Entrepreneurship project samples submitted in MBA

1. 1
Shorouq Amr Zulfikar
900101514
ENTR 203
Dr. Ashraf Sheta
The Renascence of Egyptian
Street Food

2. 2
Table of Contents
Entrepreneurial Profile …………………………… 3
Introduction to the world of Zööba ……............... 4
Business Model …………………………………… 6
Feasibility .……………………………………….....10
Legal Form ………………………………….……...14
Company Dimensions ………………………….....15
Marketing …………………………………………...17
E-commerce ………………………………………..19
Pricing ……………………………………………….20
Financial dimensions ……………………………… 22
Funding/Equity ……………………………………...23
Location/Design………………………………….… 24
Management background …………………….…… 26
Recommendations ……………………………….… 29
Works Cited …………………………………….…… 30

3. 3
Entrepreneurialprofile:
Christopher Khalifa is the founder of
Zööba. He’s a 30-year-old entrepreneur
who came up with the idea of
connecting two entirely different
concepts together, “gourmet” and
Egyptian street food.
I was fortunate enough to be able to
reach Chris, as I’m not related to him at
all. However, my best friend’s family is
friends with one of his investor’s family.
Chris Khalifa was born to an American
mother and an Egyptian father. However, he lived in Egypt all his life he says. He
graduated from the Cairo American College School in Cairo, Egypt in 2001 –
which is said to be the best and most prestigious American school in Egypt.
He then traveled to the US, enrolled in the University of Boston and graduated
in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Later on, he did a long 6-month
internship in London. After that, he came back to Egypt, joined the EFG-Hermes
bank and worked in investment banking specifically. He worked there for an
average of 3 years, and reached the title Associate Vice President.
Khalifa had high hopes for himself, as he left his high banking position in one of
the best banks in Egypt intending to go after his dreams and open up his own
business. He left Egypt then and invested 9 months of his time pursuing an idea
of a “healthy” restaurant – kind of like subway. It was a different concept, like a
“salad-sandwich thing,” Khalifa said.
However, Khalifa didn’t think it was scalable enough nor did he have the
infrastructure partners that he was comfortable with at the time so he decided not
to go through with it. He went back to banking to focus on the asset/fund

4. 4
management side as EFG was launching a new regional equity fund seeded with
the Wellcome Trust, in which himself and 2 other managers who were managing
it.
Introductionto Zööba:
Two and a half years later, Chris
Khalifa left banking again to start
“Zööbaeats.” He explained that he
always had the passion for the idea
of entrepreneurship ever since he
was a kid, he would always think of
ideas in his head that could or could
not work. Chris Khalifa worked on
Zööba for almost 18 months before
the very first Zööba branch opened
up in 26th of July Street in Zamalek
on the 31st of March in 2012.
Khalifa came up with the idea of Zööba as he thought it was a viable edge,
“there was an interesting gap and no one was thinking of it,” Khalifa stated. He
went on explaining how the preposition itself was very simple, and it was the
trend of making good street food become a brand, like how Americans did with
fantastic quality Burrito for instance, or how you can have burgers that are
gourmet.
“No one had tried to do it with Egyptian street food,” this is how the idea started
Chris Khalifa said. He felt motivated; as he believed Egyptian food in itself is
great food and the idea of taking the street food of Egypt and transforming to
gourmet was new, exciting and unique. Moreover, he had met his managing
partner, Moustafa El-Refaey, 4 months before launching Zööba. El-Refaey was
trained at a culinary arts program in the US so he’s among the very few Egyptian
certified chefs in Egypt – so that was exactly the push and experience Khalifa

5. 5
needed to bring his great idea to life.
When asked about the qualities that made Khalifa be able to open Zööba, he
said, “I don’t think that there’s 1 plus 1 equals 2 equation for this.” He explains,
“There are qualities in other people that could make them have done Zööba just
as well that are not in me.”
However, Khalifa believes that to him being an Entrepreneur entails fulltime
dedication and commitment. Chris believes that there is no such thing as a “part-
time entrepreneur.” From his perspective, once you’re an entrepreneur, during
your sleep and dreams and waking up, you will be thinking about it, dealing with
it and its problems and still continue to be excited about it. That is a trait in him
that he believes makes him successful, it’s that he throws himself into it.
“If you’re not going to dive into it, don’t do it.” He admits that there is a risk
factor obviously because as he says, “Lots of people have really great ideas, but
the ideas are a very small part of it.” The risk however is taking the decision to
put all you have into it, which means that you’re taking the risk of leaving
whatever you’re doing and jumping in and doing this fulltime, so of course its not
an easy decision. People will be risking their career path, their stable source of
income. He thinks the “risk decision is huge and then it’s also executing it.”
Chris Khalifa believes also quality of execution and attention to detail are
among the traits that he possesses as an entrepreneur, especially attention to
detail as he said he pays attention to the littlest things which really shows in
Zööba’s menu that tells customers what foods include nuts, what’s vegetarian,
what’s vegan, gluten free and so on.
Zööba’s business model:
Generally, the business model can be assessed through factors that
define how one goes through allocating rules, dos and don’ts and thereby
creating a culture that represents your business and that your employees and

