entrepreneurship – Page 4

Swalif Think Day, An Event Encouraging Arab Thought & Innovation Online

July 5, 2008July 5, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

Under the slogan “Think“, Dubai’s Knowledge Village will be witnessing a joint event by GadgetsArabia, Swalif Soft, and the Emirates Internet Group, on August 7th 2008, aimed towards pushing and encouraging development in the Arab internet industry, by bring together a number of high profile speakers from some leading Arab web2.0 companies.

Some representatives from Google Middle East will be attending the event, as well as people from Arab internet companies and prominent Arab websites and portals. Members of the press and media will be attending too.

Event Location:
United Arab Emirates
Dubai
Knowledge Village
Conference room, block 1, 1st floor

Event programme:

Welcome & Opening Note
Speaker: Ahmed Gabr, Editor of GadgetsArabia
Time: 5 minutes
How do I attract big advertisers to my site?
Speaker: Tariq Al-Asiri, CEO or Argaam.com
Time: 15-20 minutes
Open discussion on online advertising
Q&A with Tariq Al-Asiri; moderated by Ahmed Gabr
Time: 20-30 minutes
How do you launch a web2.0 project, and what are the difficulties and challenges you could face?
Speaker: from TootCorp
Time: 15 minutes
From idea to implementation in web2.0
(Use of APIs, Usability, Productivity)
Speaker: Habib Haddad, Co-Founder of Yamli.com
Time: 15 minutes
Web2.0 success story
Speaker: Rida Al-Barazi, of SpinBits.com
Time: 15 minutes
Open discussion on web2.0 and web development
Q&A with all speakers, moderated by Ahmed Gabr
Closing note

The event is public, open to everyone and free.

John Osher: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make

June 25, 2008June 25, 2008 MMM 2 Comments

John Osher is a “serial entrepreneur” who has developed literally hundreds of consumer products, from energy saving devices to baby products, toys and candy, and household appliances. He has built and sold several successful businesses to major companies and is most popularly known as the guy who brought the “five dollar electric toothbrush” to the world. Launched as the SpinBrush, in only fifteen months, it became the top selling toothbrush in the U.S. He started Dr John’s toothbrush company in 1999 and sold the venture to Procter and Gamble only two years later for $475 million.

Here are the “17 mistakes start-ups make” according to him:

Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it’s viable.
Miscalculating market size. Entrepreneurs say, ‘The market size is 50 million people. If I only sell to 2 percent, I’d be selling a million.’ But most products sell less than 1 percent.
Making a commitment on sales projections that were wrong. Created costs that require those projections to be met. Run out of money.
Overprojecting sales prospects.
Making cost projections that are too low.
Hiring too many people and spending too much.
Lacking a contingency plans.
Bringing in unnecessary partners.
Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements.
Spending half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business.
Accepting that it’s “not possible” too easily.
Focusing too much on volume and company size rather than profit.
Looking for somebody to tell you you’re right.
Lacking simplicity.
Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose.
Going after too many targets at once.
Lacking an exit strategy.

# Source: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make
# Via: ValleyWag

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation & PICTI Sign MoU

June 24, 2008June 24, 2008 MMM 6 Comments

Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on projects and opportunities for economic development.

Under the MoU, the two organizations will be co-operating on initiatives aiming to encourage young entrepreneurs in the region and across the Arab world and identifying promising technology projects for incubation.

PICTI will also support the Foundation’s aims of establishing an Arab Incubators’ Network, which will provide an online resource and collaboration for new businesses and other interested organizations; as well as establishing integrated resources for promoting entrepreneurial activity across the Arab world.

The Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI), is an independent Palestinian organization that has been created through the initiative and support of the Palestinian Information Technology Community. PICTI and its partner organizations have as their mission the revitalization and the sustainable growth of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in Palestine, through an incubation model that will offer professional business services to Palestinian entrepreneurs who have mature concepts for unique and innovative ICT products assessed to have strong market potential.

# More: ITP

Microsoft & ABAN Partnership To Promote Entrepreneurship In MENA Region

June 22, 2008June 22, 2008 MMM 4 Comments

Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today with Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN) covering the Middle East and North Africa region.

