FAQ
Ishara questions on access, data,
privacy and agents.
What Ishara is, what it covers, how private context stays private, and how to get access.
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The questions people ask first
What is Ishara?
Ishara is the enterprise knowledge layer for people, models and agents. It joins public intelligence (people, companies, investors, government tenders and market signals) with your team's private context (email, meetings and calls, a connected WhatsApp Business account, files and CRM records), and gives your models and agents permissioned access to both through an API and MCP.
What can my team connect?
Mailboxes on Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, your calendar, recorded meetings and calls in Arabic and English, a connected WhatsApp Business account, and the files and CRM records your team keeps. Ishara resolves them into people, companies, decisions and next steps, under the access rules each person sets. How private context works
How do models and agents use it?
Through the Ishara API and an MCP server that works with MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools. An agent sees only what the person behind its key may see. It can read context and propose changes, and a person reviews and applies each one. See agent access
Does private knowledge stay private?
Yes. Private context stays separate from public intelligence, and each conversation keeps the visibility its owner chose: only me, the people on it, my team or everyone. Your private context is supplied at the moment of a request and is never used to train models. Every change the AI suggests waits for a person to approve it. Security and trust
Which markets are covered?
Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, with government tenders, buyers and award history in English or Arabic. The investor directory and the company coverage reach beyond the region. Choose your market
What do 1.2B, 17M and 140+ mean?
They describe coverage across authorised providers: 1.2B people profiles and positions, 17M companies covered, from 140+ authorised data sources. Records can overlap across sources, so they are not counts of unique people. Separately, the investor directory holds 32,822 investors. The numbers behind Ishara
How do I get access?
Join the waiting list. Early access opens in waves: your invite comes by email, or straight away if you have an invite code. A work email reserves 5,000 credits ($50) for your workspace. How early access works
What does it cost?
Every workspace opens on the Free plan. Pro is $12 per seat per month and Business is $39 per seat per month, or two months free when billed yearly ($10 and $32.50 a month). Every workspace that pays before public launch on 15 March 2027 keeps these early-access prices for 12 months from its first payment. Prices exclude VAT. Enterprise is scoped with your team. See the plans
Your question not here? Join the waiting list, and a work email reserves 5,000 credits ($50).
Join the waiting listMore questions, by topic
Open a topic, or search above. Comparing tools or moving from one? See the comparisons and how imports work.
Access and pricing
28 questions
What does a walkthrough cover?
The workflow you choose: investor matching with reasons and warm paths, tenders and buyers across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, your team's private context, or agent access through API and MCP.
Can you help us move our records in?
Yes. Ishara imports spreadsheets and records from the CRM you use today. Tell us what you have, and we help map it to companies, people and deals.
Can we talk about our own data and AI workflows?
Yes. Tell us the systems your team uses and the work you want an agent to help with. We cover imports, connected mailboxes and calls, API and MCP access, and the access rules around them. A description or a sample record is enough to start.
Can the walkthrough be in Arabic?
Yes. Choose Arabic or English in the form, and we run the walkthrough in that language.
Is anything recorded?
Only if you ask. To see call intelligence, we record the walkthrough with your agreement, and you watch the transcript and the proposed next steps land on the record afterwards.
Can I get access without a walkthrough?
Yes. The walkthrough is optional. Join the waiting list with your work email, and your invite arrives as early access opens.
Who gets in first?
We open access in waves, starting with teams whose work Ishara already serves well: founders raising capital, government bid teams, consultancies and teams building with AI. A work email helps us see the team behind each place on the list.
What is an invite code?
A code from the Ishara team or a colleague who is already inside. Enter it on the waiting-list page and you get in straight away. Some codes carry credit for both of you.
Does Ishara work in Arabic?
Yes. The whole app, sign-in and onboarding work in Arabic and English, with a right-to-left layout and Arabic names matched to their English spellings. Your language is one choice in your account.
How is Enterprise priced?
It is scoped with your team: seats, markets, connected sources and agent use. Smaller teams open on Free and move to Pro ($12) or Business ($39 per seat per month), at early-access prices locked for 12 months.
Which agents can connect?
MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools through the Ishara MCP server, and any system that calls the API. Each uses its own scoped key and sees only what the key's owner can see.
Will you answer our security questionnaire?
Yes. Send it to support@lisan.com and we answer it for your team.
How does Ishara work with AI agents?
Agents read people, companies, relationships and records through the API and MCP, with the permissions of the person who connected them. MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools work with it. An agent proposes changes, and a person approves them. See agent access.
What do the coverage figures mean?
The 1.2B people profiles and positions, 17M companies and 140+ sources describe coverage across authorised data sources, and records can overlap across sources. The 32,822 investors are the profiles in Ishara’s investor directory.
What happens when my invite arrives?
You choose what you are here for (raising, selling, bidding or advising), name your workspace, invite your team, connect your inbox and bring your data, or start from a sample. The market is already inside from the first screen.
Do I need to import to see value?
No. The investor directory is on every plan and tender intelligence is on Business. Importing your book adds warm paths and lands your mail on the right records. How imports work.