6. 6
customers as well will adhere to. Smart entrepreneurs will use this as a way to
create a new idea or a concept but not without its unique soul, an identity that
has a culture to it- that is only specific to that place or concept hence becoming a
competitive weapon that they use against their competitors.
“Investors invest in the entrepreneur, not just the idea,” Chris Khalifa said.
Zööba wouldn’t have become that successful, had it not been for the extensive
research and planning that it took him and his team to able to present Zööba
finally in the way that we- as customers –perceive it now.
Let’s take it from the very start, the fantasy goal, the ultimate reality known as
the vision, that Chris Khalifa will always be working to achieve in the back of his
head, is “Turning Egyptian street food of its head and dressing it up a little.” Yes,
that is Zööba’s vision – that can also be a mission. It’s different that a typical
profit oriented company. Even Chris admits that different brands and companies
have different ways of stating their visions and missions, but he chose to kind of
take the approach of brand experience perspective instead of “to have Zööba in
every corner around the planet type-of-thing.”
As Khalifa said how hard, him and his team have been working on the vision,
mission and core value, he stated that the mission was broader – however, their
core values are extremely important to him as he said, “we hire, fire, promote or
appraise by them.” The 5 main values are Respect, Inclusiveness, Attention to
detail, Smiles and Homegrown.
Zööba’s website is under construction, but once it’s launched it will include the
vision, mission and the core values for everyone to know. Khalifa said that it took
the training development team about 4 months of 5 different sessions with 50
staff members to try different exercises to eventually reach those 5 corporate
values. Zööba has became a value based organization, in the sense that in order
to deal with anything that goes around, an employee will have to go back to
those 5 values, as simple as that.

7. 7
Chris shared a very basic example that they use all the time with their
employees; in a conflict of resolution situation in which you have someone who
messes up 20 sandwiches and his leader comes in, shouts at him and uses
violence in front of everyone because of his mistake. In a situation like this, they’ll
go back to their set values, and since the top value is respect and they don’t
have a value that says, “You can’t mess up orders,” so they offer training and if a
mistake occurs they’ll figure out the root cause and fix it.
However, the person punishable here would be the leader as he’s the one who
went against one of the values by being disrespectful not the person who actually
messed up the sandwiches, as that’s not a punishable crime based on their
values. Zööba’s management will follow the values to get rid of the “rotten apple,”
as it’s usually contagious.
The rotten apple is basically a person who doesn’t follow orders. Chris Khalifa
also shared that they have actually fired one of the best chefs in Egypt, as he
was snobbish with his colleagues, thus disrespectful and not included which are
2 core values he’s broken, so despite his amazing efforts in making food well and
on time and being able to work under pressure, he had to go.
One particular aspect that Zööba possesses is that they promote from within.
They want to remind people that great management can still come from starting
off as employees who received the right amount of training and development.
Chris Khalifa says he would love to one day promote a simple employee to a
manager just from being excellent, efficient and constantly learning and
developing and most importantly applying the core values.

8. 8
“Zööba really is not a food
business, it’s a hospitality
business,” Chris said, stressing
on the point that culture is of the
greatest essence. He explained
that when it comes to Zööba,
you’re actually selling
everything, from the very first
interaction with someone talking
to you about it for the very first
time – whether the person is excited or not. When you actually go, everything
matters, from the moment your park outside, you’ll notice if it’s full or empty, if it’s
clean or not, how delightful is the person serving you? How does the menu
seem? All those are things affecting your image of the business when you
haven’t even touched the food yet.
The food is obviously a component of Zööba but so does the place and so
does the floors. Culture is the most important thing about Zööba. If Zööba doesn’t
maintain its culture as it grows and for instance opens up abroad, even if it has
the best Taameyya, it will not succeed.
Food is very subjective; however Zööba might very well work in a developed
country because it is different and unique enough to make people want to try it.
Just like how people want to try Indian, Chinese and French, why not street
Egyptian? Also Zööba has a vegetarian menu. The menu is healthy in general
and all those are somewhat trends that people will appreciate today.
To integrate all factors mentioned above, Zööba must have a lot of strengths
all the way from its professionally trained chefs, starting with the co-owner
Moustafa El Refaey, to the fair core values of the entire place, their price
moderation, the guaranteed safety, trust and hygiene that they offer to their
customers, their hospitable culture and most of all their ability to restore street

9. 9
Egyptian food back to life and challengingly even transforming it to “gourmet.”
When asked about their perceived weaknesses, Chris didn’t have a definite
answer. However, Zööba’s weakness might be that it only serves street food; I
mean what about people who go dine there based on their reputation expecting
to have fine Egyptian dining? Maybe it would be considered a weakness to some
people that they don’t. If they do that actually, they would have different targets
and would use differentiation in a sense as they would be offering all foods
under the Egyptian cuisine umbrella, stepping up the street food industry
completely in Egypt while still targeting a niche with gourmet Egyptian food and
be able to be a direct competition to places like Abdelwahab, Tamara and so
forth.
The very famous SWAT analysis wouldn’t be complete without considering the
opportunities and threats as well. In Zööba’s case, I believe opportunities it
could take advantage of the empty niche gourmet market for street food, and
making use of the best of being the market leader and as pioneers maybe focus
on putting the standards so very high so that they make it so hard for competitors
to dare enter the market and keep up. Another opportunity they might be willing
to grab before anyone else does, is opening up in new markets, such as Dubai or
America as they are rapidly growing markets –which Chris has said that they
intend to and that they would love to open in the states, and it’s just a matter of
calculating finances and choosing the best time.
Threats could include that a current employee might go to a competition and
share on trade secrets, and possibly have a competition do very well – that will
always be a threat. An unexpected threat would be that a different taste of a new
cuisine takes over the attention, possibly Irish, Mexican, whatever different taste
that might steal away the spotlights from our own street food, so that is why the
best training techniques should be offered, with the best management and most
efficient contracts, and also always keeping up with the spontaneity of the food
industry here in Egypt, especially with our nation’s appetite!

