Fatima Habib and Hassan Ahmed are a not only a perfect power couple but also great business partners. A passion for food and a step towards a healthy lifestyle, this team of two bagged the second prize in the ‘Chance 2017’ competition. ‘ YAM Restaraunt’ a place where quick and healthy food is served with a twist of traditional flavours. Read on to find out more about their business idea, vision, and their inspirations.
Tell us briefly about yourself: where you were born, your educational background, etc.
We are a couple and both of us were born ad bought up in Bahrain. I am Hasan Ahmed and perused a degree in Chemical Engineering while my partner Fatima Habib perused a degree in Civil Engineer.
Tell us about your project?
Our project idea was to come up with a food joint that serves quick healthy food to people. So we started a venture called Yam restaurant, a healthy fast-food restaurant, committed to making food that not only tastes great but also is healthy and served swiftly. What set us apart are our recipes. Our food is modern with a twist of traditional flavours with using only fresh ingredients. The concept will soon be developed into a full-fledged restaurant.
Who has been your inspiration?
Just like any parents, try to give the best for their children; this is one of our little efforts to give our child a place that not only serves traditional food but healthy traditionally food. So we would say our son Ali, has been a major inspiration for us to open this restaurant.
What was the competition like for the two of you?
Chance program is not only a competition it is opportunity to translate our idea to a profitable business. Just to be able to participate in the competition was a huge deal let alone winning. The program gave us an opportunity to get training form professional trainers and mentors. We met several entrepreneurs by whom we were inspired and encouraged. Moreover enlightened by their experience. Their stories helped us take our idea to a next level
What has been a major challenge in of your life so far?
We have faced way too many challenges and but instead of talking about our problems we are choosing to look at life challenges as an opportunity to transform our fears into learning tools and getting one step closer each day to our success.
Tell us about your association with this project? Where did it all start and how?
We are among one of the millions that simply do not have the time to prepare a fresh healthy meal. At a point we were so sick of the usual junk food culture, so we decided to find a restaurant that serves a healthy meal for our son and in a process of finding a restaurant, we created an idea started or own healthy food restaurant called Yam restaurant.
What are the other things that interest the two of you?
Our interests are also pols apart while Hassan’s other interest is technology related while mine are related to cooking.
What kind of help and support do you seek to help reach your goal?
We can’t Achieve our goals without the right support. To a lot of extent Chance 2017 did provide us with that support. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speaker’s in this program and also special thanks to project director of chance program Eng. Amira Mahmood, and our mentor Moh’d Toriaf co-founder of Fish.me and all member of Youth Pioneer Society. For now we are looking for support in terms of funding and a person investing in our startup.
What is your message to the aspiring entrepreneurs of Bahrain?
As Audrey Hepburn said, “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible!” And Muhammad Ali said, “I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was” So we would say aspiring entrepreneurs should always believe in themselves.
Any other interesting projects in future that you are coming up with?
Currently, we are focusing on our project Yam restaurant, but in the future, we do have a creative idea that will cater to the needs of the Gulf society.