
Mechanical engineer turned software founder. I started out designing aerospace manufacturing facilities in VR at DAHER, then founded Konfigear in 2019 to bring the same visualization tools to the way configurable products are sold. Today the platform serves more than 200 organizations across 20+ countries, and Konfiwear applies it specifically to custom apparel.


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Founder & CEO, Konfigear and Konfiwear

Yassine Ait Oufkir


I spoke at [Technopark Tanger](https://www.technopark.ma/) as a [Rising UP in Spain](https://www.investinspain.org/en/rising-up-in-spain) ambassador — ICEX’s programme for foreign founders who want to land a company in Spain. Martín Jerch from ICEX was on the same stage. The slide behind us said the same thing I came to say: Asturias is not a postcard. It is where Konfigear learned to scale.

[CEEI Asturias](https://www.ceei.es/) and the rest of that regional stack did not give us a logo to put on a deck. They gave us a place to hire, sell, and stay. That is the part I wanted people in the room to hear if they were still treating “Europe” as a single decision. A region that will sit with you on visas, customers, and the first awkward year is rarer than a grant.

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/yassine-ait-oufkir-rising-up-spain-technopark-tangier.jpg" alt="Yassine Ait Oufkir speaking at Technopark Tangier as a Rising UP in Spain ambassador, with an Asturias Startup Paradise slide and ICEX banner behind him" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>Technopark Tanger — Rising UP in Spain, Asturias Startup Paradise. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aitoufkiir_startupjourney-asturias-risingupspain-activity-7206717661156667392-jJy-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Original post on LinkedIn</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/rising-up-spain-asturias-startup-paradise-technopark-tangier.jpg" alt="Auditorium at Technopark Tangier during the Rising UP in Spain talk, with Asturias Startup Paradise on the projection screen" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>The room at Technopark Tanger.</figcaption>
</figure>

Thank you [ICEX](https://www.icex.es/) and Invest in Spain for the programme, and for asking founders who already made the move to go back and say so in public. If you have a startup and you are choosing a first European base, look at [Asturias](https://www.startinasturias.es/) before you look at the usual three cities.


Yassine Ait Oufkir speaking at Technopark Tangier as a Rising UP in Spain ambassador — how Asturias and ICEX helped scale Konfigear, with Martín Jerch from ICEX.

Rising Up Spain at Technopark Tangier


[South Summit](https://www.southsummit.co/) 2024 ran 5–7 June at La Nave in Madrid. I was there with Konfigear on two clocks at once: the stand, and a talk. The talk was the clearer of the two. Traditional online shopping still forces a customer to describe a product that does not exist yet. That is the problem on the slide. Configuration is the answer we sell.

The stand existed because [CEEI Asturias](https://www.ceei.es/) and [ASTUREX](https://www.asturex.org/) put the region in one room — Asturias Paraíso Startup — next to companies I would rather share a floor with than a keynote hall. People came to the booth. People came to the talk. That is the whole report.

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/yassine-ait-oufkir-konfigear-south-summit-2024-madrid.jpg" alt="Yassine Ait Oufkir pitching Konfigear on the South Summit 2024 stage in Madrid, with Start in Asturias and CEEI Asturias on the screens" width="1024" height="682" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>South Summit 2024, La Nave — Konfigear on the Start in Asturias stage. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aitoufkiir_configuraciaejn-personalizada-configuraciaejn-activity-7204903257788313601-6YkL" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Original post on LinkedIn</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/yassine-ait-oufkir-south-summit-2024-la-nave-madrid.jpg" alt="Yassine Ait Oufkir at the South Summit 2024 entrance installation at La Nave, Madrid" width="1024" height="473" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>Outside La Nave, June 2024.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/south-summit-2024-asturias-startup-paradise-delegation.jpg" alt="Asturias Startup Paradise delegation group photo at South Summit 2024 in Madrid, with CEEI Asturias and ASTUREX branding" width="1024" height="550" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>The Asturias delegation at stands 158–159.</figcaption>
</figure>

Three days is not enough to close anything serious. It is enough to find out who already understands why a product configurator is not a nicer product page. I will go back.


Yassine Ait Oufkir at South Summit 2024 in Madrid — pitching Konfigear on the Start in Asturias stage, and three days on the Asturias Startup Paradise stand.

South Summit 2024: Pitching Konfigear at La Nave


[MWC Barcelona](https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/) is sold as a mobile show. Walk the halls in 2024 and it was an AI show with phones attached. I started the year there with Konfigear — less to collect brochures than to see what the rest of the industry had decided was no longer optional.