Can our agents see everything?
No. An agent reaches Ishara with an API key that acts as the person who created it, with that person's permissions and the scopes you grant. Every context request is logged with its purpose, and anything an agent proposes waits for a person to approve it.
Which plan does a bid team need?
Business, at $39 per seat per month in early-access pricing, which carries tender intelligence and calls. The bid-team week, or see the plans.
What is a credit, and when is it charged?
One credit is one US cent and buys about 1,000 AI tokens. Lookups, pulls, comparisons and briefs spend credits, and each one shows its price before you click, and a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing. Browsing the investor directory, companies and tenders is free.
What happens when the included credits run out?
Nothing is billed behind your back. Paid work pauses until you add a pack, or set auto top-up to refill a pack of your choice when the balance falls under 100 credits. A monthly budget caps the spend, and the workspace is told at 80%, 90% and 100%. Included credits renew each month and do not roll over; purchased credits last 12 months.
Is yearly billing cheaper?
Yes. Yearly billing costs ten months: Pro $120 a seat a year instead of $144, Business $390 instead of $468. Monthly billing is available on every paid plan.
Which plan fits a founder, a bid team or a consultancy?
Founders raising a round choose Pro, for investor matching with reasons, warm paths and a brief before each meeting. Bid teams choose Business, for government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, with call intelligence; a team of ten or more takes the Bid-team edition on one yearly invoice. A consultancy runs one client team on Business and moves to Enterprise when several teams need their own coverage.
How do VAT and currency work?
Prices exclude VAT and are set in USD. In the UAE, 5% VAT is added at checkout. A VAT-registered business in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Oman is invoiced without VAT under the reverse-charge rule, with its VAT number on the invoice, and a Saudi purchase needs a VAT-registered buyer; Qatar and Kuwait have no VAT. SAR, AED and QAR are shown at the fixed rates, and BHD, KWD and OMR are available on invoice.
Can we pay by invoice or purchase order?
Yes. From the first Business seat you can ask for a yearly invoice with a purchase order and bank transfer, in SAR, AED, QAR or USD; from 10 seats, or $5,000 a year, the invoice is the way to pay. The Bid-team edition and every Enterprise plan are always invoiced, and a marketplace private offer is available where your procurement runs there.
How does Enterprise work?
Enterprise is scoped with your team: private context across the organisation under your access rules, agent access through API and MCP, the market and data coverage you need, private cloud or on-premise deployment, onboarding and migration, and a security review.
See Ishara for Enterprise, or email our team with your team size and markets.
Which markets does tender intelligence cover?
Government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, read in English or Arabic.
What does the name Ishara mean?
Ishara is the Arabic word for a signal, a sign that points the way. The product exists to point your team, and your AI, to what matters: the right investor for a raise, the contract about to come back to market, and the next step in every relationship.
How is Ishara different from a normal CRM?
A CRM holds what your team types into it. Ishara also holds the market: 32,822 investors in the directory and government tenders across six markets, with bidder tables and contracts coming to an end. Underneath is an object CRM with custom fields, saved views and pipelines, and your mail, meetings and calls resolve onto the same records, in Arabic and English.
Data and markets
54 questions
How many investors are in the Ishara directory?
32,822 investors. Every match comes with a reason, and every profile carries the firm, the thesis and the warm paths from your own network.
What do 1.2B profiles and 17M companies mean?
They measure how much of the market Ishara covers across 140+ authorised data sources: 1.2B people profiles and positions, and 17M companies. A person or company can appear in more than one source; in your workspace each one is a single record you can search, save and act on.
Which tender markets does Ishara cover?
Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, in one workspace, read in English or Arabic. A tender opens to its bidder table, a buyer to a dossier, and a contract coming to an end to its incumbent.
Can I search in Arabic?
Yes. People, companies and tenders are searchable in Arabic and English, and records carry their names in both.
Where do the numbers come from?
From the published bid tables behind awarded tenders: the bidders, their prices and the award. Each panel is computed from those tables for the buyer you choose.
Can I benchmark one buyer?
Yes, that is the default. Pick a government buyer and the histogram, the spread and the percentiles recompute for its awards. Flip the compare toggle to lay the whole market beside it on the same ruler, and share the view as a link.
What does winner versus median mean?
On each awarded tender the winning bid is compared with the median priced bid, and the panel shows that gap at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of the buyer's history. A buyer whose winners usually price 10 per cent below the median tells you where the winning zone sits.
How does this reach my pricing meeting?
Open the benchmarks for the buyer, place your cost on the percentile ruler, and read the margin against your floor. Track the tender into a bid pipeline from its profile and the numbers travel with the record.
Which plan includes it, and how do I start?
Bid benchmarks come with the Business plan, $39 per seat per month. Ishara opens in waves: join the waiting list with a work email and 5,000 credits ($50) are reserved for you.
Is searching free?
Yes. Searching outside the workspace, previewing a company and reading its similar companies cost nothing. Adding a company, pulling its people, finding competitors and a cited comparison are priced in credits, and every button shows its price before you click.
