El Mehdi Abdat thought his future was all mapped out. He would study computer science and have a career in information systems.
He began his journey in Algeria excelling at math and physics and had a computer at home earlier than most of his peers.
But in his final year of engineering school, a teacher urged him to attend a talk by a top French business school alumnus—a moment that changed his trajectory.
“I walked out thinking that I wanted to do more than computer science,” he says. “I realized I was attracted to solving problems across fields rather than being confined to one. Basically, I wanted to add an additional business hat to the technical hat I had.”
Years later, that same instinct to see the bigger picture would lead him to one of his most defining professional moments when he began building AI71, the first startup to come out of VentureOne, the venture builder of the Advanced Technology Research Council.
AI71 is focused on turning artificial intelligence (AI) research into enterprise AI tools, from advanced agentic AI models models to applications for industries like healthcare and government. For El Mehdi, the project was a chance to put his philosophy into practice, moving past the lines of code to help create tools that doctors, lawyers, and public servants could use in their daily work.
The path to AI71 began in Paris when El Mehdi moved there after engineering school to study at ESCP Business School, adding business expertise to his technical foundation.
Over the next 10 years, he built a life in Paris and a career in strategy and business analysis, eventually as a strategic consultant at Roland Berger. He advised clients across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in sectors like tech, government, and energy. Consulting sharpened his ability to frame messy problems, but it also left him wanting to build rather than just advise.
That urge eventually carried him to Abu Dhabi in 2022, when he joined the Chairman’s Office of His Excellency Faisal Al Bannai, Secretary General, to focus on strategy and portfolio management.
Among the projects he supported was the launch of VentureOne. Early on, he was tasked with incubating AI71. He spent months getting the venture off the ground, then another year in operations, juggling partnerships, product development, and growth.
“AI71 was our crash course,” he says. “It taught us what to do and what not to do.”
From there, he turned to autonomous drones, drawing on earlier work helping build a drone company with an external partner. He knew the terrain and could bridge the gap between technical potential and operational reality.
But what really attracted him to the ATRC ecosystem was the breadth of the work itself. “It wasn’t just about AI; it was also quantum, autonomous robotics, and more,” he says. “The opportunity to be exposed to all of that early on was great, and because the organization was young, there was a lot to be built."
Today, El Mehdi works alongside VentureOne’s CEO, Reda Nidhakou, acting as chief of staff and leading an optimization program to codify lessons into a venture-building playbook. The work is part reflection, part preparation, ensuring that the next generation of startups can avoid past mistakes and scale faster.
Outside of work, life in Abu Dhabi offers a rhythm El Mehdi appreciates, with short commutes, time with his family and to practice CrossFit, and regular trips back to Algeria. All are essential to help fuel his focus and resilience for the challenges of venture building.
Looking ahead, he plans to let curiosity lead the way to embrace new opportunities, just as he did that day in engineering school when he stepped into a talk he hadn’t planned to attend and walked out on a different path.