10. 10
The key success factors, I believe would be granted to the Safety, Hygiene,
and cleanliness and trust that Zööba offers to its customers. If you think about it,
usually when you think you want Koshari, Falafel or Taameya, you will usually
associate the type of risks you might be taking by eating just anywhere those
traditional foods that you love, but Zööba managed to take away all those fears.
It managed to give their consumers the comfort, quality and arena for a suitable
price. Another KSF that not everyone might appreciate here in Egypt is that
Zööba offers a vegetarian menu.
However, Chris doesn’t believe Zööba possesses a competitive strategy,
because again, the lack of “direct” competition. He believes there really is no
direct competition as they’re the only ones doing what they’re doing in that
specific way. The lack of competition and the increases specificity and precision
and focus on street food only to Chris is what is makes them unique and
successful. However, as they are very small and will remain small for a while, as
long as he’s making sure that Zööba’s doing a great job, then that’s more than
enough for him.
Zööba’s Feasibility & Competition:
To star off, Khalifa and his team had to go through extensive research about
determining whether his concept or idea will be produce-able in the first place, in
the way he wants it. Luckily for him, having worked as a banker for 7 whole years
helped him a lot with the financial feasibility.
The 4 forms of feasibility analysis include: product/service feasibility,
industry/target market feasibility, organizational feasibility and of course
financial feasibility. Firstly, to start off, the development of a “gourmet” street
food place was not really available, as I will discuss more thoroughly in the
competition part.
As Chris explained that there was an interesting gap, so the products of fool,
taameya, koshari, sogoa and so on, were there but not in the atmosphere and

11. 11
arena that Zööba introduced, hence making it completely new. Egyptians love
their own food, which obviously shows a product desirability, but Zööba had more
than just food to offer, as the offering of that type of food in a an upper class –
modern type of way that takes care of details such as hygiene will definitely have
a demand, just as showed by Zööba’s non-stop customer visits nowadays.
Secondly, Industry/Target market feasibility, as Chris had already spent
almost 18 months working on Zööba before actually opening it, he tested the
industry attractiveness and the target market attractiveness. There was a risk
factor – as he believed then that no one had done it before, but by extensively
researching newly successful businesses and observing trends, what people
tend to respond to, he was able to adhere to the gap in the market smoothly.
Having spent all those years abroad, studying and working have helped him
enough gain of knowledge to know better than to undermine organizational
feasibility. It basically consists of Management Prowess and Resource
sufficiency. Chris Khalifa and his partner, Moustafa El Refaey, both share the
education that proposes hat organization management is very important, that is
why the spent so much time on training and development, 4 months to come up
with their core values, having the notion to promote from within and finally having
now waiters and having chefs make the food and serve it as a form of
inclusiveness. Chris had talked about how he had certain amount money that he
was willing to invest- compared to how big he wanted his business to grow and
so he had resource efficiency.
Finally but most importantly, the feasibility analysis was a piece of cake to
Chris Khalifa, has his long years in banking him taught him very well how to have
his numbers written down, how to propose his plan, how to think of the most
unthinkable incurred costs. He was skeptical to talk about his actual figures but
he believes that feasibility analysis was the one thing that he kept doing over and
over.
When applying the Five forces model on Zööba, it doesn’t necessarily work in

12. 12
its greatest from as it would’ve, had Zööba was something like McDonald’s for
instance. The Five Forces Model are basically used in determining the
attractiveness of the industry through measuring of 5 factors, rivalry among
companies in the industry, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of
buyers, threat of new entrants and finally threat of substitute products or service.
As Chris believes there is
no “direct competition” so
the rivalry among the
competitions is not extreme
but every open successful
restaurant might pose a tiny
threat as a potential might be
eating there instead of at
Zööba at the same time. It
doesn’t only have to be a
restaurant that only serves
Egyptian food to be considered competition. So if we assume that direct
competition is low however general competition is high, then the industry is more
attractive as Street Egyptian food is growing, and the opportunity to sell this
different new concept exists.
The industry might be seen as more attractive because many suppliers sell the
ingredients in general – fool, taameyya and many others. However, they get the
highest quality ingredients and they have suppliers who only deal with them and
make more healthy “Assaleiya” for them, with less concentrated sugar – they
even reach him by riding a tok-tok. This healthy Egyptian dessert is sold for a
simple 3 EGP.
Zööba also has a positive impact from the bargaining power of buyers, as
number of customers is large, and the customers want different products from
the Street niche segment. Customers’ switching costs are high as there is no