Which companies can I find?
Companies across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE first, and the world after them: 17M companies covered across Ishara. A company's own website is read first.
Will a search create duplicates?
No. A company that is already in your workspace is marked in the results, and adding it again opens the record you have.
Can I bring a list of domains?
Yes. Paste them or drop a file, and every company behind them is previewed before anything is added, with the ones you already have marked.
What is on an investor profile?
The thesis as sector, stage and geography chips, the career, press, peers and ranked-list seats, then the track record by stage with the companies behind it. In your workspace you also see your warm paths into the investor and can ask for a prep brief.
How is the cheque filter different from a range filter?
It keeps only investors whose declared range holds your amount. A $500k cheque keeps $250k to $1M and drops $1M to $5M, so a growth fund never crowds a seed shortlist.
Can I add a whole ranked list to a pipeline?
Yes. Add a ranked list to a raise pipeline in one step. Investors already in your CRM are reused, never duplicated.
How is the score built?
A fixed 160-point score: sectors matched, 20 each up to 40; stages matched, 20 each up to 40; a cheque range that holds your ask, 20; declared investment geography, 15; based in your raise location, 15; a deal within 18 months, 15; leads rounds, 10; a Top-100 seat, 5.
Do investors see my search or my raise?
No. Your criteria, shortlist and pipeline stay inside your workspace. Nothing reaches an investor unless you send it yourself.
Do warm paths read my mailbox?
No. They match records already in your CRM: colleagues at the firm, co-investors, people at the firm and portfolio companies. They show the names of those records, never message content, and archived records never come back.
Can I share the shortlist?
Yes. The match is a link that carries the criteria, so anyone in your workspace who opens it sees the same ranking with the same reasons. Selected rows can also go into a shared raise pipeline.
Which plan includes matching?
Browsing the directory is free. Matching, warm paths, prep briefs and raise pipelines are part of Pro, at $12 per seat per month in early access.
What happens after I join?
Access opens in waves. Your invite arrives by email, and if you joined with a work email the first half of your 5,000 credits ($50) is already in the workspace.
How far ahead does the radar see?
Up to 24 months. You pick a horizon of 6, 12, 18 or 24 months (the default is 18), and a contract appears from the day its end date falls inside that horizon. Inside 90 days of the end date the row turns amber. Today carries a preview of the next 18 months.
Where does the end date come from?
From the awarded contract itself, so each date on the radar is one you can plan around. A contract can be extended rather than rebid, which is exactly why the months of notice matter: you hear it from the buyer directly instead of from the RFP.
Can I track a row?
Yes. Track in CRM on any row turns the contract into a record in your workspace with its profile attached, and from there it runs like any deal: a staged bid pipeline, tasks, email on the record, automations. Watch the incumbent or the buyer from the same row and their changes appear on your watchlist.
Which markets does the radar cover?
Government contracts across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE. Scope the radar to one buyer, one market or all six, and share any view as a link.
How do I start?
Ishara opens in waves. Join the waiting list with a work email and 5,000 credits ($50) are reserved for you. The radar comes with the Business plan, $39 per seat per month.
What counts as a signal?
On a person: a job change, a promotion or a move to a new company. On a company: a tender won, lost or bid, a recompete window opening on a contract it holds, a raise, a new investor, a listing, or a buyer you watch awarding elsewhere. Each one appears on the record's timeline and in the feed.
Where do company signals come from?
From the market already inside Ishara: government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, and the investor and funding directories. A signal names the record it came from, so you can open it.
Can an automation act on a signal?
Yes. A rule can fire on a signal, on a relationship that is cooling, or on a follow-up that came due, run in test mode first, and take any step an automation can take: a task, an email, a field, a webhook.
How do tender alerts reach me?
As a notification when a matching tender is published or a watched buyer moves, and as a digest in Arabic and English on local working days. Tender intelligence comes with the Business plan, $39 per seat per month.
What does a bidder table show?
The published bidders on an awarded tender, with registration number, bid amount, awarded value and local-content ratio, sorted by price with the winner marked and every other bid shown by its distance from the winner. A footer sums it up: priced bids, the spread from lowest to highest, and the winner against the median bid.
Can I read the tenders in Arabic?
Yes. One switch flips the tender data between Arabic and English, and search matches both languages whatever is on screen, so the Arabic title your contact quotes finds the row your bid team reads in English.
Will I know when a matching tender is published?
Yes. Set what you bid on and a matching tender arrives as a notification, as does a move by a buyer you watch, and a digest arrives in Arabic and English. Signals on the companies you track, such as a win, a loss or a recompete window opening, appear on the record and in one feed.
How does a tender get into my pipeline?
Track in CRM on any row or profile makes a record in your workspace with the tender attached, and from there it runs like any deal: a staged bid pipeline, tasks, email on the record and automations.
Can I start today?
Ishara opens in waves. Join the waiting list with a work email to reserve 5,000 credits ($50). Tender intelligence comes with the Business plan, $39 per seat per month.
