For entrepreneurship is a moveable feast…

For entrepreneurship is a moveable feast…

By @Hanae Bezad

From the multitude of motivational speeches to awards given to audacious creators, from pitch night contests to inspiring posts and talks, entrepreneurship is easily perceived as a constant and fruitful celebration.

Far be it from me to address entrepeneurs as the figureheads of a “universe of entertainment, fun and social networks” as descrived by François-Xavier Bellamy. Essentializing entrepreneurs in such a clumsy manner is the exact opposite purpose of this column. I would rather invite you to make a critical effort in order to measure the magnitude of what is currently at stake in the Mediterranean entrepreneurship movement.

In what François-Xavier Bellamy calls “the background noise of the worldliness 2.0” where a paradoxical phenomenon of desertification is occurring, there are oases of innovation, spaces of human pollinisation, ecosystems favourable to new and fertile crosses.

Gaza Sky Geeks is one of those. This startup accelerator, the only one in the Gaza Strip, is also a co-working hub and incubator active since 2011.  As Iliana Montauk, Director of the program puts it, it brings together “people hungry to connect with the world”.

Having the chance to discuss about entrepreneurship in the Gaza Strip with Iliana Montauk is like giving yourself a huge shot of optimism, lucidly and uncomplaisantly, a unique dose of reinvigorating yet necessary enthusiasm.

How do we make entrepreneurship alive in a zone that’s permanently in conflict ? How can we even believe that the Gaza Strip can generate viable entrepreneurial projects. Besides being the area that’s comparable to the San Francisco peninsula, this quick analogy being totally vain, it is rather difficult to imagine it being an ecosystem as prolific as the Silicon Valley. But let’s not bring more attention to this rising smirk, such a cynical reaction would add to the verbose common view and would be as void. Let’s sweep it and get to the heart of the subject.

The happiness to undertake entrepreneurial activities, an opium like no other in Gaza more than anywhere else

Europe is currently seeing the trend of “happy business” expanding, as a consequence or rather an extension of the personal development success: a Happy Startup School, inspired by Tony Hsieh’s book “Delivering Happiness”, has even been created recenlty in the United Kingdom by two friends that used to work at the City, Laurence McCahill and Carlos Saba.

But in Gaza, as one can easily imagine in consideration of the special circumstances, the startup creation process is far from being as light. The business environment is unlikely to give good incentives: a lack of infrastructure, a permnanent insecurity for the sustainable establishment of economic entities, a lack of ability to cross borders… The barriers are numerous and the result of it is obvious: the unemployment rate is more than 50% while half of the population is under 18. In short, this environment is a hostile one for the development of traditional industries that would generate job creation.

Despite all of the above, in 2011, and thanks to Google for Entrepreneurs, an initiative to create a startup community in Gaza was born under the name of Gaza Sky Geeks. With a first Startup weekend that brought together 100 participants, the initiative has then transformed into a startup accelerator^[1] in 2013  and brought the first investments to startups that same year, partnering with regional investors Oasis500 and PALinnO.

In Gaza, there is indeed a “creative class” in the sense of Richard Florida. The objective of Gaza Sky Geeks is to rally it together, give it the means to exist and to thrive in order to realize Gaza’s potential as a startup hub.

Gaza Sky Geeks capitalizes on the international humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, that founded and runs it. With Mercy Corps’ help, Gaza Sky Geeks is able to navigate the permitting process in order to invite international mentors/investors to Gaza.

The reality of the startup creation in Gaza

The main challenge is certainly not where we most expect it: as a matter of fact, the Gazan population knows very well how to keep on living and working while everything seems uncertain. Even though it is known regionally as being techs savvy, Gaza having one of the highest tertiary education rate in the Arab world, the entrepreneurial creation exists but only within domestic projets that are not so innovative. What Gaza Sky Geeks has managed to do is to introduce a genuine and more ambitous entrepreneurial education through bootcamps, mentorship and the holding its first TEDTalk-like event recently. The purpose is to spread the very notion of a startup, which is a young business that is typically technology oriented and has high growth potential. And while spreading this mindset, giving to the Gazan all the tools for success: first and foremost, the language, which is a crucial element given that English is key to interact effectively with potential investors from abroad as well as accessing useful information for the needs of market studies.