13. 13
direct competition to Zööba.
Finally, Zööba appears to be more attractive because the capital
requirements were initially low compared to the concept itself and to the
success it brought upon the Egyptian food street niche in general. Thankfully, our
Egyptian government does in fact encourage the opening of restaurants as it
brings the country most profits as food in general in Egypt sells very well.
Chris Khalifa doesn’t necessarily believe that Zööba has direct competition;
however he says that at first, customers saw Cairo Kitchen as their competition.
However, he doesn’t believe customers still do compare them. He thinks it was
just at first, because their concept was kind of similar – in an Egyptian sense
more than focusing on street Egyptian food, and also because they opened
around similar timings and locations.
An article called “Gentrifying Egyptian street food?” on the Egypt Daily News
addresses the new appeal given “back” to Egyptian street food. The article talks
about both, Zööba and Cairo Kitchen and the author, Heba El Kayal, compares
both concepts with some comments.
Zööba primarily focuses on sandwiches more, while Cairo Kitchen seems to
focus on Koshari. What appears to be very prominent is that Cairo Kitchen is
more expensive than Zööba, as its Koshari will cost around 45 EGP while
Zööba’s Koshari costs around 19 EGP.
Chris Khalifa said it generally costs around 35 EGP to have a meal at Zööba –
which is probably cheaper than KFC and McDonald’s. However, if you wanted
Tamara or Abdelwahab you’d pay around 200 EGP for a good full meal. That
alone will attract a wider range of audience, because despite Zööba’s moderate
prices considering its gourmet street food, cleanliness, hygiene and safety are
guaranteed.
Personally, Khalifa thinks that if he felt hungry and wanted to order food, he
wouldn’t just think about the mood of food he’s craving, he’ll also consider the

14. 14
price bracket. He assumes that everything that’s open and successful in general
now is a sort of competition to Zööba. It doesn’t necessarily have to only be
Street food as he thinks no one out there is actually doing the exact same thing.
Khalifa doesn’t believe Cairo Kitchen possesses any strengths or weaknesses
that Zööba doesn’t have. He doesn’t think anything they do really stands out
compared to Zööba, they have things they’re good at and Zööba has things its
good at in its own way. He also mentions that knows the owner and he praises
how greatly she’s done. However, since Chris is more directed towards
renovating street food and giving it back its essence, he’s obviously more biased
to Zööba.
However, it seems that the CNN has already chosen which restaurant is best
when an article with a video about Zööba’s unique idea and success was posted
on the 13th of January on the CNN (Inside the Middle East) category, under the
name “Can Cairo Street eats be the next global foodie phenomenon?”
LegalForm:
It’s either a limited liability company or a jock stock company. This way it’s
easier to raise capital and easier to raise debt and it’s also a cleaner structure
from a shareholder’s rights perspective.
Chris Khalifa wanted to have majority ownership of the business. Firstly, when
happened was he owned it by 70%, his mom invested by 15% and a third
investor whom he really trusts invested by 15%.Initial investors were those three
plus Moustafa El-Refaey.
Chris met his managing partner Moustafa El-Refaey 4 months before launching
Zööba when he was constantly searching for a partnership agreement, and so
obviously Moustafa El-Refaey became partners with Chris Khalifa, he’s the
director of operations and executive chef – who is also responsible for the
creativity of Zööba.

15. 15
The business initially started by only 4 investors, and now there are 9 existing
shareholders. Chris says, “I had a certain amount of money that I knew I could
invest.” But he also was pretty sure about the fact that he was not going to give
up majority at least in the very start.
When asked about saving the business in intellectual property rights, Khalifa
believed that no one would ever be interested in the business before it actually
became so successful, so he hadn’t bothered with this process till it actually was
launched, but Zööba is safe and sound now – majority of property will remain
Chris’s at least for the near future.
Zööba’s Nature & Products:
Chris Khalifa says it’s not a Franchise obviously, it can be considered as a
family business as his mother helped him with the initial start up, however, as
mentioned above – it’s a joint stock company with 9 current shareholders and 2
fulltime managing partners.
The services among the Zööba 3 branches are exquisite; as clearly stated
above, Zööba is not a food place, and it’s a hospitality place. So people go there
expecting a cozy arena, delightful colors, a relaxing and peaceful mood and all
those factors will affect if the customer will come again – even without taking how
good your food is into consideration.
Chris believes saying you’re the best at anything is straight out arrogant
because food is very subjective, so hospitality is their main focus. After that come
the cleanliness, hygiene, trust and safety of the pure ingredients and how healthy
they are, including less saturated sugar and fats.
Another service they offer is their delivery service, they have opened in
Zamalek, City Stars and Maadi recently. Delivery goes to Dokki, Zamalek and
Mohandeseen. It also delivers to Nasr city and Heliopolis, and soon hopefully

16. 16
delivery will start in Maadi and its surroundings.
The products offered at Zööba are from a very wide
range. They focus on sandwiches more than Koshari –
compared Cairo Kitchen. Their menu offers normal Foul,
Alexandra foul and Zööba foul, which is the most Zööba
custom plate. Taameya is offered with eggplant, spicy
pepper, or the Zööba Taameya.
The menu also includes a foreign concept integrated to our Egyptian styles
menu – the “DIPS” or what Americans might categorize under appetizers. Dips
include Besara + Betroot, Labna + Olive, Areesh cheese + Orange + Honey +
Cumin and our favorite White cheese + Tomatoes.
The classic dishes include the very traditional eggs and basterma sandwiches.
Mean of course include beef liver, spiced sausages and hawawshi. However,
they were especially innovative with their bread; they bake 3 types of fresh
bread, the classical, the Betroot and the Spinach bread. They integrate these
ingredients within the dough and even the bread is greenish and reddish.
Side dishes include Zööba mixed pickles dish, pickled cherry tomatoes, pickled
eggplants and pickled green olives. They also included potato chips or French
fries to add a little trend in the menu as we’re usually used to having fries with
ketchup while eating just about anything.
The dessert menu seems to be very original, with creative orders such as
Halawa + Homemade Betroot Jam or Lemon Jam, Rice pudding with banana and
honey, rice pudding with orange marmalade, original molasses sticks, their
famous “Qombella” which is rice pudding, konafa, basboosa, nuts and fruits
altogether and last but not least – a very tempting, creative infusion they came up
with is their Roasted sweet potatoes, it includes molasses, honey, tamarind
paste, marshmallow, hibiscus paste and cinnamon, dokka and brown sugar – it’s
the one thing I personally am so eager to try from their menu!

