The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SEF) 2025 provided insights into venture capital and entrepreneurship, featuring a keynote by Ann Hiatt, who highlighted traits of successful CEOs like Jeff Bezos, emphasizing characteristics such as “disagreeableness” and low neuroticism. During an investor roundtable, prominent investors Noor Sweid, Amal Dokhan, Ibrahim Almojel, and Tala Al Jabri discussed the MENA venture capital landscape, stressing the need for patience and talent in entrepreneurship. They noted the GCC’s potential for innovation and highlighted future investment focuses on sectors like healthtech, biotech, and AI, with Sweid emphasizing supply chain tech and agritech as key areas.