Akeel JabberInvestment Director, Horizen Capital · Investor, Entrepreneur and Petroleum Engineer

Customer Obsession: Our Success Story

14 Jul 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:01

In this YouTube clip, co‑founder Akeel Jabber (Speaker A) shares his personal journey from a finance and food‑industry background to building Avacom, a product they wish had existed earlier. He emphasizes a deep customer‑obsessed mindset, rooted in his identification with end‑users. He recounts a vivid anecdote: a senior employee at a 2,000‑person organization turned down a job offer because the prospective employer refused to adopt Avacom, fearing a return to “spreadsheet hell.” The story illustrates how Avacom’s modern technology is perceived as essential, and how such customer‑driven moments energize the team. Finally, Jabber defines personal success not by business metrics but by quality time spent with his wife and children, underscoring a family‑first philosophy.

Chapters

I used to be like, my co-founder and I, both of us come from finance and food industry, right? Like we are both our persona. So we are the classic story of, you know, we were in the trenches, hitting in the head, and now we're building the product we wish we had, right? Mm-hmm. So by nature, we are very customer obsessed because we, you know, we have this high sense of identification with them. So like recently, one of our customers, like in a very large organization, actually close to 2,000 people, She was sharing that she rejected a position, a job offer, because, you know, they wouldn't implement Avacom in the short run. And then she saw no way back to the spreadsheet hell she used to live in. And she just thought like, hey, these guys are dinosaurs if they are not ready to implement, you know, top-notch technology. So stories like that is what really gives me energy and gets me going and what I identify my success with. I think more at the personal level, I'm a family guy, so spending time with my wife and kids is really all the success you need.