17. 17
The menu is in both English and Arabic. It’s very fun and pleasant to look at,
full of colors, folded like a newspaper so easy to keep it with you, clear and
organized and very informative with sizes and prices written down respectively.
Chris Khalifa hasn’t failed his instincts and his attention to detail traits while
constructing the menu, as he has different colors to different categories of food,
for instance spicy is in read, vegan is in green, dairy is in blue, nuts is in dark
blue, vegetarian is in dark green and gluten free is in purple. It’s an amazing
aspect of the menu that will tend to appeal to all types of customers who want to
know what they’re getting in their systems.
Marketing:
Zööba has a very interesting take on marketing. Shockingly, Chis states that their
policy is not to spend anything on marketing. But how can that be with their
tremendous success and instantaneous popularity?
As popular as Zööba is, it is definitely not the place to read about in the papers
or a magazine. Chris Khalifa believes that this takes away from the worthiness of
a place. He says “I never actually went to a restaurant I read about in a paper or
saw its name on a billboard, I go because I hear about it from people I know;”
That to him is much more important, word of mouth; its magical effect, speed
and its ability to either transform a place’s reputation in a positive manner or
negative one.
We don’t notice it very often, but unconsciously, social influence based on
psychology plays a very important factor in the way we decide matters. It could
be as simple as choosing where to eat today, but if you’ve remembered someone
maybe 3 weeks ago talking about how good a restaurant is, you would probably
call that person, take the name and the address and go to that specific restaurant
instead of just go about to any place. It doesn’t really give a fair chance to all the
restaurants in the market though, as its not on an equal chance for any
restaurant to get picked – which again contradicts the notion of what Khalifa said
earlier about competition and that probably every restaurant is a competition,

18. 18
because again, anyone will wake up and just decide any restaurant from the
options. However, maybe it’s more precise than that. The competition in that
case might be everyone – true, but those with a good-enough reputation, or a
high positive word-of-mouth rate.
Chris criticizes all those billboards that we keep seeing for instance on 6th of
October Bridge and says, “that is something I would never do.” He criticizes that
form of marketing, as it’s a high cost for a low impact. “I’d rather spend the
money on developing staff and training,” he said. He believes that by putting your
restaurant’s name too much out there, on the streets’ billboards, in the
magazines, newspapers, you’re taking away from its essence, value and
worthiness. You’re degrading its “cool factor”- or at least with Zööba. You’re
appearing too desperate to be visited; you’re losing a part of the mystery that will
always make customers wonder.
Chris takes the not-spending-money-on-marketing policy seriously. “I don’t
believe in sending a message across as a statement, like a billboard or an add.”
He believes the simpler, the better. He mentioned how their own in-store items
themselves could be self-marketers for Zööba, such as their interesting bag,
that screams Zooba, and their sugar cane blocks in a Zööba plastic cup – which
is so unique, you’d automatically relate to Zööba once you see it.
Moreover, Chris believes that the locations that a restaurant opens in are also
self-marketers, as the better they are, the more they make their surroundings
revolve around them in a way; simple things such as when someone wants to
meet someone else and describes the meeting place then adds “in front of
Zooba.” It’s nothing really, but if you think about it, it’s like Zooba has owned this
territory, with the street, reputation, glamor and all of it. So in the end, locations
really do make a difference in terms of marketing, as they really can be
understated but they will always be registered in our brain and memory.
When asked about guerilla marketing, Chris definitely believes that they
would consider it, as it is unconventional, different and it will create a two-way

19. 19
experience with consumers. It will also definitely go along with their comfy,
natural style that reaches out to customers. As well as that it is not an expensive
mean of marketing and that it is out of the box, which matches Zööba’s
personality.
E-commerce:
Chris Khalifa believes that social media are very important tools of marketing,
they’re cheap, easily transferrable, and can have a much greater impact. He
specified Zööba being active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Zööba has its
own social media team, so in a sense, they’re not directly spending money on
marketing, but they’re paying people to transmit their idea out there socially
amongst customers in their natural scene – which works greatly for Zööba. Chris
also adds that Zööba doesn’t have a PR agency, responsible for spreading the
brand and sponsoring it to events and so on, they only have their social media
team, which to them, is much more important as they give away an idea about
Zööba, in the way that they want to portray themselves, which makes a huge
difference with customers, as we’ve seen with how well Zööba is doing so far.
Chris says, “we don’t actually put an add directly on the Internet, but we get
good press however.” He clarifies that it is of great value to have people write
about Zööba. An example of that would be Cairo360.com, it’s a great website
that lists of Cairo’s must-see places, whether it be restaurants, touristic
attractions, nightlife spots and so on. Users can also rate the places and only the
best and most reputable places in Cairo are listed on that website, and Zööba
already had its review posted on 2nd of April, with a stunning 4.5/5 ratings. The
review posted contains Zööba’s details, and a thorough description of the best of
the menu, with an idea about prices and a description of the experience you will
get when you visit, the ending quote was as follows:
“Everything about Zooba charmed us; the food is great, the staff is friendly and
helpful, even the bathroom design is appealing with hilarious bucket-shaped sink
and a mirrored wall inside the toilet. There is also good news for people with
allergies, as the menus specify whether a meal contains dairy or nuts. Every

