logo
Lyvely Named Official Audition Platform for 'The Final Pitch: Dubai'

Lyvely Named Official Audition Platform for 'The Final Pitch: Dubai'

Entrepreneur22-05-2025

Applications to audition for The Final Pitch's upcoming Dubai edition are officially open for UAE and non-UAE based international entrepreneurs looking to pitch their business.
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
The Final Pitch, Asia's longest-running business reality TV show, has announced that Lyvely, a UAE-based social media and monetisation platform, will be the official auditioning platform for startup applications ahead of its first Middle East edition, The Final Pitch: Dubai.
The first-of-its-kind partnership connects the region's creator economy with its startup ecosystem, giving entrepreneurs a streamlined platform to pitch for funding, gain exposure, and grow.
With millions in funding raised across Asia, The Final Pitch is a high-impact televised pitch competition were founders pitch to top regional investors. Through Lyvely, the show hopes to introduce a more interactive experience – where audiences can follow, support and engage with entrepreneurs in real time.
"This partnership is a natural fit," Farah Zafar, co-founder and CEO of Lyvely, said in a statement. "Lyvely is all about empowering creators and entrepreneurs to turn their passions into profit. The Final Pitch is where bold ideas meet real investment. Together, we're building a bridge between inspiration, influence and impact."
Meanwhile, John Aguilar, creator and host of The Final Pitch and Founder of Dragon's Nest, LLC FZ, the business and media investment firm bringing the show to the region, added: "Partnering with Lyvely lets us extend the show's impact beyond the screen. It's a new layer of engagement for founders and audiences alike, and a powerful way to spotlight regional talent."
The first Middle East edition (Dubai) will feature a new wave of startup founders, creator-led ventures and regional investors. With Lyvely powering applications, the show is set to redefine how businesses are pitched and funded in the digital age.
Applications to audition for The Final Pitch's upcoming Dubai edition are officially open for UAE and non-UAE based international entrepreneurs looking to pitch their business. Here's how to apply:
1. Create a Lyvely account at https://lyvely.com/creators/explore
2. Make a post on your Lyvely profile by uploading your pitch deck, teaser deck or elevator pitch video, and tag @Cyphercapital, @Lyvely and @TheFinalPitch.
3. Fill out and submit an online entry form to The Final Pitch via the official website: TheFinalPitch.world
The Final Pitch Dubai will see contestants pitch to a panel of top-tier investor-judges, including: Phoenix Group PLC co-founder Bijan Alizadeh, Harbor Real Estate CEO and Managing Partner Dr. Mohanad Alwadiya, Founding Partner of Incubayt Investments Ltd. Sami Khoreibi and Triliv Holdings founder Jigar Sagar – each bringing deep sector expertise and capital backing to the table.
The series is set to air exclusively on OSN and OSN+ in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What Cybersecurity Teams Can Learn From Product Management
What Cybersecurity Teams Can Learn From Product Management

