JEDDAH: Turki Al-Jadani is the entrepreneur behind startup The Inspiring Vision (TIV), a technical service provider that develops software including phone applications and websites.
The 24-year-old founder went through his fair share of struggles before building TIV. He dropped out of King Abdul Aziz University, where he was studying medicine, to pursue his passion in computer science. Following that, his first startup idea failed.
“After that, I worked with a partner and was able to kick-start another business. However, I ended up disagreeing with my partners on something and had to leave that as well,” he told Arab News.
After disentangling himself from previous startup efforts, Al-Jadani created TIV, and within six months, the company had gained the trust of its first six clients.
“I have seen people suffer losses after working hard because the communication between the provider and client wasn’t good to begin with. That’s why I decided to come up with a solution to acquire the trust of the client,” he said.
The company offers free consultations to potential clients. This allows clients to communicate their needs precisely to TIV and, after discussions with developers, if they decide the proposal can be delivered, the two sides can agree on terms and begin work on a project.
“We don’t want to make the client go through the loss of money and time. Another principle I have built my business around is that, if we are not able to deliver the product within the time frame that we specify in the contract, all the money is refunded to the clients,” Al-Jadani said.
The young businessman said that these qualities are essential if you want to gain the trust of clients.
While he personally dropped out of college to pursue his passion, Al-Jadani does not advise everyone to do the same, unless they have a backup plan and are prepared to put in the work to achieve success.
“I could drop out of college because I knew my family would back me up, but I don’t recommend anyone else do this. It took me four long years to learn a skill that was strong enough to build my career and a solid company on,” he said.
“I treat those events not strictly as failures, but as lessons that I needed to learn in order to become successful,” he added.