20. 20
detail at Zooba has been taken care of and we absolutely love them for that.
Bravo!”
However, it’s still very risky to have someone try your food and write some
negative comments on it on the Internet, which shows that it could be a double-
edged sword as it could be very pervasive since Egyptians also like to add their
touch and exaggerate with negative comments, but Zööba tries to overcome that
by trying to achieve its absolute best all the time.
Also, as means for being even more precise
about the way they’d like to be portrayed on the
Internet, Zööba also has its own personal
website, which is called “zoobaeats.com.” It
seems like it will be very informative and helpful
with full insight to the restaurant; the type of
website that will make you want to go and check
the place out. It will have its vision, mission, story, pictures, and I bet the
tempting menu. It will include all the information one needs to know about Zööba.
However, it’s taking them some time to develop exactly the website they dream
of, so unfortunately, it’s still unfinished.
Pricing strategy:
When talking about competition, Chris had already mentioned that the average
cost of a meal for 1 adult is about 35 Egyptian pounds – which is less than KFC’s
average. The average meal price bracket is more precisely between 35 and 40
Egyptian pounds, with a range of products with different prices; the beef Kibda
sells at 28 LE, Hawawshi sells at 14 LE, large Koshary sells at 17 LE, Taameya
sells at 17 LE, Foul with Tahina sells at 15.50 LE, lentil soup sells at 11 LE and
finally fried potatoes sells at 4.50 LE.
Zööba’s prices change periodically of course just like any other restaurant in
Egypt because of our inflation. Prices have to adjust to the change in our
currency and that is not just with Zööba, it’s with any business establishment

21. 21
anywhere – they simply have to adjust pricing. For instance, when Zööba first
started, the pound was at 5.8$ when it just recently reached 7.5$. Inflation is a
part of business, Egypt’s circumstances of course has inflation speeding up its
game a little more than the usual which is not the most optimal market but Zööba
is still successfully coping.
As an operational strategy though, they never intentionally considered
changing their pricing. Zööba wouldn’t compete based on pricing for instance as
that is not their proposition; Zööba’s value is not in that it’s the so-called
“cheapest,” that is not the type of market Chris wants for Zööba. He would never
get into a “price war” with any other restaurant, as it will only take away from
Zööba’s value in the eyes of customers.
Zööba doesn’t really offer new products, so I don’t believe if falls under market
penetration, as what Zööba’s products were already existent, but Zööba made
street Egyptian become gourmet, thus providing an ambience, culture and a
service to a type of food that was already there. Also as Chris Khalifa previously
mentioned, it wouldn’t be the type of market they’re after, so Zööba definitely
didn’t decrease its prices than competitors, if anything – Fool, Taameya,
Koshary, Sogoaa, Hawawshy and many more items on the list would probably be
more expensive than actual average Egyptian street food places, so again, it’s
not only the food that it offers, so it wouldn’t want to settle for a lower price when
its invested so much to become more than just a “food place.”
I don’t believe the pricing strategy could be seen as Skimming as well since
Zööba didn’t just mandate high prices that it will lower later on in time. Neither is
it considered a life cycle pricing in my opinion, as Zööba is only two years old.
The most convenient type that would match Zööba would be “value-based
pricing”, as Zööba does cover its costs definitely which includes a little of cost-
plus pricing there since of course Zööba doesn’t fail to cover its costs. However,
the value-based pricing matches Zööba the most as its main focus is to give
their consumers an unforgettable high end gourmet experience with Egyptian

22. 22
street food, so its pricing isn’t too expensive based on the type of customers that
will walk into Zööba, and it’s not too cheap as well. In my opinion, Zööba’s pricing
strategy is really the value of the sitting experience, the food, the hospitality, the
cleanliness and the oriental design altogether.
Financialdimensions:
“To this date, all of our growth has been based on equity,” Chris stated. Zööba
is not indebted and did not resort to debt till now. However, Chris believes they
could consider debt at this point in time, but they would’ve never agreed to it at
the very start.
Khalifa mentioned Zööba’s accounting team, who’s lead by their brilliant head
accountant. This team manages all income statements and cash flows. They
also have a cost controller and a material control system that tracks
everything all the way from the cost average of every single item they sell, the
theoretical cost of it, the actual cost, the waste level per item, also a monthly PNL
and of course their balance sheet that Chris personally monitors very well. If their
numbers go really down one month, they don’t give up, they slowly try to logically
figure out why, see what are the potential reasons for this downfall, if it’s
something fixable or of major concern, and they deal with it.
Generally speaking “start ups are a huge experience in cash flow
management,” Chris believes. Obviously, financials are very private so Chris said
at the very beginning of the interview that he will not be sharing numbers,
however, he used an example, which lead me to believe that the initial start up
requirement of Zööba cost around 1 million Egyptian pounds.
Talking about start-ups, Chris described that it’s a day-to-day process, you’re
always thinking where’s the cash? Are we allocating the right amount of cash?
What’s the best use of cash today? What are we spending wrong amounts on?
How much money do we have? They’re all big questions that take a lot of time
and effort to get the answers to and starting Zööba only made Chris realize that

