Meet the Founder: Mohamed Zalale

Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing you to the graduates of our first-ever Online Incubator program in Erbil!

And this time we are introducing Mohamed Zalale, founder of ZALALE.

Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?

I’m Mhamad Zalale and I’m 21 years old. I was born and live in Sulaimani and I've been a fashion designer since 2014, when I graduated from high school. And after I studied 1st year of university after a fashion week event in Kurdistan I decided to launch a local clothing brand, in 2018 and 2019’s I was chosen as a youth delegate in (AWMUN and AYIMUN) among 21,000 youth in Iraq , I loved fashion when I was a kid and I improved my skills till now to be a successful fashion designer and entrepreneur.

What is your business idea?

My business idea is ZALALE brand (which is a local clothing brand for designing and producing clothes in the Kurdistan region . It was launched in 2018 and registered as the first local clothing brand for clothes for women and kids in 2019.

Our positive points are; (improving our country’s economy from the fashion industry, producing and designing in a high quality and good prices and after that exporting to other countries.

What challenges did your business face?

When I started my business I only had some points about my business and I as I said I had only studied the first year of financial and banking department in university but I had some ideas about business , when I launched my business I got informations from internet and printing business books , I did some mistake at the beginning but now I know enough to manage my business and grow more and more day by day.

What advice do you have for someone trying to start their own project/business?

My advises are knowing your idea is one of the most important points so that a business can grow and to depend on , and loving what you want to do , search for it and don’t tell people to help you to start your business at first do all of the actions by yourself to know each points of your business, and participate in courses and workshops that are free get information from social media and depend on yourself.

Why did you join the Five One Labs startup incubator?

When I joined Five One Labs’ Ignite and Incubator I wanted to get more information and tactics of business because when I left university and I didn’t have enough information to grow my business more, so I participated to know more information.

Also finally for getting funds from Five One Labs, which was a great support, especially that I participated during this year of crisis.

What progress have you made on your business since joining the incubator?

I did a lot of progress and learned a lot as an entrepreneur more than before, I think Five One Labs’ incubators with fund or without, was a great experience for me, for my life, and my business idea.

Mohamed with ZALALE won the second place in our Online Incubator in Erbil and received seed funding as a support to his business!