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I have been the beneficiary of some remarkable lessons in this series. During a period of great unpredictability in the Middle East, it has been nothing short of awe-inspiring to visit Middle Eastern tech-based startups and meet the many remarkable women playing a central role in running them. The learning has continued in the extensive feedback I have received.
When leading Middle East platform to empower entrepreneurs wamda.com held its “Celebration of Entrepreneurship eCommerce” gathering in Amman last June, people packed in by the hundreds. The Middle East is an enormous consumer market with money to spend, and signs of a land grab are everywhere.
It’s pretty hard to think of a great consumer facing platform that isn’t, by its nature, social. Should it be surprising, then, that coming off of the Arab Spring uprisings, so often coordinated and communicated through Facebook and Twitter, women entrepreneurs in the Middle East look at consumer-facing platforms and social networking from a unique perspective?
Ask any woman in the Middle East startup community about her greatest challenge, and the first things you’ll hear are familiar to any entrepreneur. Can I do this? Will anyone care How do I choose from a hundred different priorities? When do I raise money? How should I hire? Can I move fast enough?
As a mentor and advisor to two remarkable ecosystem builders in the Middle East — the region-wide start-up portal and angel investor Wamda and Jordanian incubator Oasis500 — I see (but take no economic stake in) some pretty astonishing entrepreneurs. Through them, I discovered two wonderful stories that offer significant opportunities for the Arab-speaking world.
Many areas in the Middle East are still reeling from the uprisings last year, but investors and entrepreneurs see nothing but opportunity.
It's hard to come to Cairo as an American businessman, especially one interested in and writing about high tech internet start-ups here, and not by shuttled from bubble to bubble of well educated, fairly well off individuals.
It's been more than a year since Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak resigned after the Arab Spring uprising began. Many Egyptians had high hopes for major reforms after the dictator's 30-year rule, but so far few of them have been realized. But despite the economic turmoil and leadership uncertainty in Egypt, one group is remaining steadfastly optimistic on the country's future: Entrepreneurs.
As we left Cairo ten days ago to travel home to the U.S. after taking part in the first delegation of the State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, we saw Egyptians huddled around TVs in the airport watching video of the Tunisian uprising on Al Jazeera. We had no idea then that a single “slap to a man’s pride” in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia could lead days later to fierce protests in Cairo and the defacement of posters of Mubarak. While there is a good chance that the protests will settle down in the coming days in the face of a growing military presence, it’s clear that Egypt is at a tipping point–politically, socially and economically.
Before the uprising in Tahrir Square, young entrepreneurs had been creating their own opportunities throughout the Middle East and North Africa. For investors brave enough to overcome the existing political strife, the pay-offs could be huge.
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