MyFounders.Club

Cover Block

PUBLIC

Attribute	Value
Name	MyFounders.Club
Tagline	The operator-first platform for Gulf founders, offering expansion roadmaps, grants, tools, and warm intros.
Headquarters	Edinburgh, Scotland
Founded	2021
Stage	Pre-Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry	Other
Technology	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Middle East / North Africa
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Solo Founder

Links

PUBLIC

• Website: https://www.myfounders.club/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/founders-club-international

Executive Summary

PUBLIC MyFounders.Club is a token-gated directory and matching platform designed to connect entrepreneurs with capital and resources specifically within the six markets of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024]. The company’s positioning as a Gulf-specific, AI-powered ecosystem aligned with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 narrative distinguishes it from broader, global startup directories and presents a focused bet on a region undergoing rapid economic transformation [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024].

The company was incorporated in Scotland in 2021 as a solo-founder venture led by Sabelo H. Simelane, a South African national [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024]. Its core product is a verified directory covering 28 categories across the GCC, offering free access to founders while charging a one-time $99 fee for lifetime access to other ecosystem participants like investors and accelerators [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024]. No institutional funding rounds or valuations have been publicly disclosed, suggesting the venture is either bootstrapped or in a very early, pre-announcement stage.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the key signals to monitor will be the validation of its AI-powered matching claims through announced partnerships, the onboarding of named investors or accelerators onto the platform, and any material shift from a directory model to a more transaction-oriented revenue engine. The venture’s ability to move beyond aspirational positioning and demonstrate tangible, scaled connections within the GCC will be the primary determinant of its trajectory.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims and company registration are confirmed via primary sources; funding, traction, and team details beyond the founder are not publicly available.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Classification
Stage	Pre-Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry / Vertical	Other
Technology Type	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Middle East / North Africa
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Solo Founder

Company Overview

PUBLIC

MyFounders.Club is a Scottish-registered entity that began operations in mid-2021, positioning itself as a digital directory for the Gulf Cooperation Council startup ecosystem. The company was incorporated as MYFOUNDERS.CLUB LTD in Edinburgh on July 26, 2021, with South African national Sabelo H. Simelane listed as its sole director [Companies House, July 2021]. Its headquarters remain in Scotland, an unusual but not unprecedented base for a platform focused on connecting entrepreneurs and investors across six GCC markets.

Since its founding, the company's primary public milestone has been the launch and positioning of its core platform. The website describes the service as a "Gulf Startup Ecosystem Directory" and a "premier token-gated ecosystem" designed to connect Saudi entrepreneurs with capital, expertise, and markets, a narrative explicitly tied to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 economic diversification plan [My Founders Club, 2024]. Founder Sabelo H. Simelane has engaged in media appearances, including interviews and podcasts, though these have not been in mainstream business publications focused on the startup sector [Matthews Phosa Interview, 2026].

Beyond the initial launch and ongoing platform description, there are no publicly announced funding rounds, major partnership announcements, or product version releases that meet the standard for verifiable, dated milestones. The company appears to be operating in a quiet, early-stage capacity, with its public footprint consisting of its corporate registration, its marketing website, and associated social media profiles.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core entity and founder data confirmed via UK Companies House; product positioning sourced from company website. No independent third-party verification of milestones or operational history.

Product and Technology

MIXED

The platform presents as a specialized directory and matching service for the Gulf Cooperation Council startup ecosystem, with its core mechanics centered on verification and access control. According to its own marketing, MyFounders.Club is a "Gulf Startup Ecosystem Directory" covering six GCC markets and over 28 categories of investors, accelerators, and resources [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024]. The company claims new listings are verified within 48 hours, a process that likely forms the basis for its "verified" directory positioning [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024]. Access to the full directory is described as token-gated, with a lifetime fee of $99 for non-founders, while founders can join for free [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024]. This suggests a business model reliant on monetizing ecosystem participants who seek structured access to a curated pool of startups.

The product's differentiation is framed around two specific themes: regional focus and AI-powered matching. The platform is explicitly positioned for Saudi entrepreneurs and aligned with the national Vision 2030 economic diversification agenda [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. Its LinkedIn description calls it a "token-gated ecosystem that transforms Saudi entrepreneurs into global innovators by providing AI-powered connections to capital, expertise, and markets" [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. This indicates an ambition to move beyond a static directory toward a facilitated matching engine, though the specific AI capabilities, data inputs, and success metrics for these connections are not detailed in public materials. The available information describes the intended function and target user, but does not provide screenshots, detailed feature lists, or named customer deployments that would allow for a technical assessment of the product's current maturity.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are sourced from the company's own website and a LinkedIn page. The "AI-powered" and "token-gated" functionalities are described but not demonstrated with public evidence.

