By: David Munir Nabti @dmnabti
I was only in Istanbul a few days, and admittedly I only saw a small part of a small part of the city. The language confused me, the keyboard layout baffled me, the size of the city was astonishing, the politics intricate, and the economy complex. The traffic got as bad as anywhere I’ve seen, the taxis drove me on long detours to make a few extra lira, the clubs were crowded, some streets were so packed at night it was hard to walk around, and there was a subtle (sometimes not so subtle) sense of disorder. After hearing so much about the growing startup and tech scene in Istanbul, I frequently had trouble getting online, and on several occasions random SMS messages I sent never got delivered to the intended recipient. Many things seemed quickly hacked together. Other things seemed long-neglected. Many buildings were empty, and whole blocks looked long-abandoned. Many people complained of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Frequently when things worked out properly, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief.
And I can’t wait to go back.
Despite all those challenges, I met some amazing people, saw an amazing city, and got a glimpse into one of the pivot points that will shape the coming years, decade, and beyond, in our region, and around the world. The city is spectacular, almost out of a fairytale from an earlier era, and reminded me a lot of Damascus, supposedly one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. But while Damascus is big and truly an ancient and modern Arab city, Istanbul is huge, a massive metropolis that has distinct flavors of both “oriental” and “European”. From discussions with several bright young people in Istanbul, both locals and expats, it is clear that some of the same issues that are playing out between the “east” and the “west” globally are playing out inside Turkey. And at the geographic (and frequently cliché) meeting point between Asia and Europe, between the tumultuous MidEast and troubled EU, Turkey is in a valuable place to assert its role on the global stage. And it’s doing just that.
The main purpose for my visit to Istanbul was to attend the second Entrepreneurship Summit, organized jointly by the US and Turkish governments. The first one, called The Presidential Summit for Entrepreneurship and held in Washington, DC in April 2010, was a building block in the approach President Obama outlined in his famous “New Beginnings” speech, delivered in Cairo on June 4, 2009. The DC Summit brought together hundreds of people from countries “with significant Muslim populations” along with business and entrepreneurship leaders from across the US.
This second Summit (dubbed #ESummit2) was much larger, less focused, and more Turkey-centric than the original #ESummit. The number of speakers from Turkey, plus sessions such as “Creating an Ideal Environment for Business: the Case of Turkey”, made clear that the hosts were trying to get the most out of this gathering happening on their soil. Not to be outdone, US Vice-President Joe Biden in his opening remarks not-so-subtly slipped in some words about America’s role in the world while speaking of the benefits of international cooperation. Even though the US “economy is 3.5 times larger than the next largest economy,” he said, “and bigger than the following 4 combined does not make us immune from what’s happening around the world.” In a field devoted to leveling the playing field, empowering the little guy, supporting the upstart new venture, Biden made sure everyone at the summit knew who the big cat in the room was.
The fact that summit attendance dropped precipitously after the opening session of the conference, plus some rumors that supporters of the ruling party in Turkey were brought in to boost attendance when Biden and Turkish politicians were speaking, didn’t do much to impress the crowd that flew long-distances to actually participate in the summit. The critique that I hear after so many conferences, globally but especially in the MENA region, about conference sessions having little substance and serving largely to gather people for the networking that happens outside of those sessions, rang true at this event. There were, of course, some exceptions to that. But not enough.
And the networking was, indeed, helpful. The fact that there is a growing community of people, entrepreneurs, companies, organizations, non-profits, government agencies, investors, and universities working in this space in the MENA region and globally is exciting, and I think it will lead to positive growth in the field. The community is still not huge, and it’s easy to spot familiar faces and run into acquaintances and friends at these gatherings, but the camaraderie that is growing globally, in the MENA region, and even within groups working within Lebanon, is helpful. To be frank, it’s also just more fun, which is why many of us got into this field to begin with.
What made the #ESummit2 event so exciting for me, though, was meeting so many young people and aspiring entrepreneurs, both participating in the conference, and taking part in a startup competition organized alongside the main event, the GIST Tech-I Competition. After being invited on the first day of the conference to join the competition as a mentor, I spent most of the following two days talking to young entrepreneurs who were passionately pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. And I was, in a word, impressed.
Some of the startups were outright phenomenal, well thought-out, and thus far well-executed. Others needed a lot more help than was possible in the short time we had. Regardless, they all came with an amazing amount of energy, passion, and commitment to see their projects through. Though a competition, there was very positive energy and support throughout the room. (I’m not sure how public the information is on these startups, so I won’t go into any detail here. If I find it is public info, I’ll share it here soon.)
Equally as impressive was that almost ¾ of the projects were addressing some sort of critical social or environmental issue. No “throwing sheep” or vampires here. Some of them were intentionally designed as “social impact ventures”, while others just saw those issues as critical needs and market opportunities. Both gave me hope.
Several of the startups were looking at innovative approaches towards “green energy”, such as new battery technology, bio-diesel, new ways of capturing wind or the sun’s energy, and new devices for transforming movement into usable electricity.
Other startup ideas focused on health, developing new technologies to help blind people, or (the winning startup, from Lebanon) monitoring high-risk heart patients and, very likely, saving a lot of lives.
The list also included some non-profit ventures, such as a tool to improve the work of blood clinics, and a crowd-funding tool for social causes.