Through its Big Sisters/Little Sisters programme, the accelerator impulses a knowledge transmission dynamic among those who have already been exposed to the startup culture and to the benefits of the eager beginners. Meetings are organized twice a week during two months to share knowledge and useful network between the active startups and the startups that are in a process of creation.

Today, 4 startups bringing twenty people together are active within Gaza Sky Geeks; 5 to 7 startups are in the pipeline, and 40 other individuals, inspired and dedicated are currently brainstorming and working on their entrepreneurial skills to make their projects happen. 130 people, most of which are accomplished mentors from the Silicon Valley, are bringing their support to Gazan projects, despite the difficulty in organizing conf-calls due to the time difference and to the social imperative to be back at home at dawn, especially for women enrolled in Gaza Sky Geeks.  In order to adapt to local constraints, the accelerator is not open to men and women at the same time past 6PM. Business travels need to be known three weeks in advance in order to guarantee the deliverance of pass permits. In a world of constraints, creativity thrives: several plans are prepared so as to ensure to receive effectively mentors that come to Gaza. Transportation of the startup founders is also a subject: while it represents an insurmountable obstacle in case of poor weather conditions, it is also a financial challenge considering that it take from $100 to $400 dollars per month to an individual, depending on his/her home location, to come to the accelerator. This cost is entirely supported by Gaza Sky Geeks.

The first tangible successes of Gazan startups

Said Hassan, former Marketing Manager Marketing at the largest e-commerce site Souq.com, has joined Gaza Sky Geeks in 2013 as a mentor, following his participation to the first startup weekend. Apart from the fonction that he now holds as an Outreach & Acceleration Manager, he is developping himself a startup. Tevy, a second screen app and a social network built around TV shows, will be launched in two months from now. It received seed investment from PALinnO.

The first startup weekend also gave birth to two projects, Datrios, a social network of the Arab world football fans and  DWBI, a data warehouse business solutions, who received seed investments from Oasis 500 and PALinnO respectively.

In June 2014, Gaza Sky Geeks received 650 applications to participate in the second startup weekend, which is twice as much as the first one a year ago. This trend shows precisely that the Gazan population not only is integrating the startup concept but is also more and more willing to propose business ideas that aim at answering a regional or a global demand. People do not think domestically anymore. All in all, 150 people have had an opportunity to network through this event, with 74 individuals that have pitched their ideas, the youngest being 13 years old only. But the biggest success of this event is that it’s been fully financed by the private sector, which is an undeniable sign of trust and confidence in Gaza Sky Geeks’s initiative.

With these very positive validation signals, Iliana Montauk and her team are determined to perservere in this new path of a powerful, disruptive cognitive capitalism. The unprecedented energy of the Gazans involved is the main driver of the accelerator: the next steps will be to ensure the sustainability of the accelerator, then consolidate the outreaching talent identification and finally getting the startups outside of Gaza, by connecting with tech companies, participating in international high-level trainings, and developping an Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, allowing entrepreneurs willing to take part in one of the accelerator’s startups to contribute and live for a time in Gaza.

Talking to Iliana Montauk and her team brings us to the happy conclusion that Descartes has outlined in the first chapter of the very famous Discourse on the Method that this century is as flowering and fertile with great minds as the precedents. We do have the means to positively influence the creation dynamics in ours. Have I heard of sweet utopia? Well…the name does not matter as much as the gladness! And the gladness will come by taking the chance to share reources: support the startups incubated in Gaza Sky Geeks, give out your useful contacts and accumulated airline miles, put your skills to good use with pro bo activities, donate to #Gazastarts through the following link http://t.co/yfM5Op61T4, you can engage in many ways! For a feast is a proper one only when it’s shared…

For further information

–          Doing Business report on the West Bank and Gaza
–          http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/west-bank-and-gaza/~/media/giawb/doing%20business/documents/profiles/country/WBG.pdf?ver=2
–          http://palinno.com/
–          Yann Moutier-Boutang, De nouveaux espaces communs de la société humaine, Mediapart, 26/11/2014
–          Folder Les Echos Entrepreneurs, November 19, 2014
–          David Goss, Entrepreneurhsip and the “social”: Towards a deference-emotion theory, Human Relations 2005

^[1]To better understand the difference between an accelerator and an incubator, see the following : http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/review/business-development/incubator-vs-accelerator-whats-difference/