Interview: How entrepreneurship and technology give hope to the Middle East
It is no exaggeration to state that the conflicts and instability that occur in parts of the Middle East have major effects on Europe. Thus everything that happens in the region which could improve the overall economical, social and political situation and increase people’s well-being is of interest not only to the local populations but also to countries and citizens of Europe. And even if the news coverage mostly focuses on wars, terrorism and misery, there is also reason for optimism: In many countries across the Middle East, entrepreneurship is helping people to solve their most crucial problems, and startups are leveraging the Internet and digital technology to build a better future.
Some weeks ago I noticed Facebook updates of Germany-based Till Ohrmann, the CEO and co-founder of the renowned Pirate Summit startup conference, who just was traveling through various cities of the Middle East. His trip was part of a networking event series called “Pirates on Shore”. Initially he and his comrades had been focused on Europe only, but lately decided to extend the event southward. I got very curious about hearing Till’s experiences and observations, so I suggested an interview and he agreed.
Hi Till. To start with, please tell us in short about the idea behind Pirates on Shore.
Sure. Our goal is to increase the number of international participants of our yearly core event, the European Pirate Summit in Cologne. We realized that one of the best ways to do that is to actually travel to various countries and hold networking events with local startups and investors. So we created the Pirates on Shore tour, which consists of about 55 events in cities of most countries in Europe as well as the the Middle East. We chose to include the Middle East since we noticed that there was a certain level of interest for the Pirate Summit from companies and founders from that region. That made us curious to learn more, to connect with the local startup communities and to include the so called “MENA” region in the Pirate Summit’s focus.
As part of that effort, you recently held Pirates on Shore events in Beirut (Lebanon), Cairo (Egypt) and Tehran (Iran), and you did all this in one trip, during which you also made a stop in Dubai. Looking back, how would you summarize your experiences?
So first of all, we already had some connections into the markets. I had been to Beirut the year before and we knew some folks in these countries that could help us with the arrangements, which made things a lot easier. We considered this first “official” tour as a “get to know” trip. Unlike with the other Pirates on Shore events, we did not travel there with concrete goals. We just wanted to get a better understanding about these markets and learn how entrepreneurship and the startup culture differs from Europe.
To come to your question: In general, we noticed a big thankfulness for and enthusiasm about us coming there trying to build bridges. It felt as if everyone involved in the local scenes did everything to help us to put together a good event. And so it happened that the visit to Cairo became the biggest Pirates on Shore event so far with more than 200 attendees.
How do you explain this enthusiasm?
One thing is certainly that we did not come alone. As in the majority of Pirates on Shore events, we brought a couple of known and successful investing and startup people from Europe with us. Attendees usually appreciate to get the chance to extend their personal international network and learn from experienced people with different types of backgrounds.
You mentioned that you knew some people in the region who helped you with the organization. Is that something you would recommend when holding events in presumably challenging foreign countries?
Definitely, no doubt. Thanks to the support of locals, it was really not a big deal, especially in Cairo and Beirut. There have been many startup events before, some much bigger than ours. Cairo’s RiseUp Summit has ten times as many attendees or so, and the initiators of the Summit gave us a lot of support to put together Pirates on Shore. Tehran was a bit different, since the regulatory and administrative obstacles are higher. But thankfully we were able to join forces with Avatech, a major Iranian startup accelerator program. They had a demo day during the same time period as we intended to hold our event, so we decided to link these occasions. Avatech also organized the Visas for us, which were waiting for us at the airport in Tehran upon arrival. Very convenient.
Pirates on Shore in Tehran
If you compare all locations you visited: What similarities and differences did you perceive?
I felt that there definitely is a sense of a common market that comprises many of the Middle Eastern countries. For example in Iran, startups’ first foreign markets would be the immediate neighbors. Logically, maybe. Even if the Persian language is different from Arabic. This was quite interesting because I had been to Istanbul a few weeks earlier, and there, startups are much more focused on the domestic market for long periods of their existence. Generally, Turkey seems to be considered somewhat outside of the region, at least as far as the startup scene is concerned. I always thought that Istanbul is the gateway to Asia in regards to business, but in reality Dubai seems to be much better positioned. During our trip we also made a short stop there. You meet so many expats and foreign entrepreneurs in Dubai. That leads to a particular internationally minded atmosphere even when it comes to startups. Many tech companies have their headquarter in Dubai or another city of the UAE and from their they keep expanding to Egypt or Saudi Arabia, which are the biggest and most important markets in the region. Together with Iran of course, in case the country continues on its path to more economical openness.
