Meet the entrepreneur who is bringing jobs, innovation, and sustainability to America—Inside Osama Wahba’s plan to revolutionize small businesses

 

Osama Wahba is one of Egypt’s leading entrepreneurs. He is known for his transformative work in modernizing traditional industries and scaling them into structured, sustainable business ventures. 

His most notable accomplishments include founding Mr. Tailor, Mr. Cobbler, and Mr. Sofa—enterprises that have revolutionized tailoring, shoe repair, and furniture restoration. With over 30 branches launched in just eight years, Wahba’s ventures generate millions in annual revenue and have created hundreds of stable, skilled jobs.

A Strategic Role in National Economic Recovery

Wahba has also played a critical role in national policy reform. Following the Egyptian revolution, he was handpicked by Mr. Ahmed al-Moslemany, advisor to then-president-elect Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, to join the T20 Egypt Group—an elite policy advisory council composed of graduates from top universities like Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge. 

The T20 was tasked with crafting long-term recovery strategies for post-revolution Egypt. Wahba worked alongside senior officials to develop key initiatives, including the White Book and Egypt’s Vision 2030 Agenda. His contributions helped shape the government’s economic revival and institutional reform vision.

“I took the first flight back to Egypt knowing the time for change had come,” Wahba said. “We had studied theories of development in classrooms abroad. Now we have the opportunity to apply them to rebuild our country.”

Ambassador Yasser Al-Naggar, Chair of the Middle East & Africa with the Basilinna Consulting Firm, worked closely with Wahba and President-elect al-Sisi’s First Aid General, Mohamed Al-Assar, to implement these strategies. 

“At T20, he assessed many startup pitches, evaluating business viability, revenue growth, and investment readiness,” AL-Naggar recalls. “His feedback helped multiple startups secure funding, refine their models, and scale their operations. His expertise was sought due to his firsthand experience in franchising, branding, marketing, and building scalable businesses from scratch.”

Wahba participated in developing Egypt’s Sustainable Economic Growth Plan, which focused on job creation and support for small businesses. A standout achievement was the SME Development Program, which improved access to finance for small enterprises and generated over 500,000 jobs in just five years.

Osama also spearheaded the Entrepreneurial Incubation Strategy, establishing innovation hubs in significant cities that nurtured more than 200 startups across key sectors like tech, renewable energy, and logistics.

His early contributions to Egypt’s Vision 2030 were critical, especially in economic and investment policy. He played a central role in drafting the 2017 New Investment Law, which simplified bureaucratic hurdles and offered attractive incentives to foreign investors—resulting in a 25% surge in FDI within two years. His efforts in the Industrial Modernization Program further strengthened Egypt’s manufacturing sector, leading to a 15% boost in non-oil exports.

Through strategic planning and impactful policy development, Osama helped lay the foundation for a more resilient and forward-looking Egyptian economy.

Honors that Recognize Global Potential

Wahba’s intellectual credentials are matched by prestigious honors recognizing his academic excellence. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha, two of the most selective academic honor societies in the United States. He was awarded the Fulbright PLUS Scholarship, the Chevening Cambridge Scholarship, and the BP-Cambridge Scholarship—each highly competitive, merit-based program reserved for individuals with exceptional leadership potential and academic achievement.

During his four years at the University of South Carolina, Wahba made the Dean’s List and President’s Honor Roll. He also received the Outstanding Student Volunteer Award and the Outstanding Senior Award, along with a certificate in Outstanding Academic Achievement.

His dedication to academics led to acceptance into the National Scholars Honor Society, Golden Key International Honor Society, Sigma Iota Rho, and International Student Merit Scholarship selection. He has also received nominations for prominent lists, including Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, and graduated summa cum laude. 

He also received USC’s Carolinian Award, the university’s highest leadership honor for students’ contributions to the Carolina Community. His nominator wrote: “The United States Department of State, in coordination with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, saw fit to inaugurate Osama as a Cultural Ambassador to the United States with plenipotentiary authority to represent his homeland.” 

