Between selling chewing gum and sneakers, washing cars and cutting hair, Woodridge’s Mohammed ‘Mo’ Alizadeh spent his teenage years honing his entrepreneurial skills,
Now at university and travelling internationally to further hit skillsets, Mr Alizadeh has big plans to help the lives of about one-quarter of the world’s population – halal consumers.
Born in Iran to Afghan parents, Mr Alizadeh and his family moved to Logan in 2013 to improve their quality of life and access to opportunity.
With a resilient mindset and motivation to work hard, it seems Mr Alizadeh has the ability to adapt to every situation.
In June, Mr Alizadeh was on his way to a global internship program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, hosted by HEX International, a company which aims to equip young people with entrepreneurial skills and opportunities.
After a long flight and a layover in China, officers at the Vietnamese border informed Mr Alizadeh that his visa, allowing him to enter the country, had not yet been processed.
He spent the next nine hours in the airport without access to his luggage or food that met his halal dietary requirements, until eventually he paid a hefty visa processing fee and was allowed to proceed to his next flight.
“I didn’t sleep for those nine hours. I didn’t sleep on the flights either. I couldn’t,” Mr Alizadeh said.
“When I arrived, what was the first thing I did? I went to the classes. I was there from 10am to 5pm I was present, and I had more energy than the others there.”
Mr Alizadeh paid the expenses of the internship program out of his own pocket, finding it too difficult to secure funding from other channels, like a university. But he knew the program would provide invaluable opportunities.
“You can network with different people and meet different entrepreneurs that can give you advice,” he said.
At the end of two gruelling weeks, Mr Alizadeh won the competition with an idea he conceived in the throes of his travel woes, where he had struggled to find halal food options.
“I thought to myself, why isn’t there a website that makes it easier to find halal food nearby?
“So I actually took the initiative to make that happen, and in under two days, I was able to build a following of over 100 people, receive idea validation, and build a website prototype.
I made it in under two weeks and now I have a waiting list of around 25 people who are ready to be a customer or client as soon as the app is ready to bring to market.”
Before attending the internship program, Mr Alizadeh was studying a Bachelor of Business at Queensland University of Technology, working as a barber at his own business while also working to establish brands which included producing fragrance vending machines and clothing.
“I have dropped all of those just to focus on this,” Mr Alizadeh said.
“Because I was starving from all the way from Brisbane to China, China to Vietnam, and for the following two weeks.
“Our goal is to get it up and running before end of the year, and have clientele before that as well.”
To make the app come to life, Mr Alizadeh said he needed to hire people with coding expertise. With the right team and funding, the app could be up and running quickly.
“On the app, there’s a community tab where you can find community events, you can find mosques to pray, and halal food as well.”
