In this episode, I sit down with Michelle, Director of Operations at Beco Capital, one of the region’s biggest early-stage VC firms, managing half a billion dollars in AUM.

Michelle has spent over a decade scaling tech startups from her time as Head of Sales Planning at Deliveroo to her current role at Beco. She’s worked on the ground in hyper-growth startups and inside a VC firm, giving her a rare perspective on how businesses actually scale.

Whether you're an operator, startup founder, or thinking of moving to the UAE, this episode is packed with insights on building and scaling businesses.

00:43 — Michelle’s background and transition from startups to VC
02:15 — The power of generalists in high-growth environments
04:20 — What operations really means beyond “stabilizing the ship”
06:10 — Inside BECO: lean VC teams and partner-founder dynamics
09:15 — The broad scope of ops at BECO: finance, IR, people, tech
11:50 — Document writing and hiring frameworks that drive execution
15:10 — Ops at Deliveroo vs Zego: startup vs scaleup challenges
18:40 — Culture shifts: why high performance means losing people
22:15 — Where culture actually starts and how to protect it
25:00 — Why Michelle believes Dubai is the land of opportunity
27:20 — How AI is reshaping ops infrastructure and vendor thinking
30:10 — AI in marketing: content creation, personalization & impact
33:45 — Michelle’s toolkit: fiction, sleep, and better decision-making
36:30 — Final takeaways on ops, growth, and performance-driven culture

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shebuildspodcast

Get in touch:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhewerdine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_hewerdine