The time I spent with those startups was by far the most fun part of my time at the Summit, and I hope it was as helpful for the startups I worked with as it was a learning experience for me. For anyone with some decent experience, even if you are still working on your own startup venture (as I am), I encourage you to get involved as a mentor for some people just starting out in that field. There are more formal approaches (such as with Mowgli, Bader, etc) or more informal ways (like we’ll be doing at AltCity, or just go to any startup competition and offer your help, volunteer to speak in university entrepreneurship classes, etc). The words you say, questions you ask, or advice you give could be a huge help to a person or project … and maybe even contribute a bit to an idea that might have a positive impact on our world.
At a time when communications, meetings, video-conferencing, etc. are putting us in closer contact with people around the world, gathering people together is still important. It is great connecting face-to-face with people who are working through similar problems around the world, learning, sharing ideas, possibly developing partnerships. Sometimes these events even make it possible to meet people who you’ve been in virtual contact with for months or years. However, these events should most certainly be more helpful, more effective, and more fun. I guess we’ll see how it all shapes up at #ESummit3 next year … in the United Arab Emirates.
Nabti was followed by AltCity Financial Manager Samer Azar’s presentation, “Building Profit and Impact for your Business.” Azar began by discussing the various reasons for a person to start their own business, and included the recent effects of the U.S. economic crisis and Occupy movement on the stability of start-up businesses.“Where do you go now?” Azar asked. “How is business for social change being done?”For one, he gave the example of Sarah’s Bag, a Lebanese company employing women who are ex-prisoners to create their trendy bags and purses. By doing so, the company integrates these women into the workforce and helps reduce the chances they will turn back to a life of crime.Another business, TOMs shoes, donates a pair of shoes to a needy child every time a pair is sold to a consumer. In 2009, TOMs made 4.5 million US dollars and donated hundreds of thousands of shoes to impoverished children.“These businesses, what they’re doing differently is that they have a sense of social purpose,” Azar said. “They focus on an issue, and figure out how to work on it and still make profit.”One such business flourishing in Lebanon is Cedar Environmental, whose founder Ziad Abi Chaker joined Azar on stage to discuss his vision and his business.“We at Cedar Environmental dream of a zero-waste society,” Abi Chaker said at one point in the conversation. With such techniques as an accelerated composting system and a material recovery facility, Cedar Environmental strives for affordable, 100% environmentally-safe waste treatment for all municipalities.Though Cedar Environmental has a specific social and environmental goal, Abi Chaker stressed the importance of creating a good business model.“Profit is what keeps us going, profit is what keeps us forging on,” he said. “If you are a social business, and you don’t answer the question, ‘does it make my economic engine run?’, you have a problem.”
Next on the agenda was a discussion of design, innovation, and technology in social business, with Doreen Toutikian of “Desmeem” and Pierre Daher of Marhabalocal.com.Toutikian, who founded MENA Design & Research, presented the ambitious Desmeem Design for Social Change Initiative. The project aspires to incorporate 10 European designers and 30 Arab designers into a collaborative effort with Lebanese NGOs to make creative solutions for social and environmental issues in the region. While still in the works, Desmeem hopes to begin launching its collaborations within the next few months and present the collaborative efforts in an exhibition.Daher discussed the inspiration and birth of his two-month old social venture, marhabalocal.com. The website functions as a network for tourists to get in touch with regular people in Lebanon willing to be guides for the rural and “real” Lebanese locations.“We find many people coming to Lebanon on tourism aren’t having the experience they should be having,” Daher said. “We take them to rural areas, to meet the locals, and their experience is ‘Wow, if we had left Lebanon without going on this kind of trip, we wouldn’t have known it.’”Besides providing tourists with unique experiences, MarhabaLocal intends to provide new job opportunities to local people and contribute to the economic development of their villages. As Daher pointed out, there are 1,648 villages in Lebanon, and a lot to see.“We’re not here as a service provider, what we’re trying to create is a network, a platform, for people to get together,” Daher said in response to a question about how MarhabaLocal can compete with tourism companies. “We’re a complementary offer, not in the same domain. We’re turning rural tourism into a unique experience.”While Daher and Toutikian discussed their unique social ventures, the next pair of presenters talked about the challenges many new ventures face. George Khalaf of Synergos and Yorgui Teyrouz of Donner Sang Compter sat for a Q&A with the audience, in which they explored issues in sustainable business plans and attracting donor money. Khalaf warned against social ventures that are purely dependent on donor money, or that go after donor money rather than a business strategy. Teyrouz took an opportunity to explain one of DSC’s new projects, the ‘Blood Brothers’ bracelet, which identifies its wearer’s blood type.
The conference then shifted to a 15-minute opportunity for ‘demo pitches’ by a number of start-up “social entrepreneurs”. Among them, Diala Najjar, hailing from Los Angeles, presented “Awakening Hidden Talent”, a vision for a Lebanese space for dancers to become professionals. Her hope is that with a professional dancing resource in Lebanon, the art will be cultivated and aspiring dancers won’t leave the country for training and work.Another energetic presentation was given by Norwegian traveler Jorgen Ekroll, who talked about “Walk of Causes,” a web series based on his trip by foot from north to south Lebanon. Ekroll documented different social issues as he went, and plans to use the money raised from the series to contribute to NGOs and charities that deal with these issues.An especially noteworthy pitch came from Ali Chehade, who presented “Dream Matcher,” a social-networking website that matches people with dreams to people who can make those dreams happen. To illustrate his vision, he asked everyone at AltCity to write down their dreams, talents, and abilities. Within the group of about 50, there were 5 dream matches—everything from learning Spanish to becoming a superstar was matched to someone who could help that dream happen.
