Why this exists

This started as something I do for myself. Long before I had anywhere to put it, I'd pull apart companies I found interesting – how they got here, what they actually built, where I think they go next. Outside-In is just me doing that in public, because the people I shared these reads with kept telling me they were useful.

What gets covered

One filter, applied everywhere: the company is already tier one in its category, and not yet generational.

Tier one means the market already takes it seriously – it sets the reference others get measured against, at a scale that is no longer in question. Not yet generational means the outcome that actually matters is still unwritten: whether it becomes an institution that outlives its founders and permanently defines how its category works, or turns out to be a very good company that plateaued. That question has a real answer coming, usually within a few years.

It rules out both ends. Too early, and there is nothing to analyse but a pitch. Already settled, and the interesting question has been answered – someone else can write the retrospective. Geography is not a filter. These companies come from anywhere, and some of the most interesting ones are being built in places the global press isn't looking.

One analysis, many lenses

There are many reasons to want the real story of a company, past its press releases – weighing a role there, sizing up a competitor, considering an investment, entering its market, or just curious how something you admire works under the surface. Each brief is comprehensive on purpose: the product surface, the competitive picture, the numbers, the leadership. Read the whole thing, or jump straight to the part that fits why you came.

In practice that's mostly senior product and commercial operators, founders, and investors – but the door isn't that narrow. The same company looks different through each lens, and the analysis is built to hold all of them at once.

How it's built

Every piece is built the same way. Public sources only – no inside access, no PR filter. Video interviews, product data, press coverage, app store reviews, and regulatory filings where they exist. I work until I have a formed view, not just a summary of what I found. The view goes in the piece.

And it's always a hypothesis, not a verdict. Every company here is included because it matters, and because I respect the people building it. They have already done the hardest part, the part most never reach. Nothing I write is an attack, a scorecard, or a dismissal of that effort. It's an outside view of where something genuinely important might go next.

Who's writing

I'm Ahmed El-Sharkasy, a product leader who's spent years building and scaling tech companies across MENA and global markets. Outside-In is where I think in public.