23. 23
even more. However, thankfully he has the banking background that he was
lucky enough to have which helped him a lot, as he mentioned that finance is so
valuable to anyone starting a business.
Chris Khalifa also shares that the most important thing is having everything
right as it’s all about the analysis, because if you’re not getting the correct
calculations of your data, then you won’t be able to analyze it, so Zööba’s
accounting team spends a lot of time making sure that everything is correct.
“There’s not a pencil that we purchase in this business that we don’t document,”
and that’s how challenging it is. Chris adds that it still didn’t encounter him, the
experience of having someone responsible sneakily change around the numbers,
and for assurance, he revises everything, goes over everything, signs the
cheques, the cash spending and the purchases, he signs the approvals that are
done through Zööba’s material systems. He also tracks the revenue numbers
and deposits, Chris believes he monitors to the best extent that he could this
present day.
Funding/Equity sources:
Chris Khalifa shared that he had money saved up for his dream project, so that
money was efficiently put into Zööba, however, he didn’t give any precise figures.
Moreover, of course the more he makes, the more he re-invests in his own
business and the cycle keeps going. Also, as previously mentioned, Chris’ mom
is another investor who shared for the 15% that she owns of Zööba.
Of course Moustafa El-Refaey, Chris Khalifa’s partner – who is also the
director of operations, has shared to the sources of funding. Moreover, recently
there are 5 other individuals that are considered to be close friends and
colleagues that Chris knows enough to invest with, all of whom have contributed
to the funding. Those are Zööba’s only sources of obtaining equity.
As mentioned above, Chris chose to not risk it while starting up and get
involved with a debt in a form of a loan from a bank, as it seemed too risky at the

24. 24
time when the idea was still on paper, but now since Zööba proved its ongoing
success, Chris would consider a loan. However, Chris wouldn’t consider an
“angel” or “public stock” at any time soon, as he previously mentioned that he
would like to remain possessing majority ownership of Zööba; he wants to be in
control at the end of the day.
Among the 3 types of capital we have: Fixed, Working and Growth, I believe
Chris Khalifa is directing all his efforts in the past 2 years towards growth. It
definitely started out by fixed capital, when they figured out where they’ll start off
and then moved to working as Zööba started making profits and started having
stocks and started being responsible for people’s jobs but I believe in just 2
years, having opened in Zamalek, Citystars and Maadi, that is a rapidly growing
business, with Egypt’s unstable political and economic situation.
Location & Design:
“I believed Zamalek was always a great place to build a brand,” Chris Khalifa
said. It’s not just because he personally resides there though. Zamalek does truly
capture all of Egypt’s essence in its streets, its crowdedness, its traffic, its fancy
dining shops, its nightlife, its amazing scenery and even its people. Chris
believes that all this creates a “cool factor” in Zamalek that it possesses out of all
other locations.
Road 9 in Maadi was supposed to be the second branch, but to due to
technical differences with the landlord, the deal was off and looking for another
spot took almost year so in the mean time, the second branch was in Citystars
instead. However, Chris believes that also Road 9 street has a “cool factor” to it,
because its cozy with all restaurants stuffed next to each other, but not as cool as
Zamalek’s 26th of July street.
Chris mentions that they kept going back and forth about opening in Citystars
because of the risk of going to a mall, when Zööba had already proven its street
concept –which wasn’t decided yet if it was going to work with the same success

25. 25
in a mall. Still, Chris and his team wanted to test and prove that the idea could be
scalable in malls and they could pull it off, so they went ahead with the risk. They
chose Citystars as a mall instead of Mall of Arabia for instance, because
Citystars is far more successful and has the highest amount of traffic.
Another reason that makes the 3 locations the greatest picks is something
really simple but brilliant, brilliant to the extent that they might not have even
considered it consciously while picking them. It’s simple the delivery process
diversification and ease. If we think about it opening in Zamalek, Citystars and
Maadi basically connects you to all of Cairo. City stars is borderline Nasr city –
Heliopolis, its also close to the fifth settlement and Zamalek connects to all of 6th
of October Bridge residents, such as Mohanseen, Dokki, Tahreer and its even
close to 6th of October city and finally Maadi is close to Giza
Zööba is designed to be a comfy place, a natural scenery, an oriental-modern
atmosphere, and so everything had to match what Zööba portrays itself to be,
such as the décor for instance like Cairo360 mentions in its reviews; the creativity
with the bathroom’s bucket-shaped sink, also the ease of carrying around the
food as Chris says, “there’s nothing you can think of in Zööba that you can’t pick
up and eat while walking in the street.”
The whole food on the go, fast casual experience proved itself very successful
by Zööba’s preparedness to take it all the way, especially that they don’t want to
confuse their customers, instead they want them to think of Zööba and Egyptian
gourmet street food comes to mind automatically. The colors of the place even
match the colored unique types of bread they have, which again is going that
extra mile to show customers the sense of creativity and life that Zööba
possesses.
Managementteam’s background:
As of now, Zööba has 200 employees has a whole team. Zööba’s culture is
very important as mentioned previously, but so is its professionalism and

