By Shahd Alhamdan
MANAMA – Reluctance to share business models and ideas could be one of the challenges that ecosystem entrepreneurs in the MENA region are facing, according to experts during the first regional Seedstars MENA Summit.
The Summit, held in Bahrain last Dec.15, was organized by Swiss-based startup competition for emerging markets, Seedstars World, and business accelerator, CH9, in strategic partnership with Bahrain EDB and Tamkeen. The Summit is the culmination of Seedstars’ work aimed at developing the MENA entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the year in 10 countries. The summit includes startup pitches, keynotes, and panel discussions on different topic related to ecosystem entrepreneurship in the MENA region.
Alisée de Tonnac, CEO and founder of Seedstars World, said after four years of visiting, collaborating and investing in different startup ecosystems across the world, they realized that these startups need more than just capital.
She said entrepreneurs need to share their ideas and business models so they can benefit from the different ecosystem communities, since there are so many people that are trying to help.
«What I felt is something complicated and still needs to change is that they are very conservative in the way that they do not want to share ideas, they are very afraid. It feels that it is very competitive and I believe if you want to scale fast and avoid re-inventing the wheel and avoiding redoing the same mistakes like everyone else, you should share and try to understand if your business model makes sense and should try to find right advisors. Do not close yourself in your own business model and your own ideas because it will be so tough and there are so many obstacles.”
She also said she was impressed with the number of female entrepreneurs in countries like Egypt and Jordan, but that numbers were low in the GCC. She also mentioned several obstacles that ecosystem entrepreneurs in the MENA regions are facing.
“I still feel like they do not have this competitive advantage to understand and provide quality solutions to the Arab world. Sometimes I feel that they are trying to build solutions for the United States, for Europe, and for the other regions, when the opportunities in your region are so big. What is interesting is that in these countries, many are very small local markets, so the entrepreneurs think global from day one which gives them a very strong competitive advantage of learning how to scale fast, and think bigger.
The Seedstars event brought together startups from Tunisia, Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, GCC, and Algeria to pitch in front of an audience of 300 entrepreneurial representatives, investors and the media.
All participants are the winners from their respective countries, and following the MENA Regional Summit, they will travel to the Global Summit in Switzerland on April 6 to represent the region as they compete with 65 startup winners from around the world for investments and prizes worth over $500,000.
