Egyptian Twin Sisters Establish Startup to Support Struggling Artists

By Monaya Selim

It’s a fact that when it comes to making a living out of their art, artists always face an almost insurmountable challenge. Artists are usually known to be consumed by their art rather than preoccupying themselves with the business side of things. But two Egyptian twin sisters are aiming to change that.

Sara and Hania Seif are graduates of the American University in Cairo (AUC) in marketing communications and theatre respectively, and together they decided to start “More Of”, a company that focuses on helping struggling artists who majored in similar fields to make a living out of their craft.

The young entrepreneurs’ new startup is a social enterprise aiming to help aspiring artists develop the entrepreneurial skills to launch their own businesses so they can continue doing what they love.

‘More Of’ offers a three-month bootcamp-based program where talented artists are mentored and guided through the processes of running a business. They learn about marketing and finance pitching as well as other business basics.

In an interview with Arab news Sara Seif said that “Creative artists have something you can actually buy, like wall paintings, fashion, jewelry, and so on. We offer them a talent management platform; we’re like a talent incubator for them…What we do in this incubator is try to build capacities on the business side”.

They achieved that by managing a chain of themed workshops including how to turn art into business, sales for creative artists, and personal branding 

The twins plan on expanding to supporting and promoting the preforming arts.

“We’re going to build an online platform for performing artists — theater, dance, and music — and it’s going to work like an online casting agency, where there’ll be a lot of opportunities posted for the artists”, Sara said.

Hania and Sara are planning to make the platform free so that any talented artist can join, but there will be a premium package. “Premium users will have an edge, where we’ll be their own consultants and manage their talent. We’ll basically be an agent for the artist”, Hania added.

The startup is still in its early stages but these talented young girls have no intention of slowing down. They have ambitions of developing it into a huge annual festival in Egypt to allow people to experience and engage with all kinds of art.

And according to Egyptian Streets, “More Of” will be collaborating with Entreprenelle in the first “creative entrepreneurship circle” for women, to help combine art and business to empower women working in the creative industry.

WE SAID THIS: “When you have a lot of talented artists you will be able to build a nation with different creative mindsets.”