Alumni Profile: Abdulelah Saleh

What led you to found Glucojet? 

I was doing research on printed sensors at KAUST, working with inkjet printers where we were formulating inks to be printed on different devices. We were able to completely print our own sensors. Think of HP inkjet printers but being able to print a full sensor just from the cartridges. We made our own inks: electronic inks, enzyme inks, insulators, and even metal. All of that was done through the printer. 

The research was very popular because it was more affordable and environmentally friendly. When you calculated the cost, it was around half the price of regular manufacturing, and the devices would fully degrade in the environment in less than a month. 

KAUST was promoting the TAQADAM program and looking for companies to start up. This topic came up in our lab, and we felt like we had something. We had good research and a patent. It was still early, but if we commercialized it, we could get a real product out quickly. I was excited to join the incubator and grow the idea.  

That became my foundation into entrepreneurship and eventually led me toward business. You see what matters out there. You think the research you do is the most important thing, but when you go out, no one cares. Not because it isn’t important, but because most people don’t know about these problems. Like, who cares if sensors are 50% cheaper? Not many people. But the people who do care will pay a lot of money for that. We learned you have to find what people care about in the thing you’re trying to solve. It is not easy.  

That's a good lesson. Even if most people will not care about your work, those who do are the ones who make the difference. The hard part is finding those people. How did you do it?  

I remember they told us that by the end of the program, we had to contact 200 people about our startup. We asked, “how are we going to talk to 200 people?” They said to go to the street, go on Facebook, it doesn't matter. “Give us 200 people, or you will not pass the program.” 

It feels very awkward at first. You call someone and say, hey, I have this thing. They say, who are you? You say, I am from KAUST. They say, what is KAUST? It took so long, and many led to nothing. But after 200 calls, a surprising number became good leads. I was shocked that it worked so well. 

That is something I do to this day, and it is advice I give to everyone who wants to start something: give me 10 people who will agree to this. They ask, what people? I say, I don’t know, figure it out. Give me 10 people, and then we will talk. It sounds like something out of a self-help book, but it actually works. 

You worked for a little over a year as a consultant. That is a path that many KGSP students and alumni take these days. What was that like, and what did you learn from your time working with a large consulting firm?  

I think a lot of academics think less of consulting work. That used to be my view of consulting. I thought you are just making slides. I didn’t really think of doing consulting up until my last year at KAUST. I remember I had a friend of mine who was working at Roland Berger. We were talking about how I wasn’t sure what to do after my PhD. I wanted to use my expertise, but I wasn’t sure what to do. He said to join consulting. “Trust me, I think you are going to like it. They will need people like you who have a PhD and specialize. And if you want extra motivation, this is my salary.” 

That was pretty convincing. Compared to what I was taking in at the time, I thought, okay, that is worth a try.  

He gave me the name of the partner and told me to talk to her and see what she says. I talked to the partner - another cold call. She said she liked my CV and that they needed someone like me. One month later, they asked me to come work with them. They were starting their own practice in healthcare, and they needed someone who was more specialized in the field. It was that fast. 

The nice thing about consulting is that you learn so much more than you think you can. You learn very quickly what the large entities and governments around the world care about, and it is nothing like what academia and small businesses care about. It is especially interesting for us in Saudi, where we have all these big projects going on. Those insights are worth having, and they give you a good perspective on how the country works in general. 

Also, because you get compensated very well for it, consulting can help you build a life that allows you to do anything afterward. In that way, it is a great step toward anything else you want to do.  

How did that experience with consulting lead you to where you are now? 

I actually quit consulting after one year on the job, and it wasn’t to go to anything else. I just felt it was too much focus on large things and less on the details. As a researcher, I get hyper‑fixated on the small things. It is a great job if you like that kind of work and if you can handle the work hours, but for me, it’s not my thing. 

At that time, my brother was starting his own company called Thabet Investment, which started a marketing agency and had recently sold a couple of clothing and food brands that he built himself. He told me that if I had nothing to do, to come to his office and use it as a base and see what I can figure out.