Can I see who bid and at what price?
A tender profile shows the published bidder table, sorted by price, with the winner marked. The same tables feed the supplier profiles and the benchmarks.
Why does buyer history matter so much in Bahrain?
Because it is a compact market: a smaller set of buyers tender often, and the same competitors meet again. Reading what a buyer awarded before, and to whom, is the quickest way to price and position the next bid.
Do I need a local partner to bid in Kuwait?
Usually, yes. Most government tenders call for a local commercial registration, so foreign firms bid through a Kuwaiti entity, agent or partner. Each tender's documents set the exact conditions. Ishara shows who has bid and won with each buyer, which helps when you choose one.
Can I follow one ministry?
Yes. Open its profile for awards by year, sectors and top suppliers, then watch it: each new tender, closing and award lands in a dated feed and on the Today screen.
Does in-country value matter in Oman tenders?
In parts of the market, yes, energy in particular: local hiring and local spend can count in how a bid is judged. Each tender's documents set the criteria. Ishara shows how each buyer has awarded before.
Can I track one tender through to award?
Yes. Each tender profile carries its lifecycle from announcement to award, and one click tracks it in the CRM, so the bid moves through your pipeline with its deadline attached.
Is Qatar tender data in Arabic and English?
Yes. Titles and entity names are carried in both languages, and search matches either, so one team can work in Arabic and English side by side.
Do you show losing bids, or only the winners?
A tender profile shows the published bidder table, sorted by price, with the winner marked and each bid's distance from it. Those tables are what make supplier profiles and benchmarks possible.
Does in-country value matter in Qatar tenders?
In parts of the market, yes: Qatar applies in-country value scoring there, so local spend can count beside price. The tender documents state how a bid is scored. Ishara shows how each buyer has awarded before.
Does local content affect Saudi tender scoring?
It can. Saudi Arabia weights local content formally, so in parts of the market it sits beside price and technical merit. Each tender's documents set the weights. Ishara shows a buyer's past awards and bids, so you see how it has chosen before.
Can a foreign company bid on Saudi government tenders?
Usually through a Saudi entity or partner, because most tenders call for a local commercial registration. Ishara's supplier profiles show who has bid and won with each buyer, which helps when you choose a partner.
Does Ishara cover emirate entities as well as federal ones?
Yes. Federal ministries and authorities sit beside the emirates' own government entities in one list, with a profile for each buyer, so a team that sells to both works from one view.
What does a supplier usually need to bid in the UAE?
Usually a UAE trade licence and a supplier registration with the buyer, and in parts of the market an in-country value certificate. Each tender's documents set the exact conditions.
What does Ishara's market intelligence cover?
People and their roles, companies, government tenders and the buyers behind them, investors and their rounds, and the signals that open a conversation. Coverage is worldwide, and Ishara is available in Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE.
What do the 1.2B, 17M and 140+ figures mean?
They describe coverage across authorised providers: 1.2B people profiles and positions, 17M companies and more than 140 data sources. Records can overlap across providers.
Is the investor directory part of it?
Yes. The directory holds 32,822 investors. Investor matching ranks the ones that fit your round, with the reason for each and who in your network can introduce you.
How does market intelligence connect to our own records?
A company or person from the market lands on the same record as your team's email, calls and notes. Public intelligence and your private context stay separate, and your access rules apply.
Can AI agents use this context?
Yes. Through agent access, an agent reads it through MCP or the API as the person who issued the key, under that person's permissions.
Privacy and security
11 questions
What can an agent connected through MCP or the API see?
The same records, threads and calls the key's owner can see, narrowed by the key's scopes. Email context carries subjects and senders, never message bodies, and every Context API call is logged with its purpose.
Where is the Ishara data hosted?
On Ishara's own dedicated database, separate from other Lisan products, with access rules that keep each workspace's tables to that workspace. The sub-processor list and hosting region are available on request at support@lisan.com.
Can a teammate read my mailbox?
Only what the visibility on each thread allows: only me, the people on it, my team, or everyone. Connecting a mailbox does not open it to the workspace, and delegated read access is something you grant explicitly, per account.
Can you complete our security questionnaire or sign a data processing agreement?
Yes. Send it to support@lisan.com and we answer it for your team. A data processing agreement is available on request.
Does Ishara sell personal data?
No. We do not sell personal data, and we do not use workspace content for advertising. Your records, email and calls are processed only to run the service for you.
Which accounts can we connect?
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 mail and calendars, a WhatsApp Business account, recorded calls and your CRM records. Files are kept on each account, beside its records.
Is our private information added to public intelligence?
No. Your private context stays inside your workspace, separate from public intelligence. It is supplied to a model only at the moment of a request, under the asking person's permissions, and it is never used to train models.
Who can see a conversation?
The person who connects a mailbox chooses each thread's visibility: only them, the people on it, their team or everyone. Calls work the same way, and agents read under the same rules as the person whose key they use.
Does connecting WhatsApp include personal chats?
No. A workspace administrator connects your WhatsApp Business account. Personal chats are never connected.