Market Research

PUBLIC The market for structured startup ecosystem data in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a direct beneficiary of national economic diversification agendas, most notably Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which explicitly prioritizes entrepreneurship and private sector growth as a core pillar.

Third-party TAM figures specific to GCC startup directories are not publicly available. However, the broader market for venture capital and startup support services in the region provides an analogous sizing context. According to Magnitt's 2023 MENA Venture Investment Report, total venture capital funding across the Middle East and North Africa reached $3.94 billion in 2022, with the GCC accounting for the majority of that activity [Magnitt, 2023]. The number of active investors in the region has also grown, with over 250 active venture capital firms and angel networks identified, creating a clear demand for platforms that can efficiently connect this capital with founders.

Demand for a platform like MyFounders.Club is driven by several converging tailwinds. The primary driver is the top-down policy push from GCC governments, particularly Saudi Arabia, to reduce oil dependency by fostering a knowledge-based economy. This has translated into increased public funding for startups, the establishment of new regulatory sandboxes, and a proliferation of accelerators and incubators. A secondary driver is the influx of international venture capital and corporate venture arms seeking deal flow in the region, which creates a need for verified, localized market intelligence. The fragmentation of the GCC across six distinct markets, each with its own regulatory nuances and investor networks, further amplifies the need for a centralized directory that can bridge these gaps.

Adjacent and substitute markets include global generic startup directories like Crunchbase or AngelList, which offer broad coverage but lack the regional depth and cultural context for the GCC. Local business information services, such as traditional media or government business registries, also serve as substitutes but lack the dynamic, community-driven features and investor-focused curation of a dedicated platform. The regulatory environment is generally favorable, with initiatives like Saudi Arabia's Entrepreneurship Vision Realization Program actively removing barriers for founders, though data privacy regulations are evolving and could impact how user data is managed on such platforms.

Saudi Arabia Venture Funding 2022 | 987 | $M
UAE Venture Funding 2022 | 1185 | $M
Total MENA Venture Funding 2022 | 3940 | $M

The chart illustrates the concentration of venture activity within the GCC, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone accounting for over half of the total MENA funding in 2022. This validates the core geographic focus of a GCC-specific platform, as these two markets represent the most mature and active hubs for investor-founder matching.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is inferred from analogous venture capital reports; specific TAM for the directory segment is not confirmed by independent sources.

Competitive Landscape

MIXED MyFounders.Club enters a regional ecosystem mapping space defined by a few established players and a wide range of informal substitutes, betting on a token-gated, AI-powered model to carve a niche.

A comparison of the platform against its most direct, named competitors shows a clear positioning split.

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding	Notable Differentiator	Source
Magnitt	Established data and deal-sourcing platform for MENA startups and investors.	Venture-backed; has raised multiple rounds.	Broad MENA coverage, robust data analytics, and active investor community.	[Crunchbase]
Wamda	Media, data, and venture capital platform supporting MENA entrepreneurship.	Venture-backed; operates a fund and an accelerator.	Integrated model combining media, community, and direct investment.	[Crunchbase]

The competitive map breaks into three layers. At the top are the scaled, venture-backed incumbents like Magnitt and Wamda, which offer comprehensive data, news, and investor networks across the entire MENA region. Their advantage is reach and a multi-year track record. A second layer consists of national or sub-regional platforms, often government-backed or niche community efforts, which MyFounders.Club most directly challenges. The third and broadest layer is the informal substitute market: LinkedIn groups, WhatsApp communities, and event-driven networking, which remain the default for many founders despite being unstructured.

MyFounders.Club’s current defensible edge rests on two specific claims: its exclusive focus on the six GCC markets, particularly Saudi Arabia, and its token-gated, AI-powered matching mechanism [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, 2024]. The durability of this edge is questionable. The geographic focus is easily replicable by incumbents who could launch Saudi-specific verticals. The ‘AI-powered’ and ‘token-gated’ features, while distinctive in marketing, lack public detail on underlying technology or user adoption, making them a perishable advantage if not rapidly validated with tangible matching outcomes.

The platform is most exposed on two fronts. First, it lacks the depth of data and historical deal flow that Magnitt has cultivated, which is a core utility for investors. Second, it does not possess the integrated media-and-capital model of Wamda, which can attract startups through the promise of both exposure and funding. MyFounders.Club’s model, reliant on directory listings and connections, risks being commoditized unless it can demonstrate materially better founder-investor match rates than the informal networks it seeks to replace.

The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on execution in a narrow corridor. The winner will be the entity that secures a critical mass of verified, high-intent founders and investors specifically within the Saudi ecosystem, turning the directory into a trusted, high-signal marketplace. If MyFounders.Club can use its founder-centric pricing (free) and its Vision 2030 narrative to onboard a dense network before incumbents deepen their Saudi focus, it could establish a defensible node. The loser in this scenario would be a platform that remains a static directory, failing to move beyond aspirational marketing to demonstrate measurable transaction velocity. Without evidence of successful matches or partnerships, a niche player could be easily marginalized by the scaling efforts of better-funded incumbents or absorbed by the relentless efficiency of informal channels.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles are based on public positioning; MyFounders.Club's differentiators are cited from its own materials and a third-party brief.

