wamda.com - When Zineb Yacoubi returned to Morocco after eight years abroad, she was struck by how difficult it was to book a medical appointment. Early 2014, she launched DabaDoc, a service that lets people book doctors’ appointments online.

The entrepreneur and her cofounder, brother Driss Drissi-Kaitouni are now expanding to Algeria and Tunisia. More than 2,000 doctors have since joined the platform in the three countries she said.

A trip to the Silicon Valley that changed everything

Looking back, it was a trip to Silicon Valley that made Yacoubi reconsider her company’s path, her expectations and her plans to monetize and expand.

In January, the entrepreneur boarded a plane for Silicon Valley to participate in the Aspen-Blackstone Entrepreneurship Program, a ten day program that included two startups and eight companies from the MENA region. The entrepreneur visited companies like Facebook and Google and even met Tony Fadell, the founder of Nest. “He was really living his product, spreading the love for his project to the rest of the team,” recalled the Moroccan. “I realized you have to really believe in your product for it to work.”