What else did you notice during the trip?
I am still astonished how huge Cairo is. It is hard to describe it in words. But the city is also suffering from major inefficiencies. Just to get from A to B with a distance of 2 kilometers can take you an hour with the car because of traffic jams. Taking a bike might be too dangerous due to the risk of being driven over by a car. So walking sometimes is the best and only smart choice. But this kind of issue has also pathed the way for some very interesting tech hotspots, such as The Greek Campus, a technology and innovation park where people work, live and connect. Unlike in the city itself, here distances are very short and the environment is perfectly suited to meet and to create new things. Even investors are based there.
And Beirut?
Beirut is much smaller. The special thing about the Lebanese startup sector is that due to some particular initiatives there is a lot of investment capital available but rather few startups, which means that valuations will increase in the future. And only in Beirut I ran into several people who seem to have been very closely connected to the ecosystems of the Silicon Valley or London. From what I heard there are now several initiatives ongoing that aim at creating the entrepreneurial mindset which is required to turn people into startup founders. So in the future we might see more ambitious Lebanese startups.
The Middle East is in a constant state of crisis mode, it often seems. How do you think this is impacting entrepreneurialism and the startup culture?
I think it creates creativity. You see this very good in regards to the issue of payment. It is often a catastrophe. For example, due to sanctions, neither credit cards nor Paypal are accepted in Iran. So transferring money in and out of the country is a pain. But I was told a story about an Iranian entrepreneur who managed to set up a company in Spain. There he collects payments through PayPal, and then he converts them into cash which he carries with him on his next trip back into Iran. Do not ask me how he hides the cash. But this is a good example for the workarounds that are being created in underdeveloped, obstacle-rich markets like you find in the MENA area. Workarounds are very popular. And of course they lead to startup ideas. Many of the startups we saw are tackling issues that have been approached 10 years ago in the U.S. and 5 years ago in Europe. Audio books, e-book services, daily deal sites, food delivery and so on.
Iran is more closed off to the outside than Lebanon and Egypt. How does this affect the local startups?
Obviously the sanctions and blocking of foreign Internet services lead to various types of difficulties, and even we had to tackle those: Since Facebook and Twitter are blocked, there is no point in doing event marketing through those channels. Instagram on the other hand is available. So many use Instagram to spread messages or even URLs. And everything you do online where data is being sent to servers outside of the country seems a bit slow, as if someone or something is checking the data packages. Which probably is exactly what is going on.
Which of the three cities you visited with Pirates on Shore do you find to have the biggest potential?
Cairo, though the political instability is a problem. Apart from that, Tehran for sure – under the condition that the sanctions will be lifted. As soon as this happens the market will go crazy. On some weekends there are 5 different startup events happening at the same time. Thousands of people are being involved in the startup industry already. At the same time, a lot of smart money and smart people from the Iranian diaspora abroad are on stand-by, ready to put their funds and ideas to work in the country. And at least during our stay we really felt the optimism and smell of rebellion in the air. In June, even a dedicated event about the possibilities of tech entrepreneurship in Iran will take place – in Berlin.
Was there any situation in which you did not feel welcome?
No. Of course we experienced a couple of cultural misunderstandings, and the fact that there had been some IS fighters captured at our hotel in Beirut a year earlier caused us some temporary uncomfortable feeling once we had heard. But otherwise, we had no negative encounters or experiences at all.
During this Pirates on Shore tour you were an all-male travel group. Would it have been any issue if you would have had female companions?
Not at all. In each event we had women from the local tech industry involved, and this is nothing uncommon anyway. During our Cairo stay we visited a couple of local startup accelerators, and all the companies we meet had female founders.