Meet the founders

A group of friends with diverse business ideas share their entrepreneurial ventures. The Critical Queen offers toxic-free nail products, SpendCents is a financial well-being app for students, Healthy Edge focuses on simplifying home management, and Natak creates pop-up restaurant experiences. They discuss their unique approaches to solving everyday problems and the common thread of making life easier for their customers. The group reflects on their shared entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation. Well, we got together because of a seminar assignment, but Iman Hamza and I have known each other since last year. We decided to be in a group together because we know that we get well and we know we have a good bond between us. And also we have one addition, which is Omar, that we met this year. I am the nail tech, also called the Critical Queen, and I am offering a service and a product. My products are toxic-free and all very green, as some people like to say. They're being healthy and are healthier for the nails. It helps the nails be strong and the polish last longer and stay shiny all the time. Love that, and honestly, your idea fits perfectly into the theme of solving real problems students actually face. Baker and Nelson in 2005 would call your approach pure bricolage brilliance. As for me, my main hustle and the thing eating up my storage space, screen time, and sanity is SpendCents, a financial well-being app helping students understand where their money actually goes. An interview showed 68% of students forget to track small expenses, be it that small matcha that you got at the Cal Coffee shop or your coffee. And most finance apps feel like filing taxes, honestly. Straight into lean startup mode I went. I don't assume, I tested, and students didn't want budgeting homework. They wanted clarity. So SpendCents became a financial literacy companion, simple, supportive, and stress-free. And speaking of making life easier, Hamza, your MVP is a whole different angle, but still very much solving everyday chaos. Walk us through it. For sure. So my hustle is about how to start with a simple question. Why does managing a home feel harder than it should? I didn't try to predict the future. I followed the infatuation. I began with who I am, what I know, and what people around me think are overdoing, do it cleaning, diapers, and laundry, thin, juggling work with no time, that's where Healthy Edge was born. Using resources already in my hands to make everyday life lighter. Now Omar, in your tradition to our dysfunctional founder family, tell us who are you and what do you do? For sure. Omar and thank you for welcoming me. My business idea is Natak, which is the name of my business, as I'm saying. It's all about pop-up restaurants, very different from traditional ones. We give chefs more freedom to experiment in their cooking that they wouldn't get if they were to open a restaurant or work somewhere else they don't own. And since we only do limited time menus in different venues, this creates a unique experience for the customers coming in. I've had some of the best memories eating food surrounded by the people I love and I wanted to share that experience, that made me fall in love with food in the first place. And now that we've all introduced our chaotic emotions, let's look at what they have in common.