About
MENADD is written by Gennady Shafir, a CFO and board advisor based in Abu Dhabi.
Over the past decade I have held senior operating roles as CEO, co-founder, COO and CFO in venture-backed companies. Capital raising and allocation, financial management, ownership and governance, cross-border operations.
Track record
As CEO and co-founder, built a B2B e-commerce company to over $50 million in annual revenue and more than 200 employees across multiple markets.
As COO and CFO, scaled a 3D-printing hardware company operating in over 30 countries through its Series B, at a valuation above $100 million.
As CFO of a deep-tech energy company, led finance and capital raising through more than $10 million secured and licensing expansion across MENA and the EU.
Across these roles: PE and VC transactions, cross-border structures involving the UAE, Europe and Central Asia, and diligence work on both sides of the table.
Board Work
I read the cap table before I read the plan.
I work with founders and boards on the structural questions that become expensive during a financing, an acquisition or an exit.
The work starts with the cap table and the documents behind it. What dilution, option-pool increases and preference stacking do to the founding team three rounds out, not this round. Then board composition, voting thresholds, reserved matters, information rights and delegated authority: who can make a material decision, and who can block one. That is where control moves while everyone else is discussing valuation.
For cross-border companies the review extends to where the holding company and the intellectual property sit, which entities employ the team and sign customer contracts, and how cash moves between jurisdictions. The objective is to find the gaps before an investor does, and before they become a term-sheet argument.
Then I keep those questions in the room. Consistently, and before the round opens rather than after the term sheet arrives.
I have been on the operating side of a transaction that did not close because the corporate structure could not support the investment, while the underlying business was working. That experience informs how I approach this work.
Boards that treat structure as admin find out late.
Seats are taken on a fee, equity or combined basis.
Why this site exists
Founder content overwhelmingly covers how to raise capital. Far less covers what an investor examines once diligence begins.
A company can have real revenue, a capable team and a growing operation. Then an investor arrives, and the questions change. Who controls the holding company. Where the intellectual property sits. How money moves between entities. What rights attach to each class of shares. What happens on a sale.
A structure built for licensing, banking and invoicing rarely answers these cleanly. By the time the gaps surface in diligence, the cost is not legal fees. It is timing, valuation, negotiating leverage, and whether the transaction closes at all.
MENADD starts from that process and works backwards: what a reviewer will check, where problems appear, and what a prepared answer looks like. Written for companies operating under MENA structures, with MENA capital, on MENA timelines.
Focus
Cap tables and ownership. Control and governance. Cross-border corporate structure. Cash, reporting and capital readiness. UAE and the wider MENA region.
Structure is not admin. It is strategy.
Contact
Email: gennady@menadd.com
Book a call: Schedule a conversation
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gennadyshafir