The State Department also recognized Wahba for outstanding participation in U.S. community and campus life. To expand his influence and involvement, he attended several seminars, including the Summer Symposium on Foreign Policy, where he completed several lectures and seminars on foreign policy, and the Student Leadership and Diversity Conference. 

A Disruptive Business Model Built for Scale

As an entrepreneur, Wahba’s success is best exemplified by Mr. Tailor. What began as a small tailoring service has become a global benchmark in franchise-based alterations, with more than 30 branches across Egypt, more than 300 staff, and plans for international expansion. 

The company stands out for its structured business model, technology integration, and quality control mechanisms—rare elements in this traditionally fragmented industry. Wahba built a franchise system that solved the free-riding problem by ensuring accountability and consistent service at each branch.

“What made our franchising model succeed wasn’t just the speed at which we scaled—it was the control we maintained across every location,” Wahba explains. “We built a system that solved the franchising free-riding problem by embedding structure, accountability, and consistency into every branch. That’s how we could turn industries most people had written off into scalable, trusted businesses.”

Central to Mr. Tailor’s success was a robust, centralized training program that standardized service quality across all locations. Within three years, this led to a 40% drop in customer complaints and a 70% increase in repeat business.

By offering stable salaries and performance incentives, Wahba also achieved an annual employee retention rate of over 85%—a remarkable accomplishment in an industry historically plagued by high turnover. Osama didn’t just build a business through innovation and structure; he professionalized an entire industry.

One individual who saw the significant impact of Wahba’s model is the Honorable Hend Rashad, a member of the Egyptian Parliament and Secretary of the Culture and Mass Communication Committee. Rashad considers Wahba’s ability to effectively incorporate machine learning into his business groundbreaking. 

“I first encountered Mr. Wahba’s work when his company introduced Egypt’s first AI-driven tailoring and shoe repair services, revolutionizing an industry that had long been overlooked,” Rashad explains. “By integrating machine learning for body measurements and precision tailoring, he significantly reduced material waste, ensuring that garments were crafted with near-perfect accuracy on the first attempt. This innovation didn’t just enhance customer experience; it set a new standard for sustainability in fashion—a pressing global concern.”

Replication of this model shows promise in the U.S. economy. Small business owners, in particular, need structured service industries that can provide high-quality, consistent, and reliable services across multiple locations. Small businesses drive the U.S. economy, making up 99.9% of all enterprises (33.3 million in 2024) and creating 1.5 million jobs annually (64% of new jobs).

Wahba’s reputation for transforming industries in Egypt has sparked interest among American entrepreneurs, business leaders, and consumers. His planned expansion into the U.S. aims to introduce a similar model of efficiency and standardization that has proven successful in Egypt through sustainable growth for SMEs, supporting the franchise industry, boosting economic growth, knowledge transfer, and supporting economically distressed areas. 

“I want to bring my transformation model to the U.S., identifying overlooked industries and modernizing them for scalability,” Wahba explains. “Many small businesses here still operate as they did a century ago. I aim to refine, brand, and structure them into successful franchises. I want to polish underdeveloped industries, give them structure, branding, marketing, and administration, and bring them into the mainstream.”

Judging and Shaping the Future of Entrepreneurship

As a testament to his broader influence, Wahba has served as a judge for the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association’s entrepreneurship competitions, evaluating and mentoring promising startups. His selection for this role reflects his status as a respected authority in business development. 

Wahbha has also shared his expertise with others as a judge of the T20 Awards, where he identified Egypt’s top emerging startups. The T20 Awards is a prestigious invitation-only awards program that only considers elite business leaders successful in entrepreneurship and investment as members of its panels.

“People come to me, especially those with startups, asking for guidance,” Wahba says. “I never turn anyone away. I give them as much time as they want because when I started, I always had wonderful people helping me. I’ve mentored many people over the years and reviewed business plans, marketing strategies, and branding packages to help them grow and refine their businesses.”

Through his leadership at T20, membership in elite academic societies, significant success in building scalable enterprises, receipt of internationally recognized awards, and judgment of others’ entrepreneurial work, Wahba has consistently demonstrated exceptional ability and influence. His work is reshaping legacy industries and elevating the standards of entrepreneurship and economic development in Egypt and internationally.