Wisam “Sam” Daoud is an entrepreneur, product and technology executive, operator, and builder who has spent more than 25 years creating internet businesses across the United States and the Middle East. He co-founded three internet companies before joining eBay, where he worked on marketplace trust, seller programs, payments, site security, and user-generated content. That work made him a named inventor on three U.S. patent filings covering marketplace reputation, identity verification, and content policy.
In 2010, Sam joined Souq.com and served as Chief Technology Officer and later Chief Operating Officer. He built product, engineering, data science, and DevOps into an organization of more than 400 people, helped drive more than 50-fold growth, and helped transform Souq from an auction site into the Middle East’s leading ecommerce marketplace and the region’s first billion-dollar technology company. As COO, his responsibilities extended across marketplace, retail, fulfillment, logistics, supply chain, customer support, content, product, and software development operations.
After Amazon acquired Souq.com, Sam led product work behind the launches of Amazon.ae, Amazon.sa, and Amazon.eg from 2017 through 2021. He left Amazon to move his family to San Diego, spent a period leading product at a growth-stage logistics company, and returned in October 2022 as the single-threaded leader for worldwide retail pricing. He led more than 80 product, software-engineering, and data professionals supporting 12 million products across 40 marketplaces. His remit covered every retail-pricing area except shared platform components and the Applied Science team, whose roadmap he defined. His organization operated large-scale AI and machine-learning systems and delivered more than $1.5 billion in incremental profitability in 18 months.
Alongside his operating work, Sam has occasionally backed early- and growth-stage founders since 2017, including companies such as SpaceX, Flexport, Mercury, Headspace, Udemy, Lime, and Turing, as well as direct investments in Slow Talk and Eila Technologies.
By early 2025, Sam’s next path at Amazon would have required relocating full-time to Seattle. He chose to remain in San Diego with his wife and children. A home and pool remodel led him to study water chemistry, equipment, and field-service operations from the ground up. That work became BlueLux. In close to a year, he has invested more than $200,000, completed more than five acquisitions, and grown the company to serve hundreds of customers. BlueLux combines its own software, AI-assisted workflows, connected equipment, precise testing, and experienced field teams to bring greater consistency and accountability to an essential local service.
