Omar Waseem, a 21-year-old American-Muslim venture capitalist, has joined recruiting startup Founders Arm as a co-owner after backing the company early in its development. He announced the move in a statement on the company’s website on Thursday.

“I’m doubling down – and excited to officially become a Co-Owner of Founders Arm,” he said.

The company, led by CEO Rayyan Khan, specializes in recruiting people he calls "offshore talent" and helps secure jobs for them in American startups.

“If you’re selling to everybody, you’re selling to nobody,” Khan said. “Founders Arm is the company startups come to whenever they want to hire business, engineering or marketing talent. We wanted to differentiate ourselves, and so we decided to focus on startups because they’re the fastest growing teams in the US and are looking to hire very quickly.”

According to Khan, 80% of the company’s employees are based in North African countries like Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco—regions often overlooked by traditional recruiters.

Founder of a San Francisco-based internet incubator called Alif, Waseem explained how the idea for Founders Arm began and how it scaled faster than expected. 

He initially funded the project in February 2024 and advised from the sidelines, explaining the idea was sparked during a conversation with Khan, who would later become the company’s CEO.

“Rayyan was my friend initially and I wanted to get his take on the idea,” Waseem said. “And then from actually talking the idea through to him, because I knew I didn’t have the time to build it. Then we talked about it and he was like ‘shoot, I’m down, let’s try this out.’”

The two gave the company three months to prove itself, Waseem explained. “I agreed to invest in it a little bit so he can move out to SF and have a little bit of money for him to go full-time on it.”

The results came quickly. “We built the app and I was like ‘Yo this is growing much faster than pretty much most companies I invested in,’” he recalled.

Waseem stayed involved as the company grew. 

“So I continued helping him along the way and we saw the inflection point late last year where the revenue really stood up,” he said. “People were saying they’ve been convincing their spouses to quit their full-time jobs in Morocco for example. Girls were dropping out of school in their third year to join these startups.”

He added that Founders Arm played a major role behind the scenes in his own ventures. 

For example, the Alif Summit on February 1, a first-ever event planned by Waseem, bringing Muslim founders and tech-savvy professionals from across North America together, “was 50% made possible by offshore hires from Founders Arm and no one knows that.”

Today, Founders Arm serves dozens of fast-growing US startups, including major players.

“CalAI, a company that makes $30 million a year in revenue, hired 20 people through Founder’s Arm,” Waseem said. “They’re the fastest growing consumer app of the year.”

Though both co-founders are practicing Muslims, they shared that religion was not a focus when the company started.

“You’ll never find me in a public setting saying that was for Muslims but 90% of our staff at Founders and who we employ are Muslim and mostly come from Muslim countries,” Waseem said.

When asked whether Founders Arm was always meant to hire predominantly Muslims, Khan said it wasn’t intentional at first. 

“When you’re working with Muslims, you don’t truly realize it. It’s only in the last few months I truly realized the impact we’ve been having,” he said.

Khan also reflected on how the company came to be, crediting Waseem for helping shape the vision.

“Omar was one of my first friends in the startup space, " he said, explaining that Waseem "had exposure to offshore talent in the past, so we talked about what that would look like at its inception and what the future of hiring looks like.”

He said Waseem helped him see it as “a clear opportunity” that would “bridge the gap in this ever-changing landscape of a truly connected world.”

Now embedded in the startup space, Khan said the company is focused on long-term growth opportunities for its recruits, not just short-term placements heavily focused on resumes and experience.

“We’re trying to provide a pathway so that people can be integrated at Founders Arm for life,” he said. “We want to find them opportunities based on their temperament, skills, and how much they’ll be able to grow in the next few years with similar companies who will be able to provide that for them.”

Since its founding in early 2024, Founders Arm has grown to over 100 employees, according to Khan.

Khulud, a Moroccan who has served as head of recruitment for the past 10 months, said she never pictured herself joining a startup—until Founders Arm came along.

“All my past experiences have been with corporate,” she said. “So when I looked at their business model, website and everything, I was like, ‘this looks still very new’ and I wanted to be a part of something that I’ve never done before.”

She said the company’s global focus and commitment to helping young talent stood out. While most recruits come from North Africa, “we also have hires from Latin America and South Asia,” she noted.

Expanding on Khan’s vision, Khulud emphasized that the company prioritizes cultural fit and long-term potential over resumes.

“We take into consideration the cultural fit before anything,” she said. “We really take our time to understand these important aspects because they are the things that matter for any company out there so they work with them in the long term.”

Reflecting on her own growth, she added, “Who I was before Founders Arm and who I am now are two very different people, absolutely for the better.”