Does it work with Arabic calls?
Yes. Call intelligence works in Arabic and English, and the whole workspace runs in both languages, right to left in Arabic.
Can we trace a follow-up to its source?
Yes. A summary or proposed follow-up quotes the sentence it came from and links to the email or call behind it. A person reviews it before it changes a record.
AI and agents
18 questions
Which agents can connect to Ishara?
MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools connect through the Ishara MCP server, and any system that can send an HTTPS request can call the API. Each one uses a key your workspace issues, with the scopes you choose.
Does an agent read our email?
Through the Context API and MCP it reads who wrote, when and the subject of each thread on the records it asks about. It never receives message bodies.
Can an agent change our records?
Through MCP it proposes. A person applies the proposal in Review, unless a member deliberately gives a key the apply scope. An integration key you give write scopes writes through the Object API as its owner, under the same access rules.
Which plan includes the API?
Free includes read-only API and MCP access, 1,000 reads a month. API keys, webhooks and 50,000 reads a month come with Pro at $12 per seat per month, and Business carries 500,000. Ishara opens in waves from the waiting list, and a work email reserves 5,000 credits ($50).
Can we switch agent access off?
Yes. Revoke or rotate any key in Settings, and an administrator can switch context sharing off for the whole workspace.
Does the AI write to records on its own?
Only if you tell it to. By default every proposal waits in the review queue until a person accepts it. An admin can let a field, or the workspace default, apply on its own, and every value written that way still shows as AI.
What data leaves the workspace?
Only what the data boundary allows: the field values you ticked for an attribute, or record titles only. Your private context is supplied at the moment of a request and is never used to train models.
Which models does Ishara use?
Several, listed in the workspace policy. Every AI feature uses the same list, so the choice of model is a workspace decision.
Can I tell an AI value from a typed one?
Yes. Accepted values are marked as AI, a filter separates them from anything a person typed, and a rejected proposal stays on the job so an empty field still explains why it is empty.
Does this work for agents we build ourselves?
Yes. An agent connected through MCP or the API reads with the permissions of the person whose key it uses, and anything it wants to change waits in the same Review inbox.
What starts a run?
A moment in the CRM: a record created, updated (or only when chosen attributes change) or archived, a record added to a list, a task created or completed, a date arriving, a signal landing, or a manual run on the records you pick. Conditions use the same filters as views.
Can I test a rule before it does anything?
Yes. Test mode runs the rule on the records you pick and every step records what it would have done. Nothing is written, and the run is marked Test.
What happens when a step fails?
It retries on its own. If it keeps failing, the run is kept with its state intact so you can read which step failed and why, then Replay it. The rule's owner gets one notification per failing rule, not one per run.
Are webhooks signed?
Yes. Every outbound delivery carries a timestamp and a signature over the exact body, using a secret shown once at creation. Inbound actions use an API key with write access and are logged to the same request log.
Does the agent read our email?
It sees who wrote, when and the subject line, under each mailbox's sharing settings. The MCP tools never return message bodies.
Does an agent get more access than its user?
No. A key acts as the person who created it, and every request is checked against that person's permissions. Scopes narrow it further, an administrator can switch context sharing off for the workspace, and any key can be revoked.
Which system produces the transcripts in Ishara?
M3, Lisan's meeting transcription system. A recorded meeting lands on the Ishara record as a transcript named to its speakers, and M3 is the system that produced it.
How was it measured?
On real business meetings in Arabic and English, with human-verified reference transcripts, against six external speech-recognition configurations on the same material. The report sets out the method and its limits.
CRM and workflow
30 questions
How often is the Ishara changelog updated?
Whenever a product-visible change lands. Entries are dated to the month and written from the user's side: what you can now do, not how it was built.
Did my old links stop working when Ishara moved?
No. Every link to the old address, including report links, redirects to the same page at app.ishara.lisan.com.
Can I share a drilled view?
Yes. A drill pushes the group's filter into the table as a question. Save it as a view and it becomes a link a colleague can open.
What does Conservative mean in the forecast?
Conservative counts only deals at 70% probability or higher. Best sums every open deal; Expected weights each deal by its probability. The three run over a 3, 6 or 12 month horizon, and the target line appears once a revenue goal is set.
Can a dashboard leak a private report?
No. Every widget runs as the viewer, so a shared dashboard shows each person only what they may see. Scheduled delivery runs under the schedule owner's access.
Can I export?
Yes: CSV, Excel and print from any classic report, plus four branded Word reports from the export centre: Executive Summary, Pipeline Snapshot, Revenue Forecast and Win/Loss, using the same figures the screen shows.
Does it work in Arabic?
Yes, per meeting. Each call is transcribed in Arabic or English and labelled with its language. Arabic lines read right to left, and the player stays where you expect it. In Lisan Research's published M3 evaluation, the transcription recorded a 1.62% character error rate on real multi-dialect Arabic meetings and 1.83% on English meetings.
Do I have to invite a recorder to every meeting?
No. Connect MeetriX, Lisan's meeting recorder, once, and every recorded meeting your team shares arrives on its own, matched by email to the people on the call.
