The Diaspora Edge and The Multiplier Effect

On 14 May, Volt Lines founder and CEO Ali Halabi took part in “The Diaspora Edge and The Multiplier Effect”, an Endeavor Lebanon panel hosted at Cooley’s London office. The session was moderated by Vera Abouchar, Managing Director of Endeavor Lebanon, and brought an operator, an investor and a lawyer onto the same stage to test what a cross-border perspective is actually worth when you are building a company.

Ali was joined by Ramzi Rafih, who left KKR to back diaspora founders at pre-seed, and Rita Sobral of Cooley, who advises on cross-border structuring.

Building infrastructure from the outside in

Vera opened by asking how Ali’s perspective as a Lebanese founder based in Istanbul helps him see infrastructure problems that local players have missed. Volt Lines runs a software-enabled B2B shuttle platform that has rebuilt corporate commuting in some of the world’s most congested cities, operating asset-light and aggregating supply rather than owning the fleet.

The second company

Vera did not let the overnight-success framing stand. She asked about Ali’s first venture, which did not take off, and about why the same investors chose to back him a second time to build Volt Lines.

The multiplier effect

The panel closed on what Endeavor calls the Multiplier Effect: the point at which a founder starts mentoring, investing and building a legacy beyond their own P&L.

Thank you

Thank you to Vera and the Endeavor Lebanon team for convening the evening, and to Cooley for hosting us. Most of all, thank you to everyone who came from the Lebanese community in London and from further afield. The conversations after the panel were as valuable as the one on stage.

If you were in the room and want to continue the discussion, we would be glad to hear from you.