Nadir Khamissa

@EY_EOY Africa 2015. founder: @hellogroupsa 🇿🇦🇮🇳🇬🇧

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

Because when people are given the chance to pursue their dreams…

They don’t just build careers, they build lives they’re proud of
And they help build companies that make the world a little better.

That, to me, is the real purpose of work.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

I’ve always called every company I build a Dream Machine.

It’s the only way I know how to think about work.

I’ve always believed a business should be more than a place where people come to “do a job.”

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

I’ve seen people who were once undervalued or overlooked go on to:

– Cultural wins, uniting teams and communities
– Financial wins for themselves and the business
– Innovation that made our products more inclusive and efficient.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

Great to speak at Africa Fintech Fest London on The Embedded Finance Opportunity with Vivian Pather @we_are_mettus & Hossam Abou Moussa (Apis Partners).

Africa isn’t just catching up, it’s shaping the future of financial services.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

That same mindset is what kept pulling me back to entrepreneurship. It’s just where I feel most like myself.

So if you’re reading this and you’ve always felt a little out of place?

Maybe you’re an entrepreneur too, you just haven’t found your why yet.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

You might be an entrepreneur before you even know it.

I wasn’t the smartest in class or the head boy. But I was obsessed with business, how things worked and how they could work better.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

By final year at university, I knew I didn’t want to be an actuary.

The only way out through so I had to top my class to have a shot at something else.

That’s what got me into investment banking where I wrote a trading algorithm.

And soon after, I was transferred to London.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

I never set out to be in fintech.

When my brother and I started @hellogroupsa, it was about people: how to make calls cheaper and serving those the system ignored.

Excited to join #AfricaFintechFest London on Sept 9 brought together by @RPPFintech and @QuonaCapital.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

So, one of my biggest pieces of advice for anyone at any stage in their career is this:

Find a mentor that believes in you.

Mentors can’t do the work for you, but they can help things become 10x easier.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

We didn’t call it mentorship back then. But that’s exactly what it was.

Where I grew up, we had hardworking people trying to make ends meet in a system that wasn’t built for them.

My first mentor, outside our family, was one of my dad’s closest friends, Akhter Moosa.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

He helped me think beyond what I saw around me.

Choose what to study, and how to aim higher than I previously thought was possible.

Maybe the lesson mentorship gave me wasn’t about what to study or where to work. It was that belief, real belief can change a life.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

It’s one of the most meaningful ventures I’ve ever been part of.

And it’s a good reminder that in a world obsessed with quick wins and credentials, The best bet is still on people.

It’s not conventional and doesn't always work out. But it works for me.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

Not all ventures start with pitch decks.

I’ve known Nithen, the founder of Snode Technologies, since we were 9 years old.

He’s always been a self-taught technical genius. The type of guy who sees through the matrix.
When he wasn’t coding, he was DJ’ing in the biggest clubs.

[Nadir Khamissa @nadirkhamissa]

Years of working side by side had shown me how brilliant he was.

And most importantly, that Nithen operates with the absolute highest level of integrity.

Today, Snode protects hedge funds, banks, telcos, and even government infrastructure across five continents.