Empowering Underserved Talent in MENA

In this edition of Founder’s Hustle, we spotlight Christian Vezjak, a Bolivian-born entrepreneur with Palestinian and Slovenian roots. Driven by a desire to reconnect with his identity and give back to communities tied to his heritage, Christian’s journey eventually led him to launch TAP, a platform unlocking career access for youth in fragile regions like Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.

From Bolivia to Palestine

Christian Vezjak grew up in Bolivia, one of Latin America’s poorest countries, to a Slovenian father and Palestinian mother. At home, his father’s rise from hardship to business success taught him grit. His mother taught him softness, generosity, and the quiet dignity of her displaced Palestinian lineage. 

After completing an MBA in France, Christian met Jafar Shunnar, a fellow student from Palestine. The two connected instantly. Months later, Jafar invited Christian to visit Nablus. That journey was a turning point. The weight of the occupation, the visible tension, the settlements, it all collided with the quiet legacy his mother carried. “Something shifted,” he said. “I realized I couldn’t walk away from this. I had to do something.”

During that visit, he discovered that Jafar had launched an IT company in Palestine and was overwhelmed with applications. For every open role, hundreds of young Palestinians applied. But with only a handful of positions available, it became clear that the real problem wasn’t talent, it was access. Something needed to change. 

Back in Amsterdam, he connected with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, by chance, had a strong mandate to support Palestine and other underserved regions. He pitched a pilot program (that later evolved into TAP): a platform to bridge the gap between high potentials and companies, and accelerate the path to jobs for Palestinians.

Through the ministry, TAP received 130,000 in starting capital. Christian and Jafar made a bold first move partnering with Gaza Sky Geeks and managed to place 20 developers into Jafar’s IT company. “We had no idea how we’d pull it off,” Christian said. “But we made the commitment. And when you commit before you know how, that's when you start building for real.”

That was the start of TAP, not as a startup, but as a mission to make careers possible where they previously weren’t.

The Early Days of TAP

At the outset of TAP, Chris and Jafar were also running Kiitos, the IT company Jafar had started. Kiitos was an IT company and service provider. They were building software for startups, scaling projects, and learning the ropes by working hands-on with around 20 startups. Kiitos wasn’t meant to be the end goal, it was a way to keep the lights on and generate seed money for TAP.

The founders reinvested every dime of Kiitos’ profit into building TAP, which started as a bootcamp-style program focused on upskilling Palestinian software engineering talent. 

Instead of purely technical training, the curriculum prioritized “power skills”, things like how to present yourself to companies and navigate job interviews, which made up 80% of the program, with 20% dedicated to technical skills.

Over time, TAP expanded beyond software engineers to include other verticals like digital marketing, sales, and operations, reflecting the broad unemployment challenges in Palestine even as the global remote work economy expanded at unprecedented speed. Chris and Jafar aimed to build a remote-first company that trained and placed talent virtually across various fields.

They collaborated with leading global trainers and experts from prestigious consultancies in Europe that delivered cutting-edge education to young high potentials in Palestine. The founders believed that this strong endorsement would open doors for Palestinian graduates within their training partners’ extensive networks. However, relying solely on these partner educators and their client networks to absorb the trained talent proved unsustainable at scale, prompting a pivot that shaped TAP into the model it is today.

Where TAP is today

From the beginning, TAP stood out for its ability to unlock job opportunities through creative partnerships and relentless outreach on behalf of its pool of job seekers. But as Chris puts it, every job created ultimately came down to one thing: a person on the other side who believed. Often, it was someone with a shared identity or background, Palestinian, Jordanian, Lebanese, or otherwise connected, willing to open a door.

Over time, TAP built a massive, distributed network of professionals passionate about supporting underserved talent, especially from Palestine. The team realized that instead of advocating on behalf of their job hunters (or relying on the training partners’ networks), they could equip people to advocate for themselves.

So, TAP built a system to make that happen. They’ve now automated their entire matchmaking and outreach process. Job seekers input their basic details, CV, LinkedIn, and interests, and in return, TAP makes introduction recommendations.

