Fanous means lantern

I · The word

In Arabic, a fanous is a lantern. Not a floodlight, and not a sign on a tower, but a light carried by hand, close enough to be useful, so the people around you can see where they’re going.

The word is old and well travelled. It is usually traced back to the Greek phanós: a torch, a lamp, a light that shows the way. In Egypt the fanous is part of everyday life: made by hand from metal and coloured glass, hung in doorways and carried through the streets.

It is also my family’s name.

II · Where we come from

I was born in Cairo. My family is Egyptian on both sides, and Coptic Orthodox: one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, said to have been founded by Saint Mark in Alexandria.

We were raised on faith, family and work done properly. A heritage that old teaches you that the things worth building are built to last, and that how you treat people matters more than what you sell them.

III · Why we came

My parents left Egypt and brought us to Australia for one reason: a better future for us, and for the generations after us.

Leaving everything familiar to start again in a new country takes a kind of courage I only understood properly as I grew older. They carried the light so that we could find our way. Everything I build stands on that.

IV · The mission

To bring people, and their businesses, into the light.

Good businesses do excellent work in the dark every day: family businesses, and businesses started by people who came here for a better life, just as mine did. Their customers are out there looking on Google, on maps, and now by asking AI, and can’t find them.

Fanous exists to do what a lantern does: make sure the people looking for you can find you, and find their way to your door.

V · Why I do the work myself

I’ve spent my career in sales and account management, on the side of the table where you answer to the customer, every week, for what was promised.

I’ve watched small businesses pay agencies that handed them to a junior, sent a dashboard nobody read, and locked them into contracts that were hard to leave. So Fanous is built the other way: at most six businesses at a time, and the person you meet is the person who does the work.

Rimon Fanous

Founder · Melbourne