teach while you learn: Create short reflections about your tools, workflows, or experiments. When you explain something publicly, you sharpen your own thinking and build credibility over time.
Collaborate in public spaces: Join online communities, attend local meetups, and contribute to open-source or shared projects. Every small exchange compounds into recognition and trust.
Be consistent: Visibility grows quietly. You don’t need “virality”, just regular proof that you’re building with intention.
The people who keep showing up, online and offline, become magnets for opportunity.
For Policymakers and Enablers: Stay in the Conversation
At TechFest, many regulators and ecosystem enablers showed up ready to engage and that presence sent a powerful message of openness.
But presence alone isn’t enough. The real value lies in what happens next and here is how:
Follow up with intent: Reach out to two or three founders you met at TechFest. Ask specific questions about the obstacles they face, from licensing to funding or talent retention.
Turn insights into pilots: Use event takeaways to design small, testable policy experiments or partnership programs that respond to what you heard, not just what’s on paper.
Bridge silos: Bring together stakeholders who rarely sit in the same room such as founders, investors and government bodies. True innovation often happens when unlikely collaborators talk honestly.
Signal openness: Publish short reflections or host follow-up listening sessions. Publicly engaging with the ecosystem builds trust and encourages more founders to speak up.
Lasting change in MENA’s tech ecosystem rarely starts with formal legislation. It begins when policymakers choose to keep listening after the applause.
For Everyone: Reflect Before You Move On
In the weeks that follow a major event is where growth either compounds or disappears.
Take one afternoon to process what you experienced.
What conversations left a mark on you?
What problems kept resurfacing across sessions?
What part of your work feels newly urgent?
Then pick one action. Just one. Send that follow-up message. Write down that idea. Reach out to that person. Build from there.
Final Word
TechFest 2025 was proof that MENA’s builder movement is growing stronger, louder, and more connected. But the future will be shaped not by the people who attended, but by those who act on what they learned.
Now that TechFest is over, let’s keep building.