26. 26
adequacy and so training development is a huge part of this business. Chris
mentions how they’ve been working on their 5 core set values mentioned above
for months, in order to develop them and in order to get employees engaged in
applying them.
Another important asset to Zööba as Chris mentions is actually his mother!
Other than being his supporter and shared equity and owned 15% of Zööba, She
has been working in training and development for 30 years and so she’ll be
joining the HR and training full time as an actual title of chief people person. He
believes that would be great as she has a lot to add to the business, and he
believes in his mother’s abilities to improve the team – which is in itself
something great, not just your mother supporting you financially and morally, but
also actively engaging and helping in growing the business.
Chris talks more about his employees, he mentions they’re slightly overstaffed
right now, but that’s better than having a shortage of staff. Zööba also has a
great policy, which they take very seriously in terms of staff, which is promoting
from within. Chris Khalifa says that they don’t hire managers, they just keep
giving trainings to push the culture as much as possible and to keep employees
thriving to achieve more and to believe in their own growth potential.
Chris mentions that the jobs that they do take are waiters, Stewarts, busboys,
chefs and that eventually they pick the best most ready to be promoted into a
management position. “I would love promoting someone who started as a waiter,
to a manager to a chief, to even higher positions,” Chris mentions. He really
means it when he hopes that he can eventually get Zööba’s waiters and chefs to
become directors of operations all over Egypt, actually to him that would be the
greatest accomplishment. Also, all decisions to promote are on a collective basis,
as at this point in time, this is what suits Zööba, the bigger they’ll get, the more
structured and maybe a little bit complex everything will become.
Zööba doesn’t offer compensation packages at the moment, nor fringe benefits
as other more developed businesses. However, everyone is medically and

27. 27
socially insured, from the delivery guy to the highest position. Chris also believes
that since Zööba is only 2 years old, they’ve never been faced with a situation
where a man who’s been working at Zööba for 30 years or something is leaving,
so again, the bigger the become the more structured they will be.
Accordingly, every Zööba branch has a restaurant manager – that’s been
promoted from within and who had started from the very start of opening Zööba.
Also, each branch has 3-4 shift leaders, also promoted from within, and Chris
mentions that a couple were actually Stewarts when they started, and the others
were promoted from chefs or waiters which only proves how literal Khalifa is
about this strict promote-from-within policy.
Zööba doesn’t have a very hard process for getting a job there. It’s all
documented, but it’s something internal so you wouldn’t just find the job
descriptions on Zööba’s Facebook page. Every specific job has a description
that’s linked to the SOPs that they have to follow. It might include a brief
reference to the values, like “adherence to the values” possible and all sorts of
their requirements of their daily jobs.
As much as the process is not difficult but Chris mentions, “it’s not as
developed today like I wish it would be, but it’s one of the things we’re working
on.” He adds though, that every time Zööba opens up a new branch, the new
team has to go through a 2 months training process to assure they have the
qualities needed for being in Zööba. The business itself was only opened 2 years
ago, so other than the training provided, employees learn as they go by
observing, experience and trial and error.
As for the high positions, obviously Chris Khalifa is the CEO, with Moustafa El-
Refaey – his partner being the director of operations. They also have their
treasured head of accounting, whom is also considered to be one of he senior
people in the team. Chris also mentions the financial manager, who is
responsible for the cost controlling, inventory and material stocks. As
previously mentioned, Khalifa’s mom will have the chief people position soon.

28. 28
Those are the far most executive positions in Zööba according to Chris.
When asked about their suppliers, Chris added that Zööba values its suppliers
deeply, and they consider them as important and vital as anything. They care
deeply for the relationship between them. Chris even believes that the hierarchy
goes as follows, “Employees, Customers and Suppliers.” Of course, like any type
of relationship, there are sometimes conflicts, but they tend to try and resolve
them, as Zööba’s team is loyal to them as the relationship is professional and
fruitful. In some cases though, Zööba will need to change its suppliers if they’re
not committing enough – which is an ever-changing part of any business.
Chris mentions that all ingredients and supplies are fully Egyptian from
Egyptian suppliers, and that they deal with different suppliers giving the best fool
beans, so if one supplier gets blacklisted, customers should fear the change of
taste, as Zööba has other suppliers and they go through the process of testing
the product and Chris says that they could be very flexible with were they get
them, just like he had to ride a tok-tok to reach the sugar cane supplier, but over
all, Zööba tries to have a very relationship with their suppliers.

29. 29
Recommendations:
 Get the Sugar cane machine in all Zööba branches, as this is the very
Egyptian street.
 Include actual Egyptian meals, in order to have people go in
and have the full Egyptian gourmet food experience, however
not just street; such as “Molokheya,” “Mesa2a3a,” and
“Makarona Bashamel.”
 Open up in the States or UAE sooner better than later, because
the more they wait, the riskier it becomes that someone will
replicate their idea abroad.
 Open the website sooner.
 Have a kid’s meal, coloring books, or a play area, anything that
would appeal to adults who have children.
 Sponsor events, maybe like AUC events, or school events by
having a cart wheel that serves fool or Koshari, which will not
take away from the idea or value, it will be exactly street, but
just meeting new markets and testing how its like to try different
customers.
 Open up in Alexandria as well as it will work really well there.
 Have a feedback/recommendations page online since it
cherishes and works mainly with social media.

30. 30
Works Cited:
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2012/04/18/gentrifying-egyptian-street-food/
http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/11/zooba-egyptian-street-food-goes-inside/
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/12/world/meast/cairo-street-eats-get-gourmet/
http://www.cairo360.com/article/restaurants/3645/zooba-new-zamalek-
restaurant-making-egyptian-food-trendy
http://www.zoobaeats.com