Dubai-Based Innovation Collective Obsession Unveils The Moonshot Challenge

In a region where entrepreneurship is accelerating, the boldest founders aren’t chasing what’s trending—they’re building what’s next.

That mindset, according to Mohamad Badr, founder and CEO of Dubai-based innovation collective Obsession, is exactly what sparked The Moonshot Challenge, an elite program designed for founders who would rather build something bold, than succeed by playing it safe. 

"We live in a region built for moonshots," Badr tells Inc. Arabia. “From the UAE to Saudi Arabia, this is the land of dreamers who turned ambition into national agendas and sand into skylines. The mindset here isn’t 'What’s realistic?' It’s 'What’s next?' Like many others who moved here, I was drawn to a place where the impossible is just the starting point. That mindset was probably the first trigger behind launching The Moonshot Challenge." 

Badr also shares that the deeper insights that drive Obsession and The Moonshot Challenge come from his and his team's years of working with some of the region’s most visionary founders and brands. "Nearly every one of them had that one hidden moonshot, the bold, unfiltered idea they kept in the drawer, waiting for 'the right time,'" he says. "The one their board or advisors or team kept telling them can’t be done. They are always asking 'What if…?' and 'So what?' Questions that hinted at their desire to challenge their own boundaries, reinvent their category, or break their own business model." 

However, spotting a bold idea—and having the will to build it—are two different things. And that’s where The Moonshot Challenge comes in—not just as a platform, but as a pressure chamber for the ambition of such innovators. "These are the one percent," Badr says. "The truly obsessed. They usually have the resources, the idea, and the ambition. What they need is the right system, the right sparring partners, and a challenge worthy of their vision. That’s exactly the gap we built The Moonshot Challenge to fill." 

Badr also highlights that The Moonshot Challenge isn't for just anyone—it’s not about early traction or the minimum viable product (MVP); it’s about mindset, intensity, and hunger for impact. "We’re looking for the founder who’s already built something successful, but still has the itch," Badr explains. "The one who can’t sleep because the voice in their head keeps saying: This isn’t it. There’s more. They’re restless. Obsessed. They see patterns no one else sees, they’re not here to play, they’re here to disrupt, to accelerate, to keep winning. They’re visionaries, rebels, or troublemakers and ideally, all three. But what unites them is a deep sense of obsession, and the fact they’d rather fail building something bold than succeed by copying something average."

Badr also points out that The Moonshot Challenge positions itself far from accelerators or mentorship circles. It’s a long-term, high-pressure commitment—available only by invitation or application. "This isn’t an incubator," he says. "It’s not a mentorship circle. And it sure as hell isn’t a deck factory. The core program can be delivered over six, eight, or 12 weeks, but we require a minimum 12-month commitment, because building something bold takes time, discipline, and a real appetite for transformation." 

That level of commitment means Obsession doesn’t just advise from the sidelines—it embeds itself in the trenches with founders, matching their intensity and ambition step for step. "We work with founders, not around them," Badr adds. "That demands time, presence, and a high-performance mindset, the kind that embraces experimentation and sees failure as fuel." And by the end of the experience, which Badr says is intense, immersive, and entirely tailored, founders emerge with a venture blueprint designed to be bold yet buildable—complete with clear strategies to launch, test, and scale.  

Badr adds that while every part of The Moonshot Challenge is designed to push boundaries, it all comes down to one thing: the founder’s willingness to act. And that's where 3IB: Insights, Ideas, Innovation, Breakthrough—the proprietary framework that Obsession has developed—comes into play. “Most people jump straight to ideas or execution," Badr explains. "But great moonshots don’t start with a brainstorm, they start with a truth. A billion-dollar problem the founder is obsessed with solving, or a billion-dollar opportunity they’re uniquely positioned to capture.” 

The Moonshot Challenge therefore starts with uncovering what Badr calls the “Insight”—a deep, hidden truth found through rigorous questioning. “That’s where we begin: by asking the hardest and deepest questions," Badr shares. "We dig for the truth, identify the hidden assumptions, and bring in the contradictions that need to be validated, challenged, or broken entirely." Once that foundation is clear, founders are pushed into unconventional territory: lateral thinking sprints, creative provocations, and collaborative workshops with internal teams, external stakeholders, and industry experts.

The goal thus is to generate bold, actionable ideas rooted in the founder’s edge and company DNA. These ideas are then run through a strategic screening process to build a custom innovation portfolio—one that includes quick wins, operational reinventions, and high-risk bets aimed at redefining the category. Eventually, founders reach the final stage: breakthrough. “At some point, the founder must decide: take the leap or fall back to safety,” Badr says. “It’s not easy—and it’s not for everyone." As Badr puts it, 3IB isn’t just a methodology—it’s a full immersion. “The 3IB process is an experience," he adds. "It includes innovation challenges, mindset retreats, collaboration workshops, analogue thinking labs, all powered by our own AI agent, KOBI, as a thinking partner along the way." 

Mohamad Badr, founder and CEO of Obsession. Image courtesy Obsession.

