Articles

Venture Amwal: A voice for start-ups in the Middle East

خالد ابو ظهر
خالد ابو ظهر

Start-ups and Entrepreneurship will not solve the youth unemployment issues of the Middle East. Yet, a proper start-ups ecosystem, which is appearing and developing in the region, can be a game changer on how business is conducted.

Since the appearance of the mobile phones in the region, we have all been accustomed to the “frog leap” theory were by we avoid the usual process of economy development and reach the latest levels thanks to technology. This has been true for some service oriented industries but always with borrowed technology but was less true for heavy industries.

Yet, when it comes to building a proper start up ecosystem, there can be no shortcuts or illusions of the “leap frog” theory. It is either there or not. So how do we enhance this ecosystem? Who are the stakeholders  and who should be  involved? What should governments and lawmakers do? What should be the role of institutional investors and how do we attract talent and help develop new ideas?

I tend to believe that a true entrepreneur will always find his way and create and build his vision. Henry Ford didn’t wait for someone’s help, he created and seeked what he needed and influenced changes. This is, of course a simple example but in the end, the ecosystem relies on having a positive environment for devolpement. And without going back to our region and without going into the details of a roadmap in this first issue, there is an obvious need to have policy makers and large corporations in the region, better understand the needs of the start up scene and to contribute to it.

This is the reason why we are launching today Venture Amwal; a special section in Amwal Magazine and website that will communicate with decision makers in the region and be a bridge between the start-ups and large corporations and policy makers.

The idea started in Dubai where I attended an event and heard the presentation of a 28 year old entrepreneur Alborz Toofani, the founder and CEO of SnappCard, a new concept of loyalty program App. This could have been the end of the story but in Dubai and the UAE, we always cross path again and this is what happened several times. As we started a discussion about the positive and the negative of being an entrepreneur in the region; one thing led to another and through exchange of ideas; Alborz immediately accepted the idea of contributing to Venture Amwal as an Editorial Board Member. In the same way, I crossed paths several times with Baher Al Hakim, founder of Medicus and Nassib Haddad, the CEO of CloudAppers, who took some time to convince I have to admit. To cover the Fintech sector Zachary Cefaratti  the CEO of Dalma Capital joined and finally Karim Koraytem, the CEO of AddCom -a boutique advertising agency- who is also an old friend joined to cover the advertising side of our venture. I am saying old friend about Karim because we are both above 40 and are the oldest in the editorial board.

The editorial board of Venture Amwal will do its best to present important and clear information about the start-up scene to large corporations and policy makers but also convince and lobby for the entrepreneurs. Once again, entrepreneurship will not solve alone the youth unemployment concern but if a few residents –regardless of their nationality- of the Middle East can make it big it will already be a great achievement.

link below will direct you to the members of the editorial board of Venture Amwal