StartUpArabia Turns One Year Old

MMM Inside StartUpArabia

The idea of StartUpArabia was one that I had in my mind for quite some time, but I only got around to start working on it in the beginning of March of last year, planning out where I wanted it to go, putting everything into place for the first steps, and working on a bunch of content to be ready for the official launch so that readers wouldn’t come to an empty site.

The first alpha version went online on March 15th 2008, where I continued to tweak and work on it, shared the link with some friends and industry insiders to get their feedback, while also giving a chance for the search engines to start picking it up.

A month later on April 16th 2008, with a good initial amount of content that was already getting indexed by search engines, and after having reached a point where I was happy with how things were looking, and having integrated most of the feedback I got, I officially launched StartUpArabia with this post: “Welcome to StartUpArabia”

The launch went very well, and the feedback was overwhelming and very encouraging from everyone. A nice little extra was that StartUpArabia was even noticed by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch on its first day and he tweeted about it here; which gave it a good little boost.

One of the points a number of people often suggested early on was the need for an Arabic version, which was already in my plans, but that I pushed even higher in priority, rolling out the Arabic version of StartUpArabia on June 30th 2008.

After that I started working on a project that would months later see the light of day as StartUpArabia Database, the database of Arab startups, entrepreneurs and investors. The database was ready by August of 2008, but only officially announced at a DemoCamp Dubai event earlier this year, as I kept wanting to work on it more.

In parallel to working on the database, a few other smaller projects were launched for StartUpArabia; The job board went live on August 4th 2008; The mobile version went online on November 20th 2008; and the Arab world’s tech events calendar was launched on November 28th 2008.

The past year has been a great ride, giving me an opportunity to meet so many great and passionate people from the internet scene in the Arab world, as well as help even in a small way in raising awareness around internet startups in the Arab world.

I’d like to thank every single person who has been there along the way; reading and commenting; offering help, support and encouragement; you all rock. StartUpArabia wouldn’t be what it is without you all.

Special thanks go to my wife for her never-ending support and help throughout the whole thing, especially with the Arabic version, and for bearing with me all the evenings I’ve spent toiling away in front of my laptop working on StartUpArabia.

A new year starts for StartUpArabia, and I’m looking forward to it with a lot of excitement, as it shapes up to be even greater than the first. A list of really cool projects are planned, a lot of ideas are floating around, the Arab internet scene is even more active, and it’s just awesome to be in the middle of it all.

41 thoughts to “StartUpArabia Turns One Year Old”

  3. Bravo Mohamed Marwen for this great job.

    Startuparabia is undoubtedly one of the greatest achievements in the area.

    Congratulation
    Astrubal

  5. Congratulations and Happy new year for my all time favorite StartupArabia and a dear friend, Mohammed ..

    StartupArabia and GadgetsArabia are like two friends dealing with complimentary aspects of the Arabic Technology space 😀

    1. Thank you very much Ahmed 🙂 I really appreciate it.

      I totally agree with you on GadgetsArabia and StartUpArabia complimenting each other in covering technology for the Arab world. You’re doing a magnificent job with it, and I wish you continued luck and success my friend.

  7. Thank you very much Ahmed 🙂 I really appreciate it.

    I totally agree with you on GadgetsArabia and StartUpArabia complimenting each other in covering technology for the Arab world. You're doing a magnificent job with it, and I wish you continued luck and success my friend.

  9. You're in your own league in covering the Arabic online scene bro. I was very delighted when I discovered Startup Arabia last year and still am an avid reader.

    Here's wishing an even bigger year for Startup Arabia 🙂

    (How about syndication in business magazines covering the Arabic region?)

  10. Mohamed,

    Congratulations. It feels like you've been around for more than 1 year? I am addicted to your SA, and I stopped searching for startup news. I totally rely on your content my friend.. you rock !

    Keep it up !

  11. Thank you so much Jihad 🙂 That is very kind of you.

    I wish you all the luck and success with Qaym too.

    And regarding syndication in business magazines, it is something I pursued last year, but not aggressively enough, will surely be taking another take at it this year.

  14. Congrats Mohammed! It's great to hear that StartupArabia's lighting up its first candle. The site's a neat little hub for new ideas in the Middle East and I wish you the very best. Albert

  21. Congratulations Mohamed…. You have done a really good job… keep up the great work

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