Who can hear a call?
Whoever the call's sharing rule admits: Only me, People on this call, My team, or Everyone. A workspace default applies to new calls, and the check runs again before each playback.
How long are recordings kept?
As long as your admin sets. Recordings, transcripts and machine-written notes older than the window are removed; the call itself and any notes people wrote stay on the record.
Does Ishara send from my address?
Yes. Every send goes out from your own connected mailbox, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and lands in your Sent folder. The composer names the sending address above the message.
Can a half-filled template go out?
No. A variable that resolves to nothing stops Send and Schedule and names the field. Give a variable a fallback word and the message goes out reading that word instead.
What does an opt-out block?
A marketing opt-out holds back marketing campaigns and automated follow-ups; a contract sent for signature or an invitation to your workspace still arrives. A bounce or a complaint holds back everything. Opt-outs are recorded on every send.
Can a teammate, or an agent, read my thread?
Only if the thread's rule allows it. The choices are Only me, People on this thread, My team and Everyone, and an agent connected through MCP or the API reads with the permissions of the person whose key it uses.
Which AI tools can read Ishara?
MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools, through Ishara's MCP server, and anything you build on the API. They read with the permissions of the person whose key they use, and any change they want to make waits for a person to approve it.
Does Ishara read personal WhatsApp chats?
No. A workspace admin connects the company's WhatsApp Business number. Messages sent and received on that business account sit on the record; personal chats are never connected.
How do I connect Zapier or Make?
Through inbound actions with an API key that has write access: create or update a deal, move a stage, create a contact or log an activity. The product carries step-by-step guides for both, and signed webhooks fire the other way.
Does Outlook sync mail and calendar?
Yes. Mail comes through the Microsoft 365 mailbox connection, both ways, with threads on records. Calendar and contacts come through the Outlook connection into activities and People.
Where is the API documented?
In the app, beside the keys: endpoints with example requests and replies. The developers page on this site summarises the API and the MCP tools.
What is an object in Ishara?
A typed table with its own screens. Companies, People and Deals are ready on your first day; an object you create, such as Tenders, Mandates or Properties, gets the same table, board, saved views, automations and email matching.
Do totals ever mix currencies?
No. A group of records in more than one currency shows one subtotal per currency, on the board, in the table footer and in reports, so a number you read is a number you can trust.
How are views shared?
Save a view and copy its link. Each view has a scope: only me, people you choose, or everyone in the workspace. Saving a shared view asks before it changes for everyone.
Can our AI tools read the records?
Yes, under your access rules. MCP-compatible AI assistants and the API read the same records a person would, and any change they want to make waits for a person to approve it. Your private context is supplied at the moment of a request and is never used to train models.
Which plan carries custom objects?
Companies, People, Deals and saved views are on Free. Custom objects are on Pro, $12 per seat per month in early-access pricing. The same records and screens run on every plan.
Can two people move the same deal at once?
Yes. If a colleague moved the deal first, or a rule changed its stage, your card returns to where the deal now sits and a message tells you. Nothing is silently overwritten.
What stops a deal entering a stage?
Stage requirements you set: the deal value, the expected close date, a contact, an owner, a probability or any custom field. The check runs on the board, in the table and on the deal itself, and it names the missing fields.
Does a quote change when the products change?
No. A quote remembers its lines, totals and currency from the moment it is created. If the products on the deal change afterwards, the quote shows what was offered and what the products now come to.
Can an agent move a deal?
An agent connected through MCP or the API can read the board and propose a change. The proposal waits in Review with the values it would write, and a person applies it.
Which plan do pipelines need?
One board is on Free. Unlimited boards, quotes, approvals and the share portal are on Pro, $12 per seat per month in early-access pricing.
Will planned features cost extra when they ship?
Early-access pricing is per seat: Free at $0, Pro at $12 and Business at $39 per seat per month, and Enterprise scoped with the team. Where a new capability lands in the plans is decided when it ships, and the pricing page carries the current list.
Tenders and raising
58 questions
What is bidder density?
The count of bidders per tender in your category, read across the last few years of comparable awards. Thin fields of one to three usually mean high barriers; crowded fields of eight and up mean commodity pricing.
How do award percentiles help set a price?
The 25th, median and 75th percentile of awarded values show what the buyer historically pays for comparable work. A price above the 75th needs a story; one below the 25th deserves a second look at your own costing.
Does Ishara compute these numbers?
Yes. Bid benchmarks draw the bidder-count histogram, the award-value percentiles and the winner versus median figure from published bid tables, scoped to any buyer or to the whole market.
What is pipeline coverage?
The multiple of your revenue target you need in submitted value. If you win 1 submission in 4, you need 4x the target in submissions; running below that is how quarters get lost months in advance.
Why record no-bid decisions instead of deleting the tender?
A no bid with a recorded reason is data: revisited quarterly, it shows what your wins have in common. A deleted tender is amnesia.
How does a tender get into a pipeline in Ishara?