Forbes

time22 minutes ago

  • Forbes

What Cybersecurity Teams Can Learn From Product Management

Dan DeCloss is the founder and CTO of PlexTrac and has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity. What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? The most obvious answers are passion, determination and a clear vision. But humility and a willingness to listen and accept feedback are just as—if not more—important. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs will tell you that there's nothing more important than customer feedback. Getting a continuous flow of feedback is a great scenario; however, it presents a big challenge: What do you prioritize first? This is the exact question that product teams ask every day. Just as entrepreneurs look to make the biggest impact on their product in the shortest amount of time, product teams want to maximize efforts. The challenge is determining what is actually going to move the needle while also taking into account which customer requests must be addressed first, which bugs and defects are make-or-break and what new features will outweigh the cost of technical debt. Other teams, like cybersecurity, can also learn a lot from product teams. Prioritization challenges are common among product teams, which is why they've developed mature processes and frameworks to manage them effectively. If you take these same challenges and apply them to cybersecurity teams, the similarities are striking. Both disciplines ultimately share the same mission: to enable the business to succeed and serve its customers. This alignment means both product and cybersecurity teams must base their plans and priorities on how best to support business goals. While cybersecurity program management is still maturing, product management (PM) offers a well-established playbook to learn from. By drawing these parallels, security teams can uncover valuable insights and adopt proven practices to advance and streamline their own operations. Let's dive into some of the challenges in cybersecurity and identify ways that product management is solving them. Cybersecurity teams are always responding to alerts, leaving them in a constant state of reaction. This can lead to a common sense of 'alert fatigue' and burnout. Security teams also tend to get inundated with vulnerabilities and findings from proactive scans and assessments. This problem has a direct correlation to the prioritization challenges within product management. Product management teams manage this with a systematic approach, using sprints, capacity planning and backlog grooming to plan for work. Each sprint is loaded with work for the team and a dedicated buffer to allow for any unplanned work, such as critical bugs, etc. Security teams can make great strides in their journey to accomplish more work and move to a proactive state by following similar principles. If a security team operates in a sprint model, they can load planned work while leaving room for unplanned work. This feeds directly into the prioritization discussion. Establishing a clear process around planning work is the foundation for meaningful prioritization discussions. In cybersecurity, this is especially vital as teams are inundated with all kinds of vulnerabilities, compliance items, alerts, etc. By taking a page from the PM playbook, security teams can build a roadmap of initiatives based on their priority. One effective method is scoring each initiative based on its relative importance and impact on the business. Applying this framework helps security teams assess risk and prioritize efforts in the context of broader business goals. Of course, prioritization becomes challenging when urgent injections or alerts arise. That's where a defined escalation process—similar to an incident response plan—becomes essential, enabling teams to handle interruptions in a structured and consistent manner. Once you have defined your roadmap and established your work cadences, you're fully operational. But are you successful? This is where metrics come into play. PM teams measure how long it takes to get a feature or product to market as well as the adoption rate of the features. They also measure the allocation of time within each sprint. Security teams should adopt a similar mindset, dedicating 60% of sprint time to proactive security measures and 40% to reactive tasks. Additional metrics should be used to track mean time to resolution, meant time to detection and risk reduction over time. There are many other metrics to consider, but the goal is to ensure you're able to show progress in achieving KPIs and reducing risk exposure. Prioritization remains one of the toughest challenges for nearly everyone, from entrepreneurs sifting through customer feedback to cybersecurity leaders triaging vulnerabilities, alerts, compliance requirements and managing risks. Product teams have spent years refining their approaches to prioritization—turning feedback overload into focused roadmaps and aligning work with business goals. It's time for cybersecurity to steal from that playbook. By borrowing the frameworks, mindset and strategic discipline of product management, security teams can navigate complexity with greater clarity, build more impactful programs and, ultimately, drive better outcomes for the business. The blueprint already exists—are you bold enough to use it? Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

Swiss Chocolate Stocks Diverge as Costly Cocoa Takes Toll
Swiss Chocolate Stocks Diverge as Costly Cocoa Takes Toll

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Swiss Chocolate Stocks Diverge as Costly Cocoa Takes Toll

