Feeding a Revolution through Entrepreneurial Startups

I was fortunate to be invited to speak at the Silicon Badia Meets Silicon Alley conference yesterday (#siliconbadia). How inspiring to be surrounded by a bunch of young, smart, ambitious, eager, creative and entrepreneurial startup founders.

Let me tell you something… it’s one thing to be part of entrepreneurial startups in Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley. Being “on” in places like Cairo, Amman and Ankara is a completely different dimension of startup challenge. The odds are so much more stacked against you in those places, it’s not even funny. Between politics, economics and culture, Middle East based entrepreneurs have much bigger odds stacked against them.

…which is what inspired me. I was very happy to have shared my experiences with them including all the mistakes I made in my startup days.

As we all know, countries of the Middle East and North Africa are going through revolutionary times. Yes, the MENA region has pretty much always been in turmoil. But this phase is different and the game is changing. This time around, young people are leading the charge. And they are revolting against their own regimes, as opposed to revolting against real and unreal external elements.

What I saw in the entrepreneurs yesterday was young people who are feeding the revolution by building technology startups… and employing other young, smart people desperate to apply their skills locally.

I was also inspired to see a handful of local VC groups that have sprouted over the last few years. The likes of Accelerator Technology, Interactive Ventures, MENA Venture Investments, and Sawari Ventures.

Best wishes to all those I met yesterday.