Leaders

A lot of us are unfamiliar with the concept of Biohacking. It is essentially Do-it-yourself Biology. What that means is that it's hacking your Biology to improve wellbeing, lifestyle and improve performance through strategic inventions.

To bring more clarity to this term and this lifestyle, Ashwaq AlMudhaf started Hackaruu, the first Biohacking firm in the region of Middle East. When we hear biohacking, it may sound alarming to some because of the word ‘hacking’ that is considered a negative thing, but Ashwaq AlMudhaf wants to change the opinion.

To give us a clearer understanding of what Hackaruu and Biohacking is, we sat down with Ashwaq in a personal interview. Here are a few excerpts from there:

What is Hackaruu and how did it come about?

It's the first Biohacking platform in the Middle East and I am the Co-Founder. Biohacking is a lifestyle where you augment humans or human enhancement and it is do-it-yourself biology.

The interesting thing about Hackaruu is that it's a covid child. So my background is that I’m an engineer, entrepreneur, I’m into real estate and once covid happened, there was a shift. I got into a huge thing with lifestyle and health was a big move for me and launching a business during covid is risky, when the concept is new.

People think Biohacking is hacking their bank accounts but it’s not. It’s actually hacking your biology and to sync your outer and inner biology, all our systems perform better in life and business. That’s what I also teach in my other businesses.

Where did you start your journey and where do you want to go?

I did my schooling in the New English School of Kuwait, after which I did my Bachelor’s of Science and Civil Engineering in Jami’at Al-Kuwait and then did my MBA in the Maastricht School of Management, all of this helped me start Hackaruu.

I do have political aspirations and have served in the Municipal Council and won the seat as the president of the council. I want to run for parliament, maybe one day.

But yes, I just finished my term as a member of the Supreme Council, which is the highest council in the town. But now I’m completely focusing on my private businesses.

What is Hackaruu to everyone working on it?

Essentially, I am the face of Hackaruu. I’m in charge of marketing and am the brand ambassador, so I speak on behalf of Hackaruu. My partner is more on the back end and operation management and I am incharge of the marketing, brand management and customer relationships. Along with marketing, I am part of R&D and development. I am the one looking to buy new products on the market. I am the one using, testing these products so we can if we need to or need not develop that. Once we know what those are, we can move ahead with our company. For all of us, we want to change people’s perceptions and want them to be more accepting towards this concept.

How do you think Hackaruu grows?

First, we need to understand that Biohacking is a very niche market, since we are focusing on awareness, our Instagram account has posts that raise awareness but again, like I said, it’s very niche.

Of Course we do sell, but 90% of our activities on Social Media are focused on awareness, because we want people to be aware of what Bio-Hacking is and how you can fix your mind, body and environment, because it’s very important. If you want to buy something, you will not buy it if you have no idea what it is, so we want people to be aware.

We are actually the only Arabic biohacking site so people can use our website in both English and Arabic. People have trouble accessing the website when it’s only in English so we made sure that even in the chat box on the website and social media, the person communicating with you will know Arabic.

“Listen more than talk. Surround yourself with people you want to be like, because they really reflect on you.”

How do you balance the lives of Co-Founder and Ashwaq?

Well one thing is that I’m single. I think women have this need to be organized, I’m not a feminist in that way, but on a personal level I can do things more organized and having a family and a company doesn’t affect my life all that much.

It’s mainly about time management. I teach people and help them reach their optimum potential and all that is good time management. So If I teach it, I have to practice. So I think I’m doing a great job.

I do Yoga and I’m a sports enthusiast. I’m a Liverpool fan so I watch a lot of Football, I used to play Football but not anymore. I like painting and the pandemic really helped me focus on that. This year, I made a promise to myself and I stuck to it and that was to read one book a week. I’m still on target so I want to read more books. I love traveling, unfortunately I haven’t traveled in a while but I like to. Recently I went to Dubai and it’s my first trip in a while but I will travel more. 2022, that’s what it’s for.

What is some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs such as yourself?

Listen more than talk. Surround yourself with people you want to be like, because they really reflect on you. You know there’s a saying that you are the product of the people and it’s true. If you’re going to surround yourself with 5 people that know what they want to do in life, you will drive to be like that. I don’t consider myself an entrepreneur or ‘successful’, I consider myself a learner and I learn everyday. Keep on learning.

Ashwaq Almudhaf, Co-Founding Partner, Hackaruu

An entrepreneur changing the world one breakthrough at a time, Ashwaq AlMudhaf started Hackaruu, the first Biohacking firm in the region of Middle East. She also has political aspirations, has served in the Municipal Council and has also won the seat as the president of the council.