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Ahmed Elsamadisi: Better Decisions Lead to a Better World

Ahmed Elsamadisi: Better Decisions Lead to a Better World

 

Ladderworks is a publishing platform of diverse picture books and an online curriculum with the mission to empower over a million kids to become social entrepreneurs. Our current series features interviews by our interplanetary journalist Spiffy with inspiring Social Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Builders, who are advancing the UN SDGs. 

Spiffy here with the scoop on the entrepreneurial leaders of Planet Earth. As the only interplanetary journalist stationed on this blue planet, I’m thrilled to present this galactic exclusive with Ahmed Elsamadisi, the CEO of Narrator, a data platform. Let’s learn what’s happening at Narrator and how Ahmed is positively impacting the world.

Spiffy: Hi Ahmed, thanks a million for talking to me today. Tell me, what challenge is Narrator addressing?

Ahmed: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! Our goal at Narrator is to enable everyone to make better decisions because better decisions lead to a better world. To make a better decision, you need to ask the right question, leverage data, and get an answer you can understand and act upon. This is quite hard nowadays, and we are committed to making that easy.

Spiffy: What motivated you to do it?

Ahmed: Our customers and my past. Our customers are much happier, able to do way more, and frequently praise the simplicity of our work. I know that because I was in their shoes. I remember the struggle and how the pressure from a flood of questions was always terrible.

Spiffy: Sounds exciting—how would you say that your organization is working towards a more equitable world?

Ahmed: We believe information is power. We enable companies to use their data to understand their own biases and behaviors.

Spiffy: Tell me about a recent organization milestone or initiative. What impact does it make?

Ahmed: We just enabled the first-ever store to share and reuse analyses. This means every company can finally, ACTUALLY share intelligence together.

Spiffy: Please share an experience when you faced failure and didn't give up. What did you learn from it?

Ahmed: We ran out of money and had to unfortunately let go of half the team. This was hard. It taught me that no single decision ever matters. There will always be another avenue to explore.

Spiffy: Thanks for speaking with me today, Ahmed—it’s been an honor!

Ahmed Elsamadisi is the founder and CEO of Narrator. Ahmed started his career building algorithms for self-driving cars and human-robot interaction. He then joined Raytheon to develop AI algorithms for missile defense, focusing on tracking and discrimination. In 2015, Ahmed joined WeWork as the first hire on their data team. Recently, Ahmed was recognized as one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 for 2021. (Nominated by the Ladderworks team. First published on the Ladderworks website on September 28, 2022.) 

© 2022 Ladderworks LLC. Edited by Jason “Jackson” Block. Spiffy’s illustration by Shreyas Navare. For the Ladderworks digital curriculum to help K-3 kids advance the UN SDGs, visit Spiffy's Corner here.