James (Jihad) Kawas is a Lebanese entrepreneur based out of Silicon Valley in California.[2] He is the Founder & CEO of Saily Inc, an e-commerce company that developed a shopping app and became part of Mercari Inc., Japan’s billion-dollar mobile commerce firm.[3][4][5] Listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2018,[6] Kawas is the first Thiel Fellow from the MENA region and has received a grant of over $100,000 from Peter Thiel, PayPal’s co-founder.[7][8][9]