CMU-Q alum featured on Forbes ME “30 Under 30”

Haris Aghadi, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, has made the Forbes Middle East “30 Under 30” list for 2021. The annual list showcases young professionals from across the region who have made an impact in their field.

Aghadi graduated from CMU-Q in 2014 with a degree in information systems. In his senior year, he created a project to connect people in Qatar with local doctors. The project was written up in the local newspaper the day after he presented it in class.

“We had thousands of users on our little website and we thought, wow, people are actually using this. We are solving a problem for the community and we could actually grow this thing out,” said Aghadi.

Aghadi developed the idea into Meddy, a startup for improving the connections between the community and local doctors. Today, Meddy is available in Qatar and the UAE, in both English and Arabic. More than 70,000 patients have written reviews, and Meddy also offers features to medical clinics for booking appointments and teleconferencing. In 2020, more than 1.5 million people in Qatar and UAE used Meddy to make informed health decisions.

Meddy completed Series A funding in 2019. Looking ahead, the company is looking to expand to new markets.

Reflecting on his days at CMU-Q, Aghadi believes that his information systems background has given him an advantage as an entrepreneur.

“I think IS majors are probably best suited to do entrepreneurship. As a startup founder, you need to have a full stack understanding of several aspects of the product and the company. IS gives you this unique mental model to think from the technical, business and product sides.”

Learn more about information systems at CMU-Q.