Entrepreneur in Residence · via 2080 Ventures
Supporting early-stage founders on product validation, go-to-market, commercialisation, AI and growth.
2026 — present · Saudi Arabia
Founder
Darya Khan
Founder, Nectar.
I help founders turn promising technology into commercially viable businesses — from the first customer conversation to a product in market and a growth engine behind it.
- Founder & CEO, Nectar
- Founder, Medory
- Startup mentor
- Speaker
- Dubai, UAE
2016Building digital growth for brands and businesses since
2020Founded Nectar, a product, technology & growth studio
8Organisations across startup programmes, venture and government
Organisations I work with
01 — Ecosystem
Working at the intersection of startups, technology and growth.
Startup Mentor
Mentor on the TDF Grow Accelerator, supporting tourism startups scaling across Saudi Arabia.
2025 — present
Startup Mentor
Mentoring founders on growth, go-to-market and commercial focus.
2023 — present
Startup Mentor
Data-informed acquisition and retention strategies with founders, including Quotabook, Dabeeo and Monnit.
2021 — present
Startup Mentor
Mentor in the Jack Ma Foundation’s flagship programme for African entrepreneurs.
2022 — present
Roles as held. Programme names and logos are used to describe that involvement and do not imply endorsement.
02 — Speaking & masterclasses
Bring Darya to your founders, team or programme.
Lectures, masterclasses and workshops for accelerators, universities, corporates and government entities — practical sessions on taking technology from idea to market, drawn from building companies and mentoring founders across startup programmes.
- Accelerators & incubators
- Universities
- Corporate innovation teams
- Government entities
- Founder communities
Keynotes & lectures
Talks for conferences, programme cohorts and university audiences.
Masterclasses
Half-day or full-day sessions with frameworks your team can apply the next morning.
Workshops & office hours
Hands-on sessions with founders on their own customers, pilots and go-to-market.
Programme mentoring
Ongoing mentoring and Entrepreneur-in-Residence support for accelerator cohorts.
Popular topics
- From idea to paying customers
- Customer discovery that changes decisions
- Go-to-market for B2B & enterprise
- Designing commercial pilots
- Growth systems, not campaigns
- AI in operations — where it earns its keep
- Fundraising readiness
03 — How I work
Supportive of founders.
Rigorous about the business.
Understand
Start with the founder’s story — and where the product and the business really are today.
Diagnose
What have customers actually validated? Who pays? What is genuinely blocking progress?
Challenge
Test the assumptions that feel safest, with evidence: interviews, willingness to pay, pilots.
Prioritise
Commit to the one next action that creates the strongest proof — then measure it.
04 — Where I help
- Commercial clarityNarrowing a broad proposition into a specific customer, an urgent problem, an economic buyer and a measurable value.
- Customer discovery & validationCustomer interviews, evidence of willingness to pay, pilot design and clear learning milestones.
- Go-to-market & growthPositioning, acquisition, sales process, pricing, partnerships, CRM and growth measurement.
- Product & technologyConnecting the roadmap and technical execution to customer needs, deployment constraints and commercial outcomes.
- Fundraising readinessSeparating investor-access problems from traction, conversion and runway problems — and building the narrative.
05 — Building now
Building companies — and practising what I advise.
An AI-native operating system for healthcare, bringing clinical, administrative and financial workflows together. Starting with hospitals and clinics; the first hospital pilot is underway.
A marketing and sales CRM that brings leads, WhatsApp conversations, pipeline and ad performance into one system — following ad spend through to revenue.
A product, technology and growth studio. Strategy, engineering, data and marketing in one team — from discovery to a product in market and the customers behind it.
Founder-led, team-delivered. Every engagement is delivered by Nectar’s specialists in product, engineering, data and marketing.
06 — Perspective
Most founders I meet don’t lack vision. They lack evidence.
They can describe the product in detail — the features, the interface, the future. What’s usually missing is the commercial core: a specific customer, an urgent problem, and someone with a budget who will sign.
That gap is where good ideas stall. Teams build before they validate, market before they’ve found the message, and raise before they can show traction that holds up.
My work is to close that gap, patiently and directly: understand where the business really is, diagnose what’s blocking it, challenge the assumptions that feel safest — then prioritise the one next step that creates real proof.
It’s the same discipline I apply to Medory, and the one Nectar brings to every founder we work with. Encouragement is easy. Commercial rigour is what helps.
— Darya Khan
07 — Let’s connect
Building something ambitious?
Building a product, running an accelerator, or planning a lecture or masterclass for your team — let’s start a conversation.