I’m Faraaz Khan. I’m a strategy and corporate development leader focused on building and scaling software and AI-driven businesses through disciplined execution, M&A, and partnerships.

I grew up in the UAE in an immigrant household where hard work wasn’t celebrated. It was expected. I was the youngest of four brothers by a wide margin, so I learned early that nothing is given automatically. Credibility isn’t inherited. You earn it. You speak up, or you fade out. You learn fast, or you get left behind.

From early on, I was curious and comfortable not following the herd. While most kids my age gravitated toward whatever was popular, I was drawn to things with depth and edge. Music with texture. Books that explored power, incentives, and consequences. Geopolitics, spy novels, science fiction. I didn’t read to escape. I paid attention to who had leverage, who didn’t, and what happened when decisions collided. That way of thinking stuck.

At seventeen, I left the Middle East and moved to the United States on my own. I didn’t have a grand plan. I just knew standing still wasn’t an option. I began my career at EY, then studied in Europe, earning a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a graduate degree from INSEAD while working in investment banking at Macquarie Capital.

The 2008 financial crisis became my real education. Watching markets unravel up close taught me something simple that has stayed with me ever since. Capital is fuel, not direction. Used well, it accelerates progress. Used poorly, it destroys value.

That realization is what pulled me out of banking. I didn’t want just to execute transactions. I wanted ownership of decisions and accountability for outcomes. I moved into management consulting to get closer to executives and boards and to see how real tradeoffs get made. Even there, I felt one step removed. Advice without accountability only goes so far.

That led me to Thomson Reuters, first as a consulting client and then as an employee within the business. This is where strategy, M&A, and operations fully came together for me and where I moved deeply into B2B software. Working in a large public company showed me what scale actually looks like. Working with founders through acquisitions gave me profound respect for speed, clarity, and ownership. Over time, I found myself gravitating toward growth-stage and scale-up environments where execution really matters.

My career has been global. I’ve lived, studied, and worked across Asia, Europe, and the United States. San Francisco is home now, but that global exposure still shapes how I think. Strategy is never abstract. Incentives are local. Risk feels different depending on where you sit.

Today, I work at the intersection of strategy, M&A, and operations, primarily in software and AI-driven businesses. I work with CEOs, investors, and leadership teams to get clear on what is actually happening in the market and inside their business, where things are breaking down, and how to build on what already works. I use M&A and partnerships to accelerate progress, not to hide weak fundamentals. I don’t chase trends. I focus on execution and results.

Execution matters to me as much as strategy. I like turning ideas into plans, plans into metrics, and metrics into progress. If you can’t measure it, it’s talk. I’ve led integrations with a tight connection back to why the deal was done in the first place and what value it was meant to create.

What I’m best at is spotting patterns and helping teams act on them. I value people who are curious, grounded, and decisive. I have little patience for ego and a lot of respect for teams that learn quickly and get things done.

The Inorganic Edge is where I write about all of this. It’s for people working where software, strategy, and capital meet:

• private equity and venture investors

• founders and executives building SaaS and AI businesses

• corporate development and strategy leaders making real build, buy, or partner decisions

The goal is simple. Less noise. More clarity. Fewer buzzwords. More reality.

I’m Faraaz Khan. Shaped by global markets and a belief that hard work still matters.

If this resonates, we’re probably thinking about the same things.