As Chris explains, “If you're applying on LinkedIn from Syria or Lebanon, the AI might reject you before a human ever sees your name. But if someone inside the company knows you, believes in you, and has met you, your odds transform entirely.”

The result: TAP users now regularly land jobs within two to three months of signing up for the platform. With technology driving the process, TAP has drastically reduced its operational costs, making the program both more affordable and more scalable. The next question on the table is monetization.

Monetizing Job Seekers

TAP has built strong partnerships with governments and NGOs that currently fund access to its programs for underserved youth. While this model has enabled meaningful impact, it is not sustainable. Relying on grants and NGO funding places TAP within the aid economy, limiting its ability to scale as a market-driven organization.

TAP is now shifting toward a more sustainable and scalable model. While most students can’t pay full price, TAP is lowering its costs to a minimum, making everything as AI-driven and efficient as possible. The goal is to offer an affordable B2C option that more users can access. As the user base grows, so does the value for companies, who benefit from a broader, high-quality talent pool. Employers are already seeing this value.

In 2025 alone, TAP placed talent with over 60 companies in more than 40 countries, all remote jobs. This traction is opening the door to monetization models where companies pay for placements, sponsor cohorts, or subscribe to TAP’s platform.

TAP’s founder, Chris, often compares this moment to the early days of the climate movement. A decade ago, climate innovation had no market. Today, carbon credits fuel an entire industry. TAP believes youth, especially in underserved regions, are just as vital a global asset. The world is starting to realize it. TAP is preparing for that shift by building a model where investing in youth is both impactful and commercially viable.

NGO or Venture Scale?

Chris is clear-eyed about creating a for-profit alternative that unlocks a dynamic that would solve the problem of chronic youth employment. He shares, “I’ve been told by investors a few times that we should consider becoming an NGO.” 

Instead, Chris and his team chose to build a profit-driven business that can sustainably unlock the untapped human potential in underserved regions. He emphasizes that in this space, “you’re going to be given just enough time and money to prove your point. There is no margin for failure from one stage to the next.” Building this kind of organization demands exceptional skill and patience, as it involves “building infrastructure that does not exist” and navigating a long journey where early phases may not be profitable, but each step moves closer to scalable impact. Ultimately for Chris, real impact and sustainability go hand in hand.

While some investors initially hesitated, concerned the model felt “too NGO-ish”, many saw the deeper potential and backed the vision. In late 2023, TAP closed a $1 million Seed round led by Wamda Capital. In parallel, the team secured over $3 million in government grants, which played a critical role in supporting early-stage research, product development, and training efforts. 

What Success Looks Like

TAP is challenging conventional ideas of success in the employment space. Instead of focusing on matchmaking or direct placements, TAP empowers individuals to take control of their own job search. Success isn’t about handing someone a job, it’s about equipping them with the tools, mindset, and support to find one themselves. By stepping back as a traditional intermediary, TAP puts the power in the hands of the job seeker. And it’s working: many “TAPers” are landing roles at top AI startups in Dubai, the Netherlands, Australia, and beyond, with no hand-holding. 

In 2024, out of 116 total job placements, 56 were what TAP calls “self-placements”, jobs secured entirely by users applying, networking, and navigating the process independently using TAP’s tools and systems. These wins matter more because they demonstrate that TAP’s tools, training, and systems are working exactly as intended: enabling underserved youth to advocate for themselves and access opportunity on their own terms.

Final Word

TAP’s journey is still unfolding. Over the past few years, the team has radically rethought how to drive impact, laser-focusing on what matters most: helping motivated individuals actually land jobs. With the help of technology and a leaner model, they’ve found ways to deliver that impact faster, at scale, and at a fraction of the cost. 

As Christian puts it, “We’re still becoming whatever it is we’re meant to be.” But if the early signals are any indication, TAP is onto something powerful. We’re excited to keep following their mission-driven journey and to see where this path leads next.

Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know when new Founder’s Hustle stories drop!