I was there because [ASTUREX](https://www.asturex.org/) and [CEEI Asturias](https://www.ceei.es/) put a regional delegation on the floor: Asturias Startup Paradise next to the Spain Pavilion. That is the useful version of a trade fair. You do not wander 100,000 people hoping to get lucky. You stand with people who already know why you are in the building.

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/yassine-ait-oufkir-mwc-2024-barcelona.jpg" alt="Yassine Ait Oufkir, founder of Konfigear, at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona between the UK and Spain flags" width="768" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>MWC 2024, Fira Gran Via, Barcelona.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/mwc-2024-barcelona-entrance-fira-gran-via.jpg" alt="Crowd of attendees outside the MWC 2024 entrance at Fira Barcelona Gran Via" width="768" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>The plaza outside Fira Gran Via — MWC still looks like a city arriving at work.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/mwc-2024-asturias-startup-paradise-pavilion.jpg" alt="Asturias Startup Paradise pavilion at MWC 2024, with ASTUREX, CEEI Asturias and SEKUENS branding" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>Asturias Startup Paradise — ASTUREX, CEEI Asturias, SEKUENS.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/mwc-2024-spain-pavilion-barcelona.jpg" alt="Spain Pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, viewed from above the hall" width="768" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>The Spain Pavilion on the MWC floor.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/mwc-2024-connected-industries-stand.jpg" alt="Connected Industries stage at MWC 2024 in Barcelona, lit in blue with presentation seating" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>Connected Industries — the part of the show that was no longer about handsets.</figcaption>
</figure>

I came back with a shorter list than I expected. AI was not a side stage. It was in every demo that mattered, including the industrial ones. For Konfigear that confirmed the same bet we started after Lisbon: configuration software that cannot reason about a product will look dated faster than the hardware around it. 2024 was for making that real, not announcing it.


Yassine Ait Oufkir at MWC 2024 in Barcelona — Konfigear with the Asturias delegation, and what a week of AI-heavy product demos changed in how we think about configuration.

MWC 2024: Konfigear at Mobile World Congress Barcelona


[Web Summit](https://websummit.com/) 2023 in Lisbon is still the largest room I have stood in as a founder. I was there with Konfigear, as a partner, on the Spanish Pavilion — talking to people who already sell configurable products and were trying to decide what AI actually changes in that work.

The pavilion exists because of the Asturias and Spanish trade stack behind us: [CEEI Asturias](https://www.ceei.es/), [ASTUREX](https://www.asturex.org/), [ICEX](https://www.icex.es/), and [Cluster TIC Asturias](https://clustertic.net/). They do not just book a stand. They put you next to operators who will tell you, in ten minutes, whether your product is a demo or a tool.

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/yassine-ait-oufkir-konfigear-web-summit-2023-lisbon.jpg" alt="Yassine Ait Oufkir, founder of Konfigear, wearing a Web Summit 2023 Partner badge in the Lisbon arena" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>Web Summit 2023, Lisbon — Konfigear, Partner badge. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aitoufkiir_websummit2023-ai-innovation-activity-7130857062032392192-F_M-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Original post on LinkedIn</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/web-summit-2023-spain-pavilion-delegation-lisbon.jpg" alt="Spanish delegation group photo at the Spain Pavilion, Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon, including Konfigear" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>The Spanish Pavilion delegation at Web Summit 2023.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure class="story-figure">
  <img src="/images/web-summit-2023-spain-pavilion-networking.jpg" alt="Conversations at the Spain Pavilion green-wall stand during Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon" width="1024" height="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async" />
  <figcaption>On the floor at the Spain Pavilion — the useful part of the week.</figcaption>
</figure>

The conversations kept landing in the same place: configuration is still a reasoning problem. A CPQ system that only stores options is not enough when the customer wants a product that does not exist yet. After Lisbon I started putting more AI into how Konfigear builds those paths — not as a slogan on a slide, as part of the configurator itself.


Yassine Ait Oufkir at Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon — representing Konfigear at the Spanish Pavilion, and why we started putting more AI into CPQ and product configuration.

Konfigear

Rising Up Spain at Technopark Tangier

South Summit 2024: Pitching Konfigear at La Nave

MWC 2024: Konfigear at Mobile World Congress Barcelona

Web Summit 2023: Konfigear at the Spanish Pavilion