Opportunity

PUBLIC The potential prize for MyFounders.Club is a dominant, transaction-fee-generating marketplace at the center of the GCC's Vision 2030-fueled startup boom, a position that could command a valuation in the hundreds of millions if it becomes the primary liquidity layer for regional deal flow.

The headline opportunity is to become the default infrastructure for cross-border capital allocation within the GCC. The platform's positioning as a "token-gated ecosystem directory" and its focus on AI-powered matching between Saudi entrepreneurs and capital [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024] suggests an ambition beyond a static directory. If it successfully transitions from a verified listing service to a trusted transaction platform,facilitating warm intros that close into funded deals,it could capture a small but meaningful percentage of the region's growing venture activity. The opportunity is reachable because it directly addresses a documented, high-friction point: connecting international and regional capital with a fragmented, high-growth founder base across six distinct markets [My Founders Club, retrieved 2024]. The company's early wedge is specificity, focusing exclusively on the Gulf rather than attempting to be a global platform.

Several concrete paths could unlock this scale. The scenarios below outline how the company could evolve from a niche directory into a central ecosystem player.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Become the Deal-Flow API for International VCs	The platform becomes the primary source of vetted, pre-qualified deal flow for international funds seeking GCC exposure. Revenue shifts from lifetime access fees to subscription or success fees from funds.	A formal partnership with a major sovereign wealth fund or government entity like the Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) to power their co-investment platform.	The platform's explicit alignment with Saudi Vision 2030 narratives creates a natural strategic fit for government-linked investment vehicles seeking to channel capital efficiently [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024].
Win the Corporate Innovation Mandate	Large GCC corporates adopt the platform as their primary scouting tool for startup partnerships and acquisitions, embedding it into their innovation workflows.	Securing a flagship enterprise contract with a Tier 1 conglomerate (e.g., Saudi Aramco's entrepreneurship center, Wa'ed) to manage their startup outreach and due diligence.	Corporate innovation is a core pillar of Vision 2030, creating a ready-made buyer for a service that systematizes startup discovery and evaluation across the region.

What compounding looks like centers on a classic two-sided network effect, but with a regional twist. Each new high-quality founder listing increases the platform's value for investors and resource providers. Conversely, each new investor joining and listing active thesis areas increases the platform's value for founders. The proposed "AI-powered matching" [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024] is the mechanism to accelerate this flywheel; successful matches generate positive feedback data, theoretically improving the matching algorithm's accuracy and attracting more participants. The token-gating mechanism, while its implementation is not publicly detailed, could serve as a quality filter that reinforces trust, making the network more valuable as it grows. The compounding loop is clear: more deals sourced through the platform would validate its efficacy, attracting more participants and generating more deal data, creating a potential data moat around GCC startup-investor fit.

The size of the win can be framed by looking at a comparable, though more mature, player. Magnitt, a Dubai-based startup data and networking platform, has established itself as a central hub for the MENA ecosystem. While its exact valuation is private, its scale,reporting thousands of startups and investors on its platform,positions it as a benchmark. If MyFounders.Club executes on the "Deal-Flow API" scenario and captures a similar position but with a deeper transactional layer and a focus on the higher-stakes GCC market, a successful outcome could see it achieving a valuation comparable to later-stage SaaS-enabled marketplaces in emerging tech hubs. A conservative, scenario-based estimate would place a successful outcome in the mid-to-high nine-figure range, assuming it captures a material share of the facilitation fees from the GCC's multi-billion dollar annual venture capital flow. This is a scenario, not a forecast, contingent on the company transitioning from a directory to a transaction engine.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- The opportunity analysis is based on the company's stated positioning and the known structure of the GCC venture market, but specific traction metrics or partnership announcements to validate the growth scenarios are not publicly available.

Sources

PUBLIC

1. [Companies House, July 2021] MYFOUNDERS.CLUB LTD incorporation details | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC813724

2. [myfounders.club, retrieved 2024] My Founders Club , Your Founder OS for the Gulf | https://www.myfounders.club/

3. [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief, retrieved 2024] MyFounders.Club product and positioning brief | https://www.perplexity.ai/

4. [Magnitt, 2023] 2023 MENA Venture Investment Report | https://magnitt.com/research/2023-mena-venture-investment-report

5. [Matthews Phosa Interview, 2026] Matthews Phosa Interview on Podcast with Simelane | https://www.tiktok.com/discover/matthews-phosa-interview-on-podcast-with-simelane

6. [Crunchbase] Magnitt company profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/magnitt

7. [Crunchbase] Wamda company profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wamda