The partnership aims to increase the success rate of new entrepreneurial ventures in the region, by encouraging innovative business ideas and providing seed funding. Under the agreement, ABAN will work with Microsoft to identify and foster innovative technology ventures in the region.

During the launch event, ABAN and Microsoft gathered four budding entrepreneurs who presented their business ideas to over 70 potential investors. These business projects were:

Dia Diwan, an online portal that offers the latest news on lifestyle and entertainment in the region, including an ecommerce shopping facility for fashion items.
WeNear, a mobile platform for location-based services and applications.
Cash Trash, an innovation aimed at recycling to reduce pollution problems.
PolluMap, an automatic pollution mapping system to track city pollution levels.

This initiative like others before it aims to address the problem early stage startups and businesses face in the Arab world when it comes to financing.

Arab Business Angels Network (ABAN) was launched by the Young Arab Leaders and Dubai Holding, with Dubai International Capital as its founder and lead institutional investor, back in 2005. It invests through its Angels’ network and manages two funds: a US$ 10 Million seed capital fund and US$ 5 Million fund for women-led ventures.

ABAN recently announced its first three investments in the Middle East, and has been leveraging its global partnerships and high-profile connections to optimize its investments and reach out to more promising entrepreneurs.

From Microsoft’s side, this partnership follows their Unlimited Potential and Local Software Economies initiatives that aim to create social and economic opportunity through programs and products that transform education, foster local innovation and enable jobs and opportunities worldwide.

# Press release: Zawya

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation Launches ‘Sawaed’ Challenge Fund Programme

June 21, 2008June 21, 2008 MMM 6 Comments

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation announced recently the launch of ‘Sawaed’, a new programme that aims to challenge the private sector to develop innovative business concepts to drive the development of the Arab world.

Operating as a ‘challenge fund’, ‘Sawaed’ will encourage businesses to compete for funding in response to a specific regional development goal. Each year, the programme will promote a regional challenge and invite businesses to submit competitive project concepts dedicated to addressing the challenge.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and the Young Arab Leaders (YAL).

According to the signed MoU, YAL, an independent, not-for-profit organization with a strong membership base across the Arab region, will leverage the experience of 30 active members who will serve as mentors and support eligible businesses across the region throughout the process of applying to the fund.

As the first initiative under the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship and Employment sector, ‘Sawaed’ seeks to promote business excellence, empower young Arabs to innovate, while facilitating job creation in the region. The program will award non-refundable grants of between AED100,000 to AED1 million (US$27,000 to US$270,000) to projects implemented by private sector entities that aim to increase the amount of high quality Arabic online content, develop and improve access to education, knowledge, and information on ICT platforms to promote Arab capabilities.

Application for Sawaed programme will open on the website starting September 1st, 2008. Interested applicants can download and fill electronic forms of “Concept Note Proposals” and submit them online before October 12th, 2008. Winners will be announced towards the end of March 2009.

Launched with an endowment of AED37 billion (US$10 billion), the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation aims to develop future leaders and create a knowledge-based society in the Arab world through the key components of knowledge creation, culture, as well as entrepreneurship and employment generation.

# Sawaed

Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (3rd Edition)

May 21, 2008May 21, 2008 MMM

The Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC), which is in its 3rd year now, was created to be a platform to increase the interest of Jordanian entrepreneurs and innovators in designing a path to achieve their dreams.

It strives to advocate entrepreneurial skills as students and mature entrepreneurs coalesce their knowledge with their resources along with their competitive drive to create a business plan that is both practical and innovative.

The competition is now open for all Jordanian entrepreneurs, whether they are a university student or an aspiring entrepreneur, to enter for the opportunity to compete for US $70,000 in cash awards. They can submit their innovative business ideas in any discipline of science and technology to the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) through its website www.qrce.org.

The vision of QRNEC is to evolve and expand into a comprehensive entrepreneurship enabler, involved in fostering creativity, incubating viable concepts, and facilitating the success of entrepreneurial ventures to a level that affects the cultural orientation of the Jordanian community.

The additional interesting points for this year are that Google is offering an additional cash award for the best online business plan, and that KADDB is offering another cash award for the best business plan for defense and security.

# Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC)