MetaMinds’ Revolutionary Metaverse Experience in MENA: Q&A with Sandra Helou

Interview edited by Omar Ramy, Staff Writer.

Note from the Editors: This interview has been edited for clarity and length, while preserving the speaker's intent.

Sandra Helou, CEO of MetaMinds Group, took an unconventional path into the world of tech and innovation. A law graduate who initially pursued the field to fulfill her parents’ expectations, she quickly realized her true passion lay elsewhere–in marketing, advertising, and consumer behavior.  While her career began in top advertising agencies, where she gained a deep understanding of digital engagement,, her interest in software development grew and that set her on a new path. She developed a beacon-based reminder application to streamline her daily life. One morning, she woke up to a flooded inbox and discovered that her app had gathered over 100,000 organic downloads.

That moment solidified her belief in the power of immersive technology to reshape user experiences and their everyday lives. Fast forward to today, Helou is redefining the internet’s future–leveraging Web3, AR, and VR to build immersive, meaningful experiences. MetaMinds is more than just another tech company; it’s a bold vision for how the metaverse and spatial web will transform the way brands and consumers interact in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

The Dyorama: How did MetaMinds come to life and what was it like to start a company in this space?

Sandra Helou: In 2017, I joined Zilliqa as part of their community, closely following their work in blockchain. I wasn’t actively looking for a job in the space, but I saw opportunities for them to improve and shared my perspective. To my surprise, the CEO responded, and I was later brought in to head and help build their NFT department. 

MetaMinds was founded around five years ago. I was very interested in blockchain but I never had any prior experience in it. This was when Bitcoin and blockchain were still niche, and I was fascinated by their potential. Luckily enough, the team at Zilliqa trusted me and the vision, and we started to build the metaverse department and strategy.

However, we soon realized that you cannot have a blockchain company, leading with a metaverse vision, and leading with NFT vision. That’s when we started partnering with external experts, particularly in game development and immersive technologies to bring our vision to life.  They came in to take on the role of CEO, COO, while I was still the CCO at Zelica.

Ultimately, I took over as CEO and we rebranded after facing several problems with our partners. We went from a team of 200 people, to a lean team of 15 people, very efficient and actually delivering. And that is how MetaMinds came to be.

The Dyorama: Why did you shift MetaMinds’ scope and objectives after your rebranding phase?

Sandra Helou: The future isn’t going to be product-led anymore; it's going to be more community-led and we're already starting to see that shift. A brand’s biggest competitor is no longer another brand–t's now a creator with a bigger, more loyal community. Thanks to white label solutions, anyone can launch a product overnight and pretty much slap any brand on them.

The dupe markets are creating products that are better than the original items. And we saw this very recently where Walmart launched its own version of the Hermès Birkin and it was sold out. 

That’s when we realized the future of luxury isn’t about the product–it’s about experiences. MetaMinds is a tech company that builds VR, and virtual world experiences. But our strength doesn't lie in just development; it's the strategy and how we help you transition from being a product-led brand to a lifestyle brand, building communities and customer journeys that are immersive.

The Dyorama: Is there a knowledge gap in MENA’s experience industries that’s hindering adoption of spatial reality, VR, and the metaverse?

Sandra Helou: Absolutely. I would say terminology plays a part and we saw that NFTs are not just Bored Apes, there's more utility to them. As a company, we don't really use the term metaverse. I mean, we use it because in Web3 that's how we separate what we do from others. At the same time, a lot of people come up to me and suggest we venture into AI, but AI is already a big part of what we do. That’s how we deal in personalization. At the end of the day, we are a data company. 

While we create virtual worlds, we are a data company that looks at personalization and engagement. When you say metaverse to people, they still think that it's a game. We make a point to distance ourselves from that perception., What we try to do is use terminology that people understand. When we say we're helping you build a metaverse, I'm not giving you a game. What I'm actually giving you is a new way to interact and engage with the end user. 

The Dyorama: How can hospitality and retail adopt immersive technologies more effectively?

Sandra Helou: If you want to apply this to a restaurant or to hospitality, it doesn't need to be an avatar walking around. It could purely be that I want to go have dinner and be able to pick my table and see the view. It comes down to personalization and engagement opportunities more than just having an avatar running around. 

This becomes the asset utility that you add at the end, not the main part of the project. There's a lot of education that still needs to happen in the MENA region. The lack of knowledge has hindered a lot of people accessing this technology and not knowing how to apply it to their industry, due to the high cost and the terminology used.

The Dyorama: How do you see AI and metaverse adoption evolving with MENA governments investing in these technologies? 

Sandra Helou: People talk about cybersecurity and AI, but the basis of AI is data. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, there's a big push towards gaming. There's a massive push towards e-sports this year, with Saudi Arabia hosting the world's first e-sport Olympics. On the other hand, Dubai is pushing forward quite a lot with AI events and strategic taskforces on how AI can be applied across industries. 

The thing is that for my industry, the “metaverse” is similar to what the browser was when people wanted to access the internet. 

We put it under the umbrella of spatial web, which is cyber security, the blockchain layer, IoT (Internet of Things), and everything else. To me, this is the spatial web–how humans, computers, data and everything connect and work together. Otherwise, you're going to have platforms in silos, with no integration. 

The Dyorama: Based on your engagement with consumers in the MENA region, how willing are they to trade a degree of their data privacy or rights for the sake of these hyper-personalized experiences, particularly in sectors like retail and hospitality?

Sandra Helou: You cannot ask for personalization, and ask for your data to be secure. If you want me to personalize anything for you, I need to know what music you listen to, your favorite color, everything. We cannot have people saying they don't want us to access their data, while expecting this level of personalization. It really just doesn't work that way. 

Yes, we need international and regional regulatory frameworks. But then it needs to be broken down into industry, because each industry uses data differently. The only thing that matters right now is data, not AI or gaming. Your information is already out there and you're not protecting anything. 

The Dyorama: How are immersive technologies being harnessed  for storytelling that resonates with both local and global audiences? 

Sandra Helou: Most luxury brands do need to go back to the core of telling their story, because that's what people connect with. Storytelling is going to be foundational in how we interact, engage, and build communities. A lot of the strategies that we implement, bring together the utility for the metaverse, NFTs or tokenization that we work with. 

The pre-experience has changed as well as the consumer’s journey. In terms of pre-experience, research now happens on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram–not Google. During the consumer’s journey, the experience itself must be interactive and memorable. Post-experience, we need to ensure that we are keeping consumers engaged after the transaction. 

Storytelling has become the core of any industry, but how do you tell the story? 

The Dyorama: What is one of the most interesting or memorable customer journeys that you were able to design for one of your clients in the region?

Sandra Helou: We did an experience that helps people get over their fears, like acrophobia. It wasn’t just about visuals–it helped people get over real fears and anxieties, helping them control their stress and anxiety. Everyone has anxiety and everyone deals with it. But being able to bring people together and see them learn to control it through VR and through technology is definitely an eye-opening experience. 

The Dyorama: How do you view the future of hospitality and its immersive experiences with the ongoing technological developments?

Sandra Helou: If you look at luxury food or chefs, they're always telling a story. Not only do they bring their culinary experience, but what makes people enjoy the food is understanding the story behind the meal, the chef, and the environment that they’re in. 

Businesses are missing out on a large customer segment, because they're not utilizing immersive technology in a way that works for them. It's not that expensive and the technology already exists.