(Bloomberg) -- Shares in two of Switzerland's biggest chocolatiers are on markedly different courses this year as soaring cocoa prices prove a tougher obstacle for one than they do for the other. ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract The Global Struggle to Build Safer Cars NYC Residents Want Safer Streets, Cheaper Housing, Survey Says The Buffalo Architect Fighting for Women in Design Lindt & Spruengli AG has risen 28% to date as the Lindor maker has shown itself able to pass on higher costs to customers, helped by the launch of crowd-drawing products such as Dubai-style chocolate. By contrast, Barry Callebaut AG has fallen 30% as the world's leading manufacturer of bulk chocolate is weighed down by a lack of pricing power. The cost of cocoa is a challenge for both companies, with the price of the key commodity remaining stubbornly high after more than quadrupling in 2023 and 2024. Yet while Lindt plans double-digit price increases this year, Barry Callebaut's customers — which include Nestle SA and Hershey Co. — have been pausing orders as they wait for prices to come down. 'Barry Callebaut faces a perfect storm of subdued demand and limited pricing power,' said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ignacio Canals Polo. By contrast, 'Lindt stands out amid the current cocoa market turmoil, leveraging its premium positioning.' Lindt, which operates in the high-end segment of the market, has been able to gain market share from competitors such as Mondelez International Inc. The introduction of its Dubai-style chocolate at the end of last year has been touted as a 'blockbuster' by UBS Group AG analyst Joern Iffert, who noted that it's one of Lindt's 'best product launches in history.' Price increases will continue this year due to higher cocoa prices, said a spokesperson from Lindt, whose headquarters are located only about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from those of Barry Callebaut in the canton of Zurich. Still, the firm expects the trend from quantity to quality consumption of premium chocolates to continue. Meanwhile, customers of Barry Callebaut have been reducing the chocolate content in their products, hurting margins. In April, the company cut its sales outlook for the year, sending the stock lower. On Thursday, Barry Callebaut fell 0.9%, while Lindt was down 1.2%. For Barry Callebaut, another pressure point is the interest of short sellers as cocoa supplies continue to tighten and West African growers hold back next season's sales in anticipation of higher prices. Shares out on loan, an indication of short interest, were at 23% of the firm's free float as of June 3, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. 'With every cocoa price increase you have a negative impact on free cash flow,' said Damian Burkhardt, Swiss equities lead portfolio manager at EFG Asset Management. 'That is the reason why short interest on the name is so high.' The firm's executives have struggled to navigate a difficult environment. Barry Callebaut shares have had a total negative annualized return of 30% under Chief Executive Officer Peter Feld, who took the helm in April 2023 following the sudden departure of Peter Boone. That compares with a positive return of about 14% for peers during the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Barry Callebaut didn't respond to a request for comment. To be sure, average analyst price targets suggest the fortunes of the two Swiss chocolate makers could reverse in the next 12 months. Their predictions show Barry Callebaut, which fell to a 2011 low last month, rallying 31% from current levels. Meanwhile Lindt, which is hovering near a record high, could drop 12%. BNP Paribas Exane analyst Mikheil Omanadze says Lindt shares are 'expensive.' But for Morgan Stanley's David Roux, Lindt has 'stood out during the ultimate test for chocolate brands.' Even with this year's share rally, he sees the chocolate maker's premium to European consumer staples peers being supported. --With assistance from Joe Easton. (Updates share prices.) Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio

We've swapped office dress codes for a new kind of conformity
We've swapped office dress codes for a new kind of conformity

