Sometimes the best ideas are born on the flipside of frustration.

It was 3 a.m. in 2017 when everything shifted. I was half-asleep, shuffling into the kitchen in a T-shirt and shorts, trying to mix formula for my hungry baby boy. He’d been waking often from casein intolerance, and I was beyond exhausted. In the dim light, I kept fumbling the measurements — too much water, then not enough, again and again wasting water and time.

That’s when the question hit me clearer than my baby’s cry: Why can’t my faucet just help me measure the exact amount I need? That moment of frustration cracked open an idea — a device that could connect water assets at the point of use. Droople was born in that haze of fatigue and fatherhood, and it changed me.

At the time, I was head of IT audit at a major bank. It was stable. It paid the mortgage. It supported my two eldest kids’ pensions. Leaving that security for a half-formed idea? Madness. But something inside me was stirring — a hunger for purpose. I wanted to wake up at night not just because a child cried, but because a mission called. Still, I was scared. I had four kids then, and I worried about investing too much in this “fifth child,” Droople. Would I fail them? Could I be a good father and a founder?

That’s when my wife, Aurélie — my everyday support in life — gave me the reassurance I needed. She reminded me that my role as a father wasn’t defined by hours clocked, but by presence and purpose, that I didn’t have to choose between the people I love and the change I wanted to make. Suddenly, the pieces started to align.

As a boy growing up in Constantine, Algeria, I knew what water scarcity meant. I watched my grandmother and mother fill tanks at night because the pressure couldn’t reach our 12th-floor apartment. Water was never just a utility — it was survival, dignity, memory. So when Droople emerged, I wasn’t just building a company; I was closing a loop, connecting my past to my future.

In that process, I discovered something else: I grow best in discomfort. Choosing to leap into the unknown showed me how far my commitment could carry me. It stretched me into roles I’d never imagined — founder, yes, but also more conscious father, more present husband, more grounded human.

I remembered that I’ve always transformed in pressure — from a schoolboy who struggled to make grades into a computer science engineer at EPFL, from a fisherman and cold-call salesman to a teacher, plumber, banker, and auditor. Every chapter taught me something.

But the biggest question? Whether I’m a dog or a wolf. The dog in me likes comfort, validation, and approval. But the wolf? The wolf is hungry, uncomfortable, and at peace with that — because out there in the wild is where growth lives.

Now, strangely, I find myself circling another turning point. Maybe my greatest test as a leader is yet to come — not by building, but by letting go. Maybe Droople needs someone new to take it further, someone with fresh hunger. Maybe my role is evolving. It’s hard to admit, but I’m not afraid — because this isn’t about clinging to control. It’s about listening deeply to what’s next and trusting the ones I’ve built with.

So to any CEO reading this — especially the ones secretly wondering if they’re enough: Dream big, but celebrate the small daily achievements along the way. We founders can be brutal on ourselves. We forget to look back, but it’s not about speed. It’s not even about growth. It’s about becoming the best version of yourself — slowly, steadily, and intentionally. If you pass that test, the terms of success become yours.

“Would I fail them? Could I be a good father and a founder?”

My Mantras for Innovating With Impact

• You don’t need to have all the answers to get started. Don’t be afraid to dive in and learn as you go.
  
  

• Scaling is a matter of patience. It took us seven years to reach our 4,000 units. Today, we add that many every month — but none of it would’ve lasted without those foundational years built slowly through trial, error, and lots of iteration.
  
  

• Start structuring your team as soon as things begin to work. Going from 10 to 100 people isn’t linear growth — it’s a change of job skills. At Droople we put strong cultural foundations in place early on to stay on track as things got more complex. Culture is the intangible thing that holds the company together when everything speeds up.
  
  

• Don’t just look for investors — look for peers. What helped me bounce back more than once were honest conversations with other founders, often outside official channels — not top-down advice, but real exchanges with people living the same realities.
  
  

• What’s blocking you isn’t the strategy — it’s the execution. There’s never a shortage of ideas. What makes the difference is the ability to execute: hiring, launching, adjusting, deciding, and above all — delivering.