The question I get most often: why come back?
It's a fair question. I spent two years in China at seventeen, four years in the American Midwest for college, and then moved to San Francisco to work in AI. By any conventional trajectory, I should have stayed. The opportunities were there. The path was clear.
But here's what I learned: a clear path isn't the same as the right path.
The Decision
I made the decision to return on election night, November 2024. Not as a political reaction — that would be too simple — but as a crystallizing moment. I'd been feeling it for months: San Francisco's worldview, its assumptions about what success looks like, felt increasingly disconnected from what I actually wanted to build.
Cairo offers something different. The market here is real. The opportunities are tangible. And there's a particular advantage to being someone who left, saw how things work elsewhere, and chose to come back.
What I See
The luxury real estate market in Cairo is in an interesting moment. There's significant capital looking for quality product, but quality remains inconsistent. The same pattern applies to hospitality FF&E — demand is there, discernment is growing, but supply hasn't caught up.
This gap is where I'm building.
The Bet
I'm not naive about the challenges. Egypt is not an easy market. But it's mine in a way that San Francisco never was. I understand how things work here — not because I read about it, but because I grew up in it, left, and returned with fresh eyes.
The bet is simple: that a combination of international exposure and deep local roots creates a particular kind of value. That understanding both worlds — the global standards and the local realities — is worth something.
We'll see if I'm right.