Fast Company

timean hour ago

  • Fast Company

We've swapped office dress codes for a new kind of conformity

In the years following the pandemic, our workplace dress codes have become the most casual they've ever been. For some, this shift has been welcomed with open arms. For those who enjoyed dressing up, it has felt like a departure from a wardrobe that made them feel confident and ready for their day. In the same way that some felt that pre-COVID dress codes were confining, others now feel the same kind of discomfort with an ultracasual work dress code. Our workplaces have created a new unspoken expectation of how to dress that leaves little room for personal expression. In my work as a stylist, the feedback I've been hearing is that rejecting the dress 'code' will alienate people from their team—when in reality, dressing can, and should, be another way to bring your unique perspective to the workplace. THE COST OF TRYING TO FIT IN To avoid the risk of standing out, many professionals will dress like everyone else. Go into any workplace and you'll quickly see similarities in what people are wearing. In formal environments like banking, legal, or financial industries, you'll be swimming in a sea of black, navy, beige, and other neutral-colored suits. When I worked in a small startup, where casual attire was encouraged, the norm was jeans (or yoga pants!), half-zip pullovers, and sneakers. I often felt out of place wearing my elevated jeans-and-blazer looks. Yet, in ad agencies or trendy direct-to-consumer brands, 'quiet luxury' may be on trend and relevant. Over time, our desire to adhere to these unspoken rules outweighs our desire to lean into self-expression. Contrary to what we've been told, there is no one way to 'dress for success.' Now that the dust has settled from our post-COVID phase, I believe the new norm of 'being comfortable' in work attire isn't a rule for how to dress, but a call to dress in a way that is more authentic to who we are. What standout professionals know is that dressing to appease or fit a standard can diminish your confidence and energy. But when you dress in a way that is true to you, you show up with more determination, focus, enjoyment, and confidence. What would it look like, then, to embrace a new definition of 'comfort' in your dress in the workplace? Here are three tips to work with the current anything-goes dress code that's individual to you—without sacrificing comfort. Notice how your clothes make you feel If you want to leverage clothes as a tool, get in tune with how they make you feel. When you put on an outfit, does it give you energy? Does it make you feel like you want to be more social or speak up? Or does it make you feel like going back to bed and hiding under the covers? The clothes that give you an extra lift will set your day up for aligned results. In a study that has become known as the Batman Effect, we learned that children ages 4 to 6 exhibited much greater determination, confidence, and focus when they worked on a boring task while wearing a cape that made them feel like Batman. In another study, researchers Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky concluded that what we wear affects how we think and behave, specifically our attentiveness and focus. This result was later coined as Enclothed Cognition. All of this points to the fact that clothes are useful for more than status symbols and trends. They are tools we can use to access a different level of ourselves in the workplace and beyond. Seek to stand out rather than fit in The mark of a great brand isn't one that seeks to fit in, but to stand out. Your clothes, which are a part of your personal brand, are no different. While wearing clothes that blend in with others in your industry may feel like the key to success (a mindset that might remind you of your high school days), the true marker of confidence is to express your most authentic self through your outfit. In fact, think of the leaders in your workplace or your industry you admire. Do they wear what everyone else is wearing? Or do they forge their own path? Think of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg decades ago when they came onto the scene wearing clothes that bucked all work norms. It made the news because we all wondered, How could someone so successful show up wearing hoodies and sneakers? Fast-forward to today: Some of my favorite female leaders who are daring to be bold and emblazon a new path with their style are Michelle Obama, Naima Judge, Rosalind Brewer, and Bozoma Saint John. By owning their authenticity, they show us it's okay—and actually quite powerful—to be your authentic self. Judge was recently quoted saying, 'It takes energy to not be your authentic self. If I can be more authentic, I can then use my energy to focus on my clients and uplift the people who report to me.' I couldn't agree more. Notice what rules and beliefs are holding you back Over time, we all collect rules about what is acceptable (or not acceptable) to wear to work. These rules can be influenced by our own families or social circles but also can be defined by beliefs about dress surrounding our age, whether we have children, the industry we work in, and so on. The rules—sometimes without our realizing it—can become ingrained beliefs that affect our behaviors. For example, if you work in an industry where everyone wears neutrals, you might subconsciously create a rule that neutrals are the only way to dress to be taken seriously. But if you're someone who loves color, questioning that rule might look like showing up in a teal suit that is not only professional but also showcases a part of your true self. The first step in breaking free is to identify what rules have been guiding your decisions in terms of what to where and what you buy. A clue to determine whether these beliefs are unhelpful is if they're focused on others' expectations, rules, standards, and unquestioned beliefs. Then, ask yourself, Is this a rule that is still relevant and true in my life? Often, simply questioning what's true is the pathway to freedom and making choices that are more aligned with your authentic self. While having less guidance on what to wear to work can feel frustrating, consider how it can also be liberating. Finally— finally!—we get to wear what makes us feel most like ourselves. And when you start to think of your clothes not just as a fashion statement but as fuel to achieve your goals, you realize the power that choosing your outfit each day holds.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store