A year of bold moves; building, shaping & inspiring the future of work

2022, was a remarkable year for us as the founding year of PLAYBOOK.

In mid-2021, with just a pitch deck in hand… we welcomed legacy members who were our first champions/ cheerleaders/ advocates/ allies. They have been our bedrock of support and have proven time and time again to be as inspired and as ingenious as the resilient and daring team building PLAYBOOK. These 150+ men and women are our Founding Members that build with us.

At the end of 2021, we saw ourselves close our pre-seed round of $700,000 with the backing of San-Francisco based Venture Capital firm - 500 Global, Sanabil Investments, Kuwait-based Venture Capital firm - Faith Capital, Saudi-based Angel Investor Network - Women Spark and other strategic angel investors. We came together as a fully-female founded team to unlock the hidden potential of the largest untapped resource in the world - women.

• 17:1 is the male to female ratio of CEOs around the world
• Less than 19% of Board Seats are held by women globally
• Less than 2% of Global VC Funding goes to Female Founders

Our raise got us to building an organisation that is bold, entrepreneurial and as nimble as change itself. PLAYBOOK was ranked amongst the 15 most innovative startups in the Middle East and amongst the Top 101 Arab Educational Tech Startups. We launched the mobile and web app version of PLAYBOOK in June of 2022 and have ever since welcomed 1800+ members from 580 companies across 180+ cities in 45+ countries with a 30% MoM Growth and strategic invites in circulation to drive positive network effects.

We won the:

• National Finals of the ‘Entrepreneurship World Cup’, organised by 3 co-host organisations – Misk Global Forum, Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) and The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (GELF).
• ‘Female Founder’ Award at the Supernova Pitch at GITEX GLOBAL 2022, UAE.
• ‘Leader of Tomorrow’ at the Mastercard and Entrepreneur Middle East Women SME Awards 2022, UAE.

We were also nominated for the Best E-Learning Platform at the Tech Innovation Awards 2022 and for the Most Impactful Initiative at the Women in Tech Awards 2022.

So what did we build? ??

We’ve been building the ultimate career growth ecosystem for women leaders to thrive personally and professionally. Our platform combines active and passive micro-learning/ nano-learning through a relevant (and relatable) learning experience, access to meaningful connections across different markets, expert insights, 1:1 mentorship opportunities, job boards and more.

We had vowed to not be just another business about empowerment but a well-researched, data-obsessed and tested experiential learning approach that would make the maze of the corporate leadership board smoother to navigate and lead to measurable impact. We’ve built strong corporate partnerships at PLAYBOOK and have partnered with 17 organisations - from a leading telecom company, to MENA’s leading Oil and Gas company, to a global investment company to AI and digital transformation companies. With the ability to freely network with one another, they are able to tap into the collective wisdom of the network.

When the ordinary are given the right exposure and framework to learn, grow and contribute then they achieve extraordinary results. We liberate the everyday genius of the people behind these organisations (more specifically women) through our online and offline learning experiences and connection-building efforts. Through our Global Resident Mentorship Programme, which we launched in December 2022, members can now book 1:1 time with experts to help them get unstuck. These experts range from financial experts to business advisors to therapists and coaches.

A simple amuse-bouche if you will…

We believe: “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

Representative role-models matter. Which is why… we started mapping the blueprint to unleash creativity, energy, resiliency and leadership by leveraging the core of the journey and experiences of game-changing women leaders, in the form of masterclasses (70 masters in the pipeline and growing with a profit-sharing plan to scale the community of influence).? Our curious creatives worked out curriculum and learning design to produce cinematic masterclasses showcasing women who are industry experts and leaders. Users of our platform (read: members) today have access to 3,000+ training minutes, 200+ lessons and 17 Masterclasses and we’ve awarded over 170 certificates of completion in the past 6 months. We’ve seen a sticky product being built with more than 50% of our members watching a second masterclass after completing one and so forth.

Today our members have the playbook on how to become a board member, how to raise funds for your early-stage startup, how to thrive in government, how to climb the corporate ladder, how to lead a family business, how to scale your business, how to navigate mental health, how to understand the investor mindset and so much more… with several masterclasses in the pipeline to address financial literacy, the world of crypto, the metaverse, becoming a CEO, developing a winner’s mindset etc.

Creating Ripples of Change - Playbook Scholarships???????

Everyone deserves the chance to learn, grow and contribute. We’ve partnered with different NGOs, NFPs and Universities to distribute free-access scholarships to our platform. We’ve distributed 70 Scholarships and we look forward to matching every paid membership with a free-access scholarship in 2023 and democratise access as much as we can.?

Our 2023 Manifesto:?

• Test audacious experiments to continue to improve our User Experience and add value to their journeys in close collaboration with each member
• Activate our LIVE Speaker Series each month moderated by our members with incredible Guest Speakers to enrich the conversations and learning experiences continuously
• Launch our Offline Experiences in different parts of the MENA Region and bring our communities together in-person
• …And stay endlessly inventive to pivot, rebuild and solve for what really needs solving?

Calling all you story-tellers, entrepreneurial mavericks and change makers:?

PLAYBOOK HQ is on the lookout for the right A-players to co-create with us as we build and shape this impact driven business. It won’t be easy but nothing ever worth building is. We’re inviting you to join our journey as community builders. We expect you to be agile and to look at your role as a daily play-date at a ‘Playbook Legoland’ (if you will) as you reverse-engineer assembling the world’s ultimate career growth ecosystem.

We’re hiring for roles in Community Management, Business Development, Content Creation and Administration. If you think you’ve got the chops to be fearlessly imaginative, consult, lead, be a fast learner and add value then send us your CV on [email protected]

If you’re hoping to get a taste of startup culture and excited to take the plunge, but are still in Uni, we have internship opportunities that open up throughout the year and give you exposure to multiple functions behind the scenes. Apply for internship opportunities on [email protected]

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Keep watching this space to stay up-to-date on this unstoppable movement!