Ultimately, the 3IB experience is rooted in the same mission that drove Obsession’s founding. As Badr explains, the company wasn’t built just to spark new ideas—it was built to prioritize and rewire how innovation happens inside companies. "Innovation is probably one of the most overused words in business today," Badr says. "Every CEO, CXO, director, and manager has it somewhere in their slide deck. And that was exactly the aha moment. We speak about innovation as if it’s core, but we treat it like it’s optional." Indeed, according to Badr, most companies are still playing defense when it comes to innovation—the language is there, but the systems aren’t. "In most organizations, innovation isn’t truly integrated. It’s rarely built into the operating system. It’s not a ritual, and definitely not a structured, ongoing system that drives business value,” he tells us.

Badr says that this became clear to him after speaking to leadership teams at companies. “We reached out to founders, CEOs, and senior professionals and asked a few direct questions," he shares. "The first was: ‘Do you have an innovation department?’ And if not: ‘How do you manage innovation inside your organization?’ The answers were telling. Outside of large multinationals and highly structured companies, most leaders admitted they didn’t have a dedicated innovation function. Instead, innovation lived in scattered efforts, a hackathon here, a brainstorm there, a new tool someone wanted to try, or it existed in the minds of the founder and a few trusted stakeholders. There was no clear ownership, no structure, and no accountability." 

Badr saw that innovation, although spoken of constantly, was not given operational priority compared to other core functions. “Compare that with marketing, HR, or finance, functions every business considers essential," he points out. "But innovation? Still treated as a luxury, an afterthought, or a side project someone ‘should’ work on." That disconnect, Badr suggests, reveals a deeper organizational mindset—one that instinctively deprioritizes innovation in favor of safer bets. “So, why is innovation still treated as optional?" he says. "Because it feels risky. Because it doesn’t deliver instant return on investment. Because most companies are addicted to predictability. As a result, they wait for the market to shift, and then they react, which is why most of what we call ‘innovation’ today is just incremental improvement, not real disruption,” he says. 

So, how does Obsession help businesses rethink their approach? Badr replies, “We love to ask: ‘What’s your CONI?’ Your Cost of Not Innovating. That’s where the shift begins. Since our launch, we’ve helped leaders move from asking, ‘What’s safe?’ to asking, ‘What’s possible?’ We’ve built a steady stream of high-value content from whitepapers to innovation challenges and strategic playbooks all designed to reframe innovation as a business mindset, not just a buzzword."

And that is the philosophy that continues to guide the company into the future today. “When we launched Obsession, we were likely the first pure innovation and moonshot consultancy in the region," Badr says. "Now, we’re evolving fast, scaling into a global collective of moonshot experts serving what I call existential industries, sectors that will always matter to humans and nations: healthcare, education, defense, retail, smart cities, and advanced tech."

With footprints already established in global hubs like Dubai, Paris, Mumbai, Riyadh, and Beirut, Badr says that Obsession is scaling rapidly, while also reimagining what a modern consultancy can offer. And at the heart of this growth is the launch of two specialized labs, Weird in Wonderland, a creative lab designed to push the boundaries of imagination, and Juptr, a tech and AI lab aimed to serve founders and organizations end-to-end. And while these labs may represent Obsession’s external growth, internally, the company continues to be guided by a deeper belief about what truly drives innovation. “I believe innovation is a human instinct," Badr says. "A survival skill. And a mindset-first competitive edge. So, we must make it second nature for organizations by shaping the right mindsets, designing the right ecosystems, and building roadmaps that lead to transformational outcomes. All while keeping business value front and center, and developing new models fit for the age of artificial intelligence (AI).” 

Badr is thus working with the aim to make Obsession synonymous with moonshots, and known globally as the go-to enabler of breakthrough innovation. “What makes this even more meaningful is that we’re homegrown," Badr says. "We didn’t come from Silicon Valley, London, or New York. We’re not a global firm ‘entering’ the region. We were born in the region and now, we’re scaling outward. My vision (and I know the team will call me crazy) is that, one day, when people say McKinsey for management consulting, Ogilvy for advertising, or IDEO for design thinking, they’ll say Obsession when they talk about breakthrough innovation and moonshots." 

For anyone out there sitting on a wild, ambitious idea, but too afraid it won’t fit in, Badr offers this piece of advice. “If your idea fits in, it’s already too late," he declares. "The best ideas, the ones worth betting your life on, always feel 'too much,' 'too weird,' or 'too unconventional' in the beginning. That’s a sign, not a red flag." Plus, as someone who is familiar with the emotional tug-of-war that comes with daring ideas, Badr believes that very tension is a compass, not a warning sign. “If your idea scares you and excites you at the same time, you’re on to something," he says. "And sometimes in life, it’s all in or nothing. Moonshot or nothing."

To help people face such challenges head-on, Badr points to a tool his team created, The Deathbed Challenge, a free downloadable exercise designed to reframe risk and push bold thinkers toward clarity. “The premise is simple," he explains. "Imagine you’re on your deathbed. What would you regret the most? Now, think about your wild, ambitious idea from that perspective. Would you regret trying and failing or never trying at all? Would you rather protect what’s predictable, or unlock the potential you know deep down could exist?” 

“Remember: the future isn’t built by those who fit in," Badr concludes. "The future belongs to those who dare to innovate. And trust me on this, the world doesn’t need more of the same. It needs your wild idea, brought to life with clarity, courage, and Obsession, because playing it safe is the fastest way to disappear."

Pictured in the lead image is Mohamad Badr, founder and CEO of Obsession. Courtesy of Obsession.