Ex-Goldman Banker Exposes The Secret To Building a Billion Dollar Company

Mariam Ahmed is the co-founder of Menza, an AI intelligence platform for consumer brands. Born and raised in New York, she studied computer science at King's College London before joining Goldman Sachs.Today she's growing Menza toward a billion-dollar company, backed by Y Combinator and featured in Forbes. -------------------Subscribe to the Muslim Founder Newsletter: https://muslimfounder.kit.com/32ea939dddFor the latest updates on events, programs and announcements. -------------------Follow Mariam Ahmed:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariamaahmed/https://menza.ai/-------------------0:00 Intro2:07 Growing up in New York4:26 From medicine to coding7:40 Inside Goldman Sachs: how to find winners and losers11:21 The dinner that ended her finance career15:02 Last day Friday, flew Saturday, YC on Sunday17:11 The real reason they got into Y Combinator20:56 100 conversations in one week to find the idea22:40 What Menza actually does23:40 Why 80% of her YC batch is already dead27:09 The brutal truth about having no boss33:14 How to build with zero money in 202634:06 "You don't need to fundraise anymore"36:18 Building a billion-dollar company on Islamic values39:46 America's abundance vs Britain's scarcity45:59 The failures she's most proud of