Innovation Overseas and TV programmes cater for the
hopes and dreams of modern day Dick Wittingtons. From Galway in Ireland, Paul Kenny founded e-commerce and discount voucher firm Cobone in 2010 aged just 25. The company now has 120 employees (which come from 26 nationalities) and six regional offices covering UAE. Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Paul won Middle East Entrepreneur of the Year 2012, as well as Ernst & Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2012. He told the Irish Independent newspaper: “This really is a new market. There are no internet companies out here. You can’t even buy books online. It’s the first time people have been able to do something like this, it’s changing the landscape of e-commerce”
The first thing to say about Amman, capital of Jordan, is that it suffers from the unfortunate desire of a very persistent apparatchik to brand it Silicon Wadi. It is the headquarters of Oasis500, which is the MENA region’s principal seed investor and incubator. Jordan also gets kudos from the purchase by Yahoo! of Maktoob, an Arabic email service, in 2009 for $85m. There is a paradox that many of the best ideas come out of Jordan because it lacks the kind of regulatory framework than stifles entrepreneurs
in other countries. A Jordanian friend likes to say to me that the government want to get more involved but can´t agree how to, adding “long may this continue!” With a mere 3% of the internet in Arabic, the opportunities are there. For example, Google are supporting Arabic Web Days, a one- month program for the MENA region with the tagline; “It’s better in Arabic”. Similarly, Twitter is looking to build on the influence it gained through the Arab Spring by launching their Promoted Products service. Both are tools by which entrepreneurs can get their products in front of customers quickly and reliably. This is something that is taken for granted in Europe and the US but not always available in every part of the world.
Women Recently, I asked a US marine who had served in the reconstruction of Iraq what he learnt from the time he had spend there. What he told me was same thing an Irish Lieutenant had said to me about his time as a UN peacekeeper in West Africa. ‘Engage with the women, they are the ones that really run things.’
In Fallujah, he recalled telling women “If you can get your husband to stop shooting at me, then I will build a
school for your kids.” The atmosphere stabilised and casualities on both sides decreased. The internet has been a tremendous advance for women in the Middle East who like to do the same things as women everywhere like to do but who were restricted by cultural norms. As internet connectivity increases, online shopping and tastemaking social networks are a huge growth area. For consumers, employees and entrepreneurs alike, the flexibility to work from home has opened many new opportunities.
Entrepreneurship in the Arab world is like entrepreneurship everywhere else. Everyone is born an entrepreneur, but for many the environment they are in does not allow them to express themselves. For example, finding a way for well educated women to be part of the workforce is a problem throughout the world. Similarly access to capital, talent and markets is a problem that every start-up faces. The story from the MENA region is that things have gotten better and that there is much more to come. Starting a company though is never easy, no matter where you are. But at least if Arab Entrepreneurs fail, it will be for mistakes that they have made themselves as opposed to decisions made by others. That is new and that is very welcome.
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