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This episode is the first in a five-part series filmed on the ground in Saudi Arabia in partnership with COLABS, exploring the founders, operators and ideas shaping the Kingdom’s startup ecosystem.
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Omar Shah founded COLABS in Pakistan in 2019 after leaving a career in banking and private equity, turning an old towel factory into the company’s first location and, from there, building a network of flexible workspaces used by everyone from freelancers and startups to large multinationals.
That business has since become the base for a much bigger regional ambition. COLABS has moved its HQ to Saudi , where Omar now spends most of his time and sees the Kingdom as the biggest opportunity for the company’s next phase of growth.
Getting there wasn’t straightforward. Omar spent six months trying to finance the expansion, taking more than 100 investor meetings and hearing no repeatedly, to the point that he was ready to walk away altogether. That experience sits at the heart of the episode, as we get into what it takes to scale beyond your home market and why Omar believes Saudi can become the centre of gravity for the business.
We also dig into the economics of coworking, why COLABS wants landlords rather than shareholders funding much of its fit-out, why location matters so much, and how community can become a genuine commercial advantage without pretending the underlying business is anything other than real estate.
And there’s a more personal story here too, about burnout, purpose and what years of building through Covid, fundraising and expansion have taught Omar about resilience.
We cover:
Why Omar thinks COLABS is fundamentally a real estate company
What WeWork got wrong and what it proved about flexible offices
The economics of coworking, occupancy, tenant mix and asset-light expansion
Building COLABS from Pakistan and adapting the model for Saudi Arabia
Why Omar believes there is room for a MENA-native regional workspace platform
Fundraising rejection, resilience and learning to build without burning out
Timestamps
00:00 Trailer
00:52 What is COLABS really?
03:00 Why coworking is still a real estate business
08:00 Burnout, banking and starting COLABS
14:00 Finding purpose as a founder
17:00 Why location matters more than almost anything else
20:00 Building an asset-light real estate model
23:00 How COLABS’ customer mix has changed
29:00 The economics of coworking
32:00 Churn, pricing and the true cost of flexible offices
36:00 Taking the Pakistan playbook to Saudi Arabia
38:00 Why Omar is betting on Saudi
43:00 Moving COLABS’ centre of gravity to the Kingdom
47:00 Raising for Saudi and hearing “no” 100+ times
51:00 The founder rollercoaster
53:00 Relationships, resilience and what Omar has learned as CEO
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