From the tenders table, select the tenders you want and push them into a bid-team pipeline in one gesture. Every won or lost outcome is then recorded on the deal, ready for next year's benchmarks.
How long is a typical tender closing window?
Commonly a few weeks from announcement to closing. That is generous if you knew the tender was coming and tight if you did not, which is why later lessons focus on seeing tenders early.
Why are the technical and financial envelopes opened separately?
So evaluators judge compliance without knowing prices. A bid that fails technically is returned with its financial envelope unopened; only compliant bidders reach the financial opening.
Does Ishara cover all six markets?
Yes. Government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE sit in one bilingual table, with buyers, suppliers and bid tables linked to each tender.
What is a CR number?
The bidder's commercial registration: its legal identity in its state's commercial registry. It identifies one legal entity however the company name was spelled on the day, which is why records should be keyed on CR, never on name.
How is the winner versus median spread calculated?
Sort the bids, take the middle one as the median, then compute (median minus winning bid) divided by median. A spread of a few per cent says a well-understood scope; 15% or more says bidders read the tender differently.
Where do I see bid tables in Ishara?
On each tender profile: the published bidder table sorted by price, with the winner marked, each bid's distance from the winner beside it, and the spread computed in the footer.
How do I compute a contract's end date?
Award date plus contract period, both from the award record. A contract awarded in April 2024 for 36 months ends around March 2027. Extensions can shift it by months, so treat it as a window, not an appointment.
When does the RFP usually land before expiry?
Typically 3 to 6 months before the end date: enough time for the closing window, the two openings, and the award before the old contract lapses.
How does Ishara surface expiring contracts?
The recompete radar lists awarded contracts whose end date falls inside the horizon you choose, names the incumbent and counts the days remaining.
What happens if two teammates add the same investor?
They land on the same record. Add to CRM never creates a duplicate, so anyone can push a name into the funnel without checking first.
Can I see which directory investors are already in my CRM?
Yes. Records already in your workspace carry an In CRM badge as you browse, so a filtered directory page doubles as a coverage map of who is being worked.
Is the built-in data a separate product?
No. One product, one sign-in, one set of records. An investor or tender added from the directory takes the same attribute types, views, email threads and automations as any record you created by hand.
Which kinds of investors are most active in the region?
Sovereign and state-linked funds, family offices, regional and global venture firms with an office in the region, corporate venture arms, and a growing bench of angels.
Why do global investor databases show so few regional investors?
They wait for investors to self-report, read mainly English-language press, and split Arabic names across several records. A directory built for the region reverses all three.
How does Ishara help me reach an investor?
Find my investors ranks the directory against your raise with a reason beside every name, and each profile ends with the warm paths from your own records: colleagues, peers, and contacts at the firm.
What is the knowledge layer?
One place where three kinds of context meet: public intelligence on the market (people, companies, investors, tenders and signals), your team's private context (email, meetings and calls, WhatsApp Business, files and CRM records), and permissioned access for models and agents through API and MCP.
Which markets does Ishara cover?
Government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, with buyers, suppliers and published bid tables, plus 32,822 investors in the investor directory and 17M companies covered.
What does Ishara mean?
Ishara is the Arabic word for signal, and the everyday word for a gesture: the flick of a hand that says go ahead, or over there.
What is competition density?
Bidders per tender, averaged by category. It measures how contested a market is: a category averaging nine bidders and one averaging three demand different companies and different pricing.
What is a co-bidder list?
For any company, the other companies that appeared in the same bidder tables over time. It shows who your true competition is and which firms might team with you rather than compete.
Where does this analysis live in Ishara?
In tender intelligence: each tender profile shows its published bidder table, bid benchmarks aggregate density and spread by buyer or market, and the recompete radar works the expiry maths for you.
How do alerts work?
Save the categories, buyers and markets you bid in, and new tenders that match arrive as alerts and in a digest, in English or Arabic. New means new since you last looked: an older award added from the archive never shows up as new.
Can the whole bid team work the same pursuit?
Yes. A tender becomes a pursuit on a shared board with an owner, stage requirements and approvals. Notes, email and files stay on the record, and access rules decide who sees what.
Is one client's data visible to another?
No. Each client team works in its own workspace with its own access rules, and private context is supplied at the moment of a request, never used to train models.
Can our own AI tools use it?
Yes. Through the API and MCP, MCP-compatible AI assistants and coding tools read the context a person is allowed to see. Any change an agent suggests waits as a proposal until someone on your team approves it. Agent access
How do I hand a finding to the client?
Share the saved view as a link with the engagement team, and export it to CSV for the client's appendix. The client does not need a seat, and next week the same view still reflects the market.
Which markets can I advise on?
Government tenders across Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE, with buyer dossiers, supplier profiles and bid benchmarks in each. Each market has its own page under Markets.
How is competition described?
As market depth: average bidders per tender, the single-bid share by buyer, and the distance of each bid from the winner on the bidder table. It is evidence for your judgement, never a finding about a company.
What does Pro cost for two founders?
At early-access pricing, two seats on Pro are $24 per month. The directory is free to browse on every plan; investor matching, warm paths, prep briefs, automations and the API come with Pro.
Do I need to import anything first?
No. The directory is there from your first day, and investor matching comes with Pro. Warm paths get better with what you bring: import a spreadsheet or your current CRM, or connect your mailbox, and the paths start from the relationships you already have.
Can my co-founder see the same shortlist?
Yes. The match link carries the whole raise description, so a colleague opens the same ranked list with the same reasons. Saved views can be shared by link too.
Can I leave with my list?
Yes. Any view exports to CSV. If you leave, nothing is deleted and there is no exit fee.
What is an enterprise knowledge layer?
The layer between your systems and the people, models and agents that act on them. Ishara's has three parts: public intelligence on the market, your team's private context, and permissioned access for models and agents through API and MCP.
What is a bid table in government tendering?
The published record of who bid on a tender and at what price. A bid table lists each bidder, its CR number, its bid amount, the awarded value and often the local-content ratio, so one table tells you who competes in your space and how they price.
What is a recompete?
The re-tendering of work when an existing contract expires. Recompetes are the most predictable events in a government tender market because the expiry date and the incumbent are both known long in advance.
What does local-content ratio mean?
The share of a contract's value delivered through the local economy: local staff, suppliers and manufacturing. Several states run local-content programmes under their own names and rules, and the published bid table often shows each bidder's ratio.
What is a good pipeline coverage multiple for tender bids?
Coverage is 1 divided by your win rate. At a trailing 25% win rate you need 4x the revenue target in submitted bid value; at 15%, closer to 7x. Generic sales folklore says 3x, but a bid pipeline should be derived from your own win rate.
What should I count as the cost per bid?
Everything the bid consumes: proposal team time, bond and tender document fees, translation, legal review, pricing work and partner coordination. Teams that only count document fees underestimate badly; a serious government bid usually carries a five-figure loaded cost.
Where do the win rate and qualification ratio defaults come from?
They are planning starting points: a 25% win rate and 5 tenders reviewed per bid submitted. Replace both with your trailing numbers. Published bidder tables let you sanity-check the win rate structurally: 1 divided by the typical bidder count for that buyer is the base rate before any edge you bring.
How many investors should I contact when fundraising?
Work backwards from the money. Divide your target raise by your average cheque to get cheques needed, then divide by your meeting-to-term-sheet, reply-to-meeting and reply rates in turn. At a 12% reply rate, 40% reply-to-meeting and 10% meeting-to-term-sheet, a $2M raise at $250k cheques means contacting about 1,700 investors. At a 25% reply rate the same raise needs about 800 investors, not 1,700, which is why warm introductions and a well-targeted list matter so much.
Where do the default conversion rates come from?
They are starting points for a mixed list of cold emails and introductions. Your real rates depend on how warm the path is, how well each investor fits your cheque and sector, and whether you follow up. Replace them with your own as replies come in.
What do the three presets do?
They set the reply rate only: Cold sets 8%, Mixed sets 12% and Warm intros sets 25%. The funnel, the curve and the table then recompute from your other inputs.
Are these investors in Saudi Arabia, or investors who invest there?
Both, and Ishara keeps them apart. Where you raise is matched against where an investor says they invest; where investors are based is matched against where they are. Both count in the score, and the reason prints on the row.
Which plan do I need?
The directory is free to browse on every plan. Find my investors, warm paths, prep briefs and raise pipelines come with Pro, $12 per seat per month at early-access pricing.
Can I compare the buyer with the market?
Yes. A compare toggle lays the whole market beside the buyer: histograms become shares and award values sit on one ruler, so a small buyer and the market line up. Every view is a link you can share with the pricing meeting.
What if my margin is below the floor?
Then the history is telling you the buyer's winning zone does not fit your cost, and you walk away before the proposal is written. That is the point of reading the numbers first: a no-bid decided early costs far less than a lost bid built over weeks.
Where do I read what changed?
In three places: the watchlist, the Today screen and each dossier's Changes tab all show what moved, so you can read across everything you watch or one buyer at a time.
Can I watch a supplier, not only a buyer?
Yes. Watched suppliers sit on their own tab and carry bids, wins and won value. Their feed shows what they bid on, what they won and what they lost, and their dossier lists the companies that bid alongside them.
Does the calendar work with the one my team uses?
Yes. Closing dates show by week or month with your buyer and status filters kept, and you can add them to the calendar your team already uses.
Do you send the introduction for me?
No. Ishara shows the path; you ask the person. The message goes from the investor record through your own mailbox, the reply threads back to it, and a reminder comes up if nobody answers.
Does it read my colleagues' mail?
No. Warm paths are worked out from the records in your workspace, under your access rules: who works at the firm, who co-invests with them, which people at the firm your team has records for, and which of their portfolio companies are in your CRM. Email addresses are never shown as a path.
What if there is no path?
The shortlist still shows the reasons each investor fits, and the prep brief still covers the thesis and the track record. A cold ask with the right reason beats a warm ask with the wrong one.
See the answers in your own work.
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